DeNA Co., Ltd. today announced the company has established DeNA Studios Canada Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary in Vancouver, in an effort to optimize DeNA Group’s cross-border capability in developing and operating first-party mobile social games. The new office opens its doors later this month.

DeNA Studios Canada will be headed by Gameview’s current CEO Irfan Virk and primarily support Gameview Studios, LLC, a DeNA subsidiary located in Mountain View, California. DeNA Studios Canada’s long-term plan will also include design, development and operation support for other DeNA Group companies. DeNA will raise 600,000 Canadian dollars, or approximately 602,000 U.S. dollars, for DeNA Studios Canada’s initial capitalization.

Vancouver is a talent-rich territory for videogame development. The region hosts multiple game studios owned by major publishers and is home to universities that graduate highly skilled engineers and designers. Vancouver also shares a time zone with Silicon Valley, which makes cross-territory operations and communications highly efficient.

"We are excited to begin operations with the great talent in Vancouver," Virk commented. "DeNA anticipates the new studio will meaningfully contribute to augmenting the whole group’s game development and operating capabilities."

Gameview, which was acquired by DeNA in September 2010, is most known for Tap Fish, a popular aquarium simulation game with more than 20 million total downloads across iOS and Android. The Android version for Tap Fish currently holds the number one position in the U.S. Android Market’s top-grossing list. Gameview’s mobile social games are available on Mobage, operated by DeNA’s U.S. subsidiary ngmoco, LLC.