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CHINA MARKET · HANDOFF

China Partner and Launch Handoff Checklist

Use 20 operational checks to turn a partner scope into accountable build delivery, SDK and data decisions, localized assets, player support, and launch-day incident ownership.

20 checks9 critical gatesAbout 35 minUpdated Aug 6, 2026

Most launch handoff failures are not missing effort. They are missing authority: two teams both assumed the other owned the account, build, data path, message, or rollback.

What you will leave with

You will produce an executable handoff pack with named owners, accepted artifacts, tested access, escalation thresholds, and a reversible launch runbook.

How to use it

Use this checklist after a China route and partner scope have been selected but before release-candidate freeze. It can also expose whether a proposed agreement is too vague to operate safely.

The studio and partner should review the same evidence together. Marking an item complete means the asset, access, test, or decision can be demonstrated—not that someone has promised to handle it later.

Prepare before you start

  • Signed scope or current term sheet, statement of work, responsibility matrix, and contact roster
  • Release-candidate schedule, build pipeline, branches, platform accounts, SDK inventory, and data-flow diagram
  • Simplified Chinese terminology, store assets, community channels, support tooling, and known-issues list
  • Launch window by time zone, severity levels, rollback options, announcement access, and post-launch review date
Current progress0 / 20
0 / 20

01 · AUTHORITY

Map Ownership and Decision Rights

Every shared workstream needs one accountable owner, a backup, and a clearly bounded approval right.

01 / 05
  1. Critical gate

    Include product decisions, localization, builds, SDKs, storefronts, community, moderation, customer support, payments, reporting, patches, incidents, and exit.

    Completion evidence

    Every row has exactly one accountable owner plus responsible, consulted, informed, and backup contacts with current details.

  2. Define who may approve or reject copy, build changes, promotions, creator activity, moderation, emergency patches, refunds, and public statements.

    Completion evidence

    A missed response has a documented escalation or default outcome; no critical approval depends on an unavailable individual.

  3. Critical gate

    List legal owner, administrator, recovery method, access level, MFA owner, export path, billing party, and handover condition for every account.

    Completion evidence

    Two authorized people can recover each critical account without sharing passwords or using a departing employee's private identity.

  4. Send a drill message through primary and fallback paths for studio, partner, platform, localization, build, security, community, and executive contacts.

    Completion evidence

    The drill records delivery, acknowledgement time, unavailable periods, and the next reachable decision-maker for each severity level.

4 checks

02 · BUILD & DATA

Accept the Build, SDKs, and Data Paths

Partner delivery is not complete until the exact release candidate and every added integration can be reproduced and inspected.

02 / 05
  1. Critical gate

    Record repository revision, dependencies, build configuration, signing party, secrets source, symbols, content bundles, and artifact checksum.

    Completion evidence

    An authorized backup operator produces the same candidate without copying files from a developer's workstation.

  2. Critical gate

    For each SDK, state purpose, version, owner, permissions, data touched, network endpoints, failure behavior, update policy, removal plan, and alternatives.

    Completion evidence

    Security, privacy, engineering, and product owners approve the inventory; no unlisted binary or endpoint appears in the candidate.

  3. Critical gate

    Test first launch, account creation, telemetry, crash reporting, support attachments, payments, community links, deletion, and offline behavior.

    Completion evidence

    A network and log review accounts for destinations, fields, purpose, retention, access, deletion, and failure mode without unnecessary collection.

  4. Use a harmless change to exercise upload, staged deployment, smoke test, rollback, player messaging, version compatibility, and ownership handoff.

    Completion evidence

    The drill records duration, permissions, artifacts, affected data, verification devices, rollback point, and unresolved dependencies.

4 checks

03 · LOCALIZATION

Freeze and Accept Localized Player-Facing Assets

Storefront, build, community, and support language must describe the same product and release state.

03 / 05
  1. Critical gate

    Include game text, fonts, images with text, trailers, captions, store copy, tags, announcements, creator kits, FAQ, macros, policies, and patch notes.

    Completion evidence

    Each asset has source, Chinese version, owner, review state, target channel, freeze date, and checksum or version identifier.

  2. Critical gate

    Review store copy on the store, UI in the build, subtitles against video, and support macros in the actual tool; preserve screenshots for defects.

    Completion evidence

    Critical paths pass native-language review at target resolution and no unresolved issue can misstate price, availability, gameplay, or support.

  3. Require changed-string detection, owner approval, affected-language notification, re-import, targeted LQA, and an explicit decision when synchronization is impossible.

    Completion evidence

    A test source edit reaches the correct reviewer and candidate build without relying on chat history or manual memory.

  4. Cross-check edition, features, languages, price timing, online requirements, release state, regions, events, and known limitations.

    Completion evidence

    The manifest identifies one approved statement for each claim and all public channels match it at freeze.

4 checks

04 · PLAYER OPS

Rehearse Community and Player Support

Player-facing teams need enough context and authority to resolve issues, not merely acknowledge them.

04 / 05
  1. Name owner, hours, response target, moderation scope, prohibited actions, archive or export path, and escalation for each store, social, community, and support channel.

    Completion evidence

    Test posts and tickets reach the scheduled responder; unofficial or unmonitored channels are not presented as support destinations.

  2. Tag purchase and access, crash, performance, localization, gameplay confusion, account, payment, moderation, safety, privacy, refund, and content issues consistently.

    Completion evidence

    Studio and partner independently classify the same sample tickets to the same owner and severity with acceptable agreement.

  3. Prepare native-language macros for known issues and common questions, with build applicability, prohibited promises, update date, escalation, and personalization guidance.

    Completion evidence

    Responders can answer the rehearsal queue without inventing dates, requesting excessive personal data, or contradicting the storefront.

  4. Define clustering threshold, translation format, evidence links, decision owner, review cadence, status visibility, and the response back to players.

    Completion evidence

    A simulated recurring issue becomes a tracked product or copy decision and its disposition returns to the player-facing team.

4 checks

05 · LAUNCH

Run the Launch and Incident Drill

The handoff is complete only when teams can detect, decide, communicate, recover, and learn under launch pressure.

05 / 05
  1. Critical gate

    List freeze, backup, publish, entitlement check, download, smoke test, SDK verification, store update, announcement, monitoring, handoff, and review in exact order.

    Completion evidence

    Every action has UTC and local time, owner, backup, prerequisite, evidence, communication channel, and abort condition.

  2. Define examples, detection signals, acknowledgement target, technical owner, business authority, partner escalation, update cadence, and closure evidence.

    Completion evidence

    The same simulated incident receives the same severity and authority path from both studio and partner responders.

  3. Critical gate

    Exercise at least one build blocker and one unsafe or unexplained data-flow scenario, including pause, investigation, player message, rollback, verification, and record keeping.

    Completion evidence

    The drill meets acknowledgement and recovery targets, and every failure becomes an owned action due before launch.

  4. Set the observation window and capture availability, acquisition, activation, stability, localization, support, community, partner delivery, data, and cost signals.

    Completion evidence

    The calendar invite names the data snapshot, qualitative sample, decision owner, and required Keep / Change / Stop outputs.

4 checks

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