I'd like to go through some of the basic differences of Asia VS European mobile games. Analysis about what is successful in which territory, what are the key success components, what type of genre with what type of features are dominating each of the markets, what would it take for a European successful mobile game to be successful in Asia and vice virca. Also, I would like to look into if flows of mobile content from one territory to the other is happening, will happen or what it would need to do for this to happen.
2. Paha Schulz – Who?
• Korean – German
(born and raised in Korea, while educated from German international school)
• Games Industry since 2001
• First half of carrier in Asia, later half in Europe (UK, Germany)
• NCsoft (Korean HQ & Europe), Electronics Arts, Crytek
• Business Development, Online Publishing, Market Analysis, Marketing,
Production, Monetization
• Currently Responsible at Crytek:
All Business Development responsibilities on Games,
focus on Games as a Service: PC, Console and also MOBILE
5. Global Mobile Games Market Size
According to Newzoo in 2014(E):
• Global Mobile Game Market: $21.7 Billion
• Asia: $12.2Billion
• Europe (Western+Eastern): $3.8 Billion
• Europe + North America: $8.8Billion
Asia is clearly the biggest Mobile Game
market
Source: Newzoo
6. Global Top Companies & Games
Diverse companies contributing top downloads.
Looking at Revenue side, many Asian contributors in global top list: mainly Japanese, Chinese and
Korean.
* Supercell is counted in SoftBank Source: App Annie
7. Global Top Store Matrix (iOS)
• Most markets have similar
top3: CoC, Candy Crush,
Game of War
• Japan, China, Korea have
different profile of top apps
•Nevetheless Korea has Clash
of Clans on top chart
Source: App Annie, date as of Oct19 2014
8. Europe 3 – iOS top grossing
Germany UK France
• All 3 Major European markets have similar profiles in the top 10 markets
• UK has a bit of US like attributes, but overall it’s a fairly similar chart across
Source: App Annie, date as of Oct19 2014
9. Asia 3 – iOS top grossing
China Japan Korea
Source: App Annie, date as of Oct19 2014
• All 3 Major Asian markets are pretty much completely different top10 charts
• Mainly key local contributors are leading in each market
11. Korea – characteristics
• Kakaotalk is the dominating messaging app in Korea
• It opened up as a social platform for games and became the platform to integrate in the Korean market
• Quickest turnaround in the chart trends. Currently Mid-core RPG are dominating top charts mainly
22. Key Take Away
• “Asia” is not a market. Korea, China, Japan are
markets. (and there are much more!)
• Asia has big market numbers. This doesn’t mean it’s
less competitive. (Actually the reverse)
• It is possible for Western games to be successful in
Asian markets: although it needs dedication per
market and correct local approaches
• There is no cross-Asian key player(publisher), hence
there cannot be a cross-Asian partner, not yet.
• More Western games will make it to Asia, but more
Asian games will also come to the West