Publishing With Rainy Frog
For many developers releasing their game in Japan is something of a dream but also a hurdle. An inscrutable and tough market Japanese players don't just easily take on games from other regions.
With over 2 decades of experience and deep knowledge of Japanese markets Rainy Frog is ideally placed to give your game the very best opportunities. From working together to share knowledge of the market, find suitable localised titles and marketing strategies, professional localisation and quality asurance to creating Japan-specific trailers and press materials, as well as handling official age rating, publishing through Rainy Frog will help you bring your game to Japanese players in the most effective way possible.
Rainy Frog strives to be better than other publishers by offering continued support and working hard to promote your game locally. Here are some examples:
Our first game was Spin The Bottle on Wii U, developed by Knapnok Games in Denmark.
It's tons of fun to play, but we knew that the game would need a new image for Japan, targeting a younger, more family orientated audience than the European and American versions. We hired a Japanese family, re-shot all the promotional materials and created an entirely new trailer for Japan that you can see here.
Making high quality trailers is essential to promoting a game effectively on social media and digital stores. Here is the trailer we made for the world wide release of Piczle Lines DX for Nintendo Switch.
To promote Musicverse on Nintendo 3DS we asked Tawada-san, who creates the music for Pokemon, to create an original song that users could load into the game. He also generously offered to make a short introduction video that we then localised for Abylight to use in Europe and America.
Here is the English version.
We often completely re-make the trailers specifically for the Japanese market, such as the trailer for Soccer Club Life.
We'll think of a new title for your game and create a logo that looks natural in Japanese.
Wai Wai Nice Shot Tennis (Eng: Instant Tennis)
Buriki no kishi (Eng: Feudal Alloy)
Combat Search & Rescue (Eng: Dustoff Heli 2)
Sometimes it's better to create a new visual image for Japan to help catch the attention of the Japanese players. Here are three examples that we made.
Dot Artist (Eng: Pixel Maker)
Kid Tripp Run! (Eng: Kid Tripp)
Dot Horror Story (Eng: Distraint)
Rainy Frog works with the Japanese media to promote their games online and in printed magazines. Below are some images from Famitsu magazine
Developer interviews in the media is another good way to keep the game in the spot light while also raising the profile of the developer.
Rainy Frog at Tokyo Gameshow
Rainy Frog started publishing physical games in 2019 including games from Game Freak.
Physical Version Reservation Bonuses
Promotional items are created as reservation bonuses for people that pre-order. Different items are made for the main retailers in Japan, including Amazon and GEO.
A5 Clear file
(Giga Wrecker)
Pass holder
(Giga Wrecker)
Character Key Chain
(Piczle Puzzle Pack)
Bonus Cards
(Soccer Club Life)
Post Cards
(Little Town Hero)
Character Pin-Badge
(Little Town Hero)
Instore Displays
Some examples of our physical games promoted in store.
Like what you see?
Get in touch and let’s talk. We're always happy to hear from anyone that wants to discuss releasing their game in Japan and Asia. Send us information about your game in the form below and we'll get back to you asap.