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JETRO Event Calendar
August 08,2012

Japan Business Forum 2012 (3/11) - Guest Remarks by Mr. Teruhiko Mashiko

 Guest Remarks by Mr. Teruhiko Mashiko, Member of the House of Councilors, during the Japan Business Forum on July 17, 2012. For more post-event information, visit www.jetro.org/jbf2012.
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August 08,2012

Japan Business Forum 2012 (2/11) - Video Message from Mr. Yoshinori Suematsu

 Video Message from Mr. Yoshinori Suematsu, Senior Vice Minister for Reconstruction, followed by a presentation "From Recovery, to Revitalization" by Mr. Daiki Nakajima of JETRO New York during the Japan Business Forum on July 17, 2012. For more post-event information, visit www.jetro.org/jbf2012.
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August 08,2012

Japan Business Forum 2012 (1/11) - Welcome Remarks by Mr. Hiroaki Isobe

 Welcome Remarks by Mr. Hiroaki Isobe, Executive Vice President of JETRO, during the Japan Business Forum on July 17, 2012. For more post-event information, visit www.jetro.org/jbf2012.
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RT @futa99: 弊社アレックスも登壇した 5 things to know: Japanese Games & Publishing in Japan (Presented by JETRO) セッション中 #gdc13j http://t.co/9iKXogQrL1
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How can you source successful Japanese games or developers for your market? http://t.co/1KGBEduK82 #GDC2013
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What key strengths make Japanese gaming companies competitive? http://t.co/BoxwBMoRoR #GDC2013
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JETRO will be at Game Connection 2013! Come visit the JAPAN BOOTH and meet Japanese developers! http://t.co/HZNYAFCOSI #gca2013
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Which types of Japanese games will be big hits in Western markets? http://t.co/BGkP1qzBrL #GDC2013
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What kind of approach do Japanese game companies take to win in the game markets in Japan and overseas? http://t.co/1QN5EuBPme #GDC2013
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Check out the games @CompileHeartApp will showcase at Game Connection 2013 http://t.co/ZgbNoEFjmW @The_GameCo #gca2013
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Check out the Japanese game companies at the JAPAN BOOTH during Game Connection 2013 (@the_gameco)! http://t.co/Z6skgUlw #gca13
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via @TheNextWeb: Japan’s DeNA releases exclusive Transformers game, as it sharpens its international appeal http://t.co/4pag3ULH #japangames
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It came from Japan: the mobile gaming IPO via @VentureBeat http://t.co/UlHPvmJO
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Follow @jetrousa_game
Japanese Games

Japanese Games Breaking into US Markets

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JAPANESE GAMES BREAKING INTO US MARKETS: Gaining Popularity at Game Connection 2012

June 2012 -- This year, Game Connection America 2012 (March 5-7, 2012, San Francisco) was held at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, a 15-minute walk from the Moscone Center where Game Developer Conference (GDC) took place. Despite the new venue, the event was a great success for the 10 Japanese gaming developers that JETRO supported.

OVER 200 COMPANIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD MEET WITH 10 JAPANESE GAME DEVELOPERS

JETRO section at Game Connection America 2012
? Japan External Trade Organization
According to Game Connection 2012 organizers, over 800 companies from 56 different countries attended the event to conduct business meetings. Among those, over 200 gaming companies, from more than 35 countries and regions of North America, Europe, Asia, South and Central America and other parts of the world showed their interest in Japanese games. Located on the 5th floor, the 10 Japanese companies under the JETRO section participated in over 350 meetings throughout the 3 day event. The outcome is very promising.

Tomonori Sugiyama
President & CEO,
VANGUARD CO.,LTD.
? Vanguard
For JETRO's returning participants, the objectives were simple: to enhance the relationships with the overseas companies they met at previous events and to realize new business deals. Vanguard, for example, focuses on social and casual games. The company utilized Game Connection to identify the current market needs and find reliable business partners. Mr. Tomonori Sugiyama, President & CEO, explained, "We have become more and more confident with our product as we continue to attend Game Connection. This year, we were able to obtain a lot of useful market information for our titles. Now, we need time to identify good partners and hope to meet with more companies that meet our objectives in the future." Vanguard will be at Casual Connect Seattle 2012 (July 24-26, 2012, Seattle) with JETRO to pursue more business opportunities.

Shohei Sato, CEO,
extreme Co., Ltd.
? extreme
For A&G (WINLIGHT Group), extreme and EitaroSoft, their first experience at Game Connection reinforced for them the importance of expanding their business into the overseas markets. With the slogan "A company that creates The Seriously Entertaining," extreme was considering expanding into overseas markets when they discovered the opportunity to meet with overseas publishers through JETRO's invitation program at the Tokyo Game Show in 2011. The event led them to Game Connection where they proactively set up meetings. "We were very pleased to be able to meet with so many game publishers from around the world in such a short time. We are confident that our titles can be competitive in the overseas markets," said Mr. Shohei Sato, CEO. Game Connection was the perfect opportunity for A&G (WINLIGHT Group) to expand their knowledge of different markets. The information they obtained will greatly contribute to designing and planning future titles.
Mr. Masaki Sato, Managing Executive Officer of WINLIGHT, commented, "With the great feedback that we gathered at this event, we want to further explore various business models with companies that provide contents and continuous services to a large number of customers."

