|
China added 46 million Internet users in the 2nd
half of 2009 and 40 million in the 1st half of 2009, according to
CNNIC. This is good news for the continued growth of online games there, as
online gaming is a major use of the Internet. We know that the online game
industry is evolving in China though, and gamers are becoming choosier and
savvier. Niko will survey Chinese gamers in the next month ahead of our 2010
Annual Review and Forecast Report and will see if their behavior and usage of
online games has shifted much from 2009. We do know that online games are the
future globally, too. China's online game operators have made many moves
recently to expand internationally - case in point Shanda, which bought two
companies (Goldcool and Mochi Media) and did a JV with Kingsoft in the past few
weeks all in the name of having a big game inventory for their international
expansion.
|
While it might not solidify into anything enforceable, and
it might not even get adopted by the government, China's Ministry of Culture
has announced a much needed rating system for video games. The MOC
seems to be trying to clean up the industry, and this is one in a series of
recent moves to demonstrate that. Truth be told, Chinese games have had ratings
for years but no one has noticed or really cared. Hopefully this one will have
some impact and put more of the burden of game content screening on users and
their parents (in the case of minors) rather than on the government. Reports say that there will be three
rating levels: Everyone, Everyone 12+ and Mature (age 18 and older). Instead of
limiting rating base on content alone, this newly proposed rating system also
evaluates other aspects including storyline, background, music and Visual FX.
|
In sharp contrast to NPD's latest report that 4% of US
gamers admit to illegally downloading games via peer-to-peer networks, in China
the rate is 84% admitting to the crime. Those 84% also say they download an
average of 3-5 titles illegally per year. No wonder the US market can be
tracked via point of sale monitoring, whereas that methodology is useless in
many emerging markets, including China.
|
