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. 

All right, lets set it straight right here and now. Sony's Playstation 3 (PS3) was granted a 3C certificate in China, but it does NOT mean that the Ministry of Culture has overturned the ban on consoles. We are not sure why Sony would have applied for the certificate other than to have it out of the way should the ban ever be overturned, but there are rumors all over the place that this means the ban will be and we can tell you that it will not be - at least not any time soon. In Niko's latest report, the Chinese Games Industry Regulations & Policy Report, co-produced with the Shanghai office of Pilar Legal, we spend 54 pages going through all of the rules and policies governing China's games industry. Part of the research came from interviews with very senior officials at the various governing ministries and agencies, and we were told that the ban is very much in place (for now). It is possible that all things would change after the 18th National Party Congress that convenes this week, but we doubt that the console ban is top of the list for regulatory revisions. Chinese companies make too much money off of PC online games and now mobile games to make the console market matter much to them right at the moment.  

According to Niko's Monthly I-Café Games, SNS and Online Video Usage Data in October 2012, iQiyi is the 3rd most popular online video site in the Internet cafés that we tracked in ten Tier 1 cities. In fact, in the 7-day tracking period in the middle of the month, iQiyi logged 5,112 hours on the 12,288 active PCs we tracked. This is well under the two leaders Youku and Tudou, which combined (since they are now a merged company) logged more than 17,000 hours. Still, one can see why Baidu would want to purchase iQiyi because it needs to remain among the lead in online video. Online video surpassed online games as an Internet application last year, and gamers and non-gamers alike flock to see movies, TV shows, and home videos on such sites.  

China's popular game information website 17173.com conducted a survey that ended October 30th with two questions that caught our eye. The first question concerned gamers' opinions regarding which game would be more popular in China, Defense of the Ancients 2 (DOTA 2) or League of Legends (LOL). The responses were DOTA 2 (792), LOL (689), tie (151), and too tough to call (262). The second question asked if a gamer had already played DOTA, would he/she want to play DOTA 2? The answers were: if DOTA continues to update then I will not play DOTA 2 (158), I will try it (289), I will wait to see about the business model (196), it depends on whether my friends will play (45), and "I don't know" (54). 

So for those few thousand gamers it seems that DOTA 2 will be a serious contender to LOL's reign of power in China. In our view LOL will remain the more popular than DOTA 2, but there will be competition for market share for sure. We are also watching the two games and many others in Southeast Asia, and will look more closely at that market in our November report: Southeast Asian Games Market Regional Report.