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 Game

CrossFire is a FPS developed by South Korea’s SmileGate that has consistently ranked at the top of the gaming charts in Southeast Asia and other Asian countries since its launch in 2013. In 2013 alone, it earned approximately $1 billion USD in China. The9 anticipates launching this new title in Q1 of 2017 and it is definitely a game to watch out for next year.

Huayi Brothers Invests in Hero Entertainment

Hero Entertainment, a Chinese mobile online game company that was recently listed on China’s National Equities Exchange and Quotation (NEEQ), and Chinese entertainment company Huayi Brothers Media Corporation jointly announced the signing of an equity investment agreement on November 19, 2015, whereby, Huayi Brothers invested 1.9 billion yuan (US$288 million) for a 20 per cent stake in Hero Entertainment, making Huayi the latter’s second largest shareholder.

SAPPRFT Delayed Date for Licenses on Mobile Games Under New Regulations

China regulatory body SAPPRFT recognized that processing licenses for the tens of thousands of existing games before October 1st, their initial license deadline, was an impossible task. They have postponed the deadline until January 1, 2017 at the request of publishing houses, game developers, and game publishers. Niko’s Xiaofeng Zeng accurately predicted this 3-month delay, and Niko’s Daniel Ahmad provides more insight in his recent blog post.

Niko Partners on Twitter

Follow us on Twitter @nikochina to see these comments in real time as we publish them! Here are a few of our tweets from last week:

  • Mobile and PC game development are on the rise in Southeast Asia!
  • Niko analyst Daniel Ahmad posted more info about the new change in mobile game regs in China on his blog, link is below.
  • Chinese gov postpones deadline to get licenses on existing mobile games under new SAPPRFT regs from Oct 1 til 1/1/17 http://bit.ly/2ckgbm6
  • My latest Forbes article: A Snapshot Of A ‘League Of Legends’ Tournament In Vietnam via @forbes
  • Succeeding In China’s Soaring Mobile Game Market Grows More Challenging
  • More Details On Tencent’s and Skyworth Digital’s Gaming Device via @iga_biz
  • Qualcomm debuts new design for a wireless, eye-tracking VR headset via @gamasutra
  • If you are in the LA area, I’m sure this talk by @duncanclark at the USC U.S.-China Institute this Thursday will be…https://lnkd.in/fhZgNXj
  • Niko analysts Lisa and Daniel @ZhugeEx quoted in LA Times article: Riot Games has one title: ‘League of Legends.’