Chinese Games vs. Japanese Games

Yi Ren, CEO of DeNA China, was interviewed by Gamelook and talked about his understanding in different features between Chinese and Japanese mobile game market.

Mr. Ren said that Japanese mobile games are known for the low quantity, high quality and long life cycle. Japanese gamers grew up with console game machines, so they have higher expectations for game quality.

Chinese mobile games developed with the growth of Internet coverage, so they are more into interaction and “PK” (the challenge of player kills).

The main reason why Chinese and Japanese market are different is that they are at different development stages. Japan has already had a very large coverage of mobile phones, while China’s mobile phone coverage was just about to boom several years ago. The quality of games made in 2012 in China is very different from those made in 2013, and Chinese players will learn to choose higher quality games as the market grows.

Guild Wars 2 in China

KongZhong will employ a unique business model for operations of ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2 when the game launches in China. The company plans to use a one-time purchase model, with frequent free updates. Typically PC online games in China follow the Free to Play model, and occasionally the subscription model. The upfront cost is not yet disclosed.

Partnerships Increasing in China

Perfect World and Huawei have signed a strategic partnership to approach the games industry on the Internet. The two parties will start from the “living room entertainment” to cooperate in game implanting, game importing, game development, game publishing, game client development, cloud platform building, global marketing, channel distribution and sales, etc., and expand the business to even the filed of wearable devices.

Partnerships are becoming very common lately – Kingsoft has partnered with Xiaomi and with Tencent. Xiaomi has partnered with Tencent over QQ. NetEase has partnered with China Telecom to launch a messaging app. The lines between operators, hardware providers, telecoms and other industries are blurring more

Softbank Invests in Ini3

Softbank Ventures Korea has taken a 23% stake in Thai online games operator Ini3 Digital for an undisclosed amount. Ini3 Digital is one of the leading online game operators in Thailand and a formidable force for online games in SEA. The 10-year old company says it will use the investment to expand internationally, first to Vietnam. Niko Partners sees Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia as the most important games markets in SEA.