Disney My Store: Gree gets a Disney-branded game before Playdom?

Technically, yes: Japanese social gamers now have a game that features Disney's iconic characters before the Western world. According to Serkan Toto, Gree has announced Disney My Store, a mobile social game for feature phones that will allow players to create shops complete with Disney products like Mickey Mouse plush dolls and Lightning McQueen toy cars.

Earlier this year, Walt Disney Japan worked with DeNAto release Disney My Land on the Mobage mobile social game network, but now it's Gree's turn. Alright, so the game doesn't feature the characters in the flesh, so to speak, but it is a game centered around said characters. That's more than we can say for Disney in the U.S. and abroad when it comes to social games.

Disney My Store allows players to sell their Disney-themed goods to their friends, dress up avatars just like their favorite Disney characters and work in their friends' stores. Of course, players will get to send each other gifts and trade items to sell in their respective stores--of which 300 will be available at launch.

Serkan Toto reports that the game will also be used to advertise real-life Disney Store items, and that Walt Disney Japan will use the game to spread word of new Disney movies that hit theaters. In the U.S. and abroad, however, Disney Interactive has dragged its feet in bringing its insanely lucrative characters to social games. But since the company slapped its name on Playdom's recent Gnome Town to positive results, Disney Interactive announced that a number of Disney-branded games will hit Western social networks in the next year. Well, it's 'bout time.

Why do you think Disney waited so long to bring its brand into Western social games? What Disney character do you hope gets a Facebook game first?