GameSalad Inc., which enables anyone to quickly develop and publish sophisticated iOS, Android and HTML5 games, is teaming up with Tencent, China’s leading Internet and mobile services company, to bring GameSalad’s popular game creation platform to China. GameSalad streamlines the process for bringing mobile games to market by eliminating the need to code and allowing developers to publish to multiple platforms with the click of a button.
The Tencent version of GameSalad’s flagship product, GameSalad Creator, has been localized into simplified Chinese and seamlessly integrates local carrier billing for purchasing virtual goods, social functionality using QQ Game Center, and mobile advertising using Tencent’s MobWin. The Tencent-GameSalad partnership will generate an abundance of diverse mobile game content tailored for Chinese audiences and facilitate mobile game development for independent developers using the platform.
‘China is the fastest growing smartphone market in the world and represents an incredible opportunity for mobile game developers,’ said Steve Felter, CEO of GameSalad. ‘We are excited to introduce our platform to a whole new audience in China, while simultaneously providing access to the Chinese market for our existing top developers. With the support of Tencent, and the invaluable expertise and resources they bring, GameSalad will play a key role in growing the mobile games ecosystem in China.’
‘We believe the partnership with GameSalad will help budding Chinese application developers bridge the technological gap for bringing their mobile game concepts to market,’ said Simon Li, Deputy General Manager of Tencent’s Wireless Business Unit. ‘By making it easy to create and distribute high quality mobile games, Tencent and GameSalad add value for both developers and players in China.’
‘Due to the significant differences in cultural tastes, Western companies entering the Chinese market often struggle in their attempts to deliver content that resonates with the Chinese people,’ said Michael Pachter, research analyst at Wedbush Securities. ‘GameSalad is smart to partner with Tencent and empower the Chinese developer community to create mobile social games that are culturally relevant for local markets.’
Since its debut in 2009, GameSalad has quickly grown to become a leading game development platform with over 300,000 developers. To date, GameSalad Creator has powered more than 60,000 original titles across mobile and web platforms, including a #1 iOS game and more than 60 Top 100 Games in Apple’s U.S. App Store. In 2011, more than 15% of all new iOS games were built with GameSalad.
The Tencent version of GameSalad Creator is currently in private Beta, with a public release expected to launch in China this summer.