据venturebeat报道，日本手机社交平台Gree近日以1.04亿美元收购了美国手机社交游戏平台OpenFeint。

这是继去年DeNA斥资4.03亿美元收购ngmoco之后，日本行业巨头再度向美国新兴企业出手的重要动作。耐人寻味的是，DeNA恰好是Gree在日本的最大竞争对手，并且ngmoco旗下也有一个手机社交游戏平台Plus+。由此可以看出，手机游戏热还在不断升温，不少公司都已看中手机游戏平台的巨大发展潜力。

OpenFeint

Gree的日本用户已超过2500万，该公司身价已达30亿美元，旗下手机社交平台支持用户购买游戏、并通过其他内容与好友进行互动。而OpenFeint平台的游戏已超过5000款，在iOS和Android平台的用户突破了7500万人。

据称Gree将通过提供额外的运营资本，加快OpenFeint平台的发展。但与ngmoco和DeNA之间的合作方式不同，Gree与OpenFeint并不会面向所有用户，打造一个全球化的统一游戏平台，而是针对不同市场，因地制宜地开发产品。

OpenFeint的首席执行官Jason Citron仍将担任CEO一职，并与OpenFeint团队一起将公司打造成一个价值“数十亿美元的项目”，而这一点却正好与ngmoco首席执行官Neil Young在不久前的访谈中反复强调的发展愿景如出一辙。

据Gree所称，他们很了解游戏行业的发展重心正转向高质量内容和社交化这两个要素，而这也正是他们收购OpenFeint的原因所在。OpenFeint曾获得手机及社交游戏企业家Peter Relan旗下的YouWeb机构的投资，而Gree的劲敌DeNA也持有OpenFeint的股份，但现在看来，DeNA有可能已经或者正准备出售其股份。OpenFeint表示今年将加倍扩充人员，但要在人才紧缺的硅谷实现这个目标并不容易。

Gree首席执行官Yoshikazu Tanaka表示，Gree一向就很擅长推出游戏的社交化发展，OpenFeint这家美国顶级的手机社交游戏平台正是Gree的理想合作伙伴，二者可以联手向更多用户推出最好的手机社交游戏产品。

Gree International（游戏邦注：它是位于旧金山的Gree美国子公司）首席执行官Naoki Aoyagi则表示，这桩收购交易再度显示了Gree为开发商和用户打造最佳游戏生态圈的坚定决心，Gree International现在将与OpenFeint公司合并。Gree手机社交平台目前共有2400万用户，最近还与新加坡功能性手机社交平台mig33进行了合作。

Gree International的业务运营副总裁Takafumi Kawane在采访中表示，Gree不会将OpenFeint在北美的运营模式复制到日本，也不会迫使OpenFeint采纳其日本运营方式。Gree在日本现有400多名员工，向日本功能性手机推出了自主开发的7款游戏，并运营了来自第三方公司的数百款游戏。在上一财年（截止2011年3月31日），该公司营收为7亿美元。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Japan’s Gree buys OpenFeint mobile social game platform for $104M

Japanese mobile social network Gree has purchased mobile social game platform operator OpenFeint for $104 million.

Yes, it’s time to start yelling “The Japanese are coming. The Japanese are coming.” Gree’s purchase of the Burlingame, Calif.-based startup follows the $403 million acquisition of mobile game firm Ngmoco by Japan’s DeNA, which is a big rival of Gree’s. The deal shows that mobile is heating up and multiple companies see the value of building a platform that helps mobile games get discovered.

Like Ngmoco, OpenFeint operates a social platform for mobile games. By adopting OpenFeint’s development platform, mobile game makers can make their games more social, more discoverable, and easily cross-promoted. OpenFeint provides features such as multiplayer challenges, leaderboards, and cross promotion.

Gree has more than 25 million users and a market value of $3 billion in Japan, where it operates a social mobile game platform where users can buy games, socialize and interact with all sorts of content. OpenFeint has more than 5,000 games using its platform, and those games have more than 75 million users across iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad) and Android devices.

Gree is going to provide OpenFeint with additional operating capital to accelerate the platform’s growth. In contrast to Ngmoco and DeNA, Gree and OpenFeint will not build a uniform gaming network for all consumers worldwide. Rather, they will create tailored products for specific markets. It plans to provide OpenFeint and Gree services on a global level.

Jason Citron, chief executive of OpenFeint, will remain as CEO. He and the OpenFeint team will have long-term incentives and grow the company into a “multi-billion dollar business.” That’s consistent with the business vision of Neil Young, chief executive of Ngmoco, as stated in an interview with VentureBeat.

Gree said it understands that there is a shift in gaming expectations toward higher-quality expectations and that social is now driving gaming. That’s why the company did this deal. OpenFeint is funded by YouWeb, the incubator headed by mobile and social gaming entrepreneur Peter Relan. DeNA had a stake in OpenFeint but evidently it sold that off or is selling it off now. OpenFeint said it hopes to double its headcount within the year, although that is easier said than done in Silicon Valley, where there is a talent shortage.

“At Gree, we are socializing the next evolution of games and, as the best-in-class US-based mobile social network, OpenFeint is the ideal partner for us to offer the best mobile social games to the largest global audience,” saidYoshikazu Tanaka, founder and CEO of Gree, in a statement.

“This acquisition further emphasizes Gree’s commitment to providing the first and best global gaming ecosystem, with both the developer and consumer in mind,” saysNaoki Aoyagi, CEO of Gree International, the subsidiary that recently opened an office in San Francisco. Gree International will now be merged into OpenFeint. Gree has 24 million users on its mobile social network. Recently, Gree teamed up with feature-phone based mobile social network Mig33.

In an interview, Takafumi Kawane, vice president business operations for Gree International, said in an interview that there is no point in Gree duplicating the business of OpenFeint in North America and vice versa for Gree in Japan. Gree has more than 400 employees that work on the company’s social network service and its games in Japan. Gree has seven of its own games on feature phones in Japan and its service hosts hundreds of other games from third parties. In the fiscal year ending March 31, the company is targeting revenues of $700 million.（source:venturebeat）