Author | Feng Ye

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367,000.

On July 29, ChinaJoy officially gave the total number of visitors to the exhibition.

This is the largest number of visitors since ChinaJoy was held, and it also confirms the voice of the industry that claims to be "warming". Compared with the wailing in previous years, everyone seems to have passed the first stage of grief and began to learn from the pain and accept the reality in front of them. After all, things have to be done, and the key is to find ways to be sustainable and sustainable.

Source: Xiaguang Society

At ChinaJoy, I saw everyone's response, and they still have lingering feelings about the cold wave.

The first is to strictly control costs. The head of the company, which is not short of cash flow, continues to dominate Hall N, holding up a "stop queuing" sign in the face of the full queue. But players generally feedback, "The periphery is getting more and more difficult to take", "I did a bunch of tasks before I sent a bag", "Can a certain goose pick a little more?" "There are some constraints that can be seen from this. Some manufacturers chose not to come directly - ChinaJoy held in Shanghai, but only two of the Shanghai Four Little Dragons came. 100% discount on booth fees.

The second is growth, in one way or another. Going to sea, cross-terminal attempts, and integrated gameplay are all permeated in every corner of the exhibition hall. This is the session where everyone has reported that "I have seen the most foreigners", and it is also the session that people are most looking forward to connecting with the outside world.

Perhaps, everyone has been waiting too long for the coming spring.

Since June, ChinaJoy has officially advertised that "ChinaJoy has brought together more than 600 well-known enterprises from 31 countries and regions around the world to participate in the exhibition", holding high the banner of globalization.

And so it was. At the BToC venue, you can see foreigners with interpreters everywhere, standing in front of a variety of booths and asking how to play the game.

An independent game publisher from Spain excitedly said, "China is one of the largest markets in the global gaming industry, and I would love to do business here." He also revealed that there are already some cooperation under negotiation. In addition, you can hear Thai, French, Spain and other languages in the pavilion, and some people even queue for two hours just to try out new games.

Expats are experiencing the game. Source: Xiaguang Society

The trend of globalization is more obvious in the BToB Business Negotiation Hall. Several on-site exhibitors said, "There are not only more foreigners this year than last year, but even more than before the epidemic." ”

Walk inside the W5 venue for five minutes and you'll receive five business cards from India tech companies. Although China's overseas circles have regarded India as a "graveyard" for going to sea due to policy and regulatory restrictions, service providers are still very active. The marketing director of an India service provider said that their business is mainly to facilitate the transactions of pan-entertainment product manufacturers such as games and social networking in Europe, the United States, Southeast Asia and other markets, in addition, there are also advertising and other buying businesses. In other words, what Chinese service providers can do, they can do.

There's no denying that emerging markets remain the focus this year.

In addition to Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Russia, and Latin America are also becoming hot spots for game manufacturers to find growth. According to the 2023 Global Game Market Report by market research company Newzoo, the growth rate of the global game market is slowing down, and the Middle East, Africa and Latin America are among the few regions with a growth rate exceeding 3%.

In Hall W5, a group of Middle Easterners were sitting around the booth chatting and greeting "potential customers" passing by. Specifically, the Middle East's support for the game industry in recent years can be described as generous, not only has it invested heavily in Activision Blizzard, EA and other leading manufacturers, but also continues to "throw money" at derivative events such as e-sports.

The booth of Yandex Ads, a Russia advertising platform, occupied almost the center of the W5 venue, and there was an endless stream of people who went to negotiate.

Sergey, its general manager for Asia Pacific, said, "In the past, people would think of Russia as a T2 market, but based on Russia's smartphone gamer coverage (56%) and its ranking in Google Play (fourth in the world), Russia is also close to a first-tier country in terms of cost." And Russia players are very fond of games from Chinese manufacturers, and "PUBG MOBILE" has dominated the charts for a long time. ”

The Latin American market is currently the blue ocean for mobile games to go overseas. Inside the pavilion, several Brazilians were promoting the Brazil Game Show to be held in Brazil in October, and one staff member said that he was visiting China for the second time and that "everything here is very passionate."

