Japanese social game firm Gumi expanding in Asia

Newsbrief: Tokyo-based Gumi, one of the largest mobile social game developers and publishers in Japan, is expanding its presence in Asia with new offices in South Korea and Singapore. The two branches will operate as Gumi Korea and Gumi Asia, respectively, with Electronic Arts Asia's former senior director David Ng heading the latter. The Singapore office is putting together a team of developers, which will work with the other branches to release smartphone games for both Singapore and the international market. Gumi has more than 10 million registered users across its games (e.g. Yakuza Wars, Pirate Wars) on multiple Japanese social networks like Mixi, Mobage, and Gree. Last December, the company said it made $6 million in revenues each month, mostly from virtual good sales. It has so far raised over $32 million from investors.