GamesBeat: Do you think some things about China just make it a very different game? If pay to win is more popular here than it is in the west, that seems to make it a completely different proposition.
Chou: Part of localizing games for China is understanding the aspirations of a Chinese consumer. It’s a bit different from the west, where there’s a much stronger concept of fairness and equality. There’s a different sense of what fairness is. In China there’s more of a sense of, “Oh, I get it. That guy paid $10,000. He’s going to be more successful than me and that’s okay.” There’s much less backlash against that.
Above: Characters in Marvel: Contest of Champions
GamesBeat: Almost more respect for that person’s status?
Chou: Or if not respect, at least acceptance. That’s just the way things are. I don’t want to attempt to explain cultural differences beyond the surface level, but definitely, in the Chinese versions of our game — the way you create a game that allows for more separation between payers and non-payers, we’re definitely pushing that further in China.
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The way you push that further is you create even more things for people to aspire to and chase and collect. They become harder and harder to get, in a grindier way. We think about that from a product design perspective when localizing for the Chinese market.
If you take, for example, the VIP system I talked about — that’s standard practice here in China. The VIP systems here in China are incredibly nuanced. Not only are there VIP systems designed into the product, but the customer support has dedicated VIP support. A customer support agent in China will have 10 or 20 VIPs that they’re dedicated to. We have less of that concept in the United States.
One aspect of a VIP system that we think will work for the western market, though, is that it’s really a way to unlock content. We love the ability to add different tiers. One of the challenges for free-to-play companies is that when someone pays a lot of money, that usually means they’re chewing through a lot of content much faster than a non-payer. A VIP system allows you to put in dedicated content for people who do that. They unlock different content in a different way. We think that can work in the west.
Above: Marvel: Contest of Champions
GamesBeat: With the Longtu partnership, is there some expertise you get there, or is it more about distribution, reaching more Chinese gamers?
Chou: It’s definitely about expertise. In the western markets, our top three marketing channels are Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. All three of those products are blocked in China. Our marketing channels are just different. Even if you were to take the Chinese versions of those products — Baidu, Renren, Weibo, all these others – they don’t have the same marketing products, the same type of targeting and media creatives.
The way you do marketing in China is much less digital. You can do some digital going through Chinese companies, but there’s a much greater concept of integrated marketing for product launches. In tier one cities, which are incredibly dense, there’s a lot more outdoor marketing, more television, more public transit marketing for example. That just doesn’t happen in the U.S. and Europe, because cities are less dense.
The expertise we’ve developed in the western markets around digital marketing is less applicable here in China, so Longtu is a great partner for us. They understand the different cities and ways to reach consumers in a unique way.
GamesBeat: How much concern does that leave you with? If you have too many partners, you have to share too much of your revenue.
Chou: We think, right now, about growing the pie as big as possible. The economics of a top 10 game are so vast compared to even a top 25 game, and certainly a top 100 game, that it’s much better to be top 10 or top 5 and top 3 and share some of the economics than it is to be top 100 and keep it all for yourself.
Above: The Hobbit