Gree acquires San Francisco developer App Ant

Mobile gaming giant Gree has acquired San Francisco-based developer App Ant Studios.

The US firm has previously worked with Gree to make Android title Dino Life.

All App Ant employees will now be integrated into the mobile gaming giant, with its four founders taking up leadership roles within the games development and engineering teams.

“The team at App Ant Studios has continually impressed us with the quality of itsengineering, art, and overall product," said Gree CEO Naoki Aoyagi.

They share the same strong passion GREE has for mobile social gaming and we genuinely respect their dedication to evolving the gaming industry.

“With our constantly growing and evolving mobile game market, having such exceptional talent on board to build great experiences for the latest hardware is a huge priority for us.”

The acquisition of App Ant Studios follows a busy year for the Japanese mobile games giant, which has also purchased a number of other studios including Paprika Labs and Funzio, the latter of which cost $210m.