Casual games company Kabam has set up a $50 million fund to help Japanese developers build games for the North American and European markets, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The San Francisco-based company said the fund will help developers in exchange for a share of game revenue, which will be at least 30 per cent according to the WSJ.

In addition to funding, Kabam will help developers by localising and translating content for a western audience and providing marketing and tracking analytics to improve game performance.

Contrastingly, Japanese games companies GREE and DeNA are working to expand their presence in Europe and North America by working with third-party developers.

DeNA has signed up various developers to distribute content on its Mobage platform while Gree recently established its $10 million Partner Fund which will make equity investments of $1 million or more, and is currently considering applications from developers from North and South America.