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. 

Last week China Joy took place in Shanghai. Lisa Hanson and Xiaofeng Zeng represented Niko Partners at the exhibition and conference. Overall we got a sense that client-based MMOGs are here to stay, mobile games are what everyone wants to talk about, Chinese game developers are taking a much closer look at international markets particularly Southeast Asia, Russia, and North America, and that webgames have risen in share of PC online gaming but may have matured in terms of growth rates in mainland China. Please click here to access much more of our analysis on the Niko Blog.   

Enjoy 260 photos from ChinaJoy, posted by Techinasia.com. Considering the Niko attendees to China Joy didn't take any photos, this is very helpful! You'll get a good visual on the booth babes, the booths themselves and the sheer size of the show from these photos. 

After meeting with Shanghai-based BesTV, we formed more opinions about the potential overturn of the console ban and the impact on Xbox, Playstation and Wii. Read more about it on the Niko Blog.   

31.3 billion RMB in PC online games = $5.1 billion, and Niko's forecast made in April 2013 for PC online games for the full calendar year is $11.9 billion. The CGIA report also noted that webgames may have reached mature growth in mainland China, which aligns with Niko's analysis in our 2013 PC Online Games Market Report.  

CNNIC released the 32nd Statistical Report on the Internet in China this week. There are now 591 million Internet users, 464 million mobile Internet users, and Internet users spend an average of 21.7 hours per week online. In addition, online games has slipped in the ranking of leading Internet applications from #5 a couple of years ago down to #7 this year, after IM, search, news, music, blogging and online video. Last year online games had slipped to #6, but blogging has now ascended and is the newer entrant in the leading apps list. Microblogs are known as "weibo" in China and have soared in popularity over the years.  

Sina.com reported that some mobile game companies in China "purchase" high-ranking positions in top game lists in app stores. Niko has heard that games many game developers engage in this practice of paying the app stores for rankings, even those games that could have naturally ascended to the top rank. However, we admit we have no solid proof of this directly.  

When Activision Blizzard bought back some of its stock from Vivendi last week, some of those repurchased shares were sold to an investment group led by CEO Bobby Kotick and co-chairman Brian Kelly. Another major investor in that group is Tencent Holdings. Not only does Tencent now have the license for Call of Duty Online in China, but it also owns part of Activision Blizzard.