Source: Mobvista X-point data "2024 Brazil Market Light Mobile Game Insight Report"

His observations also corroborate the trend of mobile game market flow. "It's good that more and more Chinese manufacturers are releasing mobile games in Portugal in Brazil. Because in Brazil, there are not so many people who can speak English. Companies such as miHoYo, Tencent, and NetEase have taken the lead in releasing the Portugal version of their products, which will make players more immersed in the game and make them more enthusiastic about the game. ”

Service providers from emerging markets met in the exhibition hall, while developers and producers from developed markets such as Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea gathered at the CGDC (China Game Developers Conference) of Pudong Kerry to give presentations. One detail is that there are two languages that need to be interpreted on site, namely English and Japanese. The bigwigs of the T1 market gathered together, and the audience often excitedly said, "I love this game!" I played for a total of 200 hours! This is perhaps the quickest time for game enthusiasts to get their hands on top producers.

In order to seek more profit margins and expand more users, manufacturers are trying to make cross-border attempts. As one developer on ChinaJoy said, "As long as you can make money, why not?" ”

First, from the perspective of gameplay, the new gameplay launched by manufacturers is becoming more and more innovative and more inclined to integration.

Take the two-dimensional game "Ming Tide", which became popular this year and is close to "Genshin Impact" in popularity, as an example, its sound skeleton system that integrates combat, cultivation and big world gameplay brings players a refreshing experience. The game was only available for pre-download in May this year, but as of July 21, its cumulative global revenue has exceeded $88 million, accounting for 77% of the overseas market (Sensor Tower).

It can be said that "Singing Tide" not only updates the "ceiling" of two-dimensional games in the hearts of players, but also tells the industry that the second-game market is not completely out of space.

Regarding the trend of gameplay integration, Cao Xiaohuan, co-founder and CEO of Mobvista, said, "[Gameplay integration] is to explore the possibility of high-quality products with high LTV (lifetime value) guided by business models. The flexibility and innovation of these models not only meet the growing expectations of users for the gaming experience, but also demonstrate the keen insight and rapid response of game developers to market changes. ”

This time, ChinaJoy, "Rising Tide" appeared at the Play Station booth, and players can try the PS5 version for free. The queue was full, "you have to queue up from the moment you enter the stadium and be prepared for at least two hours," one player with three bags on his shoulder told me.

This phenomenon also presents the second cross-border trend in the game industry, that is, mobile games, PC games, and console games are switching and combining with each other faster and faster, and players can experience games on multiple platforms.

As for the reasons for this, first, from the perspective of terminal games and cross-mobile games, because the number of heavy players and the growth of game time have slowed down or even peaked, manufacturers want to occupy as many users' game time as possible. In addition, in emerging markets where there is no soil for console games and terminal games, the mobile game version can also better open up the market and expand new users.

At the ChinaJoy CGDC site, Jaeho Hwang, the producer of "Dave the Diver", told me that "Goddess of Victory: Nikki" had previously launched the "Dave the Diver" linkage mini-game in the game, and the feedback from players was very good. "What I didn't expect was that people liked the model so much. Although the mobile gameplay was certainly not as fun as the PC version due to performance limitations, I was surprised by the effect. ”

Jaeho Hwang also said that he would also consider making a mobile version of Dave the Diver in the future if possible.

Jaeho Hwang, producer of "Dave the Diver", is giving a speech Source: Xiaguang Society

Second, from the perspective of mobile games and cross-terminal games, the performance of smartphones has always been limited, and it is impossible to present a better game experience, such as "Singing Tide" and "Genshin Impact" and other open-world games, which will pay more attention to the creation of games on the PC and console sides, and players who are loyal to their world view will also want to experience the game immersively in a more extreme picture.

If I hadn't come to ChinaJoy, I probably wouldn't have seen the development of Chinese indie games go so far. For a long time, the focus of attention on the overseas track of games has been the mobile game products of leading manufacturers, and few people have set their sights on independent games with a small number of developers and a small cost scale.

This time, the performance of indie games is particularly outstanding.

