This month, the performance of Chinese games in the Japanese market has shown a trend of “the poor getting poorer and the rich getting richer.”
A prime example of “the rich getting richer” is Leyou. This month, its top-performing iOS game, *Idol Fantasy Festival*, ranked 11th on the overall chart, while its top-performing GP game, *Meruko’s Tale*, ranked 10th on the overall chart.There are numerous examples of the “the poor get poorer” trend, including *Battleship Empire*, *Honkai Academy*, and *Papa Three Kingdoms*. The main reason for this is the increasingly fierce competition in the Japanese market, where domestic Japanese developers are performing strongly.
*Heroes of the Dream*
Two games stood out this month. One is *Clash of Kings*, which has delivered solid performance across global markets. Published globally by Zhixing Mingtong, it ranked 77th on the iOS overall chart and 47th on the GP overall chart this month.The other is *Heroes of the Dream*, distributed in Japan by ReCool, which ranked 56th on the iOS overall chart and 45th on the GP overall chart this month.
While the best way to enter the Japanese market is to tailor development and operations specifically to its characteristics,However, given that there are many excellent games in China, it would be too risky and costly for small and medium-sized companies to bypass the domestic market and develop a new game solely for the Japanese market. Therefore, for high-quality Chinese games entering the Japanese market, secondary innovation or redevelopment tailored to the characteristics of the Japanese market is extremely important.
Collection Elements
The prerequisite for redeveloping a game for the Japanese market is that the game itself must be of exceptional quality—a principle that applies to all overseas markets. Additionally, the game must incorporate elements that players in that region enjoy; for example, Japanese players have a particular fondness for “collection” elements.This can be seen in many different types of Japanese games—whether in the match-3 game *Puzzle & Dragons*, the card game *Monster Strike*, or the RPG *Honkai Academy*—all of which incorporate “collection” elements.
Furthermore, Japanese players are much more rational than Chinese players when it comes to in-game spending. They carefully calculate and plan how much to spend and how to spend it. Therefore, when designing monetization points, you should avoid the “deep pit” approach common in the Chinese market and instead adopt a strategy of “digging many shallow pits.”Furthermore, Japanese players generally dislike competition in games and prefer to help others. Therefore, when designing game content, it’s best to avoid elements commonly found in Chinese games, such as power rankings or spending leaderboards.
Special sessions on online video promotion can be held on YouTube influencer channels and Niconico
The Japanese market, much like the Japanese people themselves, is orderly and by-the-book; consequently, unfair competitive practices common in China—such as “chart manipulation”—are rarely seen in promotions.Promotional methods in Japan generally include: game pre-registration, reward walls, video ads, TV commercials (which are very expensive), gaming media, affiliate networks, and special online video promotion segments (where Japanese influencers explain and showcase the game on their YouTube channels), among others.
As is well known, entering the Japanese market is extremely challenging, and gaining a firm foothold there is even more difficult. Among the relatively successful examples of companies entering the Japanese market to date, several firms—such as Zhixing Mingtong—have not established subsidiaries in Japan, whereas the two most successful companies, Leyou and ReCool, have both set up subsidiaries there.These two Japanese subsidiaries share some common characteristics: the staff, from leadership to rank-and-file employees, consists entirely of Japanese nationals; and the Japanese subsidiaries have full authority over the operation of games in Japan. Leyou’s Japanese subsidiary is specifically tasked with game development for the Japanese market, with Japanese employees overseeing every stage of the process to tailor games exclusively for the Japanese market.It is precisely through their Japanese staff, Japanese teams, and the unique understanding of the local market possessed by domestic companies that these two firms have achieved one success after another in R&D and operations for the Japanese market. For domestic companies that currently lack the resources to establish a branch in Japan, forming organic partnerships with such firms is an excellent way to gain relevant experience in entering the Japanese market while sharing benefits.
原创文章，作者：茶馆小二，禁止转载：https://youxichaguan.com/en/archives/213540
