Bandai Namco and DeNA Execs Appear at Tokyo Game Show, Present BDNA

Yesterday at the Tokyo Game Show, Japanese gaming company DeNA didn’t reserve very much real estate to showcase its digital wares. But instead it made a short appearance at Bandai Namco area, taking some time to formally roll out its partnership BDNA (see our previous report on this).

According to a DeNA representative, the first social mobile games for the BDNA joint venture will be based on Macross, Gundam, and Tamagocchi. The partners also unveiled a logo at the event as well (pictured above).

DeNA’s CEO Isao Moriyasu appeared on stage with Bandai for a quick photo op, and that was pretty much all we heard from DeNA at the show aside from a couple of small booths elsewhere. There was a small booth promoting Car Town which recently became available on the Mobage platform.

DeNA CEO Isao Moriyasu (pictured left)

Car Town for Mobage

The company’s presence contrasted sharply with rival GREE, which had the largest booth at the Tokyo Game Show accounting for nearly 10 percent of the floor space. I was happy to run into Serkan Toto at the show, whose expert opinion on Japan’s mobile social gaming space is always enlightening. He elaborated on GREE’s exhibition this morning:

I first didn’t get what GREE’s intention was with their booth. As far as I could see, there were only two or three NEW titles to be seen from GREE (out of about 40): so why would a visitor want to try games that they could start playing on their cell phones right then and there? From a gamer’s perspective, the GREE booth didn’t make any sense whatsoever… The message from GREE at this year’s TGS was entirely political: we have the money, we have the users, we have clout, we are the future.

I had a chance to sit down with a GREE representative late yesterday afternoon. So stay tuned for a short report on that later today. For more pictures from the Tokyo Game Show, drop on over to our Facebook page.