王者榮耀在美國過得好慘，中美的差異真大

Culture clash: Why Arena of Valor is struggling in America

文化衝突：美國的《王者榮耀》爲什麼在掙扎

It's impossible to argue that Tencent's Honor of Kings isn't the biggest mobile game in the world right now.

不得不說騰訊的《王者榮耀》目前是世界最大手遊。

In 2017, the mobile MOBA generated $1.9 billion in revenue and boasted 200 million active players in China alone. It became the focus of a new esports initiative called the King Pro League (KPL). Younger players even had their play time restricted by Tencent in July last year after government concerns about its impact.

2017年MOBA遊戲創造了19億美元的收益，單在中國就有2億活躍玩家，它成爲一個新的電子競技賽事《王者榮耀職業聯賽》的重點。去年7月政府擔心該遊戲的影響，騰訊甚至限制了年輕玩家的遊戲時間。

Yet in the west, its sister title Arena of Valor is disappointingly plodding along. 

然而在西方，它的姊妹篇《王者榮耀》前景卻不容樂觀。

（美版的蝙蝠俠就是中國版的蘭陵王）

According to Sensor Tower, the game has taken six months to cross the one million install mark on both Google Play and the App Store in the country. 

據Sensor Tower（移動應用數據分析公司）稱，該遊戲花了6個月時間纔拿下美國Google Play和App Store 100萬的安裝量。

Furthermore, it's only generated $3 million to date - less than Honor of Kings does in a single day domestically.

此外，截至目前收入僅爲300萬美元——低於《王者榮耀》在國內的單日收入。

Why then is Arena of Valor struggling in the US? 

那麼《王者榮耀》在美國爲什麼沒有打開市場？

Partially, it's a victim to market trends, but mostly it's a game lost in translation. By being stripped of China's unique cultural and market context, Arena of Valor lost much of what made Honor of Kings work, and has suffered in the process.

部分原因是受市場潮流影響，但主要還是該遊戲變味了。沒有了中國獨特的文化和市場氛圍，《王者榮耀》丟掉了很多促使其成功的要素，推廣受阻。

（這是貂蟬）

Arena of Valor's comparative lack of success in the US market is not entirely down to an unfortunate release date. Instead, we can only understand its problems by looking at where Honor of Kings succeeded in China instead.

《王者榮耀》在美國市場相對來說不夠成功也不能完全歸咎於發佈時機不對。我們只能通過分析其在中國的成功反觀其存在的問題。

First, Honor of Kings genre choice fits much more naturally with the Chinese market than with the American market.

首先，《王者榮耀》題材的選擇相比美國市場更自然地契合中國市場。

While MOBAs are popular in the US, in China they're a gaming phenomenon. Honor of Kings' enormous audience is complemented by Riot's League of Legends, which last reported an active player base of over 111 million players.

雖然MOBA遊戲在美國大受歡迎，但在中國只是一種遊戲現象，拳頭（美國網遊開發商）的《英雄聯盟》爲《王者榮耀》提供了巨大的用戶基礎，據最近報道《英雄聯盟》的活躍玩家基數已突破1.11億。

This market fit has benefitted Honor of Kings significantly. 

這一市場契合度對《王者榮耀》的成功意義重大。

By tapping into an already engaged audience with a mobile equivalent of a PC experience, it was well placed to both expand rapidly and follow a similar commercial direction to its PC counterpart.

藉助PC端經驗獲得的積極的移動設備用戶使該遊戲既可以快速推廣，又能遵循與PC端遊戲相似的商業方向。

（超人就是關羽）

（會飛的關羽是不是應該叫開羽？）

Second, Honor of Kings benefits because it is tapped much more closely into China's mobile infrastructure. 

其次，《王者榮耀》的成功在於它更貼近中國移動基礎設施。

Although Arena of Valor uses Facebook to connect players, Honor of Kings' connection with Tencent's QQ and WeChat goes much deeper than idle sharing. 

雖然《王者榮耀》可以通過Facebook連接玩家，但中國版可以將騰訊的QQ和微信用戶的聯繫深入到休閒分享中。

Instead, Tencent's exceedingly popular chat apps - each boasting hundreds of millions of users - fully power the social aspect of the game by allowing players to see who is online, invite players to games and discuss strategies.

騰訊這兩個熱門社交聊天應用中每個都擁有上億用戶，玩家可以看到誰在線，邀請玩家加入遊戲並討論策略，這充分發揮了該遊戲的社交作用。

Both services act, in essence, like a platform to drive engagement and push up its player bases. 

其實這兩個應用都成爲了推動參與和擴大玩家基礎的平臺。