And the rich cry too. The Japanese giant GREE is winding down its activities in the UK. Now toys for the Western market will be made only in the USA.
According to an official statement by Lynn Daniel, director of business development at the British branch of GREE, the closure of the office is due to the difficult economic climate and ongoing changes within the industry. Now, according to her, the company will create games for the Western market in the USA.
Will GREE still have money for girls next year?By the difficult economic climate, Linna most likely meant high office maintenance costs.
In the UK they are higher than in the USA. But the Japanese could not have been unaware of this a year ago when they opened the European division. The real reason for the cuts is different.
Our colleagues at Techcrunch believe that it’s all about the company’s too rapid growth. In 2012, the company’s revenue doubled compared to 2011. Counting on the fact that 2013 will become even more financially successful, GREE decided to expand. She increased the number of offices, employees, announced expansion in the United States.
The problem is that this did not lead to an increase in profits. GREE has not released any new successful games. As a result, six months after the announcement of the “course to capture” the American market, GREE shares fell by 46%.
Moreover, the company still does not have any of its projects in the American box office chart in the first 25 positions. The only exception is Funzio studio projects. So there is nothing surprising in GREE’s desire to cut costs by closing the British office, the Chinese office (the company closed it in June), and at the same time 20 social projects.