Recently, we have seen that a lot of new games have begun announcing info, including Blade & Soul, Saint Seiya, Dragon Ball online, and etc. No doubt, these new MMOs will attract lots of attention. In addition to the games just mentioned, today the movie Transformers III will also go live in China. Accompanied by this hot movie, NetDragon will also release its new game Transformers Online. As summer comes, the heat of games will spread over China again.

We also have seen that research institutes like CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center), iResearch, Analysys International, also started focusing on game industry now and have just released some related market data. It seems like everybody burns money in this industry. No matter in China or some western countries, plenty of money has been put into the industry of mobile internet. Every day, there are business proposals sent to GameLook. However I haven’t found many proposals or companies attractive or valuable. Venture capitals are also scrambling for good projects. At least three projects have slipped through my fingers. What’s more, the top social game companies in China have all surpassed a valuation of 100 million US dollars. Maybe it is a big success, maybe it is a sign of bubbles.

It is very difficult to make the agenda for next week since there are too many activities, parties and forums… Besides CGBC (China Game Business Conference) and CGDC (China Game Developers Conference), I think there are 3 other activities that may be worth attending.

1. Cruise Ship Party organized by 265g.com at 18:00 July 28: many browser-based MMO companies and venture capital firms will attend. Of course, I will go too.

2. “100 Gamers Gathering” hosted by duowan.com: there will also be many company executives present.

3. Party held by IGDA (International Game Developers Association): it is kind like a gathering for outsourcing crew.

Although I did not find any party themed on social games. It will be a busy and precious week.

From the two reports of CNNIC and Analysys International, we find that both client games and mobile games have slowed down the momentum of growth, which indicates an even matured market. In the past 10 years, the Chinese game market was driven by the growth of players, which called “demographic dividend “. Now it is the time to slow down.

China’s mobile online gamers are mainly feature phone users and the number is small. While WiSTONE’s one mobile online game has generated 50 million RMB, the game’s income comes mainly from mobile version, webgame version and overseas market, which is another story.

A very evident thing is that when new games have more players, it becomes difficult to promote while the promotion cost could get even higher. New games, especially “highly efficient” webgames and social game, are taking the advantage of shorter product development cycle and lower cast for more players. Old games like ZT Online, CF, DNF and Legend are still very popular, which brings a lot of pressure on new games. So, new games should be well produced and have very good originality. To be sure, webgame will be the only type of some games.

Thunder has delayed its IPO to the evening of July 21. They will get $114 million and a new IT company will join the “listed club”. We look forward to its performance.

Sina launched it’s micro gaming platform yesterday and has aroused many attentions. I have noticed that many VPs of social gaming companies started to follow the weibo account of the platform. Sina has promised the platform will be free for one year, and then the ratio will be 7 to 3. Shanda Games has already confirmed that it will enter the open social gaming platform.

China’s net client games revenue has reached 8.76 billion RMB in Q2, 2011, according to Analysys International. Seasonal factors are not so obvious. Many new games will be launched after the Chinajoy 2011 (7.28-7.31). The summer vocation is very important to gaming companies.

NetDragon has predicted their 2011 mobile revenue will reach 10m RMB, inspiring though they could have done better. NetDragon’s smart phone business started long time ago while the mobile market in China still focus on feature phones. We believe the time for smart phones will come in late 2012.

Tencent has launched another open gaming platform (this time based on mobile browser), which shows its ambitions of becoming the number one in China’s Internet market. Tencent now has many open platforms, including QQ, Pengyou.com, Q+, Qzone, QQ micro-blog and QQ mobile browser. Weixin, Discuz and some others are coming soon. Tencent is faced with some problems brought by various platforms and different technical standards, and Tencent is working on it.
Sina is going to launch the Wei Credit system, indicating that Sina Weibo is speeding up monetization. While the APPs and games on Sina Weibo cannot make enough money, we look forward to Sina’s gaming platform.
Shanda Games has launched its light web game studio “UUGame”. More and more public companies have begun to focus on the new gaming segments, such as social games, web games and casual games. Cross-platform games are becoming the trend. While the key to success is good ideas in the gaming industry, capital sometimes does not work.
Excellent South Korea games always value the Chinese market, and Kingdom Under Fire II (KUF II) is one of them. It has been confirmed that KUF II will enter into China this year. NEXON’s Mabinogi Heroes has already been released yesterday, while Riot Games and Evony have celebrated success in the global market. Good games are always global.