SeYoung Park the global PM of Gala Lab
Gala Lab’s MMORPG <Rappelz>is quite successfully settled in global markets like MEA, Russia, and Europe.
According to an interview with SeYoung Park PM of Gala Lab, <Rappelz> is being serviced in 13 different langauges in 59 countries including the U.S., France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and MEA. It has 4.8 million total users and 50,000+ new players are registering every month.
Especailly in MEA, it is ranked first place in the most popular game since last 2009. Moreover, it is also one of the most downloaded games in the first half of 2010 in Russia. Its CBT in emerging markets including South America and Indonesia are set in this September.
Park said trust between the developer and the local publisher was the most essential for the success. He exemplified that Gala Lab suggested to change <Rappelz>’s payment policy from subscription to F2P service. F2P in MEA then was unfamiliar to the gamer and even payment systems were not set enough for it. So it was quite risky to deal with. But the local publisher accepted Gala Lab’s offer and built a new payment system in order for their customers to purchase virtual items easily. As a result, <Rappelz> has gotton grown even more than ever.
Rappelz's growth rate in MEA.
About the localization, he said revising backgrounds and outwears was the priority. They minimized nudity of female characters and removed such religous elements as cross.
For Russia, national quests are being developed. He said if this Russian quests work out, then other countries would have their own quests too.
In addition, the weather in Russia was an unexpected variable. Since Russia is a very cold country, people like to play outside on sunny days and it casuses CCU of <Rappelz> plummet by nearly 30%. So Park said he is seriously considering how to take care of the issue.
