Innovation keeps industry ahead of the game

China had 368 million online game users at the end of June, a 30-million increase in just six months, according to the state-backed China Internet Network Information Center.

Users are shifting to mobile devices in a big way. In the first half of 2014, the number of mobile game users rose 36.5 million to 252 million.

Shanghai Daily talked with Ronan Cai, group account director at market research firm Millward Brown ACSR, to discuss latest trends and market development of the online game industry.

Q: What's the most obvious trend you've seen in China's online game industry in recent years?

A: Growth in PC games has been rather stagnant. Through the increasing popularity of multiplayer online battle arena games, we see PC gamers' tastes shifting from common role-play games to more strategy-style games. The category of multiplayer online battle arena games, besides League of Legends, can be subdivided into several segments via different dimensions — such as action, strategy and growth within a single round. They cover most gamers' needs.

Growth in the mobile gaming industry is large, but competition is very tough, making the success rate small. There is currently a broad base of mobile games. There are currently three major situations in the game industry, and TV games are adding to growth and development.

From the standpoint of game content, there is an emerging trend to exploit themes from new books or films. The introduction of a popular scenery or character not only excites loyal fans, but also enhances the gaming experience. It helps inspire more appeal and development for the cartoon or literary products involved. Pan-entertainment consolidation is going to be a very popular future trend.

Q: Online game operators are shifting their focus to smartphones and tablets. What's driving the trend?

A: Big operators are just assigning more resources to mobile game than in the past. This is because developing mobile games is faster and cheaper than PC games.

The whole mobile game market increased strongly in the past two years, especially in 2013. This year will be a competitive one. It is hard to see innovative breakthroughs in mobile games now. Most of them are similar, with only minor innovations. The same kinds of games with different scenery, characters or costumes are very common. So, in the future, winning in a certain segment will be an important strategy for mobile game developers. Once you find a sweet segment, it will be much easier to score success, as we saw with Turret Legend.

Q: Tencent is using its popular online WeChat to launch a number of social games. What role do you think social relations play in the online game industry?

A: WeChat plays two important roles in Tencent gaming. One is its advantage of an entry point. In the initial period of mobile games, the advantage of an entry point contributes half to a game's success. The other is its advantage in social relations.

It doesn't mean Tencent games have better social relations play. Because of technical limitations, players cannot have synchronous interaction in mobile games, so many rules of social game play cannot be applied to mobile games. The most famous mobile game with better rules for social game playing is Clash of Clans, not Tencent's mobile game. WeChat provides only the foundation of a social network. The model of the social game is the key to success.

Q: Television sets have regained public attention with the advent of set-top boxes and smart TV. What do you think that means for the game industry?

A: This is a market segment enjoying very fast growth. TV games are not well developed because most of the games on the TV platform have been offline games in the past. Now, interaction and data processing for the games can be run on a cloud server. That means we can enjoy the fun of online games via television sets.

At the same time, movie and music can be integrated. This will drive the development of the home interactive entertainment concept. Furthermore, it is easy to apply virtual reality technology into games on the TV platform, giving game users a "real experience." TV games have a great advantage in image clarity, music quality and console operation.

Q: Foreign firms registered in Shanghai's pilot Free Trade Zone have been given the go-ahead to sell game consoles on the mainland. How will that impact the home entertainment market?

A: It will accelerate the development of the TV game platform. Now, Alibaba has provided a cloud technical platform for TV online games. This will drive all game developers to enter this arena. Famous game developers like EA and Glu have already taken aim at this market. It is very important to improve the game users' experience, more so than on PCs and mobiles. It's also a big opportunity for foreign firms. At the same time, there may be mature technology from local competitors. I know one local company that has developed advanced virtual reality technology for games.

I believe there will be strong competition from local companies. One thing is certain: the home interactive entertainment market will grow as console technology develops.