In a move indicative of changing market trends, mobile game developers this year released a slew of titles designed for women and girls, formerly a niche genre that saw as few as one game published per year.
Many women and girls play mobile games and they are more likely to spend on peripheral merchandise than men, game developers said.
According to Liftoff’s Mobile App Engagement Index Report 2018, female gamers are 79 percent more willing to make in-game purchases, while Statista last year said that females comprised 69 percent of people who play tile-clearing games.
The female-oriented game Mystic Messenger by South Korean developer Cheritz sold 200,000 copies in two weeks after its release in July on the Taiwan-region app stores for iOS and Android, said SNSplus (好玩家), the game’s publisher in Taiwan.
Enthusiasm for the game in online sales has so far matched sales of game-related tickets at anime and game expos and merchandise, SNSplus chairman Lu Po-hung (呂柏宏) said, adding that Mystic Messenger’s strong showing has prompted talks to market the franchise globally.
While female gamers tend to make smaller one-time purchases, given enough time, their accumulated spending equals those of male gamers, he said.
Because female gamers are more likely to be invested in the story and setting of a game, they add value to the game, lengthen the franchise lifecycle and increase profits from merchandise sales, he said.
Interserv International Inc (昱泉國際), the Taiwanese publisher of the Ikemen franchise by Japan-based Cybird Holdings, has unveiled designer necklaces and lip glosses as game merchandise, with celebrity cosplayer Stay being the brand spokeswoman.
China-based mobile game makers and publishers with a foothold in Taiwan are also looking to female players to expand their business.
Role-playing game Yujian Nishuihan (遇見逆水寒), developed by NetEase (網易) and published by LongE (龍邑), and released in August in Taiwan, is also a game intended mainly for females.
The player can either take the role of the heroine based on the novel and interact with the five male characters, or play in a gender-flipped version of the story, NetEase said, adding that the game was designed to increase players’ choices.
China-based app and game developer Meitu is also working on the release of 100 Sleeping Princes and the Kingdom of Dreams on Fun Town-managed platform Dream Valley (夢谷) in Taiwan, with augmented-reality filters planned for users.
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