How can Western game makers successfully enter the Chinese market

It's hard to bring mobile games to China, but it might be worth it.

2014 China's mobile gaming market is 4.4 billion U.S. dollars, is an integral part of the 18.5 billion dollar game market, Western game developers naturally want to share a piece. But it is not easy to make the game in China, effective localization is more effective than just translating text, and game developers and publishers have to deal with a very fragmented Android market, which is divided into more than 200 different stores.

Visiting this month at the casual Connect Europe Games Conference, I was surprised to find that more and more booths are dedicated to distributing games in China and other Asian countries. With some companies, they think the Chinese market has great potential but requires a very different way of doing things to be successful.

Hand Tour new player

China's computer game market is huge, mainly in the center of Internet cafes. But for a lot of people, the first game experience is on a smartphone.

The new approach to the game, accompanied by commuting in the city, has led to a very different Chinese player from the west.

"Localization is the key," said Johnny Lo, financial executive at Septini, a Japanese internet advertising company, "Not only is the text localized, but culture is also localized." Image, the entire game system needs to be adjusted. ”

Digital distribution company ironsource--recently completed a round of $85 million trillion in funding--Omri Halamish, the executive, said. The company opened an office in Beijing 6 months ago. Although its business is more to help Chinese developers enter the west, Halamish helps explain the importance of localization in the Chinese market.

"When I tell them that they need to localize the game, they think, ' OK, I need to translate it. ' ' Not at all. ”

"Sometimes you need to rewrite the story. You need to make the storyline shorter. It takes more initiative and more momentum to buy and profit within applications. ”

He says bad game localization is like watching Bruce Lee movies with subtitles.

Decentralized markets

Even if you have a game for the Chinese market, distribution is also very difficult. Apple's iOS market is better, but the market is like a minefield because of the lack of a unified store for the dominant Android device, which accounts for 78.5% of China's mobile phone market.

Skymobi is a company that helps Western developers distribute games in China. It has launched 6 games in the domestic Android market, including "Pele: King of Football" and "beach cross-country cars", and two are being localized.

"You need to deal with dozens of different channels in China," says William Heathershaw, the company's international marketing director. "A Distributor has limited resources, so you need to focus on the top 50 channels that will give you access to almost the entire market." ”

Each channel requires a unique version of the game. "It's not as simple as in the West, you need to create a version for each of the different app stores." Some big app stores may require you to make minor adjustments to the game. This will take a lot of time for the release. ”

Skymobi Company directly from the developers to obtain the source code and deal with everything, including the completion of payment.

"Because we are a Nasdaq-listed company, we have the ability to pay developers faster than other local distributors in China," he said. Some developers have to wait for a possible 3-month period. ”

"We made the beach cross-country car," Heathershaw said, "The first month, there are millions of downloads in China." A game can be in a market for the overall download volume of such a large proportion is very considerable. ”

In Western countries, game developers have allocated 30% of their revenue to the platform holders-Apple and Google. In China, things get complicated because payments are usually done by a third party.

So eventually you're going to give 30% of your income to the platform and the other 30% to the payment provider. The remaining 40% you need to be divided with the distributor.

Mobile consumption

Chinese gamers are willing to spend money. A recent study by Niko company revealed that 38% of Chinese players spend money on mobile games. Given the relatively high proportion of wages in the West, mobile gaming is a good, affordable entertainment resource in China.

"There is not a lot of entertainment in China, especially in the four-line city where workers may earn 2000 yuan in one months," he said. "Heathershaw said.

Movie fares are still a little expensive, bar consumption is also more expensive than wages. "Instead you can play a mobile game where the app purchase may only be a few dollars or more than 10 dollars." This is one of the cheaper forms of entertainment for the Chinese. ”

China is the world's fastest-growing economy, and smartphone use is growing fast – at a rate of about 47% per cent, but not in areas where advertising is good.

"The value of traffic in China is not as good as in the West, so advertisers are unwilling to spend as much money on traffic as they do in the west." You have to make up for income elsewhere, and fortunately the Chinese are willing to spend money on the game. "Heathershaw said.

Mobile Information Analysis research company App Annie's Asia-Pacific vice president, Junde Yu, believes that a 438 million-user micro-letter will have a huge impact on how people spend their games.

"Micro-letters began to promote casual games, so people are getting used to playing games, even if they are not players." Because the micro-credit game is easy to play, it is easy to learn, so after a while users began to become fascinated and began to pay. These people never spend money on mobile content before, but once they start spending money for the first time they spend more. ”

Local cooperation

"If you want to make a Western mobile game in China, you need to do it with the locals," he said. It's hard, but it's the only way to succeed. "Halamish, an executive at the digital distribution company Ironsource, said.

Publishing a game follows the same rule-if you want to be truly successful, find a local partner.

"Once you and the right collaborators develop the right game, making money is easy." ”

Heathershaw cited examples of success. "If you look at successful games like Metro parkour, Angry Birds and fruit ninjas, they all have local collaborators," he said.

He has made the Skymobi company more successful in China, but admits he has a high success rate for the games he picks. "I like to talk to developers, many of whom are passionate about their games, but unfortunately it doesn't always fit the Chinese market." ”

He insists that China is an interesting market for every gaming company, and that "every company is interested in the Chinese market, which makes sense, but it needs to be in the right way."

Accidental success

A game that has not been designed for Chinese users does not mean it will not succeed in China. There are also some examples of accidental success.

Australian developer Antonio Alberto Santiago's multiplayer iOS game "Goat jumps" has been successful in China without any localized localization.

This is a free game to buy for your goat and you can spend money on cosmetics and weapons for your goats. Santiago says most of its sales come from China.

Although the game has only about 20,000 active users in the country, it does not bring huge revenue, but it shows that you can achieve little in China without marketing and localization.

So what is the key to the unexpected popularity of the game? "A Chinese girl says the game is cute and it's style." "Santiago said. He was inspired by the game to start making 3D print goat toys. If he wants more success, maybe his game brand will be louder in China.