iphone showing an app based gameiphone showing an app based game

App Development in Japan, A Love Story

Jason BallByJason Ball

The first in a series of articles by Marc Cellucci covering smartphone app development in Japan, from the very beginning up until today. Highlights of this article include:

  • An exploration of what causes someone to start a company in a brand new, emerging field.
  • The state of Japanese mobile phones before the iPhone.
  • How the iPhone had the odds stacked against it in Japan.

Read the full article on LinkedIn, and be sure to check back for the his updates as well.

Marc Cellucci is a veteran of the video game and app development industries on both sides of the Pacific. He started at SEGA in 1999, where he worked on the Dreamcast Network, Sega.com, and SegaNet. After moving to Japan and gaining fluency in the language, he joined Koei in Japan as a Marketing Manager, and then returned to SEGA as a producer in the AM3 arcade division.

In 2008, he left SEGA and founded Mission One (mission-one.jp), a Tokyo-based dev house that focuses on two main business areas: software development (mainly focusing on smartphone app development) and the localization of Japanese entertainment content.