This sponsored post is produced in association with NetEase.
If you’re looking to market game products worldwide, it’s important for you to consider where you’ll be selling them and concentrate on localizing to the most lucrative territories. For some time, the United States, Japan, and some European countries have been hotbeds for gaming consumption. An April study conducted by global market analyst firm Newzoo estimates that worldwide revenues for games and game products will exceed $99.6 billion in 2016 (an increase from 2015’s $91.8 billion), and that the U.S. will account for 24 percent of that, with revenues of $23.5 billion, up 4.4 percent from 2015.
However, it may surprise many that this number will only make the United States the second biggest country for game buying.
China is forecast to become the largest games market in 2016, on estimated revenues of $24.4 billion, up from $21.2 billion in 2015. Newzoo also predicts that China will remain the largest market through at least 2019, when it’s projected to see its gaming revenues grow to $28.9 billion.
In fact, China has become a game-consumer powerhouse in other segments of the market as well. In a study of mobile-game revenues, a February report by Asia-market analyst Niko Partners revealed that China surpassed the U.S. in 2015 on revenues of $5.5 billion — not including $1.3 billion in export revenue – and projects that China’s mobile-game market will grow to $11.1 billion by 2019. The country’s mobile growth is prompting Google to revisit its business there, and it’s expected to relaunch its offerings in China soon, beginning plans for a country-specific version of its Google Play store sometime this year. (Google pulled out of China in 2010 after it decided to stop censoring its own search results in the country, instead redirecting users to the Google Hong Kong site.)
If you’re looking to put your game products into the Chinese market, there are some differences you should understand that will require you to alter your strategy from how you sell your products in Western markets:
1. Know your best platform options
Game consoles were banned in China until 2014, but even since the ban was lifted, consoles haven’t become as popular consumer items for gaming as PC and mobile. As you’d expect, mobile is growing heavily, while PC, which is still seeing growth, is doing so at a much flatter rate.
2. Differences in promoting via social networks
If you’re used to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, among others, you need to make other plans, because many of those Western networks aren’t available in China. There, you need to learn about the local/accepted networks, such as WeChat, Sina Weibo, QQ, and others.
3. Players like different game and character styles
In addition to localizing your on-screen text, you’ll probably want to consider other changes that may help your game’s popularity. For example, while Western gamers like more realistic characters, Chinese gamers are more drawn to cuter, Asian-style characters.
4. Give players adequate training
Chinese players may not as intuitively take to your gameplay, unless it’s a variation of a standard genre (such as match-3), so be prepared to provide detailed instructions as well as an adequate tutorial mode to lead the player into more comfortable use of your game.
5. Consider partnering up
While it’ll likely cut into your profit, teaming up with one of the existing companies in the Chinese market will help you get your product into the many available channels (there are dozens of app stores as well as numerous ways to get a mobile game directly onto a user’s device) and do it all more efficiently. Your partner will save you a lot of trial-and-error time-wasting. There are many companies that would be very helpful in the Chinese market. NetEase, one of the largest internet and online games companies in China, for instance, had revenues of $3.5 billion in 2015 — and the company’s total net revenues in first quarter of this year grew 116.3 percent to $1.2 billion compared with first quarter of 2015 — so it knows how to sell products in China. It’s also been the exclusive partner to Blizzard Entertainment bringing World of Warcraft, Diablo III, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and other popular Blizzard games to Chinese players since 2008.
Competition is growing in China, but the country’s game market is such a large financial pie, it should give game publishers a lot of opportunity to do well in the region. If you’re smart about it, you’ll improve your chances for success and maximize your revenues.
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