Does PVZ2 Only Want Money in China?

【前言】Does PVZ2 Only Want Money in China?由文秘帮小编整理而成，但愿对你的学习工作带来帮助。Smith gladly downloaded the app and could not wait to start the game. However， the excitement only lasted for one or two hours， as he found himself unable to get progress in the sixth level.“This should be a game for fun and leisure， not like t...

Within 7 hours after be- ing put on the shelf of Apple Store in china， the downloads of the famous game Plant vs Zombies 2 stood above all apps. However， the rating of this app dropped from five stars to two stars simultaneously. The concurrent rise in downloading and drop in rating reflect the predicament of PVZ2 in China.

Such a contradicting case was caused by the difficulty of the Chinese version of PVZ2 and the price of buying tools in the game which is several times as high as in the English version. Such a differentiated treatment angered the Chinese players. As we all know， whether a video game can succeed in its “localization” after getting into an overseas market largely depends on whether and how much they can be accepted by local consumers.

Therefore， it is not hard to imagine the prospect of PVZ2 in China. Experts in the field of mobile game say that a good game should capitalize on local companies’ power in an overseas market， which could smoothen the way of “earning money”.

More Difficult， Higher Prices

For Smith （alias）， a loyal player for PVZ， the date of July 31 was an exciting day. On that day， the Chinese version of PVZ2 was officially in the Apple Store.

Smith gladly downloaded the app and could not wait to start the game. However， the excitement only lasted for one or two hours， as he found himself unable to get progress in the sixth level.“This should be a game for fun and leisure， not like those games focusing on challenge and difficulty. What’s wrong with the difficulty setting？ Some levels are so difficult that they look like being intentionally set like this to stop players from progressing，” Smith complained in his Microblog.

It was not because of Smith’s poor skill. Cai Linghong， a famous video game reviewer， says that the Chinese version of PVZ2 is three times as difficult as the English version. 80% of the players need to buy the paid tools in the sixth level to get to the next level.

The difference between the Chinese version of PVZ2 and the English version is also shown in the price of paid tools. For example， in the English version， the “frost shooter” is sold at RMB 18， but in the Chinese version， it needs to be paid with the “diamond” a payment tool in the game. A “forest shooter” equals 400 diamonds， costing RMB 40. In addition， the free “double shooter” in the English version costs RMB 10 in the Chinese version. Cai Linghong said that all the prices of paid tools in the Chinese version is twice of the English version. “The increasing difficulty provides a good excuse to ask the players to pay for the tools，” said Xiao Yongquan， CEO of .

This of course instigated the Chinese players， causing the fast increase of downloads and sharp drop in ratings. In the launching conference of PVZ2， Liu Kun， general manager of PopCap Greater China， said that “our care for and devotion to players are all shown in the game. We have added brand new contents and created new playing methods for the players to experiences the plants and zombies they know about and like.” However， Chinese players are certainly not able to accept the way of PopCap to show “care and devotion”.

For this， Xiao Yongquan says that PopCap’s method is understandable， but it fails to keep it at a proper extent.“Many Chinese players do not need to pay a penny for PVZ. In PVZ2， the dif-ficulty and prices are suddenly increased so high that it is inevitable to raise the complaints of players.”

Guidance Required

Chinese players do not want to pay for the video games they play. This is common knowledge for the video game developers in the world. The official Chinese version of PVZ needed players to pay for the right to download before installing the game and had no further charges for tools. However， many players chose the cracked version to play the PVZ for free. Because of this， though PVZ was once very popular in China， PopCap did not get too many benefits from this. Therefore， it chose the free download with paid tools in developing the Chinese version of PVZ2.

iDreamSky once made the Chinese version of Fruit Ninja and Temple Run. Its co-founder Gao Lianchun thinks that the foreign video game developers need to pay more attention to guiding the Chinese players when making the Chinese version of their products.

“For example， when we make the Chinese version of Temple Run， the payment point in the game is the same with the English version. The players need to pay for the ‘resurrection’ skill. But there is a difference. In the English version， players can only resurrect through buying gems. In China， many players do not know what the resurrection is and how many gems they need to buy to resurrect. Therefore， we provide a fast way of resurrection the players can directly pay RMB two yuan for resurrection and continue the game where they die. After that， the players can pay for the resurrection gems without any concerns. In addition， we do not add any other payment points in the game，”said Gao Lianchun.

In his opinion， it is not hard for a game to collect good fortunes in a short while. But how to sustain the popularity and life of the game is the most important thing. Therefore， when iDreamSky is making the Chinese version of foreign games， it pays equally much attention to the improvement of the brand value and market position of the video game. When improvement is made in the two aspects， the game could be profitable for a long time.

The localization of Angry Birds is also a good example. was the first Chinese company to introduce Angry Birds into China. Xiao Yongquan gave up the pattern of asking players to pay for downloading and installing the game. Instead， he provided the free download， but he imbedded ads into the game， based on which he earned profits.“Foreign games usually start to earn profits through payment for downloading， but this is not the case in China，”he said.

According to the experiences of ， it is necessary to make the developers of video games pay attention to this fact when they develop their own games or localize foreign games do not impose the “pay or die” pattern on players. The players can have better experiences if they make the payment. But if they do not pay， they should be able to continue the game.

Local Assistance Needed

In recent years， the rise of smart phones and the popularity of App Stores make it possible for the players around the world to play the same game on different devices. For game developers， every game is given the opportunity to get to the global market. On one hand， foreign video game developers target the grand market of China with the market value of RMB 60 billion； on the other hand， more and more Chinese game developers extend their reach to the entire world. As the data shows， in 2012， 40 web game developers in China made 177 self-developed games which were exported overseas， 103 of which were webpage games， up 78.9% from a year before. In addition， the exportation of mobile games also got good achieve- ments with the actual sales income up 33.3%.

The inability of PVZ2 to get used to the Chinese market might provide some experiences and lessons worthy of the attention of foreign game developers wanting to get into China and Chinese local game developers wanting to go out to the world.

“If a foreign company does not fully understand the Chinese market， it is better for the company to find a Chinese partner. A Chinese game company usually has a grand data pool and a profound understanding of users， allowing them to provide valuable data and advices. The historical experiences tell us that no foreign players can see good performance of their products in China without a capable Chinese partner. This is because the foreign commercial environment is so different from China，”Gao Lianchun said. Even in different provinces or municipalities， the players’mindsets and habits of making payment for games are different from each other. Working with local companies to localize and spread the game could help to avoid the pvz2-like failure to get acclimated in China. Such a rule also works for the Chinese companies when they spread their products to the overseas markets.

For this， Song Wei， Secretarygeneral of the Global Mobile Game Confederation showed his approval. A foreign company that appoints a local company with the task of localization and promotion can focus on developing their own products. For the long term， the game industry is to become more and more segmented to make best of the resources and meet the demand of various sides as much as possible.

“For local companies， they can learn advanced experiences from those well-established foreign companies，”said Song Wei. “For overseas companies， a good local partner is the corner stone for their fast development in the local market.”