Japanese mobile service company DeNA has been on an absolute roll lately buying up and partnering with all kinds of different companies involved in social gaming. Lately they’ve partnered with and made a multi-million dollar investment in OpenFeint, acquired Gameview, creators of the Tapfish games, and invested in Astro Ape Studios who were responsible for Office Heroes. Now, they’ve got their crosshairs on ngmoco, who themselves recently acquired Freeverse, switching both companies over to the freemium world of social gaming.
According to TechCrunch, multiple sources have mentioned that this acquisition could set DeNA back over $400,000,000, although the specifics of the deal are still unclear. Ngmoco themselves have raised over $40,000,000 in funding, and offer a wide array of free to play social games. It has been an interesting ride seeing ngmoco come full circle, from the original release of games like Rolando [$2.99 / Free] to later releasing micropayment-powered online games like Eliminate [Free] which some TouchArcade forum members and front page commenters were sure would be the death knell of the company.
Ngmoco hasn’t responded to any inquiries about the potential deal, but the fact that these kind of dollars could potentially be changing hands over a company that exclusively develops for the iOS platform is amazing.
[via TechCrunch]
