The Right Distribution Partners are Key

For many developers and publishers, Valve’s Steam platform is the main solution explored for the worldwide distribution of their games. Certainly, its size and proliferation are a boon, and headlines of problems with illegal keys sold by other distributors continue to be a deterrent to adopting other platforms. North American, Western European and East Asian markets continue to pull in the lion’s share of consumer spending, but developers and publishers may want to explore working with distribution partners in other regions, as these are rapidly growing markets. Newzoo estimated the size of the 2016 consumer market in some faster-growing regions:

• Russia and Eastern Europe – $3.0 billion revenues, +7.3% year over year, 152 million gamers
• SE Asia – $3.7 billion revenues, +26.4% year over year, 142.1 million gamers (2015 estimate)
• Latin America – $4.1 billion revenues, +20.1% year over year, 209 million gamers
• MENA – $3.2 billion revenues, +26.2% year over year, 301 million gamers

Finding a distribution partner in another territory is important as they have on the ground connections with gamers and retailers, and they utilize localized payment methods that are key to taking advantage of these growing markets. The best strategy is to find a reliable distribution partner who offers controlled key distribution with price protection and regional control. DDM can further assist in the following ways:

• Recommend the best distribution partners by territory for PC, mobile and console platforms
• Advise on strategies to mitigate illegal and heavily discounted keys such as region-locking keys
• Facilitate business terms such as wholesale unit pricing rather than the typical revenue share

Additionally, DDM has developed a distribution dashboard to unify reportings from various distribution partners. To find out more about DDM’s distribution services, contact us.