A guide to culturalizing mobile games through live operations
EA Mobile's Oindrila Mandal uses a product management lens to demystify how to culturalize mobile games for global audiences
Mobile games now serve global audiences. Gone are the days when free-to-play mobile audiences were concentrated in Tier 1 gaming markets in the west and the far east.
Earlier mobile titles could get away with optimizing gameplay and live events for players in these markets. However, with 5G and mobile technology penetration accelerating in Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets, Latin America, South-east Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and Africa now generate a considerable number of downloads and active users for mobile games.
Localization alone is not enough
Considering these market dynamics, localization alone is not enough. Mobile game developers and publishers can capitalize on this opportunity and create culturally nuanced game experiences to serve their global player base.
As a mobile-first gamer born and raised in India, I have a unique perspective on how culture plays an important part in enjoying mobile games. As a senior product manager at EA Mobile, I've closely followed mobile games that have implemented successful culturalization strategies and compiled the best practices here.
But first, let's try to understand why mobile games should be culturalized.
Top reasons to culturalize mobile games
- Players around the world are diverse and have varied tastes. A one-size-fits-all approach no longer works for mobile. Ethno-culturally relevant content in games can appeal to diverse player segments.
- Free-to-play mobile audiences demand a continuous treadmill of content. Culturalization through live ops presents opportunities to introduce new content.
- Consumer spend patterns are cyclical and often follow local cultural events. Consumer products, ecommerce, and entertainment industries have always taken advantage of these cycles by introducing new products and sales during local cultural festivals. It is about time for the games industry to follow suit.
The need for culturalization of mobile games is clear. But when should mobile games be culturalized? Here are a few good indicators:
• 1. Substantial international presence: If over 50% of the mobile game's daily active users are in non-Tier 1 markets.
•2. Low international monetization: Despite having a large global player base if the average revenue per user in Tier 2, Tier 3 markets is very low. For example, is international ARPDAU (average revenue per daily active users) less than 30% of your Tier 1 ARPDAU? Is it less than 50% of your closest competitor's ARPDAU in the region? This may indicate that your game is leaving money on the table.
•3. Player-base concentration: If the player-base is concentrated in certain ethno-cultural regions of the world. For example, sports mobile games might have concentrated player bases in regions where that sport is popular.
• 4. Market expansion: If the mobile game is looking to expand into a new territory.
Once a studio decides that their game can benefit from culturalization, they must keep in mind that culturalization needs to be implemented through careful consideration and planning. There are many ways in which culturalization attempts can go wrong.
Common pitfalls to avoid in culturalizing mobile games
- Last-minute planning and resourcing: Culturalization attempts must be planned for in advance. Development teams should ensure that they allocate enough time and resources to do justice to their culturalization initiatives.
- Inadequate research: For many practical reasons, development teams may not have a deep understanding of the specific cultures they are adapting their games for. A common pitfall is diving head-first into the design phase without performing adequate research on cultural nuances beforehand.
Culture is a part of our identities, so mobile game culturalization initiatives must be nuanced and thoughtful
- Recycle and re-use: It is not enough to just recycle existing events and content by tacking on some vague cultural themes. Players usually see through such surface level attempts at culturalization.
- Stereotyping: No matter how well intentioned, uninformed culturalization attempts also carry the risk of perpetrating harmful cultural stereotypes and may cause player backlash.
Culture is a part of our identities, so mobile game culturalization initiatives must be nuanced and thoughtful. So how do we get culturalization right? For mobile games, live operations is a low risk high reward approach to integrating cultural aspects. Let's look at a few best practices.
Best practices in culturalizing mobile games using live ops
•1. Clearly define your goals
Before adding culturalization to the mobile game's live ops product roadmap, first define your goals. Is it getting more downloads, improving player engagement or retention, or monetizing the existing players in that market? Clearly stating this at the onset will assist critical decision-making as the culturalization project progresses. For example, for TapBlaze's Good Pizza Great Pizza, culturalization was all about expanding their player base globally.
•2. Target the right audience for your game
The next step is to define the culturalization live ops roadmap, and for that, identifying the target markets and audiences is essential. This can be informed by existing geo distribution of players, genre of the game, and its goals for culturalization. A great example is eFootball's culturalization in Latin America.
