Japan: how to succeed in the largest mobile gaming market in Asia

In the field of games, I am fascinated, among other things, by how much their consumption may differ in different countries depending on many factors, including the size of the market, the tastes of consumers and even politics. At Alconost, we translated a conversation with Josh Barnes , an experienced professional who worked with leading mobile game development companies such as Zynga, Ludia and many other studios: Josh helps make “strategic raids” on Asian markets. He spoke about the mobile gaming industry in Japan, namely what makes it so different from many other markets and what the publisher of the western game will need to achieve success there.

What exactly makes the Japanese mobile gaming market so interesting?

First of all, there are huge opportunities: the population of Japan is less than half (40%) of the US population, but the mobile gaming market is not inferior to the American one. It is also known that the average download income in the case of Japanese users is incredibly high: a few years ago it was more than $ 5 for applications of any category (gaming and non-game), and now it is likely to be even higher.
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Some of the highest grossing games in the world are from Japan (for example, Puzzle & Dragons and Monster Strike ), and most of the revenue comes from the Japanese market. In Japan, mobile game developers are willing to pay an insane amount for each installation (sometimes the amount goes up to $ 10–20) and for traditional advertising outside mobile platforms (for example, on TV and on billboards). The launch of new mobile games is often preceded by various advertisements and is accompanied by promotion on TV.

The mobile gaming industry in Japan is just completely different. Users play excitedly there, so the game must have a lot of content and (or) levels, otherwise players will quickly go through the game and leave forever. In addition, in Japan, customer service is built with a high level of interaction: many companies organize online communities and telephone support, which is rarely found in North America.

Can cultural patterns explain the success of mobile games in Japan?

Part of the reason is really in culture, because the Japanese are generally ahead of the US in the mobile Internet sphere: in fact, they appeared in their back in 1999 with the Docomo operator , when he launched the mobile subscription model - i-Mode. That is, Japanese users are accustomed to buying virtual items in games on the phone long before the Americans, even when the only technology was ordinary mobile phones. So now they spend more time and money on their phones simply because they have long been accustomed to this.

Here you can add the fact that the Japanese spend a lot of time on the road and usually travel by train. In Tokyo, for example, a typical trip takes about an hour each way. Trains have become so popular in the culture that many mobile games are oriented towards the game with one hand - so that the second one can hold onto the rail.

What are the main problems to face when localizing a game in Japan?

There are a lot of difficulties in the Japanese mobile gaming market. First of all - the language: in order to have at least some chance of success, the game must be localized. In addition, the Japanese have a very peculiar taste: just look at the games popular in this market - they have quite a characteristic appearance. In a small market, local companies dominate, which makes it overcompetitive, and users tend to stick to games, so it can be difficult to get them to try something new. In addition, high CPI and advertising costs will be unaccustomed to western game developers. After all, Japan is Asia’s largest mobile gaming market, but also the most complex.

If, despite the high competitiveness of the Japanese market, the developer wants to enter it, what would you recommend?

In the case of Japan, of course, all is not lost: although it is a very competitive market, there are a number of stages, passing which you can increase your share in the local market. They can be represented as steps of a ladder:

First stage:

1. Localized materials store applications.
   
2. Localized in-game text.
   

Remember that Japanese players are demanding on the quality of localization, so the translations should be checked by native speakers (ed .: or done directly by native speakers, as is the case in Alconost) . Application store materials should attract local users. (To understand the difference, compare the description of Game of War for the United States and Japan .)

Intermediate stage:

1. Support and other work at the local level: community leaders and user support staff must be native speakers and be able to create and maintain online communities.
   
2. Local marketing activities, local advertising networks, local cross promotion networks such as Noah Pass (Sega) , and if you are determined, then Japanese TV advertising.
   
3. Unique in-game content based on cultural features - for example, new characters in the manga style that will appeal to the Japanese.
   

The final stage:

1. Revised monetization strategy (for example, using the “gatcha” system - it resembles a lottery rather than buying items directly, and implies corresponding in-game events, preferably several times a month, during which new items are introduced into the game).
   
2. A special version of the game for local markets - and when creating a modified version, it is possible to license intellectual property, the use of which in the game will attract more users. However, for 99.9% of Western companies, this is not an option: behind such demanded intellectual property in Japan there are often local studios that create relevant content for it.
   

Western developers, both large and small, should soberly evaluate their relatively lesser opportunities to promote games in Japan. At the same time, high monetization in the Japanese market is certainly worth it to go through these stages and adapt the game - this will allow you to succeed and increase revenues from the acquired audience.

About the translator

The article is translated in Alconost.

Alconost is engaged in the localization of applications, games and sites in 62 languages. Language translators, linguistic testing, cloud platform with API, continuous localization, 24/7 project managers, any formats of string resources, translation of technical texts .

We also make advertising and training videos - for websites selling, image, advertising, training, teasers, expliners, trailers for Google Play and the App Store.

Read more: https://alconost.com