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欧美手机游戏如何赢得中日韩市场?

发布时间:2013-08-05 15:40:13 Tags:,,,

作者:Matthew Diener

DeNA的Junichi Akagawa、NHK的James Yoo、Crowdstar的Randy Lee和SponsorPay的Ben Chen都出席了旧金山的Casual Connect小组座谈会,并回答了如下问题:你的游戏如何在中国、日本和韩国取得成功?

简单地说,答案就是,不要把亚洲市场当成一个统一的大市场,而要把它看作中国、日本和韩国市场。特别是日本和韩国,可以当成是社交SMS服务的市场。

具体地说,Chen指出“在游戏收益排行榜上,Kakao是韩国榜的冠军,而LINE是日本榜的老大。”

Casual Connect--logo(from ap.ign.com)

Casual Connect–logo(from ap.ign.com)

越短越好

那是因为在日本和韩国的市场上,一次游戏持续时间一般是比较短的——早上通勤的1-2分钟。而欧美玩家一般是开车上下班,所以通常在休息时间玩游戏,玩的时间也更长。

Yoo继续解释道:“为了进军东方市场,你应该保持游戏持续时间短。”另外,超级休闲市场是当下趋势,且游戏的最长生命周期通常是“三个月,之后就会从排行榜上消失。”

因此,如果你想让你的产品在日本和韩国的排行榜上呆久一些,你必须每三个月推出一款新游戏,并且确保一游戏持续时间短。

单手操作

四位座谈小组成员都同意的另一个要点是:如果你的游戏要成功,就必须是可以单手操作的。

在市场研究环节,他们指出,欧美玩家习惯于双手使用全景模式下的智能手机,而亚洲玩家倾向于在纵向模式下用单手操作。

这意味着游戏应该更加简单。从韩国的游戏收益排行榜上也可以发现,上榜的游戏均允许单手操作。

但是,简单的游戏并不意味着简单的表现法。四位成员都赞同亚洲玩家习惯了屏幕上充斥着信息和广告——部分归功于这些地区的眼花缭乱的布局,如东京的涩谷。

换句话说,UI可以复杂一点,可以有广告,不必担心流量或干扰。

本土化和可怕的CPI(每安装成本)

Akagawa强调,在日本,本土游戏如大量卡牌战斗游戏(如《Rage of Bahamut》)仍然是主导。而Yoo则指出,集换式卡牌游戏(TCG)在韩国越来越流行。

TCG补充道:“TCG是刚兴起的,但发展非常快。TCG是最适合做成手机游戏的一种游戏。”

然而尽管如此,Supercell的《Clash of Clans》和King的《Candy Crush Saga》在日本的表现都很不错,部分是因为不需要本土化。

对于那些想在亚洲发行游戏又想保持低成本的开发者来说,这也许是个令人振奋的消息,但为了成功,你仍然需要大量资金。

“你必须舍得投资——打入市场不是一蹴而就的事。”

因为相对高的每安装成本,这个要求并不令人惊讶。

在美国,每安装成本大约是1.23美元,但在日本,这个数把大约是10-15美元。

Lee对高昂的成本只是轻描淡写,因为这些昂贵的玩家会长期在游戏中花钱,而且出手大方。据Chen的估计,亚洲玩家的终身价值是美国玩家的5倍。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Casual Connect 2013: Steps to mobile success in China, Japan, and Korea

by Matthew Diener

DeNA’s Junichi Akagawa, NHN’s James Yoo, Crowdstar’s Randy Lee and SponsorPay’s Ben Chen all came together on a panel at Casual Connect SF to answer a nuanced question: How can you be successful in China, Japan, and South Korea?

The answer, in short, was don’t look at Asia as one monolithic market, but look at it as China, Japan, and Korea – and in the case of Japan and Korea, that means looking at social SMS services.

Speaking on that specifically, Chen noted that “What I see in the top grossing charts in Korea and Japan, the Korean charts are dominated by Kakao and the Japanese charts are dominated by LINE.”

Shorter is better

That’s because the average gaming sessions are in Japan and Korea are relatively short – 1 to 2 minutes spent on a morning commute – whereas westerners are more inclined to drive and invest in longer play sessions while on breaks.

Yoo picked up on this point, “To break out in the east, you’ll want to keep the play sessions short.” and also noted that the super-casual markets are trendy, and that the maximum lifespan a game has on these channels is “three months, after that it will disappear from the charts.”

Thus, if you want to stay on the charts in Japan and Korea, you’ll need to create a new game every three months – and be sure to keep the play sessions short.

One hand mojo

Another final takeaway from the session was espoused by all four panelists – if you want to see your game succeed, it needs to be playable with one hand.

During market research sessions, the panelists noted that western players would grab a smartphones in landscape mode with both hands while eastern gamers are more inclined to grab it in portrait mode and play with one hand.

This means that games should be more simple as a result, and a quick look at the top-grossing games in Korea shows that they’re all one-handed games.

Still, a simple games doesn’t mean a simple presentation. The four panelists all agreed that Asian players are used to being flooded with information and ads – thanks in part to the frantic ad placement in areas like Tokyo’s Shibuya ward.

In other words, the UI can be a bit more complex and there can be ads placed with less attention paid to flow or distraction.

Localisation and the scary CPI?

Akagawa remarked that in Japan, local titles still dominate and that there are a lot of card battle games like Rage of Bahamut, and Yoo noted that in Korea, TCGs are “getting really big.

“It’s new, but it’s growing fast – TCG are some of the best games to put on mobile,” said Yoo.

Yet in spite of this, Supercell’s Clash of Clans and King’s Candy Crush Saga are both seeing good penetration in Japan, in part because there’s no need to for a localisation.

This is, perhaps, encouraging news to those looking to keep their costs down when releasing in Asia, but you’ll still need a strong warchest if you hope to succeed.

“You have to make an investment – this is not a short-term plan to get into the market,” added Chen.

“Get in there, commit, and learn to capture the local flavour, culture, and tastes. You’ve got to be really selective and understand what the consumer does and what the connectivity and bandwith levels are.

“You need to understand the local market and see who the established players are.”

Part of this approach entails not being surprised by the relatively steep cost per install.

In the United States, the CPI is roughly $1.23, but in Japan the figure is closer to $10 – $15.

Lee downplayed the steep cost, noting that these more expensive users are a long-term investment and monetize well, while Chen estimated that their spending value is “five times what a US player’s LTV is.”(source:pocketgamer)


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