Chinese mobile games giant Allstar plots £2.6m UK invasion

Chinese mobile games publisher Allstar Games will launch in the UK this year, and is splashing $4m (2.6m) on the venture.

The firm’s debut release will be mobile action strategy title Allstar Heroes for iOS and Android.

The $4m spend is designed to promote both Allstar Games and Allstar Heroes. During 2015, the publisher will put $10m (6.5m) behind its marketing across Europe.

We are aiming to becomea global top-tier mobile publisher.Allstar Heroes is the best mobile game in Asian market at the moment,” said Allstars Games vice president Bea Wang.

We’re planning to make an initial investment of $4m in the UK market, and will continue to invest to make our launches successful. We have a lot of confidence in Allstar Heroes’ ability to be our breakthrough launch in new markets.”

She continued: The global mobile market has become extremely competitive, particularly since 2013. Traditional marketing, such as Facebook and Google Adwords, is still very important, however, if game developers and publishers only focus on these channels, then it is rather risky, since competition is fiercer than ever. This requires us to find new ways of reaching our target audience. We therefore decided not only to focus on online promotions, but offline activity, too. Over the next 12 months we’ll be looking at a range of other marketing methods to engage with new and existing players, including experiential events and a one-off cosplay competition.

In China, traditionally, publishers don’t have huge budgets to spend on advertising, but we’re now seeing more mobile publishers advertising on TV, and we also intend to go down this route, too.”