According to Yonhap, Chinese online games are quickly infiltrating the South Korean market while South Korean games are virtually shut out of China due to a diplomatic fallout.  Before, Korean games were a great hit in China.  In 2014, China's games market developed rapidly and China became the biggest Korean games exporter, with about 40% export market share.  In 2014-2016, there were 48 games from Korea entering into Chinese market.  However, this year, Korean games have not been able to enter into China.  No Korean games have been granted licenses since March, which has led to the fall of the Korean games companies’ stock price.  What makes the distinct contrast is that Chinese games are very popular in Korea.  The top 20 rankings in online games sales on Google Play Korea showed 5 from China, with “Girls’ Frontline” reaching No. 4.  “Chinese games have got rid of the image as “performance worse than others”, and have increased lots of pressure on Korean competitors by their large-scale market and capitals,” said by Korean Economy of Asia in July.  Some industry sources from Korea also expressed that since a year and a half ago, Chinese mobile games technology has been superior to Korea’s.  Now, it is very hard for everyone to find any defect in Chinese games, which causes the small games companies from Korea to fail to compete.

At present, Chinese games’ influence has also spread across the world.  The gaming report said emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, India and South America, where competition is less intense, were the main target markets for Chinese developers.  Some Chinese games have entered into tens of countries and even rose to No.1 in the best selling list.  In Russia, a Chinese mobile game “Strike of Kings” kept ranking No.1 for a year in the best selling games list.  In April, the top 100 rankings in online games sales showed 26 from China.  What’s more, Chinese games even occupied half of the top 20.  Chinese games manufacturers endeavor to win more loyal Russian users by developing and insisting on running strategy games and role playing games which are loved by local players, to push games to become more suitable for the local culture with more local flavors.  In the future, Russia will be the focused market for China to export games.  Chinese games have become famous in Southeast Asia too.  In Thailand, there are many games developers and service providers from China.  The local players are keen on playing Chinese games and buying games APPs.

As time goes by, people change their minds towards games.  It was reported by The Guardian in April that the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) announced a partnership on Monday with Alisports, the sports arm of Chinese online retail giant Alibaba, to introduce e-sports as a demonstration sport at next year’s games in Indonesia, with fully-fledged inclusion in the official sporting programme at the Hangzhou Games in 2022.  Arcade games, described as a “big monster” in children’s lives by parents, got lots of misunderstandings or even criticism.  Most people believed that playing games would lead to losing players’ ambitions.  However, under the policy support, people are no longer biased against games, and the Chinese games market has ushered in the spring.  Because of CGL, China Fun, Wahlap Cyber Games and various other game-themed matches appearing, they provide players with healthy platforms to show their values and drive the return of arcade games to the market being more active and positive.  These game-themed matches not only improve video game’s good image but also enrich people’s life and stimulate e-sport to be a demonstration sport, which will be helpful to push the development of games products, industrial transition, and lead the game industry to develop in the right way.  And they also become platforms for manufacturers to show their latest equipment.

Now, Games’ players will not be regarded as the playboy without ambitions. Please believe that, Chinese e-sport will have a bright future.

※The article is published in the GTI Magazine Issue No. 159 in November, 2017