Niko News is a filter of the most important news items and bits of information concerning the games markets of China and Southeast Asia uncovered by Niko each week. Our multilingual analysts review dozens of news sources from several countries, and as a team Niko reduces the long list of articles to 3-4 "must read" items for you. We then provide our Niko analysis to these items, making them relevant and highlighting the importance for the market. This service is one of the many ways we help distill the confusing, conflicting information about the games markets of Asia for our clients and readers. 

South Korea promulgated a Shut Down Law that prohibits gaming for people ages 16 or younger for a six-hour block of time every night. All game companies need to comply. As part of the Shut Down Law, the PlayStation Store for South Korea will shut down during that block of time, as will the PSN. The law goes into effect July 1st. Additionally, South Korea is toying with the idea of prohibiting minors from playing games with virtual economies. This latter policy seems excessive, and would change the whole landscape of online gaming in South Korea if put into law. Japan, South Korea, China and Vietnam have established many rules and regulations to protect youth gamers from the perils of online gaming. China has an Anti-Fatigue Policy that prohibits gaming for more than 3 hours in a row, but there is no curfew for gaming at night as of yet. Niko is publishing a report on the current state of the Chinese games market regulatory landscape in November 2012. We also analyze relevant laws and policies in our ongoing report subscription, and we will tell clients of our meetings with Chinese regulators as they happen.  

Apple has 2 stores in Beijing, 3 in Shanghai, and 1 in Hong Kong at the moment, and it has gained authorization to open another store in Chengdu and one in Shenzhen. In our soon-to-be-published June report on China's Mobile Games Market we see that Chinese mobile gamers are avid users of Apple products, and Apple has announced how much Chinese sales have benefitted the company's financial results.  

7-Eleven is already one of the leading distribution points in Southeast Asian countries for prepaid game cards for online games, and now the mini-market chain finds itself as a hot spot for socializing, entertainment, and Internet usage in Indonesia. In the US we tend to think of entertainment and retail in distinct terms. When analyzing foreign market opportunities it is critical to see what is hot there and what makes it hot. Congregations of gamers and other youth at 7-11s throughout Asia could mean a boost to online games, as the cards are sold there, word of mouth is the best marketing for new games, and there is Internet access there. Soon, in addition to bands performing, it would not surprise us to find out that online game operator field marketing agents begin to host promotions for online games at 7-11 or similar venues.  

In past missives Niko has stated that it is possible that China will simply bypass game consoles and instead move forward with the currently legal console alternatives. We coined that phrase to represent the TV-based local multiplayer gaming that is taking place in spite of a ban on consoles. In addition to JiaJia TV's games on a system-on-a-chip in the newly launched Lenovo Smart TV, and in addition to Lenovo's Eedoo business unit that has released a console, another market entrant is China Telecom who will bring cloud-based gaming to Smart TVs using Ubitus' library of licensed games reportedly with console-quality.

We will cover consoles and other gaming hardware in more detail in our September 2012 report available to subscribers of our research.