Game firms expand global reach

Gamma Data said China's leading gaming companies such as Tencent and NetEase have spent a great deal of money and resources on gaming development. It is estimated that Tencent games recorded gross billings 10 times of its gaming development costs.

In the first three quarters of 2019, gross billings of Tencent's self-developed games reached more than 100 billion yuan ($14 billion). And Net-Ease spent over 4 billion yuan in gaming development during the same period, according to Gamma Data.

App Annie's latest top 52 app publishers report also highlighted the fast development of Chinese mobile games in overseas markets last year, as nine domestic gaming companies earned a place on the new list.

Tencent retained its No 1 spot in App Annie's Top 52 Publishers list. NetEase remained second followed by US-based gaming powerhouse Activision Blizzard.

NetEase told China Daily it will be better prepared to further enhance its global influence, and it is dedicated to offering global gamers high-quality interactive experiences with a focus on gaming development and operation.

Last year, it launched a new video games studio in Canada, planning to hire more international talent at this R&D-focused studio in North America.

So far, NetEase has offered nearly 30 games for overseas players, and many have gained huge followings in the global market, including its popular mobile battle royale game-Knives Out. The battle royale title was launched for Nintendo Switch in Japan last October, and its downloads surpassed 300,000 in just three days.

Beijing-based ByteDance, owner of the popular short video platform Douyin, is also eyeing the highly lucrative gaming market, saying it will recruit more than 1,000 staff for its emerging gaming business sector in 2020, according to a WeChat post by Yan Shou, the company's vice-president and leader of its games business, on April 24.

Currently, ByteDance's games business has over 1,000 employees. It is estimated that its self-developed games will be launched as soon as in the first half.

Lu Xiaoyin, chief executive officer of the games segment of Perfect World Co Ltd, a leading Chinese gaming and movie conglomerate, said the company has seen new growth opportunities amid the ongoing novel coronavirus epidemic.

"I believe the novel coronavirus epidemic will only leave a temporary mark on the economy both at home and abroad. Due to the epidemic, time spent indoors will cause people to spend more on home entertainment, such as video games," Lu added.

Perfect World, previously the largest game exporter in China in the past decade, reported that its overseas revenue accounted for 17.93 percent of its total revenue in 2019.

Lu noted that while console and PC-based games were previously the mainstream in the overseas gaming market, the mobile gaming sector is growing rapidly, becoming an increasingly important driving force to boost growth.

To better cater to the fast-growing overseas mobile gaming market, Perfect World established an overseas distribution department to promote its mobile games.

"Previously, we mainly offered PC and console games in mature regions such as North America and Europe. Now we will also focus on mobile games and seek expansion in emerging areas such as Southeast Asia, the Middle East and India," Lu said.

Sun from Beijing Fuzhi said after years of overseas development, now it is the games' quality that matters in competition overseas.

"We may enter a turning point in terms of games going global," Sun said. "As most gaming companies enjoy robust growth amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, it leaves plenty of time for them to offer high-quality products overseas. Or we may miss the opportunity to win larger numbers of paid users in such a huge overseas market."

Sun suggested gaming companies offer tailor-made products for different regions.

"The key is to focus on games' quality as well as to have a better understanding of the local culture," Sun said. "As Chinese gaming regulators have been tightening their grip on the market, Chinese gaming firms will continue to seek global expansion. And we will see more Chinese gaming companies competing in the global market."