DeNA will make its own social games abroad, opens Canadian studio

They better come lathered in sweet maple syrup. Japanese social game giant DeNA is super serious about its global mobile social games platform, Mobage. In fact, the ngmoco owner wants to make even more of its own games, so much so that it has opened a new game development studio in Canada. Gamasutra reports that DeNA Studios Canada, based in Vancouver, will begin operations later this month.

DeNA's Canadian studio is headed by Ifran Virk, the current chief of Gameview Studios (a DeNA subsidiary). The Japanese-turned-global company looks to raise $602,000 initially to support the studio. Unfortunately, no game projects have been announced, though DeNA hopes its Canadian studio will help with cross-border mobile social game development.

In other words, DeNA looks to make a foothold in the U.S. and abroad by creating games that are geographically closer. And considering how much of a testing hotbed Canada has become for mobile games, we'd say it's a fine place to start. While DeNA is poised to become a major player in the global mobile games world, it's not without competition.

As DeNA and ngmoco sign on big time partners like Glu Mobile and bolsters its Sweden studio, Japanese rival GREE looks to make its upcoming mobile social games platform as slick as possible with the likes of Microsoft and Amazon. Of course, there's always Zynga, which has made strides in mobile in more ways than one. But hey, competition is healthy (and fun to watch.)

Who will ultimately win in the mobile social games world? What do you use right now to access social features in your mobile games? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.