作者：Joost van Dreunen

虽然手机游戏在西方市场的发展势头开始放缓，但是在东方市场却不断加速着。

随着越来越多资金流入东方市场，这里的互动环境也开始发生改变，即游戏制作者能够开始考虑之前所触及不到的一些市场。

而最近出现于人们计划列表中的一个市场便是印度。

为什么呢？首先印度手机游戏市场拥有巨大的发展空间，即如今智能手机在该国手机销售中的比例还不到一半。

现在大多数印度消费者仍在使用功能型手机，然而随着价格的下降，更多手机制造商开始寻求一些更大的新兴市场，并且他们中的很多人都开始致力于制造智能手机。

结果便是，到2018年年末，印度1.808亿手机玩家基础将翻两番。

当我们进一步着眼于印度市场时，我们可以清楚地看到这里缺少传统游戏发行市场。

superdata india table jan 15(from develop-online)

从这个国家的面积来看，在PC平台上数字游戏每年所创造的2950万美元（1980万英镑）以及在主机平台上所创造的2290万美元（1530万美元）的收益真的太少了。

在印度，那些使用MMO（创造了1.83亿美元/1.23亿英镑）和社交网络（创造了1.4亿美元/9400万英镑）等免费游戏方法的游戏类别都表现得不错。

而手机游戏则将印度带向一个游戏制作者所感兴趣的市场。

创造了4.16亿美元（2.79亿英镑）年收益的手机游戏已然成为印度最大的游戏市场。并且每年以超过64%的比例快速增长也推动着印度成为东方市场中发展速度最快的手机市场。

之前有人预测，在今后几年里印度手机游戏市场所创造的收益将翻三倍，并在2018年年末到达12亿美元（8亿英镑）。

果不其然，像《割绳子》的开发商ZeptoLab等知名游戏制作者都着眼于面向印度市场发行游戏。这也引出了一个问题：如何挤进印度游戏市场呢？对此的答案便是，遵循这里的ABCD原则：

占星学

在印度，人们的生活总是与星星联系在一起。不管是给孩子取名，制定业务决策还是在人们的日常生活中，占星学都扮演着非常重要的角色。

宝莱坞

这里每年所诞生的电影数是美国电影产业的四倍，宝莱坞就是印度文化产业的核心。宝莱坞电影结合了音乐和戏剧，并且更多地强调了家庭的价值，这也提醒着我们面向这个市场创造游戏必须强调文化的关联性。

板球

虽然体育在哪里都很火，但却没有人能比印度人更喜欢板球。巨大的印度市场使得板球电视转播权在印度拥有巨大的价值，所以手机游戏制作者需要意识到这一点。

忠诚

在印度，人们对于崇拜可谓表现得淋漓尽致。即贯穿各大媒体，忠诚在文学和舞蹈等领域扮演着非常重要的角色。

如果你能够将这4大原则带入自己的游戏中，你便能够有效吸引印度手机用户的注意。

但千万不要以为这里拥有快速的发展率你在此的游戏发行就会一帆风顺。随着手机游戏市场在印度的不断壮大，创造出能够提供更优秀的本土化内容且具有更大竞争力的游戏才是关键。

现在的游戏已经成为主流趋势并且更加全球化，而这同时也意味着这个产业需要更多面向不同用户的内容。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The ABCDs of India’s mobile market

By Joost van Dreunen

As growth for mobile games begins to slow in the west, it is accelerating in the east.

With the money that is flowing into the region, the landscape for interactive entertainment has started to change, allowing game makers to consider markets that were previously unsustainable or inaccessible.

One market that has recently appeared on people’s to-do lists is India.

Why? Well, for one, India’s mobile games market has ample room for growth, as smartphones still make up less than half of mobile phone shipments in the country.

Most consumers in India currently still use a feature phone but, as prices drop and handset manufacturers seek to cater to large new markets, many are about to upgrade to smartphones.

As a result, India’s 180.8 million mobile player base is on track to more than double by the end of 2018.

When looking at India in more detail (see the table below), it becomes immediately obvious that there is an absence of a large market for traditional game publishing.

Considering the size of the country, $29.5 million (￡19.8m) in annual revenues for digitally distributed games on PC and $22.9 million (￡15.3m) on console is tiny.

Categories that employ a free-to-play approach, like MMOs ($183m/￡123m) and social network-based games ($140m/￡94m), do considerably better in India.

But mobile gaming is transforming India into a market of interest for game makers.

With $416 million (￡279m) in annual revenues, mobile gaming is India’s largest games market. And the year-on-year increase of over 64 per cent makes India the fastest-growing mobile market in the region.

Early indicators suggest that India’s mobile games market will triple in the next few years, reaching $1.2 billion (￡0.8bn) by the end of 2018.

Not surprisingly, well-known game makers like Cut the Rope dev ZeptoLab are forging deals to start publishing in India. This leads us to the question: how to break into the Indian games market? The answer is to follow its ABCDs:

Astrology

Life in India quite literally takes place in alignment with the stars. Whether it comes to naming babies, making business decisions or the organisation of daily life, astrology plays an important part.

Bollywood

Producing roughly four times more movies per year than the US film industry, Bollywood is central to Indian culture. Its unique blend of music and drama, often with a focus on family values, reminds us of the need to make games that are culturally relevant.

Cricket

Sports are popular everywhere, but it is difficult to find a zeal that matches India’s love for cricket. The size of the Indian market has made cricket’s television rights invaluable, and its presence will be pervasive among mobile gaming titles.

Devotion

The practice of worship is very prominent in India. Across its media landscape, devotion has traditionally played a prominent role in literature and dance.

Combined, these four categories provide a powerful content mix with a strong appeal to India mobile gamer audiences.

But don’t let the marvelous growth rates sucker you into believing that it will be an easy ride. Rather, as the entire mobile games market descends onto India, having a competitive edge based on providing better-localised content will prove key.

Now that gaming is mainstream and global, that also means the industry will have to make content relevant to different audiences.

That means starting with your ABCDs.（source：develop-online)