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. 

Kingsoft hinted that they may believe the future for MMORPGs is not as bright as it is for webgames and mobile games when the CEO announced that it will shift focus to those two segments and away from MMORPGs over time. The company's online games division is known for its JX Online series "Swordsman Online." While other major online game operators have not gone so far as to announce such a move, many have established business units to focus on mobile and webgaming. Those are clearly the buzz-word segments in China's games market this year.  

Gamasutra has an interesting account by Kang Sun, project manager of open platform for DeNA China, who spoke at the GDC Taipei conference recently. The article discusses the difference in usage and mobile infrastructure in China and other parts of the world, and highlights some of the technical challenges faced by mobile platform providers in this vast market. DeNA has had a lot of success from partnering with other developers to launch mobile social games in China, as has another famous Japanese company, GREE.  

Nielsen conducted a worldwide Smartphone Insights Study including 13 Asian countries, and confirmed that mobile social networking is commonplace now. The study also uncovered regional differences in mobile OS, with Android leading in northern Asia, iOS the most prevalent in Singapore and Symbian holding the lead in Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and India. Further, in China, Thailand and Malaysia the study says that roughly 1/3 of smartphone users also own a tablet. In Niko's June China's Mobile Games Market Report, we looked at the smartphone usage and tablet ownership relating to games and our data is supported by some of Nielsen's findings.