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Bandai Namco was the top grossing mobile publisher in Japan in September 2016

N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
I thought this was worth a thread, since I believe this is the first time a major traditional Japanese game publisher has actually held this spot in the smartphone era. While Gung-Ho does publish some console games, they weren't exactly a major publisher, and had an online slant.

Namco's flagship mobile game is THE IDOLM@STER Starlight Stage, which was the #4 grossing game for the month, and is a high production value rhythm game with f2p mechanics that looks like the following:

26s1s.jpg


a3szp.jpg
Click to expand...

The game had 10 million downloads within 3 months of launch despite topping out around 200K on PSP and 190K on PS3/360, so the series saw a very large increase in reach when transitioning to mobile. Before you ask, I don't know how the game is monetized.

Namco's other notably successful mobile games include:
- Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle
- One Piece: Thousand Storm
- One Piece: Treasure Cruise
- Tales of Asteria
- Super Gundam Royale
- Sword Art Online: Memory Defrag
- Sword Art Online: Code Register
- SD Gundam G Generation Frontier
- and Drift Spirits

Dokkan Battle and Treasure Cruise have sizable GAF communities, so I'm sure their fans will be happy to know the games are doing really well and will be around for quite some time (though I'm guessing most of them knew that already).

Publisher rankings for September:

namco1egszf.png
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Top games for September:

namco256sl3.png
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Via AppAnnie, which is generally considered the industry's metric for such things: https://www.appannie.com/indexes/all-stores/rank/overall/?month=2016-09-01&country=JP

Since someone will assuredly ask about Sony, they publish Fate/Grand Order (another very successful mobile game based on the Fate/Type Moon IP) through their Aniplex division. Ignore their presence on Rune Story, that only applies to Taiwan, and is not reflected in their Japanese earnings.
 
D

DarkLordMalik

Member
How many of their localized games are available? I am interested in trying them out if they are as good as Square Enix in that space.
 
O

Oregano

Member
Is it worth noting that Bandai Namco is generally no.2 console publisher behind Nintendo month-in month-out and there strategy there tends to be having a bigger variety of games rather than concentrated big hits.
 
C

chrono01

Member
One Piece: Treasure Cruise is one of my favorite mobile/gatcha games at the moment, and has been for a while. It's extremely generous towards F2P players, and the "power creep" isn't nearly as bad here as in other games. It's refreshing to see, and I'm glad to see it doing so well.

I play Dokkan Battle too, but not to the extent of Treasure Cruise (or a few other gatcha games, for that matter). I just don't find the gameplay there as interesting, but Japan is set to get a new update for the game soon so hopefully that will shake things up a bit.

I'm excited for Memory Defrag, which should be releasing Globally soon. Pre-registration is already open, and once that happens launch is (normally) not that far away.
 
K

kagamin

Member
I'm playing a bunch of Starlight Stage honestly, also the game is monetized through purchases of premium currency (obtainable through normal play) that you can use to gacha roll for different idols that have different skills that passively activate when playing a song iirc.
 
O

Oersted

Member
Since someone will assuredly ask about Sony, they publish Fate/Grand Order (another very successful mobile game based on the Fate/Type Moon IP)
Click to expand...

Are there over 1500 different Fate/Grand Order games, or how did they reach such a high number?
 
M

MiTYH

Member
Oersted said:
Are there over 1500 different Fate/Grand Order games, or how did they reach such a high number?
Click to expand...

Most of the Bandai games are gacha ones (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1128143) and if you enjoy them and have some self control not to spend thousands of dollars, they're a lot of fun!

One Piece Treasure Cruise and DBZ Dokkan Battle really are good, and localized. Same with Naruto Ninja Blazing. SAO Memory Defrag is getting localized as well
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Oersted said:
Are there over 1500 different Fate/Grand Order games, or how did they reach such a high number?
Click to expand...
Some of that is regional and per operating system dodeca-counting, but in Japan, they honestly only have one game that's making any meaningful money.
 
L

L Thammy

Member
Dokkan Battle is more fun than I thought it would be. Haven't played a ton of gatcha games so I can't really compare, but I felt like there was a fair amount of things going on in the battles.
 
A

Azure Phoenix

Member
Idolmaster Cinderella Girls: Starlight Stage is really damn good and deserves all the success it is getting, it's a shining example of how F2P can be used in a positive way.

For a F2P game it has so little pressure to spend any real money due to how they hand out the premium currency (used for gacha pulls, stamina refills and more idol/item storage) and stamina drinks like candy, but the allure of the highest rarity (SSR) cards in the gacha are what drives the profits - people want the flashiest cards of their favourite idols enough to spend money when their free star jewels run out. Every week there are a couple of new songs, a new event and new gacha, plus regular updates to add room items, story events, new features and such which are all free. So far there are now like 85 songs in the game, all for free.
 
P

Pachael

Member
kagamin said:
Hey now, iDOLM@STER is a series that evolved from an Arcade game released in 2005, it's not an anime. :p It has an anime, but that's not what's being discussed here is it. ;)
Click to expand...

Certainly helps that iM@S is an internally developed IP and they can license it off to others and reap the cashflows anyway (like to mobage im@S CG game which is still running, and unlike say One Piece where they have to buy the license). In fact considering the strength of the franchises they have (Gundam, Dragon Ball and One Piece) it was probably a surprise they weren't dominating from the early days.

They've done good now that more and more of existing large IP related apps are making themselves known on these charts (Fate, Pokemon) as opposed to newer IP like Monster Strike and Puzzle and Dragons

Still, the death battle Starlight Stage is having with Love Live is pretty entertaining to watch.

Edit: I did get the PS4 Platinum Stars with the 765 crew which is nostalgic as, but the CG girls on mobile/mobage is the franchise's future.
 
Tizoc

Tizoc

Member
kagamin said:
Hey now, iDOLM@STER is a series that evolved from an Arcade game released in 2005, it's not an anime. :p It has an anime, but that's not what's being discussed here is it. ;)
Click to expand...

iDOLM@STER is as anime as anime would get though.
 
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