Chinese startup game development agency Yodo1 announced a closed $2 million seed round in order to team up and help US mobile game developers that want their apps/games in the Chinese mobile market. Based from the Chang You fund, Yodo1 is looking into being one of the forerunners of bringing Western-made content into China and considering the Chinese smartphone market is huge, it makes sense for Yodo1 to pursue this strategy. Also, being a young company (they started last year), making a move such as this would only mean they are at the front of the line to grab a large share of the market for foreign game content in China. Yodo1’s purpose in this whole deal besides distribution is to provide their own expertise to help titles get going over in China. Besides helping stateside developers get their games in China, they have their own development studio of more than 60 people making apps and games for iOS and Android. As of now, Yodo1 is working with four major mobile development studios from the US. One of the first big games heading to China with support by Yodo1 is Hero Academy by Robot Entertainment.

Hero Academy has been successful in the United States for some months now on iOS and it will only get more successful once the Chinese version comes out in China. Changes are going to made catered to the Chinese audience such as a new cast of character classes and quests specific to those classes. Social networking integration is also a huge part of this release as Sina Weibo and similar Chinese social networks will be supported allowing players to interact with each other by something familiar to them. The launch trailer for the US version for those that want to see it in action is below.



In terms of pricing, Yodo1 and Robot Entertainment did not say anything official yet, but they have to consider how different the Chinese mobile market is compared to the United States. I can still see them taking a similar model than we have here and the rest of the games they are planning to distribute and localize, but who knows what they will decide on. As far as distribution is concerned, Yodo1 not just has great partnerships with independent app stores, but more importantly the Apple App Store and Android’s Google Play. Considering how both Android and Apple are wildly successful in China, with Android slightly ahead due to its open source nature, it is key for US developers to have those two distribute their work in China This is only a start of a new beginning of Yodo1 and if this initiative of helping US mobile app/game developers in China goes well, we could see more Chinese and US companies following suit in the coming years.