Latin America has one of the largest soccer fan bases in the world. eFootball launched a number of events and initiatives to target football lovers in Latin America. These culturalization initiatives range from partnering with Liga BBVA MX in Mexico, launching the COPA America eFootball Tournament, to running Dia de Los Muertos events with custom branded jerseys.
•3. Do the research
Before implementing culturalization, game teams must carefully research nuances of cultural history and current socio-political sentiments. If the designers and product managers on the game team do not have lived experiences or direct knowledge about the target culture, the studio should hire external consultants, market researchers or partners to bring in a native understanding of the local culture.
•4. Identify the cultural artifacts to place in the game
Equipped with the right knowledge, game teams must decide which cultural themes or components can be added to the game. This phase requires care and respect towards the culture being represented. Understanding cultural motifs is one aspect but being able to translate them well into the live ops events of a mobile game is quite another.
PUBG Mobile, the top mobile shooter game in 2023 by revenue, achieved this brilliantly in their 2023 Ramadan series of events. The month-long culturalization initiative featured a sprawling desert landscape in the Golden Moon Bazaar event, celebrated the importance of food in bringing together communities during Ramadan through the Eid Al Fitr Feast event, and respectfully integrated cultural practices such as sharing blessings during the Golden Moon Blessings event.
•5. Be specific and authentic
Specificity is key in culturalization. To ensure that cultural stereotypes and biases do not inadvertently influence culturalization attempts, the artists and designers should create content that represents a specific instance of a culture rather than vaguely alluding to an entire demography.
For example, while culturalizing Good Pizza, Great Pizza in MENA, TapBlaze decided to first launch in Egypt. The company sent local market researchers into pizza parlors in Egypt and asked them to design characters based on real customers they saw. Such ethnographic studies are a great way to represent cultures authentically and specifically.
•6. Deliver value to your players
At the end of the day, the live ops content that goes into the mobile game must also deliver value to the players. It must enhance the gameplay or player experience in some way.
In the earlier example of PUBG Mobile, the Ramadan series of events were innovative, engaging and challenging for players. In the eFootball example, Latin American culturalization brought in fan-favorite football leagues and athletes into the game, deepening the economy and making gameplay more competitive.
Call of Duty Mobile's Lunar New Year events do the same through a Battle Pass system. It introduces new content, character skins, items, weapons, and milestones.
•7. Test, test, and test
Not all culturalization attempts will be successful. It is important to be agile and create the space to market-test the content. For free-to-play live operated mobile games, this is relatively easy because live ops events are temporary and changes can always be rolled back if they don't perform well.
Game teams that are unsure of the potential of their culturalization initiatives can choose to start small through sales, bonuses, and mini events localized to a specific region of interest. If initial tests work, then teams can experiment with larger, more expansive events like seasons, battle passes, and recurring events across more regions.
If these are successful then culturalization initiatives can be rolled out globally or become a permanent fixture in the game like a new character, map, or a game-mode.
A great example of this approach is Evony, the top grossing strategy 4X March Battle game in 2023. Evony regularly introduces culturally significant characters, maps and artifacts individually into the game and then combines them into larger events or resurfaces them based on popularity.
•8. Measure success
Finally, the most important aspect is measuring success. Go back to your goals defined in phase 1. Measure through data if that goal was achieved. Did the game get new downloads, more users, or generate more revenue? Or were there some other interesting results such as changes in the average revenue per user or buzz on social media. Perform a sentiment analysis on user feedback across online communities of the game. Compile the learnings and apply them to your next culturalization project.
In summary, culturalization helps mobile games create a deeper connection with their globally diverse audience. By respecting and incorporating various cultural elements game developers and publishers can create richer, more immersive experiences that resonate with players worldwide.
Culturalization of mobile games requires a well-researched, thoughtful, and nuanced approach. The titles that have done it right are those that tried to understand how to authentically represent a culture, added culturalization as an intentional part of their live ops roadmap, allocated enough resources to successfully realize their vision for culturalization, and built a pipeline for testing and continuous feedback to inform product improvements.
Keeping these best practices in mind should help any mobile game successfully culturalize their games to any target market.