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A New Front in the Platform Wars: Chinese Mini Games
Learn how Chinese companies are maximizing time on app and bypassing traditional revenue sharing agreements with mobile app stores.
chinamobile gamespublishing
An Intro to Steam Games in China
In China, Steam largely operates within the gray area between market realities and government policy. Read on to learn more about the state of Steam in China.
steampublishingchina
Applying for an ISBN 版号 for the Chinese Gaming Market
Thinking about publishing your game in China? This post explains the ISBN 版号 application process.
publishingchina
Why Don't More Game Companies Do Email Marketing?
Call me old-fashioned, but I think game companies are missing out an extremely cheap and effective way to reduce churn and re-engage with their community.
marketing
NLP Machine Translation vs. LLM Translation
LLMs are everywhere now. The hype is here and it's all over your feeds. But does this new form of 'AI' represent a massive improvement in translation quality? Maybe not as much as you think.
translationAILLMNLP
The Operations Mindset: How China Modernized and Mastered Video Game LiveOps
LiveOps was the standard in Chinese game publishing long before it became a mainstream strategy in the west. Read on to learn about its origins stemming from the humble browser-based MMO scene.
liveopsmonetizationchina
Going too Far with Localization
The localization industry preaches adaptation, but players of Japanese games and manga/anime IPs are pushing back.
localizationip
It's Not What You Think: How Chinese Beta Tests Work
I've seen this happen again and again. A Chinese game company holds a closed/open beta for an upcoming release. Players get excited. Players join. And almost inevitably, the players feel betrayed. Why is this? This post explains.
chinapublic relations
The Death of Traditional PR: How SaaS Platforms Changed Video Game Public Relations
Spreading the news about your game used to be about scraping editor emails and pitching strangers. Automated all-in-one platforms have fundamentally changed the PR game.
public relationsmarketing
Genshin Impact: What It Means for the Gaming Industry
miHoYo is rising to global fame with its cross platform hit Genshin Impact. But what does this game actually do differently? Here's what the rest of the industry should pay attention to.
chinapublishingliveops
Cyberpunk 2077: Is the Negativity a Blessing in Disguise?
Cyberpunk became the most anticipated game of 2020 as CD Projekt Red created massive expectations for its launch. Its debut was a disaster, but is that actually a bad thing?
marketingpublic relations
Why Chinese Game Companies Publish Three Nearly Identical Games at Once
Starting in 2019, Chinese mobile publishers began launching clusters of near-identical games simultaneously. Here's why that strategy might actually make sense.
mobile gamespublishingchina
Streaming Wars: The Rise and Fall of Microsoft's Mixer
Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are all challenging Amazon's Twitch for a share of the streaming pie. Microsoft is the first big casualty of the war.
streamingcommunity
The Platform Wars: Steam, Epic, and GOG
Steam is comfortable, Epic is burning cash to buy market share, and GOG is doubling down on preservation. Which store wins?
pc gamingsteam
China Predicted the Future that I Refused to Believe In
I spent years dismissing trends I saw in China as gimmicky or cheap. Turns out, the rest of the world was just running a few years behind.
chinamarketing
The Great Freeze of 2018: How Regulatory Gridlock Pushed Chinese Gaming to Go Global
2018 was a rough year for the Chinese gaming industry, and new regulatory uncertainties have prompted publishers large and small to look elsewhere for opportunity.
chinaip
Chinese Games Going West: Common Mistakes in Publishing and Development
This post details the most common mistakes made by Chinese developers and publishers when launching a game in the west.
chinapublishing
Tracking Your Brand Without Paying Money
Want to track your brand, name, game, or rep without paying a monthly subscription? Here's a list of free resources and methods to do just that.
brandingresourcesguidespublic relations
How to Localize a Game on a Tight Budget
Are you an indy dev? Don't have a massive budget for localization? Read on to learn how you can optimize your game to reduce localization costs.
internationalizationlocalizationtranslation
Building Hype & Traction Before Your Game Launches
If you're not already a known-name in the gaming world, it's hard to get noticed by the media and players alike. This post is for those devs who are limited on resources and need to scrap their way to get people talking about their game!
marketingindie devs
What a Presskit is and Why Every Game Should Have One
Presskits are a quick and easy way to help everyone else talk about your game. Post includes why you should make a presskit, what one includes, and a few resources to get you started.
public relationsmarketing
How to Localize a Video Game: A Step-by-Step Workflow
This post covers my current localization workflow, from start to finish. This brief overview includes project setup, style guides, making a termbase, translation, editing, proofreading, and QA.
guideslocalization
The Most Common Errors in Chinese to English Game Localization
Some of the most common errors I see in CN to EN translation. This post covers: grammar, cognates, text expansion, usage, typography, encoding, and more.
localizationchinatranslation
My Favorite Localization Tools & Resources for Translators
A quick top 10 list of useful translation resources I've found so far...
resourceslocalizationtranslation
