From April this year some free apps have started to appear in the top 10 on the App Store. Some of them are social battle games played in browsers.
The top positionwas taken by a Free app.

Zynga had Mafia Wars and other apps in the App Store but they didn’t sell. Pincus also bagged the App Store. But recently each of the apps has In-App purchasing being put into them and re-appearing on the App Store.

Vampires, MafiaWars, StreetRacing are being invested into.

iPhone and iPod Touch apps that use In-App purchasing are a rare occurance in Japan. Will people really play them? .. is, I get the feeling, the (fair) question still being asked. But the big players have done them, so they must be big.

But whay have they taken this path? Facebook may have reached it’s limits – that may be the answer. My thoughts are that the purchasing of In-App currency will soon be announced s ok by Apple, and Zynga are preparing. (My source is someone overseas, mum’s the word).

By the way Zynga’s apps use item purchasing (iTunes link),

The Godfather by iMob uses virtual currency that you have to purchase.

iKnights 46 Magic（iTunes）

The Storm 8 app also uses monetization.
Kingdoms Live-34 Legend Points（iTunes）
Pets Live Flicker（iTunes）

The browser games are in the RolePlaying and Strategy categories, others have also been released. In the Japanese app leadeboards, 8 of the top 100 are battle games and 3 are social-type games. A farmville type game is #1.
You could say that recently 10% of downloaded iPhone apps are social games I think the same will happen with Android.
The first wave of social games for iPhone have arrived.

So, should Japanese social app companies just go ahead and make a Galapogos-type social mobile game?

north 5 mins from Umeda. It's the brown bld in front.

Our main dev. studios are Osaka and Tokyo, each focussing on the skillset the staff have acquired. Tokyo: Japanese mobile game dev. Osaka: Global social games, smartphone RnD.
I’m based in Osaka bu travel at least once a week to Tokyo. We plan to relocate the Tokyo office again soon.

エントランスのロゴ。

I have relocated offices many times, more than 10, I hold a certain philosophy about it.
- A stylish office is one that makes people want to visit. It also attracts staff.
Previously Dragon Quest 8 (level 5) CEO stated this.(but not in this link).
- Functional. We reworked many times the layout and network placement.
- A stock room, server room, client meeting room and relaxation area are all required.
- Air conditioning! This time alongside the central system we also added individual air conditioners.
- Meeting space. A private meeting area as well as an open public one. 1 per 20 people I think.

I made a shortlist of 20 or so locations, provided the above draft to the staff in meetings and decided on the final location.

This is what we decided on.

On the day of the move, putting in the network is fun.

Looking in from the entrance. We have keyless fingerprint security by Secom.

Development. The desks are all from Ikea, 5000 yen ea.

The opposite end is empty. We are recruiting^^

Do we have a library, relaxation space or beds?

Meeting space. Just right for a 6 person social app dev team.

Entrance from inside.

Our interior was done by our longtime associates, Vis Co Ltdです。
When we introduced them to other games companies, several have used them for interior design.
This is not a wall decoration, it’s holding up the wall. Stylish hey.
This time we used cloth on the wall surfaces, giving it a real warmth.

Rather than just increase effeciency, we want our team to like their environment – I think this is what counts.
There’s plenty more tod do, but we’ll get those issues sorted ^^;

Istpika’s strategy focusses on the following platforms:


Istpika began with Facebook and iPhone development but Japanese social networks opened up their API’s and we moved into development for those also. But when we consider the social game industry, Japanese and the international arena are both booming. The key to overseas social games will be the use of iPhone, android based social games. For us the time invested and size of our company are a restriction at the moment. Fortunately GMO has partnered with us and we plan to expand quickly.
Recently, we expanded our offices。

GMO has started the “Let’s make apps” fund with 3 billion yen for individuals, companyes and other teams to produce social apps and also assist in providing support for them.
GMO who has monitored and invested in online projest for many years has put their foot forward and offered a huge fund, this is validation of the social app industry. For those companies still wondering whether it’s time to invest, there’s no time to waste.
Istpika aims to asist in any way to increase the quality level of the social app industry.
We’re taking the lead and look forward to working with you in the future.

A GamesBeat(VentureBeat) article:
Open Feint X aims to make iPhone games as social as Facebook apps

The social network platform for iPhone, Open Feint has just released Open Feint X.

Here an exert of it;

Facebook game companies have become financial juggernauts. That’s because games spread in a viral way to lots of Facebook users. And a small percentage of those users buy virtual goods with real money. If the iPhone could duplicate that pattern, it might also one day generate lots of revenue for game companies.

