DeNA’s expansion to the west is really picking up steam lately. After an investment in Aurora Feint, the Japanese social giant acquired both IceBreaker and GameView Labs. Now, only a week after the GameView acquisition, DeNA has announced another big investment: Astro Ape.
DeNA’s expansion to the west is really picking up steam lately. After an investment in Aurora Feint, the Japanese social giant acquired both IceBreaker and GameView Labs. Now, only a week after the GameView acquisition, DeNA has announced another big investment: Astro Ape.
Responsible for the social iPhone game Office Heroes, US-based developer Astro Ape will begin to develop games for DeNA’s MiniNation social platform as well as expand their catalog into the Asian marketplace.
“Astro Ape Studios is truly excited to partner with one of the largest social gaming companies in the world,” says Astro Ape President Chieh Huang. “We look forward to expanding into Asia with the help of DeNA and to expanding MiniNation’s footprint here in the United States.”
After a number of recent acquisitions, this Astro Ape investment only further solidifies DeNA’s recent mission to entice US developers to the Asian mobile market. DeNA has recently unveiled a new business strategy that complements this initiative, which they dub “X-device, X-border.” This new strategy is meant to encourage game development across multiple platforms in multiple nations.
“Astro Ape represents yet another step in our X-border X-device strategy of bringing battery-draining, addictive social game experiences to consumers worldwide. Today’s investment is another step in our process of becoming a mainstream American gaming brand through proprietary content and empowering others to prosper on our gaming platform,” says Tomoko Namba, CEO of DeNA. “Despite the number of current deals we’ve announced in the U.S., we’re just getting started.”
