Mobile game users in the first half of the year are three times more than PC game users, and TV game potential users are more

On July 29, according to the data from the "China Game Industry Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), from January to June 2015, in terms of user scale, the scale of client game users reached 134 million, the scale of web game users reached 305 million, and the scale of mobile game users reached 366 million.

The report pointed out that in the first six months of this year, the actual revenue of the Chinese game market (including the online game market, mobile game market, stand-alone game market, etc.) reached 45.85 billion yuan, and the actual sales revenue of the overseas market reached 1.76 billion US dollars during the same period.

In terms of various market segments, the actual sales revenue of the client game market reached 26.71 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.5%; the actual sales revenue of the web game market reached 10.28 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12%; the actual sales revenue of the Chinese mobile game market reached 20.93 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 67.2%.

Capital operation in the gaming industry returns from frenzy to rationality

According to the development of the game market in the first half of the year, the report pointed out that the growth of the domestic game market scale is in a reasonable range, and the multi-screen competition of games has driven the growth of revenue. Among them, new results have been achieved in improving the efficiency of administrative supervision, protecting intellectual property rights, and supporting game exports.

In terms of Internet + promoting the development of Internet finance, game companies are seeking internal and external growth space. National policies advocate all kinds of innovation, encourage the development of creative industries, improve network infrastructure construction, and further optimize the development environment of the game industry. The capital operation of the game industry has returned from enthusiasm to rationality, and listing, acquisitions, and mergers have become more cautious, and the valuation of game companies has become more optimistic.

At the industrial level, the game industry has fast technology iteration and high density, giving rise to a new industry division of labor. Game companies have won overseas market opportunities, and the overseas market scale of independently developed online games has grown rapidly. Differentiated competition, independent operation, opening up new markets, and leveraging the "Belt and Road" have become the preferred way to participate in international market competition.

China's mobile game industry continues to grow rapidly, driven by the increase in the number of products, the outbreak of heavy mobile games, and the acceleration of overseas market development. The mobile game market structure is shifting to an "olive-shaped" structure.

In terms of TV games, the domestic market is in its infancy, with both software and hardware being deployed, and cross-border participation by enterprises from multiple fields. R&D and operations are yet to be explored. The potential user base of TV games is huge, and a large amount of resources are focused on the TV game industry. Policies on TV game content supervision, hardware production and sales have been introduced one after another, boosting the growth of the industry.

Set-top boxes are becoming the main TV gaming platform

After the policy was relaxed, the domestic TV game market began to take off, and the power accumulated over the years in software and hardware was released at the same time. In terms of hardware, the number and scale of smart TVs and set-top boxes have grown rapidly, among which set-top boxes are striving to become the main gaming platform.

From January to June 2015, many companies released new plans for gaming set-top boxes. Some set-top boxes are no longer limited to fixed hardware configurations. The growth of smart TVs and set-top boxes has stimulated the growth of the TV game market.

In addition, in September 2014 and March 2015, two overseas consoles entered China successively, and the number and scale of the highly anticipated console game software also showed a significant growth. According to the game approval results disclosed by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, from January to June 2015, the number of book games that passed the review reached 25, while there were only 10 last year, a faster growth rate.

Compared with other sub-industries, the R&D and operation model of the TV game industry is in the early exploratory stage. Specifically, in terms of the main participants, most of the participants in the TV game industry are from other industries, and there are no large-scale TV game companies specializing in this field. These participants include previous hardware manufacturers and platform-level companies in the Internet industry, as well as game companies in other sub-sectors.

From the perspective of research and development, the TV game development model is still under exploration, lacking a blockbuster that can truly detonate the market. Among the three different fields of consoles, smart set-top boxes, and smart TV games, there are still differences in the industry as to which field is more suitable for the Chinese market.

From an operational perspective, there is no dominant charging model for TV games. There is no unified answer as to whether they should make profits through the sale of game software like in foreign markets, or through built-in payment points like mobile games and web games.

The quality and quantity of TV game products are far from satisfactory, which is relatively different from users' expectations. On the one hand, the introduction of overseas games is slow. For example, domestic game consoles have insufficient software in terms of quantity and quality, and many high-quality overseas products have not been introduced into China.

In addition, the supporting industry chain is not developed enough, and the industry chain ecosystem has not been fully built. Since the user base is in the initial development stage and lacks attractiveness, the resource allocation of the entire industry chain is insufficient from design planning, technology development to distribution, promotion, and operation, which is directly reflected in the lack of strong participation of small and medium-sized R&D manufacturers. Although some independent game development teams participate in console game development through support projects from Microsoft and Sony , these developers are still mainly online games, not professional console game developers.

The potential user base of TV games is huge

Based on the demographic dividend of the Chinese market, China's TV game industry has a large number of potential users, which will become the driving force for the explosion of the TV game market.

Television still occupies a dominant position in China's home entertainment. The habit of using television will provide a basis for the promotion of smart TVs and set-top boxes, and bring convenience to console games.

The Chinese game market already has a huge user base, especially for mobile games, with more than 300 million users. After being cultivated in the game market, it will be easier for these users to be converted to more expressive online games. In addition, the Chinese game market has been developed for a long time, and game companies have a deeper understanding of the characteristics and psychology of users in the market, which will also be conducive to user conversion.

TV hardware manufacturers and TV operators have inherent advantages in the field of TV games using television as the medium, and some companies already have mature professional TV programs as distribution channels in the field of TV games. Their users with good payment habits will directly promote the expansion of the scale of the TV game industry after being converted into TV game users.

Although the console game market has just been lifted, the parallel-imported products sold on the market already have a large number of users. From hardware cracking to software piracy, a complete industrial chain has been established to meet the users' demand for low-cost purchases. Some users even own all the classic models of game consoles and supporting game software over the years, forming a consumption habit of buying parallel-imported and pirated products.

In terms of game content, due to the combined effects of content shortage and parallel imports, sales performance is not optimistic. It has been about 9 months since the console games went on sale, and a total of about 300,000 sets of games for the two consoles have been sold. If calculated based on the average domestic console game price of 250 yuan, the overall sales revenue is less than 100 million yuan. Due to the lack of income, some domestic experience stores for console games have been closed.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.