Game On

Akatsuki is using the success of its Dragon Ball Z game to become more diversified.

- James Simms

Tokyo-based games maker Akatsuki has the global popularity of its Dragon Ball Z mobile game, codeveloped with Bandai Namco, to thank for about three quarters of the company’s 28 billion yen ($254 million) in annual revenues. The game, based on a popular Japanese anime cartoon and manga comic book, has been a global hit—with some 250 million downloads since its 2015 release. The success of the game also helped Akatsuki to list, in March 2016, on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Akatsuki cofounder and CEO Genki Shiota started the company in June 2010 with a $25,000 loan from a friend. His first game was Bringing Up My Girl, which he soon sold through Japanese gaming giants GREE and Mobage, DeNa’s social network game portal. Since then, Akatsuki racked up more game hits, and some duds, as it expanded titles, Shiota says.

Shiota and his cofounder, Tetsuro Koda, now the company’s chief operating officer, met during an internship, became friends and eventually created Akatsuki, which means dawn in Japanese. While both held corporate jobs after their internship—Shiota at DeNa and Koda at consultancy Accenture— they quit less than two-and-a-half years after joining. Shiota wanted to be an entrepreneur, while Koda found his work wasn’t challenging enough.

“I remember running into Koda after not seeing him for a while, and he looked like he had lost his motivation, seemed bored, and was wondering what to do about his job,” Shiota says. “So, I asked him to join me, figuring he’d join if I asked.”