Tokyo-based free-to-play gaming giant Nexon announced today it has acquired Japanese mobile-social game developer Gloops for 36.5 billion yen $469 million in cash.

Gloops was founded in 2005 and launched its first title on DeNA’s social gaming platform Mobage in early 2010. At the 2012 Tokyo Game Show, Gloops announced it would continue to work with DeNA, announcing a partnership that will see it deliver five titles in 2012 and an additional five in 2013 to the Mobage platform. Unlike Gloops previous games for the company, these titles will be targeted for the North American and European markets. The news wasn’t Gloops first foray into international waters though — the company slyly set up its U.S. office back in March.

Japanese social games expert Dr. Serkan Toto weighed in on why Nexon pursued Gloops, pointing out that Gloops has the knowledge on how to make social games that work in Japan — expertise Nexon, which was a South Korean company until its IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, would like to learn.

According to additional financial information revealed by Nexon, Gloops generated 23.7 billion yen ($303.8 million) in sales and earned 5.8 billion yen ($74.3 million) of operating income for the 12 month period ending June 30, 2012.

Tokyo-based Gloops is responsible for titles like social card battle game Japan Pro Baseball Card Battle to core titles like Warriors of Odin and Three Kingdoms Guild Battles.