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"It's finally happened, albeit without the big stage launch that we may have expected, Japanese mobile social gaming firm DeNA has begun offering games from its 'Mobage' social gaming platform for iOS devices in America and other regions worldwide.\r\n\r\nJust last week, the company said that support for Apple devices globally was\u00A0coming &amp;quot;soon&amp;quot;, according to a post on the Mobage Facebook page. Now\u00A0Ninja Royale\u00A0(iPhone only),\u00A0Blackjack\u00A0and Putt Putt Penguin\u00A0(both iPhone and iPad) have been softly launched to gamers in the US, after first being made available in other countries days before.\r\nBlackjack, Ninja Royale, and Put Put Penguin for iOS are live in Canada, the Philippines, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Australia! #iOS #Mobage\r\n\r\n\u2014 Mobage (@Mobage) February 29, 2012\r\nThe Mobage service, which is currently available\u00A0for iOS and Android devices in Japan and China, has included titles for Android phone owners worldwide since July last year. Its move to bring it to iPhone and iPad users worldwide is likely to massively increase its visibility, user base and activity.\r\n\r\nThe initial pre-launch note below was spotted by Serkan Toto, a Tokyo-based mobile games analyst and Japanese tech watcher, who rightly calls it &amp;quot;big news&amp;quot;.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHowever, we can forget any great fireworks and fanfare with the launches as a DeNA spokesperson confirmed to The Next Web that the games will continue to roll out individually using a 'soft launch' approach. Equally, there are &amp;quot;no plans to launch a global portal app any time soon&amp;quot;.\r\n\r\nDeNA bought\u00A0American firm Ngmoco\u00A0in October 2010 and the two services came together when Mobage was launched into English-speaking market in June, when it became available to Android devices.\r\n\r\nHowever, DeNA has change the way that users interact with the global Mobage network \u00A0-- which was essentially Ngmoco's service -- now global users can log-in to Mobage just once, when the game opens for the first time, which allows them to concentrate on playing.\r\n\r\nThe global portal settings were changed because, as the DeNA spokesperson explains, &amp;quot;Mobage's global users soon started complaining about having to launch the Mobage app first to play Mobage games instead of directly launching them&amp;quot;.\r\n\r\nThings are different in Japan however, where Mobage is more established. There users prefer to check-in to the site via the app portal where they can see friends, messages and do other social network-like activity before they launch their game.\r\n\r\niOS users that are desperate to play Mobage titles open to their Android-totting peers have a interim option while support for more titles is prepared. Some of the games\u00A0can be downloaded and played as a standalone games. Of course, this means that they come without the benefits of Mobage, such as interaction, high scores, gaming profile, gamer history, etc.\r\n\r\nIn the first fiscal quarter of 2012, Apple\u00A0sold more than 37 million\u00A0iPhones -- that's more phones that there\u00A0are babies born each day -- and almost 15.5 million iPads, that latter of which has sold well worldwide, even in Korea,\u00A0rival Samsung's homeland.\r\n\r\nTogether, support for the iOS devices can take Mobage worldwide, and any deals DeNA can strike with operators and other services, such as its\u00A0tie-up with Chinese social network Kaixin, will add greater reach to its worldwide expansion.\r\n\r\nMobage's move to Apple's operating system for international users has been widely expected for some time as DeNA looks to steal a march on its arch rival GREE, which is due to launch its own international mobile gaming service in the second quarter\u00A0of this year.\r\n\r\nGREE's impending global move will combine its existing games platform with\u00A0OpenFeint, the US gaming platform that it\u00A0acquired\u00A0for $104 million last April, and take the DeNA-GREE rivalry to a new, international level.\r\n\r\nAs well as racing for first mover advantage among global mobile gamers, the two firms are involved in an ongoing lawsuit\u00A0which began when DeNA was reprimanded for influencing developers. The suit, which is taking place in Japan, took a recent twist when DeNA countersued GREE over comments that suggested that it was still engaged in unfair practices.\r\n\r\nThe mobile social game industry is already lucrative for the two companies, with GREE tipped to post record profits of $910 million, and it is looking like it will only get bigger with both firms set to go international.\r\n\r\nIf you're not in the US but want to give the titles a spin, you can change your device's region setting and download the games at the links below.\r\n\r\n\u27A4\u00A0Ninja Royale\u00A0(iPhone) |\u00A0Putt Putt Penguin\u00A0(iPhone &amp;amp;amp; iPad) |\u00A0Blackjack! for Mobage\u00A0(iPhone &amp;amp;amp; iPad)"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/asia/2012/03/05/japans-dena-launches-its-first-mobile-social-games-for-the-iphone-and-ipad-in-the-us/www.openfeint.com/>