DeNA Acquiring Punch Entertainment Vietnam

Tokyo-based social and mobile gaming giant DeNA is looking to acquire the Vietnam branch of smartphone developer Punch Entertainment, adding around 50 staff members to DeNA's first-party team. DeNA is expecting to close the deal on the studio sometime this month, and buy the iOS and Android developer from its California-based parent company. The new staff members will provide engineering support for DeNA's first-party titles available via the social mobile gaming network Mobage. DeNA's president Isao Moriyasu said of the move, "Punch Entertainment Vietnam is an excellent addition to DeNA's first party game development team with its proven track record of developing cross-platform social games." "We believe the acquisition will significantly accelerate DeNA's game development and deliver high-quality social games for the Mobage platform. The acquisition also underscores our commitment to support the game developers' community in Vietnam." The acquisition will help fuel DeNA's expansion into Asia. Last month, the company revealed its plans to open a new studio in Singapore that will focus on partnering with social mobile game developers in the south and southeast regions of Asia.