Samsung handsets to be preloaded with DeNA's Mobage

Japanese mobile giant DeNA, new owner of ngmoco, has brokered a deal to have its upcoming Mobage social gaming service pre-installed on Samsung's Android handsets.

The service is a Western-focused smartphone adaptation of Japan's Mobage Town, a social platform for feature phones which boasts over 20 million registered users.

"We are pleased to collaborate with ngmoco," said Kwanghyun Kwon, senior vice president of Media Solutions Center, Samsung Electronics. "As social gaming features rise in popularity and importance for mobile experiences, Samsung will continuously invest to provide the best experience to our consumers."

Mobage will arrive on Samsung phones "in most of the world" within the next few months. It provides access to several games, as well as a friends network and purchasing options.

The Samsung arrangement is part of DeNA and ngmoco's larger plans to establish Mobage as a cross-platform service, spanning Android and iOS - and likely more mobile hardware in time. The service at large is due for launch next April.

Powering it will be the newly-announced ngCore, a software layer intended to help create games which play on both platforms (as well as the web).

Said ngmoco boss Neil Young, "With ngCore, we are providing a technology framework that allows for the rapid development, deployment and iteration of optimized native quality applications that can be deployed globally, across platforms, and across devices."

DeNA and ngmoco have also invited 50 development partners to a closed beta of their Open Mobage Smartphone SDK, including Square Enix, Take-Two Interactive, Nexon, RockYou and PlayFirst.