These are DeNA’s newest gaming strategies

DeNA yesterday released its operating results for October to December 2014. As it has promised before, the game business is still its core business, but now it’s got three strategies it wants to employ in the Japanese, Chinese, and Western markets.

These tactics are in line with what the mobile gaming giant calls its “next mountain of coin consumption.” DeNA’s revenue peaked consistently each time it released hit titles in 2011, 2012, and 2013, and it aims to do the same for 2015.

DeNA in Japan

Final Fantasy Record Keeper (FFRK) proves to be an active source of revenue for DeNA, and the company plans to promote it further. FFRK will receive more updates, events (it was not noted if these were in-game or physical), and there will be a focus on acquiring casual users. A version for Western markets is in development.

DeNA is also working on about 10 Android/iOS game apps for iOS and Android, centred around original IP. There will be RPG titles launched in spring 2015, and the company will be evaluating new genres for development. There are multiple titles in the 2015 financial year pipeline, which will begin in the second half of the year.

DeNA in China

DeNA has been in China since 2006, and now has over 400 staff there. With the Chinese smartphone market still growing strongly, DeNA finds it crucial to explore China-specific strategies.

In line with this, it recently launched One Piece: Sailing On, a mobile game built from scratch especially for the Chinese market. China’s games are big fans of One Piece, and there are many unofficial One Piece games on app stores there. DeNA is banking on this strategy of developing games with premium IP.

DeNA in the West

DeNA will be using a slightly different strategy here. For Western markets, it will select a “promising genre” and then innovate a game system around this genre.

One way to approach the Western market could be this: Bandai Namco has been developing a “Western version” of its popular Gundam EXVS two-versus-two fighting game series called Rise of Incarnates. The game makes use of the Gundam EXVS gameplay but puts it together with superheroes, which the Western market has a penchant for.