The vast majority of the US gaming audience is mostly unfamiliar with Japanese publisher GREE, but that is likely to change in the coming months. The company announced today that it is entering into partnerships with both Ubisoft and Gameloft to bring new titles to the States.
The vast majority of the US gaming audience is mostly unfamiliar with Japanese publisher GREE, but that is likely to change in the coming months. The company announced today that it is entering into partnerships with both Ubisoft and Gameloft to bring new titles to the States.
First up, GREE has stated that they’ve entered into a deal with Ubisoft to create a brand new Assassin’s Creed title for mobile devices, scheduled to be launched sometime in December. The franchise is familiar to mobile platforms, with games like Assassin’s Creed Recollection and Assassin’s Creed Rearmed previously appearing on iOS. However, this is the first time Ubisoft has moved development outside their studios, so it will be interesting to see what GREE has in mind for the series.
GREE also declared that they will be working with Gameloft to create Gang Domination, a free-to-play card battle game which will be set within Gameloft’s already well-established Gangstar universe. The title, which allows players to both cooperate and compete with one another, is set to launch in June.
For GREE, these partnerships are seen as serving a key role in helping the Eastern publisher reach a Western audience. Even though GREE is already experiencing a great deal of success in Japan, China and Korea, the company has yet to break through in the West. In an interview with Gamasutra, GREE senior director of marketing and developer relations, stated:
“In addition to being experienced on mobile, Gameloft has some great franchises we think we can be successful with. As a company that primarily has its game assets in Japan today, we think partnering with some high quality brands in the West is a great way to make the platform and the overall ecosystem of games better.”
It will be interesting to see how GREE manages to stand out in an already crowded US marketplace, but with friends like Ubisoft and Gameloft they’re already positioned well ahead of a lot of other folks. It seems a previously unknown company is posed to make a big splash.
