Everything you need to know this week about the games market in Asia
Every week, our analysts review dozens of news sources, from multiple countries, in multiple languages. From this, we give you the stories that are most important, and the analysis to tell you why.
Gamelook reported that in 2015 China has maintained the top position in terms of professional eSports gamers' total income, with the prize amount totaling $14.08 million. In 2014 China's professional eSports gamers' income surpassed South Korea and became the highest in the world. According to iResearch, the number of eSports participants and eSports audience has been growing and is estimated to exceed 100 million people in 2016.
NetEase has nearly doubled their performance over 2014, generating $2.7 billion from their PC and mobile games in 2015 including roughly $1 billion in profit. NetEase is the long-standing partner of Blizzard in China and they have published Warcraft, Starcraft II and Hearthstone but they also operate the leading games like Fantasy Westward Journey, Westward Journey Online II, Westward Journey Online III, Tianxia III and more.
Showing the importance of China's esports industry, Valve's Gabe Newell directly fired the commentator and production company of the Dota 2 Shanghai Major competition because of several technical and personal judgement issues. According to Polygon, the commentator made many inappropriate and obscene comments throughout the tournament. The Shanghai Major is the biggest Dota 2 tournament so far this year with a prize pool of $3 million USD. The main event started this week on the 1st in partnership with Perfect World.
Chinese domestic mobile handset production and competition is heating up. Xiaomi announced plans to open 300 retail stores across China, seemingly in response to Huawei Technologies launching retail plans. Xiaomi has historically only sold products online, famous for its flash sales.
Nintendo has recently slashed their financial forecast nearly in half due to "poor exchange rates" along with disappointing sales. However, this week has been notable as Nintendo has celebrated the 20th anniversary of their massively successful license - purportedly pulling in about $1.5 billion a year, making it one of the most profitable licenses in the world. To get a full grasp of the entire extent of the Pokemon series, check out Polygon's timeline covering the past 20 years. Even more importantly, Pokemon recently announced the arrival of Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon later in 2016 and it will come with nine language options - including Chinese for the very first time.
Niko News is just one part of the strategy and expertise offered by Niko Partners to help our clients better understand and successfully navigate the thriving games markets of China and Southeast Asia.
Niko Partners is the leading provider of market intelligence, custom research, and consulting services focused on the games industries in China and Southeast Asia. Since 2003 we have provided critical information to the world's leading game publishers, developers, hardware makers, and game service providers as well as to government policymakers, trade associations, and institutional investors.
