Zynga has Softbank in its corner. But CrowdStar has its own partner in Japan: Drecom, a midsized social game developer with games on several Japanese platforms.
CrowdStar appears to have been working with Drecom for months, having previously launched Happy Aquarium and Happy Island in Japan with the company, but hadn’t announced the name of its partner until now. Now it’s moving to launch all of its games — of which there about 10, according to AppData — in Japan with Drecom.
Like both Zynga and RockYou, CrowdStar has been keen on entering the Asian markets as quickly as possible; all three companies have settled on Japan as a good starting prospect. New CrowdStar Niren Hiro told us in May that Happy Aquarium had already cracked the top five games on Mixi, one of the largest social networks in the country.
However, it’s tough to get by in Japan’s specialized mix of mobile and web networks without a local partner. For more on the Japanese market, check out our recent interview on localization with RockYou cofounder Jian Shen.
Chris Morrison Read more: Inside Social Games