THE SOCIAL AND CASUAL GAMING WAVE

According to the Famitsu Game White Paper 2012 (ENTERBRAIN, INC.), the game content market worldwide was 5130 billion yen in 2011. The North American markets ended at 1910 billion yen and the European markets grew to 1540 billion yen, while the Japanese market was 760.4 billion yen. The Japanese online game content sales increased by 24% from 2010 to 2011, finally exceeding packaged sales. Social games in Japan also saw a dramatic rise in sales volume -- almost doubling from 112.0 billion yen in 2010 to 211.7 billion yen in 2011. Japanese companies have started to look for more opportunities outside Japan.


ONLINE GAME CONTENT MARKET SALES VALUE in JAPAN
[Source:Famitsu Game White Paper 2012, ENTERBRAIN, INC.]

Year 2010 Year 2011 Growth
in billion yenShare in billion yenShare
Total online games
318.1
100% 394.6100%+24%
Social games
112.035% 211.7
54%+89%

The game industry worldwide is shifting rapidly toward social and casual games with the rise of smartphones and tablet PCs. Many Social Networking Service (SNS) and social gaming companies have made the move to the San Francisco area in the past few years. Among them are Japanese SNS giants, GREE and DeNA, and the social/casual gaming developer CyberAgent. GREE received a lot of attention at the recent E3 event in Los Angeles, and will appear again at Casual Connect Seattle. In June 2012, the iOS version of Tokyo-based Cygames' "Rage of Bahamut" (social card-battle game) distributed on DeNA's service (Mobage) topped the App Store's Top Grossing Chart in the U.S. Their increasing presence in U.S. markets is encouraging for other Japanese gaming companies. Now, more than a handful of other Japanese gaming companies have already or plan to soon open offices in San Francisco.

HOW ATTRACTIVE ARE JAPANESE CASUAL GAMES?

Yoshi Uemura, Director of Marketing, Japan,
BIG FISH GAMES, Inc.
? BIG FISH GAMES
So how are Japanese casual games attractive to overseas markets? We asked Mr. Yoshi Uemura, Director of Marketing, Japan at BIG FISH GAMES (Seattle), who met with some of the Japanese companies at Game Connection. "Japanese gaming companies have an ability to develop exceptionally high quality games. By partnering with local companies to design core concepts and distribute their games, Japanese casual games can make a strong entry into the U.S. market," he said. According to Mr. Uemura, middle-aged females make up a large portion of their casual game users, and this audience likes games that they could just pick up and play, and intuitively understand the game mechanics without reading long game instructions.

Japanese games have many unique qualities such as manga-like character designs, but Mr. Uemura thinks such designs may not always appeal to a broad audience in the U.S. market. "To be successful in the U.S. market," he said, "rather than marketing unique Japanese styles, we want to see the games that adjust and cultivate from local market point of view by closely observing the demographics, social structure, the speed of trends, and target audience."

? PapayaMobile
To help better understand how to market their titles in the U.S., JETRO invited the Japanese companies at Game Connection to visit the headquarters of some prominent U.S. gaming companies located in San Francisco: Zynga, Tapjoy and PapayaMobile. Ms. Si Shen, CEO and Co-Founder, and Ms. Yelena Sheftelevich, Developer
Si Shen, CEO and Co-Founder,
PapayaMobile, Inc.
? PapayaMobile
Relations Manager at PapayaMobile (San Francisco) welcomed us and demonstrated their powerful mobile social network in the U.S., Europe and China. With over 35 million users in their network, they know exactly how to be successful overseas. "Japanese social gaming companies looking to enter the U.S. need to create something we haven't seen before. There is less and less room for clones and gamers are getting bored," Ms. Shen commented later. She continued, "In addition to putting together a great game, developers need to focus on finding a third party for distribution. Papaya, for example, can provide free consultation and solutions for developers looking to enter western markets." It was a great opportunity for the Japanese companies to be able to meet with her as a potential partner.

So, if you are a U.S. casual gaming company looking for more opportunities, how can you find unique Japanese casual games, and how can Japanese developers discover you?

FIND YOUR NEXT BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY WITH JAPAN
At CASUAL CONNECT, TOKYO GAME SHOW & GAME CONNECTION

The Japanese government promotes the export of Japanese creative industries under the brand "Cool Japan." The gaming industry is one of the focuses of this brand, and JETRO continues to support small to medium companies expanding their business overseas. Our key mission is to identify enthusiastic Japanese gaming developers and find good potential partners. Every year, we approach gaming companies in North America to connect them with select Japanese gaming developers.

Business matching is by far the most effective tool for many of the Japanese gaming companies to open their doors to the overseas markets. That's why JETRO consistently participates in Game Connection (San Francisco), Casual Connect (Seattle) and Tokyo Game Show (Chiba, Japan).

At Casual Connect Seattle next month, our joint booth with Fukuoka City of Japan will represent enthusiastic casual gaming developers that we recruited from Japan. At the next Tokyo Game Show in Japan (September, 2012), JETRO will coordinate a "buyer invitation program" to invite prominent game service companies ('buyers') from North America and other parts of the world. Last year, we invited 6 companies from North America including BIG FISH GAMES and PopCap Games. About 20 Japanese gaming developers gathered in Chiba and Tokyo to have business meetings with these buyers. At Game Connection America next year, the Japanese gaming companies can extend their network in a larger scale and give shape to their overseas business models. Every year, many new business deals are established through these events.

Japanese gaming companies are enthusiastic about knowing your market, designing and developing attractive games and doing profitable business with you. JETRO proactively seeks acclaimed overseas gaming companies to make our business matching list richer and longer.
If you are seriously interested in distributing Japanese casual games or meeting with a particular Japanese gaming company, please contact JETRO San Francisco.

 


 

Note: The opinions contained in this article are based on the experiences of the interviewee. They are not representative of all experiences, and do not reflect the opinions of JETRO.