Chinese Video/Computer Games

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meedicx

Junior Member
Registered Member
Eventine said:
I used Chinese TV shows as a negative example, because that particular genre of TV shows (historical costume romances) is very much stagnant and it is one reason why China's traditional TV industry has not been successful globally. True, Chinese audiences can support such an industry all by itself, but insulated, self-satisfied companies cannot disrupt or capture global market share, which is important for the further development of the Chinese entertainment industry as a global power house, source of export revenue, and foundation of human culture.

Further more, they are themselves vulnerable to being disrupted by foreign players, which is what happened during the various Korean Waves in the 2000s, which posed an existential threat to the domestic TV industry until the THAAD incident caused the Chinese government to block them out. It's been a painful process to reform the Chinese TV industry to become more competitive ever since.

The Chinese gaming industry should avoid this trap. Yes, Chinese audiences tend to have more conservative tastes (thus willing to tolerate the same thing over & over again), but these tastes can be cultivated for the better, and it is still a young industry, full of potential. When the Western and Japanese gaming industries were in their infancy, back in the 80s and 90s, it was a time of immense creative power, and laid the foundations for the industry as it exists today. The Chinese gaming industry can and should play a similar role in defining the next 30 years of the global gaming industry. It certainly has the resources and the execution ability, so if it does not, then I'd consider it a critical failure.
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This is a common philosophical difference when discussing media where people accuse popular things of being uncreative "slop", which is why you see movie awards go to things no one watch. You can always call things you don't like uncreative, but at the end of the day it's subjective. You seem to care a lot about what people overseas like, but you would probably also call the Chinese games dominating overseas markets uncreative slop.

I think very differently, so it's pointless to keep debating this.


FriedButter said:
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This is what I meant when I said you often see these kind of anti-corruption news for Chinese video game companies, but never for western ones.

Also Starsand Island is releasing in early access tomorrow. Surprisingly it's a paid game instead of F2P. I liked the demo, so I'm getting it day one.
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gk1713

gk1713

Junior Member
Registered Member
meedicx said:
This is a common philosophical difference when discussing media where people accuse popular things of being uncreative "slop", which is why you see movie awards go to things no one watch. You can always call things you don't like uncreative, but at the end of the day it's subjective. You seem to care a lot about what people overseas like, but you would probably also call the Chinese games dominating overseas markets uncreative slop.

I think very differently, so it's pointless to keep debating this.




This is what I meant when I said you often see these kind of anti-corruption news for Chinese video game companies, but never for western ones.

Also Starsand Island is releasing in early access tomorrow. Surprisingly it's a paid game instead of F2P. I liked the demo, so I'm getting it day one.
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I often compare this to the auto industry: the current decline of films and TV dramas is similar to the decline of gasoline cars. The fact that Western legacy carmakers are struggling doesn’t mean China should double down on fuel vehicles. On the contrary, it is precisely because China built a competitive new‑energy vehicle industry that those traditional carmakers are losing ground.

The same logic applies to entertainment. China’s film and TV sector is under pressure largely because China itself created new forms of entertainment—short videos, micro‑dramas, and other formats that have replaced traditional viewing habits. In this situation, the smartest strategy is clearly not to pour money into propping up movies and TV shows in hopes of outperforming Western studios. Just as with EV exports, China should be exporting the new entertainment formats that are already displacing the old ones.
 
bsdnf

bsdnf

Senior Member
Registered Member
meedicx said:
This is a common philosophical difference when discussing media where people accuse popular things of being uncreative "slop", which is why you see movie awards go to things no one watch. You can always call things you don't like uncreative, but at the end of the day it's subjective. You seem to care a lot about what people overseas like, but you would probably also call the Chinese games dominating overseas markets uncreative slop.

I think very differently, so it's pointless to keep debating this.




This is what I meant when I said you often see these kind of anti-corruption news for Chinese video game companies, but never for western ones.

Also Starsand Island is releasing in early access tomorrow. Surprisingly it's a paid game instead of F2P. I liked the demo, so I'm getting it day one.
View attachment 169432
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This is just hearsay from within the gaming industry and its accuracy is uncertain:
Starsand Island is a 1:1 replica of Animal Crossing, but miHoYo still have no idea how to commercialize this genre.

Also, Nexus Anima is undergoing a complete rework; the feedback from the last test was terrible.
 
M

meedicx

Junior Member
Registered Member
gk1713 said:
I often compare this to the auto industry: the current decline of films and TV dramas is similar to the decline of gasoline cars. The fact that Western legacy carmakers are struggling doesn’t mean China should double down on fuel vehicles. On the contrary, it is precisely because China built a competitive new‑energy vehicle industry that those traditional carmakers are losing ground.

