Zynga Buys Up Japanese Game Developer Unoh

Zynga announced that it has acquired Tokyo-based Unoh, one of Japan’s leading social games companies. Unoh will be part of the foundation of Zynga Japan’s mobile product efforts, which will be a joint venture between SoftBank Group and Zynga, accelerating Zynga Japan’s entry into the Japanese social gaming market.

Unoh is one of Japan’s pioneering social game companies, founded in 2001, with top hits Machitsuku!, Band Yarouyo!, and Kaizoku Chronicle. 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. “They have a great track record of producing innovative, successful games and are a perfect 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.”

Yamada will help lead Zynga Japan’s mobile efforts.