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 [...]
Blizzard Selling Overwatch Credits in China In accordance with the new regulations in China that require online game operators to disclose probability rates for random-chance loot boxes, Blizzard (through their JV with NetEase) announced their probability data. However, they are now taking a step beyond this effort and no longer selling loot boxes. Instead, in a [...]
NetEase Challenges Tencent's Stronghold On Mobile Publishing According to App Annie, NetEase has now replaced Tencent as the top mobile publisher by revenue worldwide as the company's apps continue to grow in China. "The big reason here for NetEase's surge is that it has the top two most lucrative games worldwide with the card-battling Onmyoji game [...]
Alibaba Reorganizes Entertainment Business Alibaba Holdings Group Ltd. is undergoing consolidation of their entertainment efforts by rounding up Youku Tudou Inc., UCWeb Inc., Alibaba Pictures Group Ltd, and company's sports, games, literature, music and digital entertainment divisions into a single group. There will also be a $10 billion yuan ($1.48 billion USD) fund for new projects [...]
China's iOS App Store Overtakes US in Spending Mobile analytics firm App Annie said that Chinese consumers spent USD 1.7 billion on Apple-sanctioned mobile apps in the third quarter, or about 15% higher than the nearly USD 1.45 billion spent by Americans during the same period. This is particularly remarkable considering the new regulations requiring licenses [...]
Jagex is Now Part of a Chinese Company Zhongji Holding was listed on the Chinese Stock Market this past week, and subsequently bought 51% of Hongtou, the investor that acquired Jagex back in July of this year. Zhongji Holding will then purchase the remaining 49% of Hongtou during the next 12 months. Jagex was previously the [...]
Blizzard & NetEase Renew Their Partnership Blizzard and NetEase will be entering their ninth year of partnering together to bring Blizzard's popular games to Chinese audiences. These games include World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and Overwatch. The9, the operator who previously held the contract with Blizzard to bring their [...]
Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! This past weekend, September 15th through the 18th, China celebrated its Mid-Autumn Festival. This annual festival is held on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar with full moon at night. We hope you all got to enjoy a mooncake or two! The9 Obtains Rights for a Crossfire Mobile [...]
Battle of Social Networks in China According to an article on InsideGamesAsia, there are many social networks in Asia whose popularity changes by country. Wechat from Tencent essentially owns China's social network market. In Japan and Taiwan, Line is known to be the primary social app, while Kakaotalk has been stubbornly clenching onto its throne in [...]
Mobile Game Emulators in China When mobile games started to gain popularity a few years ago they were almost entirely casual games, such as puzzle or kids games. In the past year or two the market has embraced mid-core and hard-core mobile games, such as RPGs or strategy titles. This has led to mid-core and hard-core [...]
