Gaming in China

[MFlores]

Hi guys, I have some questions related to gaming:

 

- Is gaming seen as something bad? 

- Can I buy games from the current generation easily?

- How's the retrogaming scene in China?

- Pc gaming is still the big thing?

 

Any other info related to gaming would be useful.

[abcdefg]

What do you mean by "gaming?" Do you mean poker, blackjack, roulette and baccarat? Macau is the place for these. Do you mean on-line gambling?

[hoshinoumi]

7 hours ago, MFlores said:

s Is gaming seen as something bad? 

- Can I buy games from the current generation easily?

- How's the retrogaming scene in China?

- Pc gaming is still the big thing?

Pc gaming seems to be the most popular. I don't know about PS/Xbox but I know that Nintendo, for example, isn't sold in China. 

Pc cafés (known as 网吧 wangba) are a big thing but videogames in general are seen as something bad (remember when videogames in USA where the cause of everything a kid failed in back in the 90??). Where I lived in Xi'an there were many places where you could play ALL night for 15 yuan. Foreigners aren't supposed to be allowed, but didn't encounter any problems. 80% of the people were playing league of legends, the other 20% was playing Overwatch. I don't know about retro gaming since, again, I haven't seen consoles/ads for consoles or games. Hope it helps.

[ZhangKaiRong]

China is getting more and more exposed to competitive esport, but generally speaking, gaming is still seen as a bad habit and something related to potential obsession.

If I remember correctly, iOS and Android mobile platforms are the most popular in China, followed by PC gaming.

Console is still a niche market in the mainland, as most gaming consoles were banned there until 2014. However, if you want to buy games for current and former gens, you can in bigger cities: I bought several Japanese and HK/Taiwan region PS3 games in Beijing when I was studying there in 2012/2013.

 

Retrogaming: I didn't note a big retrogaming scene in China, but China does have their fair amount of bootleg PC games from the 90's  Please see my absolute favorite one (YT video)

[hoshinoumi]

You should have seen the face my teachers had when they learnt that I, a girl, loved to play videogames. They simply couldn't comprehend it (and teachers are supposed to be in constant contact with foreign culture...).

[dwq]

I think steam is available, at least steamdb explicitly lists RMB as a market (and it is quite a bit cheaper than the US).

[ouyangjun]

I'd generally agree with Zhang Kai Rong's comments above.  Mobile is probably most popular followed by PC and then console is trying to catch on.  PS4 and Xbox can easily be bought in China at large electronic stores like 顺电 or even at the Microsoft store.  

 

The really big hit is Tencent's game Honour of Kings.  It's caused quite the controversy in China.  It's the highest grossing game on iOS and Android in China with over 200 million active players.  The major news outlets such as People's Daily have compared to the game to a drug and have pressured Tencent to the point where they've had to put time restrictions on how much a minor can play per day (1 hour if under 12 and 2 hours if under 18).  Then there was another news article blaming the game for people in the army wasting their time on it after their duty and something of a ban there as well (though I can't really remember the army story clearly).  And most recently a family named their baby after the game, "Wang Zhe Rong Yao 王者荣耀" is the child's name (the game name in Chinese).  This is also causing controversy.  Definitely not being looked upon as a good thing in society.

 

I've heard that the game is on track to gross over $3 Billion USD in revenue for Tencent this year. 

[hoshinoumi]

On 12/09/2017 at 1:24 PM, dwq said:

think steam is available, at least steamdb explicitly lists RMB as a market (and it is quite a bit cheaper than the US).

much more? Can I ask someone in China to buy games for my European account??

[yueni]

4 hours ago, hoshinoumi said:

much more? Can I ask someone in China to buy games for my European account??

 

Short Answer: No you can't.

 

Long Answer: Steam does regional pricing on their games. It makes sense, because the vast majority of people in China won't be able to afford games that are priced for the North American or European markets. In order to get cheaper regional pricing, you have to actually reside in the region in question, and link your account to a bank account from that country. So for instance, I live and work in China, and I have a Chinese bank account. I am eligible to get the Chinese price for games. If you came to China from Europe on a two week holiday, and tried to do this, you won't be able to switch your Steam account, because you wouldn't have a Chinese address or bank account to link your account to.

 

In terms of gifting, I wouldn't be able to gift any Steam games to you, because the prices are so radically different. You could gift games to me, but I can't gift Steam games to anybody except people with Chinese (or Russian, I think) Steam accounts. It used to be that if I bought a game with a Chinese-linked Steam account, and then eventually moved back to the US, and re-linked my Steam account to my US account, I wouldn't be able to play any games that were purchased in China. I'd have to re-purchase all those games to play them in the US. They changed this policy earlier this year, and games that are on my account are on my account forever, unless I gift them to somebody else. By the way, VPNs don't work.

 

Something else you need to keep in mind, regarding Steam. Tencent announced that there are plans to kick Steam out of the Chinese market within 2 years. I imagine that by 2020, Steam will be blocked in China. What was not publicly announced, but has been making the rounds in weibo and so on, is a Tencent person (I don't remember if he's an engineering type or what, but I believe he was a fairly high-level executive) boasting that because the Chinese government is extremely invested in Tencent, that the removal of Steam from the Chinese market on a certain timeline is a guaranteed thing.

 

On 9/12/2017 at 8:35 PM, ouyangjun said:

The really big hit is Tencent's game Honour of Kings.

 

Regarding 王者荣耀, it has been in alpha/closed beta/open beta, and was recently soft launched for the Western European market a month ago. It's been localized for South East Asia by Garena, and there's a lot of game localization happening for that particular product. Pretty sure it's available in Eastern Europe as well. The localized version has quite a few different names, and looks nothing like the Chinese version. The names that I know of, off the top of my head, are: Arena of Valor, Strike of Kings, Realm of Valor. Don't remember the other names.