Gamers experience new games at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2018 (E3 2018) held in Los Angeles, the United States, on June 12, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhao Hanrong)
LOS ANGELES, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Chinese gaming companies are exploring their new opportunities at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), which kicked off Tuesday at the Los Angeles Convention Center in western U.S. state of California.
The 3-day show, organized by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), expects at least 60,000 attendees, 300 exhibitors and thousands of products on display. In the second year open to the public, hardware manufacturers, software developers, and publishers from around the world will present their latest products in the Expo.
As more Chinese companies are looking to the overseas markets, E3 has become an important platform to showcase Chinese gaming industry's latest development and ambition.
"Aiming to explore global market, Chinese companies have actively participated at E3. Following the development of Internet and improvements in hardware performance, China's game industry has made tremendous progress in recent years and has become the world's highest gaming revenue country," said Huang Yumeng, deputy Secretary General of the Game Publishing Committee of Chinese Audio-Visual and Digital Publishing Association.
"Overseas revenue of China's own R&D online games reached around 7.61 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, with a year-on-year growth of more than 10 percent. Small and medium-sized gaming companies are developing the ability to get into overseas market together with large gaming companies," She told Xinhua.
The global games market is expected to grow from 121.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2017 to 137.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2018 and more than 180.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2021. China alone will account for more than one-quarter of all global game revenues, reaching 37.9 billion dollars this year. It will remain the number one gaming market by revenues and by number of players, according to market researcher Newzoo.
"But there is still a gap between homebred games and top games from Japan, Europe and the U.S., Chinese gaming companies need to try harder in terms of creativity and production," Huang added.
"It's the second time for us to attend this E3 Show. We take it as our first step into the market overseas. What we've brought here are new games from Beijing as well as our honesty and sincerity," said Zhang Su, Vice Director General of Beijing Municipal Bureau of Press Publication, Radio, Film and Television in Beijing Games Release at E3 on Wednesday.
"We hope Beijing originated games could insert more influence over the international world as a unique brand via this event. We hope Beijing originated games could better serve players from all over the world while communicating China and its outside world, bridging understandings and building friendships across different cultures," said Zhang.
Sales of games in Beijing for 2017 are a little more than 10 billion U.S. dollars, 18.7 percent more than last year. Sales of games by companies in Beijing in overseas market for 2017 are about 2.5 billion U.S. dollars, 10 percent growth over last year.
Perfect World Games, one of the top gaming company in China, showcased two of its latest homebred multiplayer online games, "ReEvolve" and "Farside" at E3.
"Global market is becoming increasingly important to us. As a producer of games, I try to remain China's feature in games design with further strengthening the international synchronization," said Jin Rihua, vice president of the Perfect World Games.
With its strong technical strengths, innovative design capabilities, profound understanding in different cultures and rich marketing experiences, Perfect World Games has launched some client-based online PC games such as "Perfect World," "Legend of Martial Arts," "Swordsman Online," and a number of mobile games such as "Legend of the Dragonslayer Sword," "Return of the Condor Heroes," "Dream Book" and so on.
"As a front runner of Chinese games developer, overseas market share has increased from 10 percent years ago to over 60 percent nowadays in some projects," Jin added.
Founded in 2004, as China's earliest online game company with overseas operations, Perfect World Games ranked first in terms of overseas revenues of Chinese online games for many consecutive years against other domestic rivals. The company has exported its products to more than 100 countries and regions, and set up a global operational platform.
"'Go overseas' is a hot topic for Chinese gaming companies," said Wu Qing, co-founder of KOL MEDIA, founded in 2016 with the vision to provide advantages for Chinese companies wishing to expand internationally by providing effective marketing and to create additional opportunities.
"Chinese companies are stronger and stronger in mobile games and PC games. They are eager to show their development to attract overseas clients while learning more from international top game giants at E3," said Wu. By providing an one-stop overseas marketing solution, KOL MEDIA wishes to help Chinese game publishers and developers establish their brand and game abroad.
