PopCap First on Renren China, Now on GREE Japan

After invading China with the help of Renren, Popcap Games moves on to Japan with the help of TAITO Corporation. The fruit of the partnership, named PopTower, has launched on GREE, Japan’s largest social network with 25 million users.

PopTower launches with a custom-built social adaptation of PopCap’s flagship game, Bejeweled. Other popular games like Chuzzle and Zuma will be made available to GREE users in the near future.

“Pop Tower represents an elegant fusion of PopCap’s world-renowned titles and TAITO’s refined and market-proven social gaming know-how. I believe the service will fully live up its promise, delivering a fresh and appealing experience to users throughout Japan,” said Mr Akihito Shoji, TAITO’s Senior Vice President of Content.

PopTower is also the first product released under the supervision of PopCap’s Tokyo office. In the past 12 months PopCap has formed strategic partnerships with one of China’s largest social networking sites, Renren , as well as an agreement with NCsoft, leading provider of online games, to bring PopCap’s first online multiplayer game service, PopCap World, to Korea .

PopCap also revealed that it has already sold more than one million mobile games units in Japan prior to PopTower. This partnership with TAITO and its recent move into China and Korea have firmly highlighted PopCap’s intention to expand beyond the U.S market.

James Gwertzman, PopCap’s Vice President for Asia/Pacific, said, “PopTower is undoubtedly one of the most exciting projects we’ve worked on to date, and I’m particularly proud that our Japanese team managed to bring it to market on schedule despite the devastating effects of the recent earthquake.”

With most of the major countries in Asia covered, there is a fair chance that India or Indonesia could be PopCap’s next target.