What are the possibilities for the game industry in 2023？

Recently, the game industry has been warm and windy.

As the weather vane of the industry, the 2022 China Game Industry Annual Conference was held in Huangpu. The protection of minors in games has entered a new chapter, the long-term trend of going to sea has not changed, the value of games has been re-evaluated, and the game technology has brought resonance effect ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

What are the possibilities of the game industry in 2023?

For the game industry, 2022 is difficult: whether the overall economic downturn, players’ willingness to pay, lack of capital confidence, and cold investment and financing, it has brought a lot of impact to the industry: many game projects have been dissolved or stopped, and the wave of layoffs has swept again.

The data shows that the domestic market sales revenue and user scale, self-developed game sales revenue and mobile game sales revenue all decreased year-on-year. After the obvious slowdown in 2021, the game user scale declined for the first time in the past 10 years, and the industrial development entered the era of stock market. "China’s game industry is in the stage of pressure storage", aiming at the game industry in 2022, "China Game Industry Report 2022" concluded.

* Actual sales revenue of China game market. Source: China Game Industry Report in 2022.

* The scale and growth rate of game users in China. Source: China Game Industry Report 2022.

However, despite the bleak data of the game industry in 2022, industry practitioners are still full of hope for the future. As Hong Xiao, CEO of Perfect World, said at the 2022 China Game Industry Annual Conference, "Many people feel quite pessimistic after reading the industry data in 2022, but no one said this word."

Recently, the 2022 China Game Industry Annual Conference was held in Huangpu, Guangzhou. According to Zhang Yijun, the first vice chairman of China Audio-visual and Digital Publishing Association, the number of participants exceeded 2,700, almost double that of previous years, and the scene was packed. He pointed out, "Through the current situation, we can feel what kind of development trend is in 2023. If everyone in this industry does not see hope and opportunities, this situation will not be formed." At the meeting, Gao Dawei, deputy general manager of Tencent’s digital public opinion department, also said with emotion, "Walking through various forums, I felt a surging enthusiasm, as if I heard the sound of the game super engine starting and roaring again."

After the "cold" 2022, major game companies have more expectations for 2023. "The bad news is exhausted, bottoming out", Tan Yanfeng, vice president of Shengqu Games, summed up his outlook for the future of the industry in eight words; Hong Xiao, CEO of Perfect World, pointed out that the game industry has entered the next stage, and there are still many values worthy of being dug deep by practitioners; Wu Shenghe, CEO of Zulong Entertainment, said that with the release of the version number, many game masterpieces are ready to go, and this year will be a year of fierce competition.

According to statistics, since the resumption of version number distribution last year, more than 180 domestic game version numbers have been distributed in two batches this year. In addition to large enterprises such as Tencent and Netease, many small and medium-sized manufacturers have also gained something. Among them, many game companies that have got the version number are eager to try, and are ready to make great efforts this year. For example, Tencent, which got the version number in January this year, has announced that it will set a file in February, and the number of reserved users in the whole network has exceeded 70 million; Netease survival shooting mobile game "Extraordinary Pioneer" started the "prism test" in January; Mihayou’s new work "Collapse: Xingyuan Railway" has also been opened for paid testing recently and is expected to go online in April; Zulong Entertainment’s new version of the love women game "In the Name of Shining" is also planned to be launched in China in the first half of the year …

In addition, the 2022 China Game Industry Report also revealed a more positive signal, "The game industry is expected to rebound after bottoming out from industry resources to users’ willingness and ability to consume.",and pointed out that insisting on high-quality and high-quality development, deepening the subdivision and differentiation of the track, and paying more attention to the user experience will become the focus of China’s game industry to break through the predicament and develop healthily.

In recent years, with the shrinking of the "blue ocean" of the domestic game market, going out has become a "compulsory question" for game companies. More and more companies take going out to sea as their key development strategy, and the number of game products going out to sea is increasing and the area of going out to sea is expanding.

