Japan's SoftBank acquires Puzzle & Dragons publisher GungHo

Newsbrief: Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank is once again dipping its toes into the video game pool, acquiring Puzzle & Dragons publisher GungHo Online Entertainment. SoftBank will pay 25 billion yen ($265 million) on April 1 to increase its stake in GungHo to 58.5 percent, making GungHo a consolidated subsidiary. GungHo's recent success with mobile game Puzzle & Dragons no doubt plays a part in this move. SoftBank will also bring video game companies Grasshopper Manufacture and Acquire into its family as part of the acquisition. SoftBank has attempted to move into the video game industry a number of times before, starting a joint venture with Sega back at the turn of the millenium, and most recently establishing a Japanese game studio with Zynga - although this later closed down.