Yahoo Japan Corp., operator of the nation's second-most popular website, has announced a new web-based gaming platform called Game Plus.
The new service, which started Tuesday in Japan with 39 games, offers titles through cloud streaming and those built on HTML5. Yahoo Japan is partnering with 52 game publishers including Square Enix Holdings Co. and Koei Tecmo Holdings Co. to offer new titles and rereleases of console games like Final Fantasy X.
Yahoo Japan joins Facebook Inc., Tencent Holdings Ltd., and Rakuten Inc. in embracing web-based games, which allow smartphone and desktop users to play without downloading apps or software. The technology is growing in popularity as it circumvents app stores run by Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc. and lets publishers capture a bigger share of the mobile gaming market, which globally generated about $50 billion in sales last year, according to App Annie.