At the same time, the achievements of domestic game companies in overseas markets are obvious to all. According to the data, in 2022, the actual sales revenue of China’s self-developed games in overseas markets was 17.346 billion US dollars, which was more than 4 times higher than that of 3.076 billion in 2014. According to Zhang Yijun, the first vice chairman of China Audio-visual and Digital Publishing Association and chairman of the Game Working Committee, the overseas income of self-developed games has exceeded 10 billion US dollars for four consecutive years, and it can also account for about one-third of the domestic market income. Such achievements show that domestic enterprises are doing well overseas, which is recognized by real money.

* Actual sales revenue and growth rate of China’s self-developed games in overseas markets. Source: China Game Industry Report 2022.

However, since 2022, the external unstable factors faced by games going out to sea have increased, such as changes in the international environment, changes in overseas laws and policies, overseas channels, and overseas tax issues. In the context of the decline in the scale of the global game market, the actual sales revenue of China’s self-developed games in overseas markets also declined for the first time in 2018, down 3.7% year-on-year. At the same time, as more and more domestic manufacturers flock to the sea track, the competition for going to sea becomes more and more fierce, the cost of buying continues to rise, the profit rate decreases, and the overseas game market has also "rolled" from the blue ocean to the red sea.

However, "the choice of game going out is irreversible". In the increasingly crowded overseas market, how should domestic game manufacturers tap the new amount and find the second growth curve?

Ao Ran, executive vice president and secretary general of China Audio-visual and Digital Publishing Association, pointed out that although China’s game enterprises will face more or less challenges in the process of going out to sea in 2022, the long-term positive trend has not changed. China’s games still have room for development in overseas markets, and there are development opportunities in some new fields. On the one hand, the emerging game markets in the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin China and other regions have great development potential, which is expected to become the growth point of’s game going out to sea. On the other hand, there are development opportunities for games going out to sea on the sub-track of IP-adapted games, casual games and other game products.

In addition, keywords such as localization, content innovation and long-term operation were constantly mentioned at the game going to sea and marketing forum on the 13th. "Although going out to sea is already the Red Sea, there are many difficulties, but it is still a super market with billions of users, and opportunities are always there." Dong Bin, deputy general manager of Glacier Network, said that if you always make good products, make good experiences and improve quality, you still have many opportunities to go out to sea.

Yin Tianming, vice president of Sanqi Mutual Entertainment Products, pointed out that domestic games have entered an era of striving for quality, innovation and quality in overseas markets. Enterprises going to sea must change from "picking fruits" to "planting good trees" and make efforts in three aspects: in-depth localization, product innovation and continuous change, and refined distribution and operation. Zhong Kunjie, deputy general manager of Xinghui Games, said that with the intensification of market competition, the importance of long-term operation of game products has increased sharply. To make the game run longer and the audience more stable, we should do a good job in content iteration, localization, deep layout and cross-promotion.

At the same time, as a cultural carrier, games also shoulder the important mission of spreading Chinese culture abroad in the process of going to sea. Zhang Yijun, the first vice president of China Audio-visual and Digital Publishing Association, said that the excellent games that have been successfully launched at present have absorbed a lot of Chinese traditional cultural elements, which have formed a very good communication role in foreign markets, and also provided help for how to expand overseas more accurately and effectively in the next step. Some enterprises point out that game products with unique cultural attributes can prolong the game viscosity of players in the game, attract users better and reduce the cost of user drainage. Combining with traditional culture and traditional festivals will be the future trend of game development.

"The era of earning money by going out to sea has passed." How will enterprises going out to sea grasp new growth points and face challenges in 2023? It is worth looking forward to.

The scientific and technological attributes are prominent, and the potential value still needs to be tapped.

Paying attention to the science and technology circle, it is not difficult to find that the recent scenery is not only ChatGPT, but also game technology.

