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作者：Jheng Wei Ciao 我是來自臺灣遊戲工作室Monkey Potion的成員。在過去十年中，MMO遊戲在亞洲勢頭正旺。許多韓國、中國遊戲公司就是在此時成立，意在開發MMO遊戲並推出熱門之作。在過去數年中，網頁遊戲和Facebook遊戲開始興起。今天MMO遊戲已經不再像當初那樣盛行，遊戲市場的重心轉向了移動平臺。 中國是一個龐大而發展迅速的市場，雖然中國用戶的ARPU值並不像美國人那樣理想，但來自中國App Store的下載量已經排名世界第一。所以如果你想施行全球化戰略，你就應該認真考慮將遊戲轉化為簡體中文版，以便更好地虜獲中國大陸用戶。 但包括臺灣、香港、澳門等使用繁體中文而非簡體中文的地區該怎麼辦？你可能會認為推出簡體中文版本就能夠滿足所有講中文的用戶需求，但事實並非如此。 讓我們先來談談臺灣的手機應用市場規模。據Newzoo報告顯示，在2013年12月份，臺灣位居iPhone AppStore市場收益榜單第10名，在iPad App Store榜單則是第14名。App Annie在2013年第三季度報告也指出，臺灣在該時期的Google Play市場收益榜單位居第5名。 遊戲是臺灣手機應用收益增長的主要動力，該類應用在臺灣Google Play收益中占比超過80%。 除了Google Play的官方支付管道之外，臺灣地區的普遍支付方式之一就是協力廠商預付卡。如果算上預付卡所創造的收益，臺灣地區的整體Android應用收益還可能排到第4名，甚至更高名次。 在2013年，臺灣App Store和Google Play遊戲收益榜單第一名均是《Tower ofSaviors》這款來自香港的P&D類遊戲。其下載量超過800萬次，有70%下載量和收益來自臺灣用戶。 乍一看，《Twoer of Saviors》不過是一款P&D克隆遊戲，但它卻擁有出眾的繁體中文本土化支援。他們還向使用者推出了許大網路行銷活動以及離線活動。據稱《Tower of Saviors》月收益可能達到300萬美元，其中多數來自臺灣用戶。 在我看來，與相鄰地區比較，臺灣手機遊戲市場具有更大的收益潛力。此外，在講中文的地區中，臺灣對娛樂和時尚行業的影響不容小覷。如果你的遊戲在臺灣市場反應良好，那麼就有很大可能吸引香港、新加坡、馬來西亞和其他亞太地區用戶的眼球。 糟糕的是，簡體中文在臺灣一向不甚流行，而好消息則是，將簡體中文轉換為繁體中文卻相當容易，只是有些動詞和名詞有所不同。 《Jade Ninja》是我們在AppStore發佈的首款手機遊戲。雖然它的銷量很不濟，但我們卻從中發現臺灣玩家在手機遊戲中的付費願意遠超過我們的想像。 《Jade Ninja》下載量不足12萬次，這真令人沮喪。因為它是一款免費遊戲，其轉化率和ARPPU是遊戲獲得商業成功的關鍵因素。儘管轉化率相當之低（低於1%），其ARPPU卻達到5.8美元，其中臺灣用戶對ARPPU和收益的貢獻最大（在收益中占比54%）。 鑒於上述原因，海外開發者應該認真考慮將遊戲轉化為繁體中文的問題，如果執行得當，就會取得良好的效果。
另外，我還想向各位介紹一下獨立遊戲領域在臺灣的發展情況。由於手機遊戲市場的迅速發展，有不少人辭掉工作，成為全職獨立遊戲開發者。 我們在臺灣有數個本地定期舉辦遊戲開發者會面活動的社區。其中一個甚為活躍的獨立遊戲開發者組織就是IGDShare，專注於分享經驗以啟發遊戲開發者。去年11月臺北遊戲開發者論壇召開，Alexander Bruce和Aaron Isaksen受邀進行演講。在2013年12月舉辦了第2屆GDC臺北峰會，Simon Carless也獲邀發表演講。 坦白而言，獨立遊戲在臺灣仍然處於未成熟的發展階段。獨立遊戲是一個相當小眾的市場，尚未被廣大臺灣玩家所認可。許多獨立遊戲開發者確實在努力製作富有吸引力的遊戲，但目前就我所知，多數開發者無法通過自主開發遊戲而謀生。儘管目前處境艱難，仍然有一小部分獨立開發者堅持了自己的信念，並推出了包括《A Ride Into Mountains:》、《Axventure:》、《Bonnie’s Brunch 2》等在內的一系列出色的本土獨立遊戲。 Why You Should Not Undervalue TraditionalChinese Mobile Gaming Market by Jheng Wei Ciao The following blog post, unless otherwisenoted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed arethose of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company. Hello everyone, I’m Jheng Wei-Ciao fromMonkey Potion, a Taiwan based independent game studio. You might wonder where“Taiwan” is. To many westerners not familiar with this country’s geography,Taiwan is often mistaken for Thailand, and vice versa. Taiwan (formerly knownas Formosa) is located in the Pacific Ocean off the southeast coast of mainlandChina with the Taiwan Strait in between. It is a beautiful island nation withmore than 23 million residents. Over the past decade, MMOs certainly hadtheir glory days here in Asia. At the time, many Korean, Chinese, and Taiwanesegame companies were founded, aiming to develop MMOs and successfully made ahit. Through the last couple of years, there was a tendency towarding creatingweb-based games and Facebook games. Nowadays MMOs have gone out of fashion, andthe prevalence in gaming markets has shifted to mobile platforms. As you know, China is a huge thrivingmarket growing insanely fast. Although the ARPU in China may not be so good asin USA, downloads from China on App Store has reached world #1. So if you wantto go global, you should seriously consider localizing your games intoSimplified Chinese to have a better chance to acquire users in China. What about other Chinese-speaking areas,such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, where people use Traditional Chineserather than Simplified Chinese? You might claim to deliver a Simplified Chineseversion would be sufficient to cater to all Chinese-speaking users. But it isactually not. Let’s begin by discussing the market sizeof mobile apps in Taiwan. According to Newzoo’s Monthly Top 20 report, in December 2013, Taiwan ranked #10 in termsof revenues generated on iPhone App Store and #14 on iPad App Store. Also, asshown on App Annie’s market report of Q3 2013, Taiwan has climbed to become the#5 country by Google Play revenue in Q3 2013. The Gaming category primarily droveTaiwan’s revenue