Nanjing-based mobile games maker Bbmf is pursuing talks with several potential new partners in Japan to bring in US$10 million of fresh capital for its expansion plans.
Bbmf chief executive and co-founder Han Lian said the firm was in a rush to team up with various Japanese firms that owned large numbers of game titles and characters which Bbmf could license.
This strategy followed the company's recent partnership with games developer Atlus, a subsidiary of Japanese toymaker Takara. Atlus invested US$1.1 million to take a 2.4 stake in the Nasdaq over-the-counter-listed Bbmf.
That also led Bbmf to embark on a plan to form a Tokyo affiliate that would create and sell games in Japan.
Mr Lian said: 'Japan is the king of games and king of animation characters. By combining our 100 game engines with famous characters, we can make multiple mobile games out of a popular game title or character.'
The demand for mobile games was expected to be fuelled by the rapid adoption of advanced handsets designed to run games built on the Brew (binary runtime environment for wireless) or Sun Microsystems' Java software platforms. The roll-out of more high-speed, internet-ready, third-generation cellular services next year would also encourage more advanced mobile phone games.
Mr Lian was optimistic of closing the deals with Bbmf's new Japanese partners before the end of this year, which could provide a much-needed boost to the loss-making company.