Japanese mobile social gaming giant DeNA (TYO:2432) is announcing this morning that it has come to an exclusive three-year agreement with Hasbro to publish titles based on the popular Transformers franchise.
The company notes that the first of these will be for iOS and Android, for global release on the Mobage platform later this year [1]. It will be interesting to see exactly what kind of games DeNA can turn Transformers into, or if it will experiment with different genres such as card battle games.
It’s important to note that in China, where DeNA has been making a significant push over the past year, Transformers is wildly popular. So I can’t help but wonder how much that factored into DeNA’s motivation to make a deal with Hasbro. The CEO of ngmoco (DeNA’s U.S. subsidiary), Neil Young, noted:
Our global platform has continued to thrive and grow, and we’re now investing in major entertainment IP. […] Transfomers is a highly beloved brand, with dynamic characters that are universally cherished by fans. We are excited to bring the Transformers world to life for mobile gamers
Readers may recall that DeNA also made a deal back in the spring with Disney (NYSE:DIS) to make games based on Disney and Marvel characters. Those games should be coming soon, as they were scheduled to come out in the summer.
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This does not include Japan. ↩
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