King Opens Offices in Japan
King Digital Entertainment, the makers of Candy Crush Saga, opened up a new office in Japan, making it their tenth office around the world. Currently, King has offices in London, Malta, Berlin, Barcelona, Bucharest, Malmo, Stockholm, Seoul and San Francisco.
The next step for them is to take over the Eastern region of the world. Since Japan has a gaming community that is worth around $5 billion, this is a great step moving forward to reach new audiences.
Japan has a booming gaming community that King wants to break into. Currently, they have the highest revenue for every download and lowest player acquisition. In the United States the revenue averages $2.52 and in Japan it is averaged at $6.36.
To oversee and manage the new office, they have appointed Ken Edahiro, who formerly worked for the mobile game developing company, Gloops. Together, Ken and King will try to expand their audience and develop new content for the Eastern smartphone gaming community. Right now, the office is comprised of only three people, with plans to expand in the near future.
To create more of a presence in the Eastern parts of the world, King is also starting to amp up their marketing and advertising campaigns. Recently, they have released a series of commercials featuring popular celebrities from Japan. Junichi Okada, who is a member of a popular Japanese boy band V6, and Kenichi Endo, who is an actor in ‘The Raid 2’, have been starring in Candy Crush themed commercials.
The stars are not only in commercials they are also featured on placements in the iTunes App Store. This is not the first time King has advertised in Japan, but this is the first time they have pushed their advertisements in such a grand scale. So far it seems like the advertisements have been helping to make Candy Crush Saga climb its way up the charts. Only time will tell if King Japan will be a successful branch of the company.
Take a look at the video below:
