Japanese Online Pub Gcrest Opens San Francisco Office

Japanese online and mobile game publisher Gcrest will open up a new office in San Francisco, representing the company's first international expansion. Gcrest says the new location, situated in San Francisco's tech-heavy South of Market area, is set to open next month and will "answer specific demands of U.S. communities and expand its presence in the North American market." It will be co-located with the United States division of parent company CyberAgent Inc. The company operates the online graphical game portal TinierMe, which already operates in English. The publisher says more than half of the site's user base resides in the United States. Other Gcrest products include the online games Derby Legend Live! and Barvillage, as well as the mobile game Runeark Online. "We are thrilled and really excited to open our first office in San Francisco," said global operations VP Masaru Ohnogi in a statement. "Despite the economic downturn we have experienced a strong demand of users to expand our presence in America." "We will maximize our strength to entertain as many people as possible worldwide," he added. "We're starting with North America because many of our fans are here in the U.S.!"