Bringing a Chinese game to the West is no easy task.
That’s exactly what Chinese developer Youzu did when it brought its Facebook role-playing game, League of Angels, to a Western audience. However, taking this game out of China wasn’t as simple as translating text. The two territories have very different audiences.
“Chinese players enjoy intense competition,” Youzu chief operating officer Libiao Chen told GamesBeat. “They will pay more attention to the influence they have, as well as their status within the game, and they would therefore like to play games with lots of competitive gameplay. Western players prefer games with a more casual feel. They want to help other players, even if they are their ‘enemies,’ which is why they care more about social network functions and game plays. This is just an example; there are many ways in which Chinese and Western gamers differ. Because of these differences, we’ve made countless localization modifications on the overseas version of League of Angels, making it more enjoyable to players from countries all around the world.”
Youzu also deliberately picked Facebook as the platform, even in a time when it seems like most casual developers are moving to mobile.
Above: She’s not a natural purple, but don’t tell her I told you.
“Compared to other channels, we believe Facebook already possesses a wealth of operation experience, helping us to locate and target users more efficiently,” Chen told GamesBeat. “Facebook’s advantage in the social media sphere brings us rapidity in sharing, as well as reliable data on user behavior. Investing time and resources in social network gaming platforms is one of Youzu’s most important strategies.”
Youzu has actually partnered with Facebook to bring League of Angels to the West. The deal seems to be working. Facebook recently named League of Angels as one of the platform’s best games of 2014. It has 30,000 daily registered players.
“Since beginning this cooperation, Youzu and Facebook communicate about once or twice per week, making sure that any potential problems are solved in due time,” Chen told GamesBeat. “Facebook is also great about offering its help and give advice to Youzu, helping our team learn more about game markets overseas. Furthermore, our ads department and operation department work together to release new updates, making the game more suitable and appealing for gamers within a social network such as Facebook. These are some key factors as to why Youzu has achieved such great success with Facebook.”