The Games Industry In China

The increasingly important role that China is taking on the world stage, both politically and economically, has been reflected in the gaming industry of the last few years. Last week BusinessWeekOnline published an article looking at 'China's Online Gaming Craze.' The piece looks at the huge surge in online players in China, and estimates that the online gaming market for the country will surpass $2 Billion by the end of the decade. Relatedly, Simon Carless and the Gamasutra crew attended the ChinaJoy event in Shanghai last week, and return bearing information on how the games business ticks over there. Articles include another look at the online gaming market, the business of outsourcing in the country, and a lot of general information on the state of the industry. From that article: "In terms of a long-term bet, especially with the Chinese economy continuing to grow swiftly, it's clear that it's the domestic Chinese market is one that most major game companies want to be in. In addition, it needs to be in a way that the Chinese government feels comfortable with. Thus, we're seeing Electronic Arts moving its Pogo casual game service into China, and other companies such as Ubisoft building branch offices."

Comments

Hmmm

[boyter]

I dont know if I agree with this. Chinese under 14 are all part of the single child generation and as such they get everything they could possibly want, so points to the game manufacturers there. Over 14 they are under so much pressure to do well in exams to get into University they dont have time for games (or anything else for that matter). I guess this means there is a large market for the big N, however Chinese tend to hate anything Japanese (although they love Sony... go figure). I dunno. I work in China in a IT company and most of the guys I see are conforming to the Asian sterotype playing Starcraft and Red Alert 2. Most of then havent heard of the newer games. Other then WoW I cant think of many mainstream games that have taken root here.