Hong Kong mobile hit Tower of Saviors goes global

Tower of Saviors, an iOS and Android game developed by Hong Kong-based Mad Head, burned up Asia’s mobile charts this past fall. The game already had seven million players when we reviewed it back in October, and that’s no wonder, because it’s a damn good game.

But now, the Hong Kong game has ventured even further abroad thanks to a deal with US-based published Storm8 that saw it released in the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK under the title War of Dragons. In the press release, Mad Head founder Terry Tsang is quoted as saying that Storm8 helped Mad Head with additional design and branding to help make the game appeal more to players in Western markets.

As for Storm8, it’s no secret why the American company was interested in the Hong Kong game: Tower of Saviors has a very high player count, but it also has a very high ARPPU, which is something that excites mobile game publishers for reasons that are probably obvious.

It’s not uncommon to see Western games adapted for and published in Asia, of course, but outside of Japanese games, it’s less common for Asian games to catch the interest of Western publishers. Personally, I hope that the cooperation between Mad Head and Storm8 here can be an inspiration and a model for other Asian mobile game developers who want to expand Westward. I’m always in favor of more games crossing the line between east and west, but I especially like to see companies working with local partners and taking the time to localize and brand properly for new markets rather than just slapping a quick translation into the game and calling it “localized”.

War of Dragons has only just been released in the US and the UK, but it has performed well in Canada and Australia already, and I suspect that the game has a bright future in the West.