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HeroCraft's Innovative Games Conquer the World via 27 Million Downloads From Ovi Store
OviPublisherSuccesses | 25 July, 2011 18:31
Russia-based HeroCraft, a leading mobile game developer and publishing company has quickly risen to prominence in the Nokia developer community, with a track record of producing high-quality apps and games for mobile consumers around the world. The company first celebrated their success back in June 2010 when their mobile game Farm Frenzy reached the milestone of six million downloads from Ovi Store users in over 190 markets. In December, HeroCraft celebrated another achievement, reaching a unique benchmark of more than 12 million total downloads from Ovi Store on the strength of a large app roster that includes such popular titles as Yumsters! and Zum-Zum. HeroCraft has another reason to celebrate; in June 2011, HeroCraft's catalogue of award-winning mobile games and apps have elevated the company's downloads to the epic number of more than 27 million total downloads from Nokia's Ovi Store.
The pyramid-themed puzzle game Zum-Zum, one of HeroCraft's first breakout successes, is a prime example of the company's global focus. Available worldwide in 10 different languages, Zum-Zum is evidence of how the company is maximizing their reach by targeting the maximum number of Nokia users worldwide. To-date, Zum-Zum has been one of HeroCraft's most-downloaded games.
"We at HeroCraft have a proud tradition of extended localization. Being based in Russia, we have to localize our apps into English regardless - so it has been a natural step to include a few more of our European neighbors in that process," says Alexey Sazonov, HeroCraft's Director of Sales and Marketing. "We're firm believers in providing the right content to each territory and good localization is one key element of our success. What may not be a hit in the UK may succeed in Germany, for example, so localization becomes not just about increased monetization but also about diversifying the markets we participate in to lower our risks."
The company's localisation efforts don't end there, however. Most of Herocraft's games are localised in at least nine languages, and almost all of their apps have been adapted to include English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Russian versions. The company also reports that they are increasingly localizing their apps into Chinese, Polish, Portuguese and Turkish versions, as well.
HeroCraft took this already-winning design for Nokia Symbian 5.0 and new Symbian phone users a step further when they launched a version of Zum-Zum app for Nokia's Series 40 Touch and Type phones. Relaunching their game on this new platform gave HeroCraft an opportunity to reach even more users.
This dedication to making their apps and games accessible to a broad international audience compliments Nokia's 200-million-strong Symbian global user base, allowing them to target more smartphone users worldwide than developers on competing platforms.
Beyond its worldwide reach, and download numbers, HeroCraft's innovative approach to growing its business is a monetization strategy to help extend the reach of their games. For example, in 2010 HeroCraft partnered with in-app advertising provider inneractive (another Ovi Publisher success story) to help monetize Zum-Zum. Ad-supported games are often more widely adopted than paid games, as they are typically free to download. Zum-Zum's combination of outstanding game design, worldwide availability and an ad-driven revenue model led to the game's success of being ranked number one in Ovi Store in 2010, generating over six million game plays per month at the height of its popularity. The game was even recognized by the GSM Association and received the prestigious Global Mobile Award as the 2010 App of the Year on the Nokia Platform.
"We are very proud of the ad-funded version of the Zum-Zum game," says Pavel Prokonich, HeroCraft's CEO, in a post on inneractive's website. "With Ovi's strong global presence, Zum-Zum generates six million game plays per month. We use inneractive's Ad Revenue Acceleration Platform to capitalize on traffic spanning 200 countries and boost our ad revenues."
Check out this gameplay video of Zum-Zum to see what grabbed the judges' eyes:
"Winning the GSMA award was a huge achievement for us," adds Sazonov. "The Nokia Developer team has been incredibly supportive of developers and has done a great deal in terms of promotion for our mobile apps. Nokia's Ovi Store has flourished since its launch two years ago and today is even more open to enabling wonderful mobile app opportunities that were never before available to us."
Another key component to HeroCraft's global success is their dedication to integrating advanced graphics and dynamic features to create compelling apps that are attractive to users all over the world. For example, High Speed 3D boasts innovative graphics and fast, furious gameplay that has won the game top honors and review ratings from mobile gaming publications around the world. High Speed 3D Free was the most popular gaming download globally from Ovi Store in late 2010.
Another popular game, Farm Frenzy, received overwhelmingly positive feedback for its high replay value, which gives users the opportunity to play the game a number of ways and show a different result each time.
In addition to delivering great games and apps, HeroCraft has also built value through their strategic partnerships by broadening their appeal to mobile gamers and ultimately increasing the company's revenue. The company has focused on licensing intellectual property from other companies, in order to port popular PC titles onto Nokia mobile phones.
One game that shows how this approach has proved to be effective is the popular real-time strategy/simulation, titled Majesty, which brings Paradox Interactive's popular PC title to Nokia mobile phones.
Check out this Nokia Develoepr video interview featuring Sazonov, which highlights some of Majesty's cool features and an interesting twist on the real-time strategy genre:
But for HeroCraft, development didn't stop once the game was released. Explains Sazonov: "We value our consumer feedback and take it very seriously. It is a blessing for developers to have such a devoted ratings and comments system in Ovi Store as it gives us the opportunity to listen and cater to our users' requests. One recent example of our continued commitment to our titles and community is with the updated version of Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim. Our customers had shared that while they loved the game, they'd finished the main story and wanted more. Within a few months we had added an expansion pack with a brand new quest which furthers the game story - giving our customers exactly what they requested."
If HeroCraft's story proves anything, it is that the company's strength comes from constant innovation and looking ahead. Says Sazonov: "There are plenty more cool games on the horizon. We are also looking forward to releasing our first Windows Phone 7 game soon. The partnership between Microsoft and Nokia looks very promising and we hope Nokia, with its experience in managing a developer community, will take the lead in bringing Windows Phone 7 gaming to the masses."
Zum-Zum and Zum-Zum Series 40 are available for free on Nokia Symbian (5.0 and 3.x) and Series 40 Touch & Type phones.
High Speed 3D is available for Nokia Symbian 5.0 and New Symbian phones. It is available from Ovi Store for $0.99 (USD). High Speed 3D Free is available for free.
Farm Frenzy and Farm Frenzy Trial are available from Ovi Store and in the US through AT&T and T-Mobile. Farm Frenzy can be purchased for $1.99 (USD). Farm Frenzy Trial can be downloaded for free. Both games are available on Nokia Symbian (5.0 and 3.x) and Series 40 phones.
Majesty: Fantasy Kingdom Sim and Majesty: Kingdom Sim LITE are available for Nokia Symbian (5.0 and 3.x) and New Symbian phones. The full version of Majesty can be purchased for $1.99 (USD).
Want to distribute your applications globally to millions of Nokia users via Ovi Store? Visit our Ovi Publish page on how you can get started.
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