Localisation isn't everything for Japanese success, says Metaps' McCarthy

[Applause] hello um the last time I was on stage at Pocket game connects there was there's this clock here that blinks very kind of slightly menacingly if you go over 10 minutes so I'm going to keep this very short very simple and apologies in advance for the terrifying Visage that might appear on these screens that's my parents fault I apologize for that um so we have 10 minutes so I'm going to give you five tips for success in Japan five tips for succeeding in Korea and that's it apart from one bonus tip which is to launch on I make no apologies for the fact that we recommend launching on Android because that's where the Market's going um that's where most of our business um comes from so apologies though if uh my advice is slightly Android focused um so five tips for succeeding in Japan um here they are um release a new APK keep it simple create a buzz keep adding content and give it a boost that's it I'm done um but in a bit more detail um the benefits of releasing a new APK um are first that you get a

benefit to user acquisition so the first 30 days of of any kind of user activity user acquisition activity on Google Play in Japan is um gets a real benefit from the top you free um ranking um and also you're more likely to get kind of uh featured by Google play the other thing is it allows you to tailor the ingame economy to the Japanese Market I mean obviously um users monetize differently uh in different territories um I don't the idea either of kind of shaking your users out but it is worth pointing out that Japanese users are more willing to spend in the game so you know you can um be a bit more unforgiving about about how you monetize them um the next topic keep it simple so I know on this stage day is going to tell you like you know you have to get the localization right you have to get the culturalization right I I don't think you have to worry um localization is like uncanny valy like the closer you get to Perfection the more any imperfections stand out so don't worry the fact that you've got a

foreign game in Japan like King succeeded with foreign games supercell succeeded with foreign games Japanese users like foreign games too um worry instead about making a great game make sure your core game Loop is is great make sure it monetizes uh retains users um monetized as well um you can see here some of the kind of um foreign games that have succeeded in Japan just just by way of illustration the other thing is is to create a buzz like in Japan it's really important to start with a pre-registration campaign to build you know kind of buzz around your game even before uh you release it um advertise on tell if you've got the money uh if you don't then kind of get creative here's some apps that we work with they' got very creative oag observing kit was one of a you know this is kind of really quirky game the guy who made this game really kind of CED the Japanese press and got a lot of attention so you don't have to have big budgets to to get people to to notice your game and as you know other people have said today like keep adding content like these you know

P gamers in Japan want to play more games um put in you know events in the game keep people logging in with bonuses put sales around kind of special events so on so on um I give it a boost so still in Japan like in terms of user acquisition stuff like 9 Cent channels you're not going to get enough volume uh if you really want to make a big hit in Japan so still the only way to reach a large volume of of high quality users is to do Boost campaigns which you know are a little bit out of fashion um in the west but if you if you keep adding content and you time your events around your boo your user acquisition campaign around events um you'll get a big kind of uplift on your on your user front there so that's Japan um now on to Korea um again start with a bank support your users go nonmobile launch on caca or don't I don't mind um and make a highend game so again start with a bank so as people have pointed out Korean games are very fickle very demanding there's a ton of content coming out in Korean if your

game does not get off to a good start people will stop playing it and move on to the next Trend so you do everything you can to keep them happy daily login bonuses in game events right from the start and be prepared for them to leave like people unfortunately people will leave your game so be prepared to kind of get new ones from somewhere um and you know part of that is to support your users like the users are very demanding if there's any kind of lag in your game any technical imperfections like the Korean users will seek them out and then dump your game so make sure that you've got like great customer support like in near real time make sure that you're applying to your customers that you're showing your love and affection and probably do it in Korea and uh you know again as other people have said like it's important to uh when you're marketing the games in Korea to think about nonmobile sources like there's a lot of kind of viral activity pre-registration campaigns um cultivate like websites and Community sites um C the Press get a spokesperson you know get a famous person to be the face of your game um and you know use use social

networks use Billboards use T use every kind of Channel um to that you can to your own advantage and again like kaca is is a bit like you know the elephant in the room like caca does dominate the charts um but there's no kind of simple simple solution to to whether you should or should not go with cacao the big benefit from Cacao is that you'll get a massive you know uh benefit in terms of user acquisition like users will discover your game on kaca you'll get a large boost in terms of users but the thing is that caca also has a ton of new content coming in so you know you'll only get that boost for a short amount of time and if you don't go with caca you'll have to kind of find other sources uh you know to get your game discovered but it's not impossible um and you know the other thing about Korean users is it very demanding make your game highend um you know talked about play you know it's a very kind of technically um accomplished game even simple board games on on um on mobile apps on mobile phones in in career kind of highend very graphically

rich and again like you can't afford to have any kind of technical slip UPS any lag um and just to not there as well I guess RPGs and strategy games are still dominant at the moment on kaca but again the market moves very fast so that's um that's just about all the advice I have for career in Japan apart from one other thing um five tips is never enough so you need to find a great partner so you know like whatever you're to to whatever extent you're going to kind of release your games in Japan or Korea you're definitely going to need some kind of assistant you're going to need some kind of presence on the ground there um met apps you know we want to help Android Android developers reach into Asia we've got people in Korea Japan we've got all these offices so please do come and uh and reach out to us if you're at all interested in Asia we've got a ton of information and we can definitely help so um I hope that was useful I've made managed to make up three minutes so uh we can get to the party sooner okay thanks guys cheers