At ChinaJoy 2016, Li Wei, CEO of China Mobile Games and Entertainment Group (CMGE), gave a talk on how to "perfectly" publish a mobile game in China.

He started by saying that developers need to fully understand the marketplace before launching, as well as drawing inspiration from other industries.

For example, Wei explained that at CMGE, he had looked to Ang Lee for inspiration, and in particular his persistence in his early years which led to later success.

Better with time

On that note, Wei said that CMGE doesn't necessarily only publish good games. It will also publish games that aren't necessarily great, but can be grown and worked on after release.

As well as this, he suggested keeping an eye on the competition and seeing what else is being released and when. He also advised to plan your own release accordingly to avoid getting lost in the crowd.

This may be as simple as launching in a season where other games of a similar genre aren't so heavily populated, which Wei noted had previously been summer time for MMOs, for example.

Or it could be the case that you need to track what games are actually being played and pick out a trend to start developing a game for.