Reported by Liao Zhengjun from People's Daily Online (Los Angeles, June 14) On June 13, the first Sino-US Game Industry Cooperation Forum took place in Los Angles, the US, and dozens of heavyweight persons from game developers, governments and industry organizations attended the Forum. Themed on Cooperation and Innovation, the forum mainly discussed the differences between western and Chinese game industries, Chinese game developers’ “going global”, and hot technologies such as VR and AR new trends. The prospect of the game industry in the current unstable global economy was also a topic of the forum. A general opinion heard at the event is that the forum would deepen Sino-US cooperation in the game industry and other sectors as a bridge linking the two countries.
In recent years, the game industry has grown into one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, defeating the film industry in market value. According to SuperData Research, an authoritative game industry analysis firm headquartered in New York, the revenue of global game market in 2015 recorded $61 billion, while the movie industry only grossed $38.3 million worldwide.
The past ten years witnessed the boom of China’s game industry. In 2015, China’s game players totaled 534 million, up 3.3% over the previous year, contributing to RMB140.7 billion of sales revenue, an annual increase of 22.9%. China has replaced the US as the biggest game market in the world. In China’s game industry, mobile games, especially mobile phone games experienced the fastest growth, creating RMB 51.46 billion of sales revenue, a stunning year-one-year growth of 87.2%, much higher than the global average of 10%.
“China and the US are the biggest game markets in the world, which indicates a very promising prospect of cooperation,” said Commercial Counselor Liu Haiyan of the Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles, “Last year, China’s service sector contributed to more than 50% of China’s GDP for the first time, mostly thanks to the rapid and continuous growth of the cultural and entertainment industries. The game industry has become a key economic engine under China’s “new normal”.
Liu Jiehua, Executive Vice Chairman of the Game Publishing Committee of the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association pointed out that Sino-US cooperation in games had just started, requiring more exchanges in hardware, market and capital. “Our differences in culture, technology, art and market lay a foundation for competition and product differentiation, and we all boast innovative hardware and software, and vast consumer bases. So I believe that our prospect of cooperation is very promising,” said Liu. “To promote the healthy development of China’s game market, we must avoid magnifying the negative aspects of games. What we should do is following correct guidance, and seizing important opportunities created by industry reforms and technological innovations,” Liu added.
Some key figures from game giants, such as Michael Gilmartin, Vice President of Global Platform Services of Blizzard, Kenji Kajiwara, Director of the Games (Software) Business Development Division of Sony Computer Entertainment (Shanghai), EA Sports Vice President Mike McCabe, and Xie Enwei, General Manager of Xbox and Studios at Microsoft China attended the forum. They confirmed their achievements made in the course of cooperating with Chinese firms, and highly praised the constant quality improvement of China’s game products. According to 2015 China Gaming Industry Report, 2015 saw increased international influence of games developed by China, with online games independently developed by China creating $5.31 billion of export revenue, up 72.4% over the previous year. China’ has become the biggest game developer in Southeast Asia, and a key competitor of the US and European countries in game development.
Beijing Perfect World Network Technology Co., Ltd. is one of the first Chinese game developers “going global”. Based on experience, CEO Xiao Hong gave some opinions on the “going global” of Chinese game developers. Firstly, high quality games containing Chinese cultural factors are favored by foreign players. Secondly, production localization is necessary. Developers should adjust games according to the cultures of different regions; and on the other hand, import excellent IP products, reproduce them by adding Chinese cultural factors, and then export them abroad. Thirdly, building publishing channels abroad is important for developing foreign markets. Fourthly, Chinese game developers should integrate their strengths on the road of “going global”, conquering foreign markets in an easier way with joint efforts.
According to General Manager Huang Zhuo of NetEase Games North America, aside from creating economic benefit, building “made-in China games” into a global brand is a more important mission of Chinese game developers for “going global”. “To introduce our games abroad, relying on our own experience and technologies is not enough – we also need to have a full understanding of the technologies, cultures and rules of foreign markets. Diversification and localization are important. We need to adjust games with Chinese cultural factors according to the cultures of foreign markets, and attach great importance to product marketing and quality. Only in this way, could we win the respect of foreign players.
VR and AR are the hot topics in the current game industry, and some even say that 2016 will see a “huge explosion” of VR games. According to Xiao Hong, VR and AR are very important directions that the game industry is headed, and VR equipment has the potential to be the next generation of mainstream communication & entertainment platform. However, at present, VR and AR are still facing severe challenges, primarily immature technologies, high software and hardware costs, and low resolutions. Besides, the current content market is still unable to support VR and AR equipment, because software will only start to flourish when the quality and market size of hardware reach a certain level. Therefore, how to remove the bottleneck imposed by hardware on content is the biggest challenge confronted by the VR and AR industry.
In the opinion of Xiao Hong, eSports is more promising than VR and AR. “On the one hand, from the aspect of audiences, eSports is as exciting and attractive as traditional sports. On the other hand, eSports features high user and audience viscosity. A childhood hobby like playing basketball can become a life time hobby. It also works fairly well on eSports. The process from a rookie to a contestant is a process of constant growth, even to professional players,” said Xiao. “Statistics show that since 2003 when eSports became the 99th official sport in China, China’s eSports market has experienced rapid growth with a growing number of competitions organized according to more and more mature standards. So eSports is a market of great potential,” he added.
From the prospective of Global Tone Communication Technology Co., Ltd., the potential of Sino-US cooperation in games can be explored by industry analysis using language big data. GTC Tech CEO Yu Yang said that currently big data analysis in the game industry still has structural defects. For example, some game developers like Perfect World have built their own user big databases, but their in-depth analysis of such big data still needs to be more vertical. “Our big data analysis results show that many e-businesses are also very interested in the development of the game industry, such as videos, online-offline entertainment and live broadcasting, and the players of many hot games may reach to hundreds of millions. Big data based user behavior analysis will not only benefit the game industry, but also its upstream and downstream industries and e-commerce, even the cultural exchange among different regions. Our future development will give more focus on vertical industry big data analysis,” said Yu.
The forum was organized during the 2016 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Organized by China Universal Press & Publication Co., Ltd. under the guidance of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, the General Administration of Sport of China, and the Game Publishing Committee of the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association, E3 is currently the biggest and most influential interactive entertainment trade fair for computer and video games and relevant products. E3 2016 will take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in June 14-16, attracting electronic game developers around the world to showcase their latest products, and hundreds of thousands of electronic game fans.
Resource: people.com.cn