How Much Does It Cost to Publish a Game in China?

01

The cost of each route, side by side

There are three ways a Western game reaches Chinese players, and they cost different things. On Steam Global the game stays on your own store page and the costs are localisation and marketing, paid either by you or by a co-publisher who recoups them. A domestic release inside the mainland (Steam China, WeGame, the app stores, TapTap) needs a game licence that only a licensed Chinese publisher can file for, so it adds the publisher’s fees and a long wait. A mobile release goes through a Chinese mobile publisher who funds the adaptation for a share.

The rest of this guide prices the line items. For the decision between paying the costs yourself and giving up a share, read co-publishing vs self-publishing.

02

Localisation: the one cost every route shares

Simplified Chinese localisation is the cost a self-publishing studio pays in cash and a co-published studio pays through recoupment. Vendor price lists put translation at EUR 0.09 to 0.12 a word with linguistic QA at about EUR 34 an hour (Allcorrect); Chinese vendors quote from USD 0.06 a word, and post-editing machine output has been offered at USD 0.03 (r/gamedev, July 2026). One indie post-mortem put its whole localisation at about USD 6,000 (Gods vs Horrors).

Scope decides the number more than the rate does. Store copy, interface, tutorials, subtitles, dialogue and support messages are separate decisions, and the store page comes first. The localisation guide covers scope, register and testing.

03

Marketing: what the channels and the people cost

The published figures are older than anyone would like and come mostly from agencies, so read them as the shape of the market rather than a rate card. An indie marketing budget in China is typically under RMB 20,000, and RMB 20,000 to 100,000 is described as high; one sponsored video from a top-100 Bilibili creator was quoted at about RMB 100,000 (Mammoth on indienova, 2022). A Chinese PR agency retainer runs USD 2,000 to 3,000 a month and a Chinese-speaking in-house marketer RMB 20,000 to 30,000 a month (Polish embassy developer guide, 2024).

typical indie China marketing budget

< RMB 20,000

Agency guide, 2022

one video from a top-100 Bilibili creator

RMB 100,000

Same source

monthly Chinese PR retainer

USD 2,000 to 3,000

Polish embassy guide, 2024

The cheap version works for small games: mid-size creators in your genre will often cover for a key, reply rates to direct messages run from under 1% to 40% depending on how sincere and specific the Chinese-language message is, and the Gods vs Horrors developer’s verdict on paid streamers was “not worth the effort, just send keys”. The expensive version is what a co-publisher brings: existing creator relationships, a Heybox presence and someone awake in Chinese hours. The marketing guide prices the channels one by one.

04

The licence: what a domestic release adds

Your existing international Steam release does not need a game licence. A release inside the mainland does, and only a licensed Chinese publisher can file for it, so the costs sit with the publisher and are either carried, charged or recouped. Official NPPA fees are nil. One lawyer-authored guide estimates publisher service fees of RMB 50,000 to 100,000 and legal and notarisation costs of RMB 30,000 to 80,000, and names localisation and content modification as the largest and least predictable item (China Game Legal, February 2026). Those are vendor figures; ask the publisher which it carries and which it recoups.

05

What a publisher takes instead of cash

A co-publisher’s price is a share of China revenue. First-hand accounts cluster around half, with the publisher carrying local marketing cost; a 60/40 split in the developer’s favour is also reported, and one vendor describes 30% to 70% of gross profit. None of those is a contract. The figures that move money are the revenue base (net of Steam’s cut, refunds, VAT and withholding, or something less favourable), which costs are recoupable and whether they are capped, and whether the publisher recoups from the whole pool before the split or from its own share after it.

Read revenue share models before any term sheet, and ask every shortlisted publisher the same four questions: territory and exclusivity, what it funds, what the first report contains, and a developer you can speak to.

06

Tax and payment costs on the way out

Royalties paid out of China typically carry 10% withholding tax, plus 6% VAT withheld on the royalty (China Briefing). Ask who bears the VAT, whether the publisher will supply tax certificates so you can credit the withholding against your own tax, and confirm the treaty position for your country with your accountant before you sign. Then the mechanics: currency (write USD or GBP, never “dollars”), remittance timetable and who pays bank and conversion charges. On £100,000 of China receipts these lines are worth more than most studios spend on localisation.

07

Mobile: where the money goes before you see it

On a mobile release gross billings go first to the store (50% at the phone-maker Android stores, 30% at Apple, with a 15% route for mini apps since November 2025), then tax, then the publisher recoups user acquisition, then publisher and developer share what is left. Developer take with Tencent or ByteDance publishing mid-core games was about 10% to 20% of gross in a 2022 analysis of listed-company filings; treat that as a ceiling for a Western casual studio, not a quote. TapTap takes no revenue share and lives on advertising. Mini-game platforms publish their terms: WeChat pays 60% cash on in-app purchases plus 10% as ad credits and 50% cash on ad revenue; Douyin up to 90% of ad revenue in paid-acquisition scenes (WeChat, Douyin).

The cash cost to the studio is again usually nil, because the publisher funds the port and the acquisition. The cost is the share, and the question to ask is what marketing budget is written into the contract, not the size of the advance: Chinese publishers are reported to sign about ten small games, run a first round of ads, then put the budget behind one or two. See the mini-games guide and the mobile publishing page.

08

Two budgets for the same indie game

Illustrative only, for a 50,000-word premium PC game with Chinese reviews already at 10% of the total and no Simplified Chinese support.

1. 1

   Self-publish on Steam Global

   Localisation EUR 5,000, LQA and font EUR 600, a native-speaker store page and first-hour review EUR 400, 50 keys to mid-size creators and a QQ group run by a Chinese-speaking contractor at RMB 25,000 for the launch month. Roughly EUR 9,000 to 10,000 in cash, and you keep all of Steam net from China. Worth it when the demand is already visible and the team can answer players in Chinese.

2. 2

   Co-publish on Steam Global

   Cash from the studio: nil. The partner funds the same localisation and a larger campaign (Heybox page, creator relationships, a Chinese-language launch statement) and recoups the localisation from revenue before taking about half of China net. Worth it when the campaign the partner can run is larger than the one you can, and when the contract caps recoupment and defines the base properly.

3. 3

   Compare on one basis

   Model both over 24 months of China receipts at two demand levels. The partner has to add more than its share costs; at low China revenue the self-published route often wins on cash, at high revenue the partner’s campaign has to be the reason the revenue is high. The comparison guide sets out the method.

09

What EightSix charges, for completeness

Our fee is separate from everything above and is only payable when a Chinese partner signs: a one-off £5,000 (£10,000 including the launch review), credited in full against a share of 20% of China net revenue up to £50,000 and 10% above that. The assessment, the shortlist and the negotiation cost nothing up front. The structure with worked examples is on the pricing page, and it must sit as its own line in your deal model, apart from any publisher share and recoupable spending.