WGE MAG: 47
Breaking Stereotypes The Truth about the Russian Market
C
ompanies are looking to grow by moving into new markets. More and more businesses are testing the waters of the Russian market to figure out its opportunities. But does anybody know what really is going on there? How many Russians use the Internet and who are these people? Do they pay or just play? Do they have any peculiar online behavior? How does the Russian market compare with other markets? Finally, is it worth the effort? Julia Lebedeva from Nevosoft, a leading Russian casual and mobile game developer and publisher, breaks three common stereotypes about the Russian game market.
STEREOTYPE #1
People believe that there are not many Internet users in Russia Is it true? Let’s look at the numbers. In 2005 we had about 18,5 million Internet users. By 2011 the number has reached 60 million! This is almost half the population. And if we compare this number to the amount of Internet users in other countries, we will see that 60 million is not that little. Besides, 38 million Russian Internet users play video games.
The absolute number of Russian gamers, 38 million evenly split amongst male and female, is even higher than in the UK or Germany. Now the question is: do these players pay any money?
STEREOTYPE #2
Russian players are not payers The latest research by Newzoo indicates that Russian consumer spending on
games will grow to $1.5 bn in 2011. By 2015 the social game sector alone is believed to reach the same number.
The majority (56%) of money is spent on PC and MMO games. The $570m spent on PC games includes $210m spent on direct downloads and $50m second-hand trade. MMO games gross $270m, leaving console games behind with $225m. Boxed revenues are still relatively high considering the fact that 75% of PC or console game buyers also download free illegal copies. Online casual game destinations, games on social networks and mobile devices each account for about 10% of total game spending, and together take an impressive 48% of all time spent on games. With the Internet access spreading fast across the country and local as well as international game companies launching localized high- quality games in Russia daily, the market is clearly set for strong further growth.
So far everything seems just great. There are many Internet users in Russia, there are many gamers and, what is even more important, many gamers actually pay for games. What is left?
STEREOTYPE #3
The Russian market is believed to be very difficult to enter Among the main reasons there are cultural backgrounds, language and localization issues and billing. And I have to be honest, there are some differences to consider. For example, “Mafia Wars” is one of the most popular games on Facebook (who didn’t play
it at least once?) While “The Prison” is one of the most popular social games on the Russian social network Vkontakte.
But you are wrong if you think that the differences are that huge. If we have a look at Top 10 of the most popular games, they are pretty much the same on Facebook and on Russian social networks.
Western developers, who already know how to survive in hazardous Facebook environment, will be able to work in the Russian social networks as well, all viral methods are similar to Facebook.
We can observe the same situation in the casual games sector: though the audience differs a bit, hits remain hits. For example, Nevosoft’s title “My Kingdom for the Princess” got to the top 10 on all the world leading casual game portals. It got the Great Games Award in 2010 as the Best Sim/Tycoon game. And it also was a best-seller of the year on our Russian portal
Nevosoft.ru
All in all, the Russian video game market might be just a perfect direction to expand right now. It offers a lot of opportunities to those who know how to seize them. Don’t let stereotypes drive your business!
Article submitted by Julia Lebedeva- Casual video games industry public relations manager.
Ms. Lebedeva also acts as a partner relations manager for Nevosoft (Russia) responsible for finding new game content and localizing into Russian.
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