Looking to target Japan with your mobile game? Try Taiwan first

For those mobile game developers and publishers looking to break into Japan, analytics company Metaps has a suggestion for you -- target Taiwan first. While climbing the various Japanese app store charts can prove very lucrative for Western mobile game devs, Metaps notes that the climb can be steep, due to heavy competition and required ad spending. But when you compare the Japanese and Taiwanese app charts, there's a definite pattern says the company. The sorts of games and genres that are popular in Japan are equally as popular in Taiwan, thus making Taiwan the perfect entry point for Western devs looking to make it big in the East. Metaps also notes that Taiwan already ranks as the fifth best-selling region for worldwide sales on Google Play. RPGs and card battle games in particular sell rather well in Taiwan. "Taiwan represents an opportunity for Western developers to enter into Asia with a lower budget to test the waters," says the report, "before making end roads into larger regional markets like Japan and Korea."