( 12 March 2013 3:24 pm) 

Mumbai: In a bid to expand its global presence, Reliance Big Entertainment's Reliance Games has acquired a mobile game development and publishing company in Japan and a mobile game development studio in Korea.

The recent ingress of Reliance Games into Japan and Korea will play a pivotal role in the company’s international roadmap. According to the company, the Japanese and Korean business set-ups give Reliance Games direct access to the two largest mobile gaming markets known to the world.

The company aims to adopt a two pronged approach for the new set-ups; while the Japanese and Korean facilities will develop IPs targeted to local consumers, they will in future also be responsible for R&D of multi-player mobile games for the western markets.

In Tokyo, Japan, Reliance Big Entertainment has through its subsidiary Reliance Big Entertainment Japan fully acquired the gaming division of Funnel Japan along with its team and all the IPs under development and has created Reliance Games Japan. The company in Japan will be responsible for development and publishing of games for the local market.

In Busan, Korea, Reliance Big Entertainment Japan has bought a majority stake of 51 per cent in the gaming studio Bluesom. As a part of the deal, the company has also acquired a few IPs.

Reliance Entertainment Digital CEO Manish Agarwal said, “Reliance Games, after the success of Real Steel and F1 2011 mobile games globally, has embarked on a journey of expanding its business beyond North America markets. With this acquisition in Japan and Korea Reliance Games has made inroads into the world’s largest mobile gaming markets and looks forward to tap the 5.5 Bln USD and 1.3 Bln USD
mobile gaming markets of Japan and Korea respectively."

"Investment in the development studio at Busan, Korea and in the distribution team at Tokyo, Japan will enable us to develop games for local markets instead of trying to force fit western games in these markets. I have full confidence on teams at Korea and Japan to establish Reliance Games as a very innovative and successful gaming brand,” Agarwal added.

Reliance Games VP-Global Studios Eric Marlow said, “The Company’s expansion into the Japanese and Korean markets is significant and strategic. We see now a clear path that allows us product and development capacity in both countries. We are extremely excited by the new capabilities added to our team and we think our customers will enjoy the games we are preparing for them.”

The company has brought on board Hwa Seok Choi in the role of chief revenue officer for Reliance Games Japan.

Reliance Games will be launching three games in the ‘social card game’ and ‘real time strategy game’ categories, on feature phones and smart devices in the next three quarters in Japan and Korea. Apart from these new games, Reliance Games will also be launching its Hollywood IP based games localised for these markets.

The company has also created mobile games for IPs like Real Steel, Total Recall, F1 2011, Mirror Mirror and Electric City.