China

China 2023 game licenses on track to surpass 2021 and 2022

The first quarter of 2023 has been positive for China video game approvals and Niko Partners expects total game licenses for the full year to surpass 1,100, returning to a level last seen in 2020. The National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA), the government regulator responsible for issuing game licenses (ISBNs) approved 288 games in Q1 [...]

2023-04-04T20:21:25-07:00April 4th, 2023|Categories: China, Infographics, Niko Analysis, Regulations, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , |

A Personal Reflection of Life Before, During and Three Years After COVID-19

Three years ago, in early 2020, Wuhan announced the closure of the city due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Three months into my family’s confinement as residents of Wuhan I wrote “A personal account of gaming and life in Wuhan during the COVID-19 outbreak” to share my story about gaming during the initial Wuhan lockdown with Niko’s [...]

2023-02-23T17:29:23-08:00February 23rd, 2023|Categories: China, Consoles, Regulations, Uncategorized, Youth Gamers|Tags: , , , |

Niko Partners’ Experience at 2023’s Mobile Legends: Bang Bang M4 World Championship and M Summit

Did you know that esports has entered its golden jubilee this year? It has been 50+ years since the first-ever esports event took place at Stanford University in 1972 when 24 players competed in an Intergalactic Spacewar tournament, and the winner received a year’s subscription to the Rolling Stone magazine. Fast forward to 2023, technological advancement [...]

Sony PlayStation launches phase 3 of China Hero Project

Sony Interactive Entertainment Shanghai held a press conference on November 22 where it announced the third phase of its China Hero Project. The China Hero Project is an initiative from Sony launched in 2016 to provide funding and resources to Chinese developers for them to bring games to the PlayStation platform for China and global markets. [...]

2022-11-29T07:17:58-08:00November 29th, 2022|Categories: China, Sony|

Blizzard Entertainment and NetEase severing ties

Blizzard Entertainment and NetEase confirmed on November 17 that the publishing license covering several Blizzard developed titles in mainland China will not be renewed when it expires on January 23, 2023. This will cause the shutdown of World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Hearthstone, Diablo III, Warcraft III, Heroes of the Storm and StarCraft titles in mainland China [...]

2022-11-18T11:42:38-08:00November 17th, 2022|Categories: China, NetEase|

Harry Potter: Magic Awakened – What’s behind China’s most successful game launch of the year?

Harry Potter: Magic Awakened, which launched in mainland China (first market worldwide) on iOS, Android, and PC on September 9, 2021 has had the most successful video game launch of this year in the country. Harry Potter: Magic Awakened was developed by NetEase with support from Portkey Games and is an RPG game with card-based combat that takes place in the Harry Potter universe [...]

2021-10-14T12:31:28-07:00October 14th, 2021|Categories: China, NetEase|

ChinaJoy 2021 report

The 19th China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference (ChinaJoy) took place July 30 - August 2, 2021, with a theme “Create Dreams with Technology and Win the Future with Fun.” There were more than 500 exhibitors across the B2B and B2C segments, nearly 30% of which were foreign, that displayed games, hardware, accessories, and new technological [...]

2021-08-09T13:59:30-07:00August 9th, 2021|Categories: China, Cloud gaming, Esports, Events, Regulations|

PS5 Launch Announcement in China Leads to Pre-Sale Orders Selling Out in Record Time

Sony Interactive Entertainment Shanghai announced April 29th that it will launch the PlayStation 5 in Mainland China on May 15, 2021. The disc version of the PS5 will cost RMB 3,899 and the digital version will cost RMB 3,099. Sony announced that it was currently preparing Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Sony), Sackboy: A Big Adventure [...]

2021-04-29T11:04:14-07:00April 29th, 2021|Categories: China, Consoles|

China bans ICOs, Apple accepts WeChat Pay, the key to Honor of Kings success

China bans fundraising through ICOs China has banned and made illegal the practice of raising funds through digital token based initial coin offerings (ICO). The rise of cryptocurrencies has led to $2.2 billion having been raised through ICOs this year alone. Chinese regulators have described initial coin offerings as “a form of unapproved illegal public financing” [...]

2017-09-11T13:18:48-07:00September 7th, 2017|Categories: China, Esports, Honor of Kings, Mobile Games, NetEase, Perfect World, Uncategorized|

Niko News: Chinese Overseas Investments Now Restricted

Chinese Overseas Investments Now Restricted China has tightened the reins on external investment to combat rising debt ratios for domestic companies. One of the “restricted” areas is “entertainment." We are not lawyers, but this seems to include digital gaming. We will work with our friends at Pillar Legal to sort out what it really means for [...]

2017-08-24T07:45:11-07:00August 24th, 2017|Categories: China, VR/AR/MR|
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