GungHo bought 70% of Playphone

The authors of Puzzle & Dragons have acquired a 70% stake in the American social gaming network Playphone for an unknown amount.

Playphone is something like a gaming ecosystem with its own showcase and social functionality. Also acts as a publisher. There are no stars among the clients, the success stories of the service with an 11-year history are also not known. But the authors of the platform claim 800 million subscribers.

So why did GungHo need such a company? 

We make the assumption that it’s about the numerous Playphone contracts with mobile operators in the world. The Playphone store is pre-installed on their smartphones by such operators as Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, Claro, Vivo, TIM, SingTel, Telkomsel and many others (including in Brazil and the Middle East).  

If GungHo plans to enter the world market on a large scale – the ability to install the game on a large number of smartphones at once is quite what it needs.

GungHo Online Entertainment is a Japanese gaming company founded in 1998 by one of the largest Japanese telecommunications companies SoftBank and retailer onSale Inc. Before the release of Puzzle & Dragons, it was mainly known for hosting Ragnarok Online servers.