Japanese mobile social games company DeNA said that its “Mobage West” business saw profitability in June 2013, noting “several hit titles from 1st, 2nd and 3rd parties”.

The company said it now plans to achieve a profitable quarter for this unit, while “aggressively investing in future growth”.

This includes the launch of “over 20 new app-based titles during this fiscal year”, including five with “traditional Japanese gameplay” and 15 with “Western gameplay”.

In its first quarter, FY2013 results, DeNA said that Mobage West grew its virtual currency consumption, reduced its user acquisition cost to user spend ratio, and had a “well-controlled operating cost structure”.

Spend on “MobaCoins” in its international operations during the three months was “approximately $80 million”. It said that this is “projected to grow in the upcoming quarters”.

The company’s Mobage Japan operation saw small growth in virtual currency spend year-on-year (and a 6 per cent drop quarter-on-quarter), although the proportion coming from smartphone owners (rather than feature phone users) continued to grow.

It said the quarterly stumble was “mostly attributed to no new hit first- and second-party titles launched during the quarter”.

In Japan, the majority of consumption came from browser-based titles. The company promised “roughly 60 new app- and browser-based titles during this fiscal year”, including a growing portion of apps (70 per cent of the new games), and products from third-party partners.

For Japan, MobaCoin consumption was JPY54.8 billion ($572 million), compared with JPY54.1 billion in the first quarter of FY2012.

And the company also said that Mobage Greater China is “approaching break-even operation”.

Isao Moriyasu, the company’s president and CEO, said: “I am excited to announce that we have implemented new strategic initiatives to launch a massive amount of first- and second-party games to secure the number one position in the expanding global social mobile gaming market.”