That’s what Aurora Feint wants to make happen with its Open Feint X social game platform for the iPhone. If it works, it could make the iPhone much more like Facebook in generating business for game makers, said Peter Relan, executive chairman of the Burlingame, Calif.-based company, in an interview.

“We consider Open Feint X to be the beginning of a new business model for the iPhone game industry,” said Relan. “So far, it has been hard to build a business like Zynga on the iPhone.”

Aurora Feint’s existing Open Feint platform is the equivalent of Xbox Live for iPhone games. Developers use the platform to create games with features such as leaderboards, achievements, instant messaging and chat. With Open Feint X, Aurora Feint is extending the platform to be the equivalent of Facebook’s app platform.

Developers use the Open Feint X platform to create games where players can create their own profiles that can be accessed from any game. Users can also invite friends to join the game or purchase virtual goods and give them to their friends. Players can create their own news feeds and post on friends’ walls, as they can with Facebook.

The platform is free for developers to use. If they want to tap Open Feint X’s premium service, they have to share revenue with Aurora Feint. The premium services include setting up an online store within Open Feint to sell games or downloadable assets. Other premium services include a game-specific currency wallet and detailed analytics.

If this sounds familiar, it’s like embedding Facebook inside the iPhone. Aurora Feint is essentially doing something that Apple or Facebook should do for the iPhone platform. But those big companies have had other fish to fry, so they left the opening for Aurora Feint to create a platform that socializes iPhone games.

It can do so, Relan said, because Open Feint has critical mass. There are about 13 million users of Open Feint-enabled games; the audience is growing 25 percent a month. About 1,000 games already use the Open Feint platform and another 1,800 are in the works, Relan said.
If Open Feint X succeeds with its ambitions, then it could change the dynamics of the iPhone game industry, which has been a kind of bloodbath.

There are 140,000 apps on the iPhone; about 20 percent of them are games. But it’s hard to find companies that have come up with hit after hit after hit. Big brands dominate the list of top iPhone games, while independent companies largely dominate the top ranks of Facebook games.
Relan said that Aurora Feint had 25 employees now, with half of its team dedicated to Open Feint X development. They have worked on it for the better part of a year. Part of the key differentiator for Open Feint X, Relan said, is that it will have a native social network. If you play an Open Feint-enabled game, you can be a member of that network and it will be easy to communicate with friends and discover games.

“In the past, we just connected people,” Relan said. “Now we are talking about having a social network natively built into the iPhone. It will be exclusively focused on gaming.”

Relan said game partners are in a private beta test now and the first games should be launched in April using the Open Feint X platform.

This could be a great move.
What is probably the last blue ocean in Japan, the social game industry, is now booming. Mixi apps and Mobage Town have been slow to move on this but now the iPhone is aggressively moving into the mobile social gaming category. There’s no time to waste.

Istpika has and is putting all of our efforts into social games. Android and Facebook Mobile will be next I’m sure. Keep an eye out for us!
http://openfeint.com/x

They added the “application” and “game” sections to the navigation.
“Game” used to be a category of “facebook applications” but with these changes, “game” is now recognised itself as a stand alone category for the very first time.

With this consolidation, the lead track to applications which was always located on the bottom of the home has been moved to the left side of the page. It might be a bit difficult to use when you want to move to your bookmarked applications while you are surfing around games and your friends pages on facebook but it’s a matter of getting used with the new layout.

Applications and games sections now both share a common page design and the thing to note is the addition of Facebook Credits at the top right of the page. It would appear they’re aiming for a one currency system.
In order also are the apps you’ve used recently. And those used by friends also shows up, ian all it’s glorious detail.

You can also show all of the apps that a friend has registered and each genre with all of it’s associated apps.

This area isn’t put together and pushed to the user like a “recommended” section but rather a list showing what fun apps there are and provides quick links to them.

The design has been cleaned up and is much easier to sort through now. To be able to get an overview of what friends are playing with is great. You can gather info such as Chinese friends are playing certain Chinese games etc.

By the way Facebook released some cute features a while back, I’ll intro them here:

Show the friends you like

In your friends box on the left it shows 6 friends. These are set at random but you can specify those 6 friends if you like to show up all of the time.
To do this 1) click the edit mark on the box 2) Select your friends

Konami Code on Facebook!?
In the profile page, press the following key sequence to see a lens flare.
up up down down left right left right BA Enter.

That’s all it is but it’s great to see Facebook paying kudos to Konami!
Konami Code

Facebook will open in Japan They must love Japan!?