Hey folks, We are the cusp of our new game release and we were wondering as to different ways and things to do for game promotion, that is when the question arose that what are the different ways to promote in other non US/UK game markets (if there is a difference) 1) Are there any PR agencies who send press releases to popular iphone gaming forums in different countries across the world (language translation etc)? 2) Any special Marketing efforts one can plan for specific countries (any experiences)? 3) Which countries have major iPhone/iPod touch Presence apart from US/UK? Cheers Trex --------------------------------------------- www.rolocule.com www.twitter.com/rolocule
Japan's economy is apparently doing really well, so the exchange rate is much higher there then either the US or UK. Though it fluctuates from day to day, typically we earn around DOUBLE the profit in Japan vs the US even when selling equal numbers. Europe and UK have very low exchange rates right now, so you make around 25-40% less in those countries then the US. In terms of numbers (in Japan), 35 overall game will get you around 100 copies a day, #4 got us around 500-600 copies sold per day, so you do have to be pretty high on the charts to see any real success compared to the US. As for strategies, we translated the iTunes app description in both Germany and Japan and saw little to no result, so I would suggest not wasting time there, though it can't hurt to try if you have easy access to the language. This is a good topic and I'm looking forward to hearing other suggestions
Does anyone know some of the biggest iPhone gaming sites outside of the US? How about in the UK and japan?
Unknown reasons are you're best bet for promotion outside of the US! So many devs have talked about this. For no known reason one of their apps does extremely well in a corner of the world where they least expect it. The app just hits a cord with the locals. No rhyme or rhythm, it happens uncontrollably and the dev can't figure out why. My Caveman Test did this in Italy and I still have no idea why it was so popular. I had two extremely nasty 1 star reviews that might have caused people to be curious and take a closer look. So you might get lucky in an obscure country if a high school kid starts showing your app around the school yard.
What next? I am assuming there are active forums for iPhone gaming in Non US/UK markets, I could see some forums for pirated games but, hopefully they have a TA in Japan/Germany/France as these are quite major non US/UK markets. Here is some data from firemint (which is more than a year old so might irrelevant to current scenarios) gives an idea of top 10 markets in terms of volumes sold for ~1 month of their game Flight Control. Country Sales US 334,021 GB 96,978 DE 25,886 CA 25,183 FR 20,430 JP 17,401 AU 14,205 IT 8,613 NL 6,151 ES 5,945 Source and detailed report: http://firemint.com/files/FlightControl-SalesNumbers.pdf Does anyone have current data of no of units of iPhone/Ipod Touches apple has sold worldwide? So what next any ideas as to how to reach out to other markets? Cheers Trex --------------------------------------------------------- www.rolocule.com www.twitter.com/rolocule
That's the only one I know of. I asked because Daredevil Dave suddenly shot up to #10 Top Paid and I can't figure out why. I'm very happy about it though, of course! Was very sudden so I thought maybe some website posted a big review or something.
Did you sign up for Google Alerts? Definitely the best way to keep tabs on whats happening with your game on the web. Note: get ready to be depressed by how many piracy websites pop up every day with a new cracked version of your game :/
Just get on and get them taken down. Ow. And congratulations, Dave (motorcycle game developer, I can't remember anything but that).
Ya I don't care too much. I mean the percentage of jailbreakers is fairly small, and out of that group, the amount of people who would buy a game is probably even smaller. It just comes with the territory.
PR: http://www.dystranslations.com/3/Press.html Translations: http://www.dystranslations.com/3/Press.html Germany France Japan Italy Spain Netherlands (and of course Canada and Australia). Z.
Brilliant thanks... Cheers Trex --------------------------------------- www.rolocule.com www.twitter.com/rolocule
