Are you a mobile game developer? Consider Russia

There's an interesting read over at chartboost.com by Chris Morrison, worth reading if you're a video game developer. Particularly so, if you're in the mobile apps market. Although Russia is often called a developing country, the rewards for a developer who can win a Russian audience are significant, even today, Chris writes.

He then analizes the state of the market in Russia, indicating that there’s already a booming market for smartphones in Russia. In 2014, 26 million smartphones were in use, and that number is expected to reach 40 million by 2018. After giving developers some practical advice on how to enter the Russian market, Chris mentions one of the most important points, which I will quote here:

The fine points of localization

Like Brazil, Russians have low English expertise, ranking in the bottom half among all countries. More importantly, though, Russians also have pride in their language. Without good localization, your game may falter. “Russians are very touchy when it comes to the language, and we don’t like when there are mistakes,” says Lebedeva.

Offsetting the difficulties, there is an advantage to good localization — or rather, 15 of them. Former Soviet states (like Ukraine, for example) also contain many people who likely have higher proficiency in Russian than English.

At the end of the day, localization is not a significant barrier for an opportunity the size of Russia. “People are a little afraid, there are a lot of stereotypes of Russians: vodka and bears. But it’s not that different, and it’s too big to ignore,” says Lebedeva.

Source: chartboost.com