[Digital Daily Reporter Wang Jinhwa] Chinas love for Korean games is still there, but new Korean games have not been released locally for 6 years. This is because the issuance of plates and local regulations were frozen. The domestic game industry is planning to put aside its disappointing voices about China for a while and focus on targeting countries other than China through P2E services.
According to the “Reality Report of Korean Content Rankings in China” surveyed by the Korea Creative Content Agency on the 17th, as of December 31 of last year, the most popular PC game in China was Nexon’s “Dungeon & Fighter”.
NCsofts Blade & Soul and Aion, Webzens Mu Online, and Smilegates Crossfire are followed.
Chinese peoples love for Korean games is still ongoing. However, they are all PC games released before 2017. There are no more new games based on PC games. Only the Chinese version of Pearl Abyss Black Desert Mobile is in the final stages of development for release. According to the data from Conjinone, “there is a serious imbalance in the Korean mobile game market, with more than 200 Chinese games being released.”
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Korea and China, but China has not fired a signal to effectively lift the Korea-Korea rule. The Korean-Korean law is a major regulation that prevents the issuance of foreign-funded licenses for Korean games. In addition, as the possibility of President Xi Jinpings long-term reign is being talked about, it is difficult to be optimistic about the complete lifting of the Korea-Korea ordinance.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of President Xi Jinpings tenure in power. At the national convention to be held in October this year, both inside and outside China are of the opinion that President Xi Jinping will continue to rule for a long time. China has already abolished the rule for consecutive terms, which replaces the president every 10 years, through the party constitution and immediate revision.
If President Xi becomes more active in regulating big tech, such as the game industry, to solidify his position, as a result, Korean game companies entry into China will become more distant. In particular, in the case of games, even if the issuance of the foreign-funded version is released, it will be more difficult to succeed than in the past. This is because they have to comply with Chinese regulations such as the total sales volume system, local shutdown system, and content censorship.
Recently, regulations have become stricter. According to Chinese portal Sohu, the local government introduced additional regulations on online services targeting Internet users under the age of 18 from the 14th.
Online gaming, online live broadcasting, online audio and video, online social networking and other network service providers must set up youth mode so that minors can use the service, and provide the service in accordance with relevant national regulations and standards. Functions such as time management, authority management, and consumption management should also be set so that the guardian can perform the guardianship.
In other words, game companies need to improve their game addiction prevention work more than last year. Tencent and ByteDance immediately proceeded with the update. This means that the local regulatory authorities have applied the whip again after extensive regulations on game companies with similar contents in August of last year.
In response, local media are voicing voices such as “We welcome strong supervision of the game” and “Improving the certification system as an important part of addiction prevention will help eradicate unreasonable online behavior by minors.” As such, with the issuance of the version number not being resolved for six years, the flow inside China is becoming more complicated.
Meanwhile, in the first quarter of this year, the domestic game industry is no longer waiting for the Chinese market, and is actively working to target the global market. Another reason for not waiting is the huge influence of P2E games being banned from service in China and Korea. The industry is preparing for P2E services globally except for China and Korea through a blockchain platform, or is leading a huge hit with released games.
Joycity Gunship Battle: CryptoConflict, released on the 28th of last month, surpassed 100,000 simultaneous global users within two weeks of its release. Netmarble plans to release an early access version of Golden Bros in March, and plans to officially launch it in the global market in April, excluding some countries such as Korea and China. Non-fungible token trading function will be added in April.
Com2uS plans to release a blockchain version of the mobile game Summoners War: Hundred Years War, released last year. Through this, the Hundred Years War focuses on enhancing the joy of play with advanced strategic content that enhances the unique fun of the game. It plans to allow game goods to be exchanged for virtual assets ‘C2X’ and ‘LCT’ through ‘C2X Station’, an electronic wallet, in global regions except for some countries such as Korea and China.
