SEPT. 20, 2011 • Within a week after DeNA Co., Ltd. acquired mobile developer Punch Ent. Co. Ltd. in Vietnam, Aeria Games swooped in and hired Punch’s Android development team. The latter will join Aeria’s mobile development studio. Aeria also acquired a yet-to-be-named Punch title for iOS and Android platforms.
Impact: There is a lot of momentum in the games industry to get out in front of the swiftly growing mobile game market. The last two years have seen mobile content success driven by relative unknown developers. The result is a lot of acquisitions of mobile game start-ups as larger publishers seek to carve out market share. DeNA and Aeria are also intent on controlling social gaming networks on mobile. DeNA recently purchasing the OpenFeint network. How much longer small, unknown mobile developers will actually be able to achieve breakout successes amidst so much consolidation is an open question.
