Hi guys, I've finally finished development and had my game approved by Apple and I'm now sketching on my release plan. I'm wondering if there are any strategic drawbacks to a soft launch in one country rather than do a global launch? Cheers Stefan
Depends what you want to test/learn really! We toy'd with the idea for our game, but the only variable was the pricing structure for our in-game upgrades and we did a lot of testing for this already. The advice we got was to use a market like Canada or New Zealand as they're fairly 'western' (culturally, not geographically) markets but a much smaller user base. The idea being if theres any massive bugs or poor UX that it'll get picked up there and you can fix it before you launch in the bigger markets (UK/US etc).
Soft launches are less stressful and allow you to collect enough data for a successful global launch. I don't see any drawbacks to soft launching, except for the fact that if your game has too many bugs it might be hated in that specific region/country for a while. How about starting with an even smaller "target" test audience, for example a few hundred reddit users, to test your app, before releasing it for good on the App Store? There's a good article on this on TapStream, check it out: http://blog.tapstream.com/post/71538606229/the-art-of-soft-launching Good luck with your launch!
If you're one of those people that gets hung up on piracy, you might get upset that a soft launch will let your game be played around the world before your full release. Personally, I think there's bigger things to worry about (for an indie, the real problem is discoverability, it's so hard to get people to know about your game).
Thanks for the insights regarding soft launching, as my game is premium I don't have to do any revenue optimisation as such, so it's more total quality impression and perceived value of the whole game and of course if there are any serious bugs that might take time to sort out. Interesting point and good article about recruiting an initial "audience" through reddit. The whole piracy thing is as you say nothing to get hang up on.. those guys will be the testers that get's the game for free and provide some helpful analytics. I had a friend who sold one copy of their game and it was pirated. I guess the best approach to pirates is completely disregard them as they would not buy your game...so put your the work into discoverability and to make the game better for your paying customers as they deserve your attention. I think this decides it, there doesn't seem to be any real drawbacks with a soft launch as long as your game is in good enough shape. I will go the route of a soft launch in one country while starting to work on getting "press" attention /do marketing ahead of a global launch. Cheers Stefan
I asked about this also ... http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=253910 What i found was that discovery was a problem for a paid app like mine during the soft launch. Same with the full launch actually . But it was very useful, i ended up redesigning the control system which has not been a problem since. I think next time i would set the game free during the soft launch so that i can test features "live" so to speak. Then use that info to iterate the game to an optimal build for full launch. +1 for asking on reddit for testers.
A lot of companies are setting the price to free for soft launch, even if the end product will be a premium one (see the mobile Hitman game). This works as long as it's not the price you're wanting to test.
Yeah... the whole discovery thing is mentioned a lot as being a problem with soft launches, but maybe more for freemium apps that needs a lot of players if you want to use the soft launch to tweak iAP etc. Maybe start with the normal price in my case as it is premium, and then either free or some serious rebate to get players to get more stats if needed. One thing that is hinted here and there is that the Apple App Store gives a little help with discoverability for new apps to give them a chance to get noticed...(unless this is an urban myth)...and if a soft launch would have any effect on that "little" free push?
If Apple wants to feature your game as one of the Best New Games, but if your game is only available in a small country, will it affect that chance?
I would assume that each region has their own review team and that they choose to feature apps if they find them highly relevant for one reason or the other which of course is not the case with a game in most cases, so I would say there is no chance at all to be featured with a game soft launched in one country. I was not referring to being featured...it was more about the general app store search results...it has been said in various posts around the net that the store search algorithm increases the chance of new apps to appear in search results to allow for players to discover new exciting games. Let's say when you search for "Flashlight"... One could make a reasonable guess that the most popular/highest rated flashlight app is going to be number one...but a new flashlight app will probably be ranked higher than a flash light app that is already on the store but has not received a single download throughout it's life time. New players looking for a specific type of game would have to write down some keywords to find it as it is not know to the general public. As an app can only be new once...if there is such an algorithm..a soft launch could have a negative impact.
I recommend releasing your game globally and localizing it for all countries. You want to make your game available to as many users as possible. If you do go the soft launch route I would launch in Canada, it's market is most similar to the USA.
