Italian game publisher Digital Bros opens subsidiary in China

If you want to make games for the biggest markets on Earth, you can no longer ignore China.

Digital Bros, an Italian game publisher and developer, has opened up a subsidiary in Shenzhen. This new office will focus on mobile games in China. The company announced its expansion plans today and made it clear that this is just the first step in its efforts to make games for the “main emerging markets” around the world. Digital Bros plans to immediately put this new wing of its company into action making products that directly appeal to Chinese gamers. Digital Bros, which owns Abzu publisher 505 Games, already has a significant global presence on mobile, on consoles, and at retail in many markets in the West. But now it wants to take that experience and apply it to the gaming markets of the future.

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And China is definitely one of those important regions. Gaming in that country generated $18.5 billion last year, and it will likely do much more than that in 2015 — and it’s a market that is tough to tackle from the outside. But with China on a path to overtake the United States as the largest region in terms of game spending by 2016, it’s one that many companies — including Digital Bros — see as worth investing in.

In a statement, Digital Bros chief executive officer Raphael Galante said that China represents an opportunity for Digital Bros to sustain and grow its business globally. A Chinese presence will help the company reach more gamers.

But it’s not just about reaching Chinese players. Sure, Galante said he wants to bring the games his company is already making in Europe to China. The company’s new office will localize those products and launch them on iOS and Android in the Asian country. But, at the same time, Digital Bros will take what it learns from executing in China to improve its distribution and game making everywhere else.