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GREE switches platform development to Japan, while investing $3M in US studio MunkyFun

Job cuts as US focus switches to games

GREE switches platform development to Japan, while investing $3M in US studio MunkyFun
By Jon Jordan
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Japanese social gaming platform GREE has announced a significant change to its US operations.

The reorganisation sees the majority of its US games platform team transitioned to new departments; a move that will also result in unspecified redundancies.

This comes on the back of the company's shock decision to shut down its legacy OpenFeint servers, something that has been much criticised by some developers.

Play time

Ongoing work on the GREE platform will now be carried out in the company's Tokyo headquarters, with its San Francisco base switched to game development and support of its partners' games.

As part of this, GREE has announced it's invested $3 million to take a minority stake in highly regarded San Francisco developer MunkyFun, which is best known for its games Bounty Bots and My Horse, which was published by NaturalMotion.

GREE is also boosting its publishing reach, thanks to a new mobile investment fund which will be managed by a new publishing and partnerships group.

Jon Jordan
Jon Jordan
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon can turn his hand to anything except hand turning. He is editor-at-large at PG.biz which means he can arrive anywhere in the world, acting like a slightly confused uncle looking for the way out. He likes letters, cameras, imaginary numbers and legumes.