DoCoMo & DeNA Join on Mobile Games

DoCoMo and DeNA, producers of the popular Mobage platform, have announced extensive tie-up for mobile social gaming: http://bit.ly/mtWUGf

NTT DOCOMO, INC. and DeNA Co., Ltd. announced today a business alliance to offer an enhanced mobile-based social-gaming platform in Japan and overseas, aiming to tap into the rapid growth of social gaming worldwide.

From May, Mobage, DeNA’s highly popular social networking platform centered on gaming, will be directly linked to DOCOMO’s i-mode mobile Web portal for feature phones (highly functional non-smartphones) and “docomo market” portal for smartphones. Linkage will enable DOCOMO customers—including more than 6 million smartphone users projected for the current fiscal year—to navigate easily to Mobage’s social-gaming services.

A dedicated Mobage application will be preinstalled in selected DOCOMO smartphones to be released beginning in the foreseeable future. DOCOMO users will enjoy special benefits when using Mobage, such as early access to sought-after new content and exclusive privileges for selected content, as well as easy direct billing via DOCOMO’s sp-mode™ service for smartphones.

DOCOMO and DeNA also plan to promote Mobage overseas starting in Europe and Asia through collaboration with mobile operators and game developers. The two companies will complement each other’s expertise in overseas mobile-service platforms and related services that they have developed together with their respective subsidiaries and partners in foreign markets.