As we reported earlier today, GungHo Online Entertainment (Puzzle & Dragons) parent company Softbank has acquired a majority stake in Finnish mobile developer Supercell. Gamasutra reached out to Supercell to learn a bit more about the nature of the partnership, including Supercell's expansion vectors in East Asia. "We just recently launched Clash of Clans on Android," explained Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen. "Japan's [mobile] market is bigger on the Android side. [South] Korea is almost entirely an Android market. So is China. So we are very excited to have GungHo's support in reaching those markets." Paananen said that Softbank and GungHo's combined $1.5 billion investment in Supercell -- representing a controlling interest in the company -- would not affect Supercell's operations or the projects in its pipeline. The partnership, he said, was geared toward "building a sustainable model" on a "truly global" scale for free-to-play mobile games. "People don't play World of Warcraft or League of Legends for weeks and then quit. They play for years," said Paanamen. "We want [that staying power] for our games."
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