iPhone Social Game Network Aurora Feint Gets Major Japanese Investment

Major Japanese mobile social network operator DeNa has made a "strategic, multi-million dollar investment" in iPhone social platform developer Aurora Feint, taking a 20 percent stake in the company. Simultaneously, Konami subsidiary developer Hudson Soft will become the first Japanese game maker to incorporate Aurora Feint's OpenFeint technology when it releases a new Bomberman title later this year. OpenFeint is a suite of online features that connect iPhone games from different developers with social features like friends lists, lobbies, achievements, leaderboards, and social network integration. Aurora Feint claims over 200 currently-available iPhone games -- including notable titles like Pocket God and Minigore -- hook into the platform, with 500 more in development from some 2,500 registered developers. Dena has its own mobile phone-based social platforms, including Mobage-town, a graphical mobile-only virtual network that hosts over 250 games, including MMOs. In a statement, company CEO Tomoko Namba said DeNa's existing leadership in the traditional mobile arena meshes well with Aurora Feint's market position on iPhone. "We look forward to a long-term partnership which will bring the synergy of our experience in operating large mobile social networks, and the experience of OpenFeint in operating a large social gaming platform in the smartphone market," he said. Hudson's corporate officer Masato Shibata said the developer plans to release "several games which utilize this beneficial tool to the fullest extent."