Both companies have re-organised internally and committed fresh resources to the continent, each believing they can achieve a five per cent share of a market that’s dominated by Glu Mobile, Gameloft, EA Mobile and THQ Wireless.

The Japanese firms concede their European market shares are negligible at present, but with uncertainty surrounding the likes of Vivendi Games Mobile, opportunities certainly exist to grab some ground.

Capcom has unified its European and North American mobile operations into one management team, with a single consumer-facing brand: Capcom Mobile.

Midori Yuasa, president of Capcom Interactive, will lead the team. She is confident that success will come in Europe as it has in the US.

She told ME: “We held back from re-entering the US until 2006 and we were 62nd in the market then. Now we’re around fifth or sixth. We’ve achieved this by doing the basics right – balanced portfolio, good relationships with operators, good distribution. I’m sure we can do the same in Europe.”

Namco Mobile is in the middle of a similar transformation, and is set to double its Euro workforce from 25 to 50.

The company’s newly-appointed European president Barry O’Neill said: “To date we haven’t been configured for Europe. Now we’re going to be more proactive in marketing, make sure our handset coverage is at least 85 per cent and work closely with all partners, whether they’re operators, handset companies or D2Cs.”

The moves confirm Capcom and Namco as the only major Japanese games publishers with autonomous mobile operations in Europe; Sega and Konami licence their product to Glu, while Taito goes with EA. Nintendo, of course, has yet to do any mobile business at all beyond a few Mario wallpapers in Japan.

Although Capcom and Namco will continue to exploit their arcade heritage via franchises such as Pac-man, Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Coach (both Namco), Resident Evil and Street Fighter (both Capcom), they are mindful of a need for local IP.

Namco clinched the rights to X-Factor last month. Meanwhile, Yuasa says 50 per cent of Capcom’s US sales come from titles such as Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

Namco and Capcom aren't the only ones eyeing Europe - India's Jump games is also ramping operations.