Game industry aims at new track

Since this year, many people's life and consumption habits have changed. They have chosen to stay at home for a lot of time, further promoting the development of the "home economy" and bringing new space to the development of the online entertainment industry.

From July 31 to August 3, the 18th China International Digital Interactive Entertainment Exhibition was held in Shanghai. Meanwhile, the Game Publishing Committee of the China Audio Video and Digital Publishing Association and the China Game Industry Research Institute released the Report on China's Game Industry from January to June 2020. The report shows that from January to June, the number of online game users in China was nearly 660 million, and the actual sales revenue of the national game market was 139.493 billion yuan, an increase of 22.34% year on year, and the growth rate was 13.75% year on year.

"In the first half of this year, the demand for user entertainment was amplified, the scale of game users continued to expand, and the development momentum of the Chinese game market was strong." Teng Hua, General Manager of Gamma Data, analyzed that the Chinese game market has entered a new stage of industrial upgrading, technology iteration, and content innovation on the basis of the continuous expansion of the scale.

Specifically, China's self-developed games continue to maintain a leading position. The report shows that in the first half of this year, the actual sales revenue of China's self-developed games in the domestic market reached 120.14 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30.38%, an increase of 27.997 billion yuan over the same period last year.

It is worth noting that domestic game manufacturers are actively exploring the overseas market. The actual sales revenue of China's self-developed games in the overseas market has increased from 6.024 billion US dollars in July December 2019 to 7.589 billion US dollars in January June 2020, an increase higher than that in the domestic market. From the perspective of game types, strategy, shooting and role playing games are the most popular.

From the perspective of China's game market segment, from January to June, the actual sales revenue of mobile games continued to grow, while the actual sales revenue and proportion of client games and web games both declined. Among them, the actual sales revenue of mobile games reached 104.673 billion yuan, accounting for 75.04% of the total market revenue, client games accounted for 20.18%, and web games accounted for 2.87%. Mobile games have become the main force of market revenue.

In the first half of this year, role-playing games accounted for 30% of the top 100 mobile games in terms of revenue; Card games and strategy games took the second place, accounting for 12% and 11% respectively. Role playing games are the type of mobile games that occupy the largest market share. The number of games and income are both dominant, and the profitability is strong.

China's e-sports industry has developed rapidly. From January to June, the actual sales revenue of the E-sports game market reached 71.936 billion yuan, up 54.69% year on year. With the rapid development of e-sports industry, China's e-sports users continued to grow. In the first half of the year, the number of users reached 483.96 million, up 9.94% year on year.

At the same time, the report pointed out that in the first half of the year, the competition in China's game market was more intense, and enterprises faced challenges in product research and development, talent team, financing environment, overseas market development, etc. The focus of users has gradually returned to the content quality itself, and the public has a strong demand for high-quality games.

"The domestic game industry has entered the era of stock, and users' requirements for game quality are constantly improving. If you want to maintain an advantage in the competition, you must ensure that the company can continue to launch high-quality products." Tan Yanfeng, vice president of Shengqu Games, analyzed.

In addition, Chinese game companies have also increased their investment in research on advanced technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence. 5G commercial landing has accelerated. Domestic and foreign technology giants, cloud service providers, game companies, communication operators, etc. have all accelerated the layout of cloud games. Cloud game platforms have successively landed, and the stock games have started the process of "cloudization". From January to June, the actual sales revenue of China's cloud game market reached 403 million yuan, up 79.35% year on year.

People's Daily (August 6, 2020, 12th Edition)