Zynga has acquired Japanese social gaming company Unoh, which will become a major part of Zynga’s mobile strategy. The company’s mobile product efforts will be a joint venture between SoftBank Group and Zynga.
Popular Unoh games include Machitsuku!, Band Yarouyo!, and Kaizoku Chronicle. Zynga says that in addition to maintaining Unoh’s games on mixi, Mobage-town, and GREE, Zynga Japan will also localize Zynga games and develop new games targeted at the Japanese market.
"Zynga is delighted to welcome the Unoh team, one of the pioneer Japanese social game developers, to the Zynga family," said Mark Pincus, CEO and Founder, Zynga. "The have a great track record of producing innovative, successful games are a complement to the top-notch team we have already begun to assemble in Japan."
"We’re very excited to join Zynga to help extend its reach to Japanese consumers," said Shintaro Yamada, founder and CEO, Unoh. "We’re looking forward to being an integral part of Zynga Japan’s leadership and growth, and are happy to support bringing the best social games to Japan’s cutting edge mobile and web technologies."
Google is said to have invested in Zynga recently, as part of the company’s apparent push into gaming (which also includes a reported acquisition of Slide). Google is expected to announce a partnership with Zynga anytime. Interestingly, Google also has a search deal with SoftBank for Yahoo Japan, which has frustrated Microsoft.
Financial details of the Unoh acquisition have not been disclosed.