Gree and Yahoo Japan invest $2.2M in GxYz social gaming business — February 18, 2013

Japan’s mobile social gaming network Gree and Yahoo Japan are investing $2.2 million in a joint venture to make social games on smartphones.

The GxYz startup will open on March 15 and it will make social mobile games on smartphone platforms for the Japanese market. It will benefit from the user acquisition capabilities of Yahoo Japan.

Gree will own a 51 percent share in the business. Several games are expected to be released within the year. While Gree is expanding in the West, it has a multibillion-dollar market value because of its lucrative business as a platform for social mobile games in the Japanese market. Gree’s arch rival in Japan in DeNA, which also has a close relationship with Yahoo Japan.

GxYz will be headed up by Tomoyuki Isaka, the ex-president of Gree Korea.

Filed under: Games, Mobile, Social, VentureBeat