In a move which indicates that Japan-based mobile social game bigwig Gree is persisting with its ongoing attempts towards international expansion, the company disclosed in a Monday announcement that it has acquired San Francisco, US-based game developer App Ant Studios.

According to a press release about App Ant Studios acquisition, the financial terms of which remained undisclosed, Gree said that the purchase of the US game developer will help it attain its objective of touching the `1 billion users' mark worldwide.

Moreover, with App Ant Studios specializing in the creation of smartphone games with a broad appeal, Gree said that the acquisition will pave the way for the App Ant Studios experience to be a quality addition to its development of games; more so as the two companies have earlier worked together to create the `Dino Life' Android game.

About Gree's post-acquisition plans for App Ant Studios, the Japanese company said that the present employees of the US game developer will join the Gree office in San Francisco. The employees joining Gree will include the four App Ant Studios co-founders who will lead the game development and engineering teams.

Noting that App Ant Studios' team has often impressed Gree with the "quality of its engineering, art, and overall product," Gree International's CEO Naoki Aoyagi said: "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."