In the BtoC venue, there is a space of about 30 square meters, with the theme of "ChinaJoy Express", which brings together more than 30 trial versions of domestic independent games, including "Puppy Pippi", "To the Distance", "Philosophical Stem Simulator", "Alien Factory 2" and so on. When you try it out, you may find the producer or publisher standing right behind you, silently watching how you get stuck.

I met Pippy Pippy producer Diyang Zhang, who imitated the puppy voice in the game and told me how he had been addicted to games since his Game Boy days until he finally made a few games himself. At present, "Puppy Pippi Puppy" has been launched on Steam, and its revenue in the United States market accounts for about 40%.

"Pippi Puppy Demo" playout area. Source: Zhang Diyang

Unlike large manufacturers, he rarely talks about "krypton mechanism", "ROI" and "CPM", but emphasizes "expression", "content" and "love". "For a while, I dreamed of working. You know what that feels like? It's that you know very well that you're dreaming, and you can bring yourself into the dream and control what you're doing in the moment. In this way, I did experiments in my dreams to polish the levels, test the performance of the game, and many of the designs in the game were dreamed of by me. Zhang Diyang said.

At the same time, he also told me that the domestic indie game industry has blossomed, and the graphics and production tend to be sophisticated, "Shenyang actually has an independent game exhibition, didn't you expect it?" ”

In the BtoB venue, there is also a special independent game exhibition area - Steam is located, where a number of domestic and foreign independent game studios gather, and professional players shuttle back and forth, which is very lively. Compared to ChinaJoy Express, it will be more global.

The chief producer of "To the Far Place", which won the Indie Game Award for Best Mobile Game, told me that "To the Far Place", which focuses on the narrative gameplay of couples, may also be released in Japan, "because the core of the East Asian cultural circle is still relatively similar."

Talking about the current situation of domestic independent games, a jar of salt said, "For the post-80s generation of gamers and practitioners, Japan and United States are the traditional powers of the game industry, for a long time we are in the stage of learning and imitation, but in the past ten years, the development speed of technology and creativity in the domestic game industry is indeed beyond imagination, from the independent game works at this year's BitSummit exhibition in Japan, domestic independent games are no longer on the backward side, At this rate of development, it is only a matter of time before it beyond. ”

However, indie game developers may encounter problems such as cash turnover more often than large manufacturers with deep pockets, "The solution is to outsource, take everything, modeling, animation, programming, ...... You have to live to be a good game. Zhang Diyang said. He also mentioned a peculiar experience of being invested, "Two years ago, I met a buddy who played Pokémon on the side of the road, and after chatting for two years, he probably thought I was reliable, and he said, 'You can do the project', and then he invested in me." ”

It's really an industry where creators are more innocent and passionate. Rarely have I seen such an emphasis on "love" and "expression" and a deep belief in its significance, with the exception of literary festivals and film festivals.

"We love games, so we want to do it well." Said a jar of salt.

At ChinaJoy, it's not just positive voices.

In addition to the players' dissatisfaction with the surrounding areas mentioned at the beginning of the article, several service providers in the BToB venue also had sad faces, "Party A is actually not as much as in previous years, and there are even fewer deals that can be reached." This time, I mainly came to say hello to customers I had worked with before, and I didn't expect anything else. ”

In addition, there is a saying in the industry that has been passed down for many years, "ChinaJoy is no longer the ChinaJoy of the past."

Indeed, ChinaJoy is no longer just a game exhibition - the new energy vehicle booths of GAC, BYD, and Huawei are larger than the booths of many game manufacturers. Some people jokingly describe the super presence of car companies in major exhibitions, "The world's largest auto show is CES (International Consumer Electronics Show)." ”

But that's not a good thing. When you can see other products on display at ChinaJoy, it at least proves that these companies still believe in the gaming industry and are willing to pay for it.

It needs to be acknowledged that the economy has entered a cycle, and all industries need to work harder, but people still believe in the comfort that games bring to people. At the end of July, it was typhoon season, and the wind in Shanghai was so strong that it almost blew people away. As I walked forward against the high winds, I saw waves of players around me also walking towards the entrance.

Therefore, although the voices of singing and complaining have never subsided, in this ChinaJoy, I see more hope.

Perhaps, in this special time, people need to connect more than ever.

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