Rakuten and Blackstorm launch HTML5-based mobile games platform

Some of the titles available on R Games at launch. Photo credit: Rakuten Games.

Rakuten, the Japanese tech company that made headlines last year when it decided to shut down its ecommerce sites across Southeast Asia, is getting into a new line of business: mobile games.

It’s launching a platform called R Games today, which was developed together with US-based startup Blackstorm. The platform targets HTML5-based games. The advantage is that these work across different devices, can be launched from within other apps, and don’t require download or installation.

At launch, R Games has 15 titles, including re-envisioned versions of beloved classics like PacMan and Space Invaders. It will allow third-party developers to promote their games on its platform later.

R Games contains a variety of social features, allowing players to compete against each other and solve challenges. It also ties in with Rakuten’s loyalty program, which means Rakuten Superpoints can be spent on in-app purchases.

New hope for HTML5

Rakuten Games is a Tokyo-based business entity formed as a “joint spin-off” between Rakuten and Blackstorm, says Ernestine Fu, one of Blackstorm’s co-founders.

The reason for Rakuten’s tie-up with Blackstorm is the startup’s competency in HTML5 development. Blackstorm is the brainchild of a group of PhD candidates at Stanford University.

“We see ourselves as a post-app store company,” Ernestine says. She believes that Apple and Google’s app stores won’t control the distribution of mobile apps forever and that new distribution platforms will arise. These are most likely going to be what Ernestine calls “super apps” – widely popular apps like Facebook, Line, or WeChat.

Mobile games developed in HTML5 have the advantage that they can be played from any device, and even from within other apps. This is in contrast to native apps which have to be built for specific mobile operating systems.

Blackstorm has already raised US$33 million in funding, including from Rakuten and Alsop Louie Partners. The venture capital firm is known for investing early in gaming startups that went on to see exceptional success, like Twitch and Niantic Labs.

Ernestine Fu, co-founder of Blackstorm and board director of Rakuten Games. Photo credit: Rakuten Games.

Focusing on games first, Ernestine wants to prove its hypothesis that the time is ripe for HTML5 apps to take off.

Japanese tech firm Gree tried, but failed, to launch an HTML5 games platform in 2012.

Not the first to try