Impact: We think that much of this acquisition was driven by the desire to bring free-to-play virtual item models to mobile. Ngmoco has built up key technology with their Plus+ platform that allows the selling of virtual items in mobile games. Free-to-play gaming companies in Asia are very interested in what’s happening in the mobile marketplace,
The free-to-play companies in Asia have nailed the business model for virtual good based PC games like MapleStory . What they all need is a coherent mobile strategy to both feed their PC games and to launch new types of free-to-play mobile games. The opportunity to retain players across multiple screens (phone/tablet/PC/TV) and sell them virtual goods wherever they are could be one of the biggest financial opportunities in gaming in the short term.