History, Overview and

Trends of Online Games in

China

(in10 minutes)

•Chinadotcom Ion Global (CDC)

•Principal Researcher Wireless and Games

•Microsoft Xbox (PC Games, Mac, Peripherals)

•First Asia Regional Business Manager

•Microsoft Research Asia

•Researcher Asia Cnter for Interactive Design

•MS IE 7 /MS Media Center

•Program Manager

•MS Casual Games

•Producer / Started first game team in China

•Shouji Mobile Entertainment

•CSO/COO

ColumnistColumnistColumnistColumnist

•Gamasutra (China Games)

•South China Morning Post (Beijing Byte)

•China Tech News

•Asia Pacific Management Forum

� Only about 10 years old as an industry

� Born from rampant piracy and low disposable income

� Similar to Korea in industry development and market

� 3 Waves but all still operating

� Licensing / Portals / Korean-Taiwanese Games

� (2000-2003)

� China MMORPGS / Communities (2003-2007)

� Web Games/SNS (2007-Present)

� China Online Games becoming mainstream media� Youth Media

� Regulated

� Korean/China MMORPGs hierarchical and structured

� China /Korean follow 80/20 rule

� China Game market regulated like Korea

� Console ban

� .PC type games and UI (one handed gaming so players can smoke)

� China and Korea gamers love Blizzard

� Starcraft, Warcraft, Diablo (1 and 2) and DOTA are all still favorites on

LANs because they are well designed and free in Internet Café/Bangs.

WoW benefited from player familiarity

� Subscription Service based

� Localized and operated locally

� Sohu (spun off online games unit twice)

� Sina

� Netease

� Shanda

� Kingsoft (China’s MS made no money on

productivity software but profitable on games)

•Free to play

•Monetization from avatars

•And virtual goods

•Free to Play

•Virtual Items

•Avatars

•Special Levels

•Appeals to women

•Audition

•Kart Rider

Chinese game companies have

Created their own versions of

Korean advanced casual games

•Blizzard/the9

•First to break ban on broadcast adv.

•Western game design and backstory

•Pre-paid cards

•Zhengtu Online shifted the industry

•Online/ Offline Event based gaming

•.Cafe Channel marketing and promotions

•Designed to be addictive/gambling

•Perfect World

•Export MMORPGs tech/licenses

� Kaixin001

�Parking wars

� Friends for sale

� Trevian & Clones

� Browser vs. Client

Main Overseers

� Ministry of Culture

� Ministry of Information Industry

� General Administration of Press and Publications

Also…

� State Administration of Radio, Film and Television

� Ministry of Commerce

� Public Security Bureau

JingJing and ChaCha Internet Cops

� Virtual transaction / avatars

� Business model impacts game design

� Games as Media and Social Facilitators

� Games as FMCG consumables

�Channel marketing

�Online and offline events

� Fill lifestyle role

Contact:

� Frank.Yu@ShoujiMobile.com

� FrankYu@Gmail.com

� Twitter: Frankyu

Thank you