[Source] According to reports, Japanese developer GREE has closed all its Western offices and studios, at the same time laying off all employees in them. The locations affected include Melbourne (Australia), San Francisco (USA), and Berlin (Germany). According to GREE, the developer will now focus on “Japan first”, and only localizing successful domestic games for the overseas market.
This should come as no shock to industry watchers, as the Western operations are reportedly bleeding cash and not contributing much to GREE’s revenue. Meanwhile, a few of GREE’s recent Japanese launches have achieved Top 10 ranking, which means millions of dollars in the lucrative market. GREE will continue to support its 5 running Western mobile games from Japan.
