PlayPhone® Acquires Partnership With
International Social Gaming Company, Liveware, Inc. Worldwide
Global leader of mobile content announces partnership to launch
exclusive social games including Harvest Moon®: Pocket
Ranch through PlayPhone® Social
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PlayPhone®, Inc. (www.PlayPhone.com),
the market leader in delivering mobile entertainment content to
individuals and social communities worldwide, and Liveware Inc. (www.liveware.net),
a leading Japanese mobile game development company, today announced a
global partnership to distribute Harvest Moon®: Pocket Ranch,
on PlayPhone® Social, PlayPhone?s new cross-platform mobile
social network (SNS) destination. Harvest Moon® is a popular
and long-running series that has appeared on a variety of different
platforms.
?We are excited to launch Harvest Moon®: Pocket Ranch with
Liveware as they are a dominant player in the social gaming world?
PlayPhone®, well known in the mobile industry for delivering
brand name digital content to phones as well as for powering the mobile
content portals for partners such as Walmart, Disney, NBC, National
Geographic and more, has had extensive experience in delivering gaming
products to mobile devices.
?We are excited to launch Harvest Moon®: Pocket Ranch with
Liveware as they are a dominant player in the social gaming world,? said
Ron Czerny, CEO of PlayPhone® Inc. ?PlayPhone®
Social?s cross-platform allows players to invite friends from Facebook
and Twitter to play along with them. In addition, the ability to
socialize with friends on the gaming platform via multi-player
functionality is a unique feature in mobile innovation.?
Harvest Moon®: Pocket Ranch and other leading Liveware games
will be published exclusively and integrated through the launch of
PlayPhone® Social, a new mobile cross-platform SNS
destination. Optimized for mobile social gaming and networking, PlayPhone®
Social allows games publishers the opportunity to monetize and mobilize
mobile social games around the globe on multiple platforms which include
the iPhone, Android and web flash.
?Liveware is very excited to partner with PlayPhone®. We
believe PlayPhone?s global publishing and distribution power and its
cutting-edge mobile social network platform are the best fit for
Liveware games,? stated Tomoki Terui, President of Liveware.
The PlayPhone® Social platform includes billing integration,
achievements and buddy list integration with leading social media
networks such as Twitter and Facebook. PlayPhone® Social?s
universal platform also provides global leaderboards that allow users to
share high-scores with friends and earn virtual goods and currency.
Users can also redeem their virtual currency winnings for real digital
goods such as ringtones, games and applications at PlayPhone?s digital
store.
?The mobile social gaming space is exploding globally,? stated Mr. Hayao
Nakayama, founder and major shareholder of Liveware.
Mr. Nakayama, formerly the president of SEGA and the executive
responsible for making SEGA one of the top video game companies in the
world, further stated, ?We believe PlayPhone® is poised to
dominate this space and work with Liveware to deliver the best mobile
social games to the global community.?
About Liveware, Inc.
Liveware, Inc. (www.liveware.net),
is one of the leading mobile and social game provider based in Tokyo,
Japan, founded in 2004. Ever since the foundation, Liveware has provided
more than 800 flash game contents for the one?s portal site, ?Sanmondo?
and the mobile/social version of the famous ?Harvest Moon? series, and
other various contents in the Japanese and the worldwide market.
Especially nowadays, the rapid growth of the social networking services
in Japan, Liveware is providing its major titles to the top 3 Japanese
SNS portals such as mixi, Mobage-Town and GREE. Not only developing and
providing the content to the worldwide market, Liveware has advanced
resources for mobile solution services.
About PlayPhone®, Inc.
PlayPhone®, Inc (www.PlayPhone.com),
is the market leader in delivering mobile entertainment content to
individuals and social communities worldwide. As a global mobile media
company, it has presence in over 25 countries throughout North America,
Europe, Asia and Latin America. PlayPhone® founded the
direct-to-consumer mobile media distribution standard in 2003 and
continues to establish new means for delivering wireless entertainment.
PlayPhone® is based in San Jose, Calif. and is funded by top
venture firms Menlo Ventures, Cardinal Venture Capital and Scale Venture
Partners.
About Harvest Moon® is a trademark or registered
trademark and copyright of Natsume Inc. in the U.S. and other countries,
and is used by Liveware under license for Harvest Moon: Pocket Ranch.
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