The more excellent Chinese games that are born, the more the gaming market in China will be driven.
Shanghai. October 17. INTERFAX-CHINA - With China's large online game companies such as Shanda and 9you paying greater attention to domestically developed games, small and medium sized game developers have sprung up to meet the demand for homegrown titles.
Interfax recently spoke with Li Yanqing, CEO of China Game, a recently established company focused on developing and operating games with a Chinese flavor for the home market.
Established in May 2008 by Hong Kong-based Finet Group Ltd., the company has already launched one 3D massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) in mainland China and Taiwan named "Warage". It has announced that two other 3D MMORPGs - "Tang Dynasty II" and "Swordsman-Plus" - are also in the pipeline.
Headquartered in Shanghai, with R&D centers in Hangzhou, Chengdu and Guangzhou, China Game aims to develop and operate 10 games over the next two years.
Li, founder and former CEO of Shanghai-based game developer T2CN Holding Ltd., identified a number of reasons why Chinese-authored games are in the ascendancy.
"Generally, there are fewer than three successful game products in each country that have the potential to be popular in the Chinese market. This makes it hard for Chinese game operators to secure the rights to suitable foreign titles," Li said.
The situation is also complicated by informal government restrictions on the number of foreign games that can be approved for operation within China.
"Although there are no actual regulations, game insiders know that the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) has been limiting the number of overseas games entering China in recent years. This makes it harder to operate overseas game products," Li said.
At the same time, as foreign firms have realized the market potential in China, they have demanded a larger share of revenues from their Chinese licensees, Li said.
China Game will focus on developing Chinese-themed MMORPGs, Li said. "Our team has abundant experience in developing Chinese-themed games. Some of [the team] are from NetEase and T2CN and have worked with me for over nine years," Li said.
Despite the global economic downturn, Li is confident in the prospects of China's online game industry, and plans for China Game to list within two years.
"The online game industry is unlikely to drop due to the global economic crisis," Li said. "One reason is that an increase in unemployment will create more game players. Another reason is that the online game industry, especially that of China, has low entry requirements," Li said.
"Most games in China don't require people to pay subscription fees, instead allowing players to buy in-game items. This makes it easy for online gaming to establish itself as a popular entertainment activity, as it is cheaper than going to the cinema or watching live performances."
Li said Finet Group has decided to make online gaming its only business in mainland China, halting its other interests such as travel and real estate.
However, Li said that the online gaming industry in China faces stiff restrictions, as the Chinese government sees online games as an "electronic heroin" that has a bad influence on young people.
"The industry will develop faster if the government treats online gaming as it does any other entertainment product, such as film and TV," Li said. "Current restrictions, such as the ban on TV programs based on online games, mean some developers are including pornographic and violent material to make their games more attractive."
For Li, the ideal game should have a "positive and independent world outlook". However, many Chinese games copy each other, and consist of "complicated" virtual worlds.
Li said the he believes the country's developers must work hard to develop good, original domestic games. "The more excellent Chinese games that are born, the more the gaming market in China will be driven."
China's second largest online game exporter, Suzhou Snail Electronic Co. Ltd. (Snail Game), is expanding overseas into the world's most developed gaming markets with confidence in its ability to compete on both technology and innovation.
