Mobage

Not to be confused with Multiplayer online battle arena or Mobile game.
Mobage
Mobile App Developers
Available inJapanese
OwnerDeNA
URLmobage.com
LaunchedFebruary 7, 2006; 18 years ago (2006-02-07) (as Mobage Town)
March 28, 2011; 13 years ago (2011-03-28) (as Mobage)
Current statusOffline (DeNA)

Mobage (モバゲー, Mobagē, "Mobile Game") was a portal and social network for games, owned by DeNA. It derived its name from the Japanese slang for mobile games.

History

In 2011, as part of a strategy to unify its services, DeNA rebranded Mobage Town as Mobage (sometimes called Mobage East) for use in Japan, while the Plus+ network operated by ngmoco, a subsidiary of DeNA, was also rebranded as Mobage (sometimes called Mobage West) for use in the West.[1][2]

On December 19, 2014, ngmoco announced the rebranding of Mobage West to DeNA.[3][4][5] The Japanese site continued to operate under the mobage name.[citation needed]

On August 9, 2018, the English version of the website was reportedly shut down for unknown reasons.[citation needed]

Reception

The service was described as highly successful in academic research.[6] In July 2011, it was reported the service had 30 million users, who largely played on feature phones.[7]

References

  1. ^ Jordan, Jon (2010-12-15). "Ngmoco launches JavaScript-based ngCore Game Tech framework for iOS and Android". www.pocketgamer.com. Retrieved 2024-03-01.
  2. ^ "モバゲータウンが「Mobage」に サービス名・ロゴ一新して世界展開加速". Archived from the original on 2014-12-06. Retrieved 2016-06-24.
  3. ^ "Mobage is now pronounced DeNA (D-N-A)!".
  4. ^ "DeNA drops Mobage branding".
  5. ^ "Mobage".
  6. ^ Yamakami, Toshihiko (June 2011). "A Four-Layer Success Factor View Model of Mobile Social Games: Analysis of Mobage Success in Japan". 2011 10th International Conference on Mobile Business. pp. 114–118. doi:10.1109/ICMB.2011.36. ISBN 978-1-4577-0497-0. S2CID 28809987.
  7. ^ "DeNA and Ngmoco launch Mobage mobile social network across globe". venturebeat.com. July 26, 2011.