The same logic applies to entertainment. China’s film and TV sector is under pressure largely because China itself created new forms of entertainment—short videos, micro‑dramas, and other formats that have replaced traditional viewing habits. In this situation, the smartest strategy is clearly not to pour money into propping up movies and TV shows in hopes of outperforming Western studios. Just as with EV exports, China should be exporting the new entertainment formats that are already displacing the old ones.
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I agree here. The most successful video game exports from China have been innovating in ways different than what gamer traditionally think of narrative or graphic quality. Chinese 4X and Merge-2 mobile games are dominating overseas right now since they are better at using GenAI to scale UA videos and LiveOps. This is business-style innovation rather than gameplay innovation

For your traditional HD AA/AAA single player games, I think the logic should be different. Appeal to Chinese first and if overseas people like it, that's a bonus, not the main goal. It's a niche market for core gamers at the end of the day. For new game studios, having a core base that will buy your game is most important.

bsdnf said:
This is just hearsay from within the gaming industry and its accuracy is uncertain:
Starsand Island is a 1:1 replica of Animal Crossing, but miHoYo still have no idea how to commercialize this genre.

Also, Nexus Anima is undergoing a complete rework; the feedback from the last test was terrible.
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You're thinking of Petit Planet by miHoYo, which is a different game from Starsand Island by Seasun. Petit Planet is preparing to release soon. I think it will do extremely well based on it's recent beta. Heartopia by XD is on a tear on both mobile and steam charts since being released globally last month; Petit Planet is much higher quality and will do much better than Heartopia commercially.

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J

jiajia99

Senior Member
Registered Member
meedicx said:
This is a common philosophical difference when discussing media where people accuse popular things of being uncreative "slop", which is why you see movie awards go to things no one watch. You can always call things you don't like uncreative, but at the end of the day it's subjective. You seem to care a lot about what people overseas like, but you would probably also call the Chinese games dominating overseas markets uncreative slop.

I think very differently, so it's pointless to keep debating this.




This is what I meant when I said you often see these kind of anti-corruption news for Chinese video game companies, but never for western ones.

Also Starsand Island is releasing in early access tomorrow. Surprisingly it's a paid game instead of F2P. I liked the demo, so I'm getting it day one.
View attachment 169432
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Hoping that this new game is good
 
E

Eventine

Senior Member
Registered Member
meedicx said:
This is a common philosophical difference when discussing media where people accuse popular things of being uncreative "slop", which is why you see movie awards go to things no one watch. You can always call things you don't like uncreative, but at the end of the day it's subjective. You seem to care a lot about what people overseas like, but you would probably also call the Chinese games dominating overseas markets uncreative slop.

I think very differently, so it's pointless to keep debating this.
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You're arguing a straw man.

Disruption is the key to market dominance, in China and especially else where in the world (since China's market is protected). Mihoyo disrupted the mobile gaming market via bringing 3D open world games to mobile with regular content releases. If they had merely copied Breath of the Wild and released Genshin as a retail game on PC/console, they'd have been just like other Nintendo clones - mildly successful but otherwise forgettable.

Businesses will do what makes sense, but nobody should be cheering for more companies like Baidu, that can only be successful in China because the Chinese government banned all foreign competitors. I will never write off global market dominance as "uncreative slop" because to be market dominant globally in the video game industry, you have to be disruptive and innovative. It's not like manufacturing where you can compete just on price - games are not expensive enough for price to be the defining factor.
 
bsdnf

bsdnf

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Hyper said:
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ByteDance will retreat from gaming. Tough business with many big corps calling quits.
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They announced their withdrawal back in 2024, selling off a large number of relatively inexpensive assets. Embarrassingly, Moonton, which they acquired at a high price, couldn't even find a buyer.

ByteDance's understanding of the gaming business is very… ByteDance. They thought that market analysis would reveal what games players liked, and that by making games in every popular genre, one would surely succeed. The result was: 1. Players don't actually know what they need; market analysis is unreliable. 2. The Matthew effect is strong in the same genre; newcomers need genuine breakthroughs, not just simple copying, to attract players. 3. Even so, a game's success is also a matter of luck. Every year, Tencent cancels nearly a hundred games that fail internal testing, releases a dozen or so that go unnoticed, and ultimately only one or two succeed, such as Delta Force.

Therefore, Zhang Yiming ultimately chose to give up and focus solely on selling traffic.
 
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