Which countries should you publish your games in

I've noticed on the Google's developer console you're given the options to distribute your app in 135 different countries and I imagine there are similar options on other platforms.
If you don't have the money and/or time for localization and the game is in English, which countries make sense for distributing to (other than the obvious choices)?
Should you just publish to all of them a risk pissing off potential customers?
Are there certain countries that even though English isn't the primary language you can still have success with an English-language game?

 

There are surely millions of apps that are not localized..
Why would you miss out on any market just because you don't have localization in ? You can always add that in, later, if its uberly important to you.
I mean you don't gain any credit by users of other countries if you don't publish there, right ?
And quite often devs just do that. If the product proves profitable, one of the first updates may be new localization.

 

Ok awesome, makes sense. This is my first time publishing so I wanted to make sure it wasn't considered bad form to release an un-translated app to every country.

Also, I noticed some countries on the list are crossed out. My first guess was that those are countries the US has a trade embargo against, but China is one of them and I'm positive the US doesn't have an embargo against them. Anyone know whats up with that?

 

Maybe because you've got IAP in your app.
As far as i know they're not allowed in china

 

All of them.

 

On the topic of localizations, how important is it really? My upcoming game is "low on text", there are menu buttons labels and there are also really short tutorial-like descriptions of some elements (which no-one reads anyway). Does it make sense to spend the time and resources to localize the game?

 

You should publish in those countries where you know the local laws. Otherwise you will be held liable if you break the laws.

For instance, in the EU you will be held responsible if you mismanage personal data, as the Google v Sanchez ruling said. You must follow the privacy laws, and that may make you liable if you use exploitative ad-supports that don't give a toss about handling personal data properly. IAP are banned for individuals under twelve, so you must ensure that children don't buy your products if you use that.

The fines, if you are found to break the laws, can be eye-watering.

 

How does a developer enforce who downloads an app? That's like a brewery getting fined because a liquor store sold beer to underage kids, or a movie studio getting fined because a theater let some kids into an R-rated movie, or Rockstar getting fined because Gamestop sold a copy of GTA V to a ten year old.
It's clear which apps have IAPs, I don't think it's even possible to disguise it when submitting an app, so it makes no sense to me how the developer is responsible after submitting the game and not the marketplace and the parent of the kid.

 

Nobody is going to fault you if some kid lies and uses his parents credit card to buy a game, if you have processes in place to handle refunds and such within two weeks. It is up to the seller to develop those processes, though. Also, you can not have opt-out purchases for this reason. You must always have opt-in. But you are responsible for what you trade in the European Union. You have to know the law in the jurisdictions where you trade.

 

Gotcha, well how would that apply to an app that doesn't have consumable/tiered IAPs, rather just a single purchase to upgrade the game? It seems a bit redundant to have a user opt-in to make a one-time purchase, unless I'm confusing what the opt-in process is.