Yahoo! trying to bridge the mobile/PC social gaming divide in Japan

Yahoo! JAPAN has just announced a partnership with DeNA, the developers behind Japan’s biggest mobile-only social network Mobage-town, to create a cross-platform social gaming experience tentatively known as Yahoo! Mobage.

The aim of the project is to create a social gaming platform that is cross-compatible between PC’s and mobile devices, not unlike Namco’s recent debut of UniteSDK. The service will link players’ current Mobage-town accounts with their Yahoo! JAPAN ID’s, allowing them to make purchases and payments through Yahoo! Wallet. Current Mobage-town games will be converted to take advantage of the service.

Developers can expect to see Yahoo! Mobage development tools rolled out early this summer, with the service launching sometime before the fall. While Yahoo! Mobage may not impact North American gamers directly, one can’t help but wonder if it may provide some direction for Facebook game developers looking to grow their appeal to the mobile market.

Jim Squires

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Jim Squires is the Editor-in-Chief of Gamezebo. Everything you see passes his eyes first, so we like to think of him as "the gatekeeper of cool stuff." He likes good games, great writing, and just can't say no to a hamburger. Also, he is not a bear.