We know it may sound bad and feel like “corporate stuff”, but trust us if you are an indie dev you need market research, and after this blog you’ll realize that it’s not even that bad. Market research is essentially a process that will help you gain information about potential players, market size, potential revenue, competitors, trends etc. This blog will focus more on how to conduct market research for indie games, specifically for game localization. Don’t go anywhere!
What Does Market Research Mean?
Let’s start with the basics. Market research is essentially collecting information and data about potential customers, competitors, target markets and all additional information that can help a business, in this case you, make an informed decision about a certain product.
Is Market Research for Indie Games Really Important?
Market research might sound fancy, like something for big companies, so if you are an indie dev, you might think that you don’t need it or that it’s too complicated for you. Not to be rude, you’d be super wrong. First of all, you need some sort of market research just to pitch your game to a publisher. This shows professionalism and that you are serious about your game, and it will significantly increase your chances of getting the publisher on board with the project. Doing market research for your indie game will also help you determine which languages might hold the most revenue potential, which is very important if you are on a budget, as you’ll avoid spending money on languages that might get you nothing in return.
Market Research and Game Localization
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the role of market research for indie games it’s not just to determine whether players will play your game or not, but also to better understand in which markets are players most likely to buy it. Many developers try to guess which languages are worth localizing into, or simply follow what others are doing. However, they often overlook important factors like the game genre, the platform of release, or the competition. That’s not a reliable method, and there is a high risk of spending money for localization, for languages that might end up generating no revenue. Think of it like this: localizing a game and releasing it in certain markets without proper market research, would be like building a house on a piece of land without checking if the soil will support the building.
Let’s dive in the fun stuff and see how you can do market research for localization by yourself!
How to Conduct Market Research for Game Localization
There are two routes you can take when conducting market research for your indie game, the first one is simply to hire professionals to do it for you. The second one is DIY style, which is going to be free and really not that complicated. Here’s what you want to do.
Establish your game’s genre, style, features and characteristics
This is the first step of market research for indie games. Establishing your game’s genre, features and style will set the foundation of the next steps. This phase will allow you to create a buyer persona, establish competitors, and where your game might become popular based on its characteristics.
Research and Establish Competitors
Who said competitors were a bad thing? Whoever did was right, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use them to your advantage. Once you’ve established your game’s identity, look for games that are very similar or somewhat similar to yours. Identify the best-selling games in your genre, as well as those that underperformed, and analyze them in depth. Play both the successful and the unsuccessful ones, gathering feedback from your own experience and from player reviews. By doing this, you can pinpoint what made the successful games thrive and what caused the others to falter. Don’t stop there—explore their websites, scrutinize their social media, and gather additional insights that might help you understand how to better communicate with players and market your game more effectively.
Look at Demographics
Even though we are later going to research target markets based specifically on game genre, looking at the general demographics of the platform of release is always a good idea. Assuming you plan on releasing your game on Steam, you would have to consider taking a look at the general Steam demographics.
Research Target Markets
Researching the markets you wish to target is key to ensuring an efficient localization that will yield a return on your investment. Once you have established your game’s genre, features, and thoroughly analyzed your competitors, the next step is to assess potential markets. Look at where your game’s genre is most successful, but be mindful of oversaturation in those markets. SteamSpy and VG Insights are useful tools for checking these statistics. While VG Insights offers a paid subscription, you can still gather the necessary data with a free account.
English Proficiency Index
After researching target markets, another smart move is to check out the English Proficiency Index (EPI). Let’s say your research shows that Türkiye could be a great market for your game. A quick look at the EPI will tell you that English proficiency there is pretty low, so localization would be a must to make your game successful. On the flip side, if Sweden shows some interest in your game, localization might not be worth it, as the EPI is really high. So, when you pair the EPI with your market research, it helps you identify and decide where localization will pay off the most. This way, you’re putting your resources where they’ll make the biggest impact, ensuring you’re not putting your efforts where it’s not needed.
Steam Page Localization
Once you’ve looked at the data and have a general idea of the market landscape, a safe way to collect additional insights is by localizing your game’s Steam page. This approach not only helps you gather more data but also provides a clearer picture of regional interest. Simply track regional wishlists to identify which regions are showing the most interest in your game. While wishlists don’t always convert into sales, when combined with your target market research, they can help you make more accurate predictions. Additionally, localizing your Steam page has been shown to significantly increase traffic and page visits up to 4.5 times more. Not bad, right?
Visit Forums and Social Media
Lastly, consider checking out forums to see if there are any discussions around games like yours and localization. Reddit is also a valuable resource where you can find a wide range of perspectives, from other developers’ experiences to publishers’ insights and player feedback. It’s a great way to gather additional information and learn from the experiences of others.
Conclusion
Localization is not guess work, it’s a process that in order to yield results, has to be planned and organized. By implementing these steps in your strategy, not only you’ll make sure that your game’s localization will yield the best results possible, but you will also ensure efficiency, mitigate risks, and avoid guess work. This is also the most cost effective way, as it will make sure your money is well spent. It might sound complicated, but it’s not rocket science.
Hope you found this helpful, and if you are thinking about localization hit us up and let’s have a chat!