Gree Inc. said Tuesday it will start providing a global platform for social network games next year by unifying a platform of a U.S.-based company it acquired this year.
After the release of the new platform — scheduled for the April-June quarter next year — game developers will be able to provide games to the platform's 150 million registered users worldwide without having to tailor games for multiple platforms, Gree said.
The cellphone game site operator acquired OpenFeint Inc. last April. The California-based network provider for mobile social gaming has more than 100 million registered users around the world.
"By developing a new global platform, we are aiming to create a service used by 1 billion people," Gree CEO Yoshikazu Tanaka said at a news conference in Tokyo.
The platform, which will be provided under Gree's brand, will offer a single sign-on for users and a global payment solution, the company said. It will enable uses to play games on both Google Inc.'s Android and Apple Inc.'s iOS operating systems.
Seven domestic software makers, including Capcom Co. and Konami Digital Entertainment Co., plan to use the new platform for their content, Gree said.