Gamevil to invest $10M in U.S. game developers

South Korean mobile-game publisher Gamevil, aiming to break into the U.S. market, announced Wednesday it will invest $10 million into partnerships with external game developers in America.

The goal is to line up high-quality smartphone game titles that Gamevil can publish. The decision to create the fund shows that the company believes it will have more success if it can attack the big American smartphone game market using local game developers who know the market best. And it shows that the battle for market share in smartphone gaming has become a global one.

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Gamevil, which has its U.S. headquarters in Los Angeles, recently acquired exclusive publishing and partial intellectual-property rights for the Cartoon Wars series as part of this initiative. The rights include titles such as Cartoon Wars, Cartoon Wars Gunner and Cartoon Wars 2, all of which have garnered a significant global fan base.

Since the end of last year, Gamevil has hooked up with 10 external game developers in the U.S. It has published titles such as Air Penguin, Chalk n’ Talk, Colosseum, Kami Metro, TouchMix and Train City. Air Penguin hit the No. 1 spot on Apple’s App Store during its peak.

Gamevil said it is revamping its social game platform, Gamevil Live, and will publish titles for it to generate more user downloads for those games.

“As the market expands with smartphones at its center, partnering with promising and exceptional external developers has become more important,” said Yong Kuk Lee, chief financial officer of Gamevil. “By working together with these creative developers and combining Gamevil’s understanding of the global smartphone game market, we will carve out success and growth for everyone involved.”