原文作者：James Batchelor 译者：Megan Shieh

Tappx首席市场官Ignasi Prat给那些准备在多个市场发行手游的开发商们提供了一些建议。

争取到的游戏市场越多，潜在用户基础就越大。然而，想要确保你的手游能够在本土之外的地区成为热门，这个过程可不简单。不是所有游戏都能那么牛逼，不论哪个地区只要上架APP Store就能引起轰动。

Ignasi Prat说：“在多个国家发行同款手游是一项艰巨的任务，而且开发商们将会面临一些需要再三考虑的重要决策。首先你要决定是在几个国家同时发行还是依次进行。这一决定将会让你陷入截然不同的道路，你可能会在用户获取、预算分配、沟通策略、管理失败或终止游戏开发的可能性方面遇到逻辑上的挑战。”

“选定目标国家是早期最重要的步骤之一，选定的国家越多，本地化的费用就会越昂贵。因此我建议使用更集中的方法，这个方法取决于很多因素。”

Prat建议：“查看该国同类手游的成熟程度，各类手游的普及率，设备类型，以及人口和玩家的行为。这些因素都将帮你找到潜在的目标受众，从而帮助建立未来的盈利策略。我个人喜欢研究信用卡的普及率，因为这些数据可能会在未来影响到游戏的盈利模式（例如IAP）。”

“你还需要找出该国与最初成功投放市场之间的文化障碍和差异，如果你的手游包含敏感内容，那就更应该重视这点——记录并分析竞争对手的成功与失败，或尝试与该地区的同类游戏公司取得联系（当然不是指你的直接竞争对手）以获得相关的反馈和建议。”

他继续说道：“市场情报和调研对游戏发行起着至关重要的作用，对当地文化的了解程度将会成为成功与否的关键因素。获得有效信息和情报的方法包括：问卷调查、焦点小组、市场报告和竞争分析，等等。”

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他还强调，以前在本土市场甚至其他地区获得的成功都不能保证同款手游会在新的地区成为热门。同理，你也不能在新的地区采用之前在其他市场使用过的策略。

他说：“每进入一个市场都代表着一个全新的项目，从设计、内容到用户体验和盈利模式，参与了游戏开发的所有团队都需要具备超高的协调能力。”

考虑国际发行时，最安全的试水方法就是在你的目标地区进行测试发行。Prat强调，这类测试发行的目的不仅仅是找出Bug和优化特性。

“搜集极具价值的用户反馈，这些反馈需要能够推动所有策略方面的迭代和优化，比如设计、内容、用户体验和盈利模式。它可以帮助你快速理解新国家的学习曲线，从而促进发行的成功。然后你需要定义并衡量与游戏相关的一切，以跟踪进展。”

“有一些看似简单但却极具杀伤力的错误，我认为开发人员应该注意避免。”

“最大、最常见的错误是：在市场调研的时候资源分配不足。开发商需要谋划有效并准确的产品路线图。这项调研应该从决策阶段就开始着手，也就是选择上市地区的时候。”

“另一个常见的错误是在游戏开发和构建的过程中进行调研。要想在谷歌上找到一个国家的市场数据很容易，有时候开发者们的调研工作就停在这了。在新区域进行真实玩家测试的时候他们经常会忘记收集定性数据，因此不得不充分利用每次收集反馈的机会。

“正如之前所提到的，开发商需要调研新地区独有的一些特质。一般情况下，调研的结果会需要你重新设计游戏中的一些元素。这不仅仅是为了避免冒犯你的潜在受众；如果能够适当地调整游戏中的元素来更好地与他们和他们的文化产生共鸣，游戏在该地区获得成功的可能性就会提高。”

“设计方面，开发商往往需要适应或修改游戏人物以及其他重要的图像资源，使其更适用于新地区的文化；在某些情况下可能会迫使创意团队重新设计许多游戏组件，例如：对话和配乐。有效的本地化通常需要花费大量的时间、金钱和资源，如果处理的方式不正确，那么游戏成功的可能性就会大大降低。”

“在新地区成功上架以后，不要失去获取新用户的动力，这点非常重要。虽然大部分的营销活动都是围绕着‘发行’而制定的，但也别忘了做一些发行后的规划来推广你的游戏。”

“另一个常见的问题是：开发者往往太注重留存率，而忽略了原始用户采集。”Prat解释道。“建立一个忠实和高质量的玩家基础是营销人员和运营部门最具挑战性的目标。”

他继续说道：“付费用户获取有时更值得关注，因为这是获得牵引力和市场份额的最快方式。你可以通过App Store优化技术来提高手游的人气，随着时间的推移你会看到显著的效果；也可以通过第三方公关公司的帮助在当地发布大量内容，从而提高游戏的知名度。无论选择的是哪个国家，你的营销预算必须保持流动状态，并且能够迅速适应多变的形势。”

最后，Prat向开发商们保证他们不需要独自踏上如此艰巨的旅程。在调研目标市场的过程中，他们可能会发现潜在的合作伙伴，这些人不仅能够帮助开发商更深入地了解当地文化，还能提供一些可以减轻开发商负担的服务。

“第一，你可以考虑雇佣一些了解当地文化的第三方公司，包括公关公司、游戏可用性专家和用户获取机构，他们可以在真正意义上为你的游戏增添价值。第二，参与相关的地区活动，游戏产业是一个蓬勃发展的社区，在全球范围内都有大量的活动。”

“此外，你还可以看看赞助商活动、相关的演讲或展会，考虑一些可以推动营销的另类创新服务。不要低估APP开发者社区的力量，也不要错过在游戏内外获得反馈的任何机会。”

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Mobile represents the biggest addressable audience for any developer – but only when you can bring your game to numerous territories. The fewer markets you’re available in, the smaller your potential userbase becomes.

