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. 

China Daily published an article alluding to a possible retraction of the ban on game consoles in China. Despite the speculation the article has caused in the markets and among industry observers, it is highly unlikely that this ban will be lifted in the near term. If it is lifted now or in the future, we fully expect that there would be restrictions on foreign consoles that remain in place. Based on our ongoing coverage of this topic and after reading the article closely, we do not believe that the ban will be overturned immediately. 

This month, the game 我叫 (MT Online) made the news because it was developed in only 7 months for less than 4 million RMB ($636,000), yet it reached #1 in the China App store as a paid game in January. The game is 6 RMB per download. It achieved 500,000 active users per day, 180,000 PCU per minute, retained 75% of its users on day two after download, retained 65% of its users on day 3 and still managed to retain 50% of its users by day 7. Very few paid apps succeed in China, yet this one has done well. The game was developed by LocoJoy.  

In January 2013, Niko issued a survey without screening criteria about home gaming PC accessories and closed the survey within 5 days. This is called a "mini-survey" and sometimes we use them to get a pulse on the market. In this mini-survey we had 736 respondents, the majority of whom seem to be casual or occasional gamers who play games for fewer than 15 hours per week. One of the questions we asked is "What gaming accessories or peripherals do you own for your home PC? (Check all that apply)." Here are the responses:

a. I consider the entire PC to be a gaming PC (18.72%)

b. Gaming mouse (16.11%)

c. Gaming keyboard (15.27%)

d. Gaming headset (9.52%)

e. GPU for gaming (7.52%)

f. CPU for gaming (6.17%)

g. I do not own any special gaming accessories or peripherals for my PC (26.67%).