Remember when almost every video game sold in the United States was an import from some Japanese company? These days, games played in Japan are just as likely to be imports from some of the big-name American developers. This trend looks set to extend into social games, as San Francisco's Crowdstar has announced its entire gaming catalog will soon be available on Japanese social networks.
The move is an expansion of an existing partnership with Japan's Drecom that has already brought two popular Crowdstar titles -- Happy Aquarium and Happy Island -- to three of Japan's biggest mobile social networks. With the expansion, Crowdstar is showing it's eager to grab even more of a Japanese social gaming market estimated to be worth $2 billion.
They're not the only ones, of course. Social gaming powerhouse Zynga recently announced they'd be forming Zynga Japan through a partnership with the country's Softbank. They'll both have to fight with Japanese companies like Square Enix, which have shown a similar eagerness to grab a piece of the social gaming pie.
Will these American exports be able to make a crack in the historically insular Japanese market? If the recent shape of the traditional gaming market is any indication, we're gonna bet that they will.
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