However, ensuring your mobile title is a hit outside your home nation is much more complicated than ticking another region’s box on the App Store and hoping for the best. Ignasi Prat, CMO at monetisation expert Tappx, warns that developers need to be prepared for a lot of hard work and some important decisions that need to be made carefully.

“Launching mobile games across multiple markets can be a daunting challenge,” he says. “It’s important to first decide if you plan on launching simultaneously across several countries, or sequentially across different tier countries. This decision can lead you down wildly different paths where you may encounter logistical challenges in user acquisition, budget allocation, communication strategy, management failure, or the possibility of terminating a game’s development.”

Deciding which territories to launch in is perhaps the most crucial decision to make early on. Not every game fares well in any given nation simply by being available there, and the effort of localisation can make reaching as many countries as possible a costly affair. Instead, a more focused approach is advised, and one that depends on numerous factors.

“Look at the maturity of specific mobile games sectors, mobile game penetration by category, types of devices, demographics and gamer behaviours,” Prat advises. “All of this will inform you about potential target audiences, therefore helping to configure your future monetisation strategy. I personally like to research credit card penetration, as this data may affect your business model – the use of in-app purchases, for example.

“You also need to identify the cultural barriers and differences versus the original successful launch market – especially important if dealing with sensitive content. Document and analyse the successes and failures of your competitors, or try to get in touch with other companies in the sector – not direct competitors, of course – in order to obtain feedback and recommendations about what to avoid.”

He continues: “Market intelligence and research both play a crucial role for game launches. It’s critical to understand local idiosyncrasies which can separate the successes from the failures. Some techniques which can deliver actionable information and intelligence include surveys, focus groups, market reports and competitive analyses.”

He also warns companies that previous success in your home market, and even other nearby regions, is no guarantee of a hit in new markets. Equally, you can’t adopt the same strategy used in whichever territories you have already launched in.

“Each entry represents an almost entirely new project, requiring a high level of coordination with the different teams involved in a game’s development, from design and content to UX and monetisation,” he says.

The safest way to test the waters for a new international release is with a soft launch in your targeted area. And, Prat stresses, this should aim to do more than identify bugs and improve certain features.

“Gather invaluable feedback from users that will fuel iterations and improvements for your game across all strategic aspects such as design, content, UX and monetisation,” he says. “This will empower you to quickly navigate a new country’s learning curve, enabling you to launch successfully. Define and measure everything which you consider relevant for your game in order to track progress.”

Tappx has assisted multiple developers in launching their games, and has been watching the market closely as the mobile games scene has evolved. Throughout all these learnings, there are simple but significant mistakes that developers should take care to avoid.

“The biggest and most common mistake is allocating insufficient resource when investigating a market,” says Prat. “Effective and accurate roadmap planning is essential. This research should commence during the decision-making phase when choosing which markets to launch into and why.

“Another common mistake is to conduct research during a game’s development and build. It’s easy to find market data via a simple Google search on a new specific country. Sometimes the research stops here – developers often forget about qualitative data obtained when testing with real users in new locations and so have to take advantage of any feedback opportunity.”

As mentioned, a vital part of preparing to launch in a new market is investigating that area’s unique idiosyncrasies – and Prat warns this can often prompt the need to redesign elements of your game. Of course, this isn’t just to avoid offending your new potential audience; if you can tweak an element of your game to better resonate with them and their culture, your chances of success are improved.

“On the design side, developers are often required to adapt or modify game characters or other important graphic assets, making them more suitable for different cultures,” Prat says.

“Sometimes significant changes are needed – and in some cases this forces creative teams to redesign many game components such as the dialogue and soundtrack. Effective localisation often involves a significant amount of time, money and resource. If this isn’t done correctly, it could spell failure for a game entering a new market.”

Once you have launched in the region of your choice, it’s important not to lose momentum when it comes to reaching new users. While much of the marketing activity may centre around the launch itself, be sure to have plenty of post-launch plans for promoting your title.

“Another common issue is focusing too much on retention, rather than on raw user acquisition,” Prat explains. “Building a consistent and quality gamer base is the most challenging goal for marketers and growth managers.”

He continues: “Sometimes you need to focus more on paid acquisition because it’s the fastest way to get traction and gain category share. Sometimes you realise that empowering your mobile game with app store optimisation techniques provides the best results over time, or simply creating great content to distribute locally with the help of third-party PR firms, which will help you to boost your game’s popularity and profile. Regardless of the country, your marketing budget has to be be liquid and be able to adapt quickly in volatile situations.”

Finally, Prat assures developers that they don’t have to embark on such a daunting journey alone. In their efforts to research their target markets, they can expect to stumble upon potential partners that may be able to not only offer more insight into the local culture, but also offer services that make releasing their game much easier.

“Research third-party companies with local know-how which can genuinely add value to your game,” Prat advises. “These could include PR firms, game usability experts and user acquisition agencies. Participate in regional events which you consider relevant for your company. The games industry is a thriving community which has a great deal of activity on a global level.

“Also ,take a look at sponsoring events, delivering keynotes or exhibiting. Consider alternative and innovative services which can drive forward your marketing efforts. Don’t underestimate the power of app developer communities and never miss an opportunity to receive feedback outside the game as well as inside the game.” （Source: gamesindustry.biz ）