growth and accounted for over 80% of their Google Playrevenue, which was on par with the worldwide average in Q3 2013. In less than half a year since thereinstatement of paid apps on Google Play, Taiwan generated enough app revenueto join the Top 5 countries by Google Play revenue in Q3 2013. In addition to the official payment channelon Google Play, one of the most common methods of payment in Taiwan is throughthird party pre-paid cards. If the revenues generated by pre-paid cards couldbe counted in, the overall Android app revenue in Taiwan might rank #4 or evenhigher. In 2013, the #1 top grossing game on bothTaiwan App Store and Taiwan Google Play was dominated by Tower of Saviors, aP&D-like game from Hong Kong. It has managed to reach over 8 milliondownloads, and 70% of its downloads and revenues are contributed by Taiwaneseusers. At first sight, Tower of Saviors looks likenothing more than a P&D clone, but it has a superior Traditional Chineselocalization. They also held a lot of online marketing campaigns and offlineevents for its users. It was said that the monthly revenue of Tower of Saviorscould reach 3 million dollars, which mostly generated from Taiwanese users. In my opinion, Taiwanese mobile gamingmarket has greater revenue potential compared with its neighborhood countries.Furthermore, among Chinese-speaking countries, Taiwan has been very importantand influential in the entertainment and fashion industry. It is true that ifyour game performs well in Taiwan, it would also stand a better chance ofcatching the eyes of players from HK, Singapore, Malaysia and other APACcountries. The bad news is that simplified Chinesecharacters have always been unfavorable for Taiwanese people. The good news isthat translating Simplified Chinese into Traditional Chinese is rather simple,except that some conventional terms, including nouns and verbs, may be a bitdifferent. Jade Ninja is our first mobile gamereleased on App Store. Although the sales figures of this game reflects an(un)epic failure (but that’s another long story), we were amazed to learn thatTaiwanese players are more willing to pay for mobile games than we thought. The download number of Jade Ninja barelyreached over 120,000, which is quite frustrating. Since it is a free to playgame, the conversion rate and ARPPU are both critical factors for financialsuccess. Even though the conversion rate is pretty low (less than 1%), theARPPU is $5.8, of which Taiwanese users has contributed the highest amount ofrevenue (54%) and ARPPU. Therefore, for all the reasons mentionedabove, you should seriously consider localizing your games into TraditionalChinese. It will payoff if you do it right. Secondly, I would like to introduce to youthe indie gaming scene in Taiwan. Lately, with the rapid growth of mobilegaming market, there are quite a few people who quitted their jobs to becomefull-time indie game developers. Here in Taiwan we have several localcommunities holding regular meetups with fellow game developers. One of thelively indie game developer organizations is IGDShare focusing on sharingexperiences to help inspire game developers. Last November Taipei GameDevelopers Forum was held, with Alexander Bruce and Aaron Isaksen as invitedspeakers. In December 2013, there was the 2nd GDC Taipei Summit, and this timeSimon Carless was invited to give a speech. Honestly, the indie scene in Taiwan isstill premature in current stage. Indie gaming is a rather niche market and notbeing able to be recognized or appreciated by most Taiwanese players. Manyindie game developers have indeed struggled to make fascinating games, but as faras I know, most of them can’t make a living just by developing their own games.Although the circumstances are tough, there’s still a small tribe of indies whopersist in their faith to make games. Below is a brief list of some awesome Taiwaneseindie games（source：gamasutra）
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發表於 2014-1-19 20:39:44
