Pokemon Go in Southeast Asia

While Pokemon Go’s popularity has subsided in parts of the western world, the game is still a hit in Southeast Asia and brands are continuing to embrace the augmented reality game. Companies throughout Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore and beyond have signed licensing agreements with Nintendo.

China’s Newest Online Gaming Regulations – Explained

Niko Partners’ Daniel Ahmad has written up a detailed article on his ZhugeEx blog explaining the new regulations. There is also a new live streaming video law that will be taking effect January 1st, 2017 that companies in the eSports scene (and any other live broadcast) will need to understand.

Tencent Films Seeking Acquisitions

According to Tencent Films’ CEO Edward Cheng, Tencent’s film division is on the look-out for companies to invest in/acquire in the movie industry – including companies both on the creative side and the production side. Tencent, Alibaba and Dalian Wanda are three of the main companies to know in this space as China’s projected box-office numbers climb over $10 billion and the lines continue to blur between the various segments of entertainment media. Supercell (based in Finland) and their marketing strategies are an example of this trend in other parts of the world.

Michael Jordan Wins Notable Trademark Case in China

The People’s Supreme Court has finally ruled on a 4-year court case involving American basketball icon Michael Jordan. Chinese sportswear company Qiaodan Sports Go must stop using Chinese characters that represent Jordan’s name. However, the court upheld a ruling allowing the company to use the Romanized version of Qiaodan. Jordan made the statement, “Nothing is more important than protecting your own name, and today’s decision shows the importance of that principle.”

Riot Takes a Page from Valve’s Book in 2016

Valve funds Dota2 tournament prize pools with proceeds from in-game purchases rather than from corporate coffers. Riot took notice of this method and adopted it (see the infographic released by the company). In 2016 the League of Legends World Championships prize pool reached $6.7 million, up from $2.3 million in 2015, and only $2.1 million was directly from Riot.

Niko Partners on Twitter

Follow us on Twitter @nikochina to see these comments in real time as we publish them! @ZhugeEx is Niko analyst Daniel Ahmad – his opinions are his own and he has a very informative blog and Twitter feed. You can also find us on WeChat (ID: NikoPartners). Here are a few of our tweets from last week:

  • China’s newest digital games regulations explained by Niko analyst Daniel Ahmad @ZhugeEX
  • New MOC Rule for Virtual Currencies in China https://nikopartners.com/new-moc-rule-virtual-currencies-china/ …
  • Had a great time on a panel @VR_Intelligence VRX conf in SF today with my former IDC analyst colleague @ChristineA_IHS and @MikeGoodman_SA
  • China regulatory agency SAPPRFT approved more than 1,000 games in November, up from 400-500 in each of Aug Sept and Oct since new policy.
  • Overwatch Continues to Dominate eSports Scene https://nikopartners.com/overwatch-continues-dominate-esports-scene/ …
  • The next Asian Games Industry Exhibition, Taipei Game Show 2017, will be held in 2017 on Jan 19-20 http://insidegamesasia.biz/over-150-game-developers-join-taipei-game-show-2017/ … via @iga_biz
  • Google DeepMind could invent the next generation of AI by playing Starcraft 2 http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/11/starcraft-2-google-deepmind-ai/ … via @arstechnica