At the annual meeting of the game industry in 2022, the scientific and technological attributes of games have received unprecedented attention. Whether it is a forum for game re-cognition, a forum for game+and technology resonance, the topic of technical value of games cannot be avoided.

Ao Ran, executive vice president and secretary general of China Audio-visual and Digital Publishing Association, pointed out that in recent years, the industry has gradually reached a consensus: as a compound cultural content product, games have both natural cultural attributes and profound scientific and technological attributes, and based on these two attributes, they are constantly enriching their economic attributes and becoming a driver to support the integration and development of digital technology and the real economy.

From the discussion in the industry, it can also be clearly seen that the scientific and technological attributes of games are promising in many other industrial fields, and have brought gratifying resonance effects, such as feeding back cutting-edge technologies as a perfect testing ground, "breaking the circle" to promote the integration of numbers and reality, and resonating with the construction of basic fields of science and technology, especially the construction of scientific and technological talents. Andy, vice president of Tencent Interactive Entertainment, said that with the accelerated development of digital and information technology, today’s video games are becoming a super digital scene, and the "culture" and "technology" attributes of the game industry have been demonstrated unprecedentedly.

According to the Research Report on Game Technology Capability and Technology Value, 62% of the respondents recognized the role of game technology in national technology innovation capability, 81% of the respondents agreed that games promoted the development of AI technology, 91.4% of the public researchers believed that game technology promoted the physical field, and 81% of the industry respondents recognized the talent supply and employment capacity of the game industry. At the same time, the report also puts forward two exciting prospects: first, in the future, games will guide more scientific and technological innovations to cross the "valley of death" and improve the survival rate of high and new technologies; Second, the game will become the basic environment to inspire more scientific and technological innovation and give birth to more "unexpected joy".

Undoubtedly,The scientific and technological attributes of the game have been further recognized and affirmed. As Aoran said, "As an important help to realize a strong country in science and technology, the value of the game has become increasingly prominent.".

Referring to how the game industry should better release the scientific and technological efficiency of games and bring more resonance effects in the future, Aoran put forward three key points: promoting innovative breakthroughs in cutting-edge technologies, helping the development of other social fields and strengthening the talent pool in the science and technology industry. Yang Fang, deputy director of Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Publishing Bureau, also said that in the future, games should make new achievements in serving scientific and technological innovation, give full play to the role of game industry development in promoting scientific and technological progress, increase investment in cutting-edge technology research and development, speed up the breakthrough of key core technology innovation, make great efforts to promote scientific and technological innovation and help science and technology overcome difficulties. According to its disclosure, this year, Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China will implement the "Network Publishing Technology Innovation and Development Plan", focusing on promoting the breakthrough of the underlying technology of online games such as virtual reality, perceptual interaction, game engine and motion capture, and promoting the expansion and application of new formats such as metauniverse, digital twins and cloud games.

However, the potential value behind the game goes far beyond this.

The People’s Daily once wrote that games have become an industry of great significance to a country’s industrial layout and scientific and technological innovation, and its potential value deserves further attention and deep excavation. Many game companies also admitted at the annual meeting that the game industry has not really released its value in the digital economy, and it is the general trend to "reassess" the value of games.

"Through this annual meeting, you may have felt that games will become a starting point for many economic phenomena in the future. It has gone beyond the original inherent form of the game and started cross-domain and cross-border, which has a wide range of economic and social values. " Zhang Yijun, the first vice chairman of China Audio-visual and Digital Publishing Association and chairman of the Game Working Committee, said that game companies should focus on the overall development of the industry, explore the positive social value of games at multiple levels and dimensions, and help the game industry to use more diverse social benefits, making a unique contribution to the construction of a strong socialist cultural country and the implementation of the digital economy development strategy.

In view of the future development trend of the game industry, Aoran, executive vice president and secretary general of China Audio-visual and Digital Publishing Association, once concluded at the annual meeting that China’s game industry is an emerging force in the cultural field, and its future development will usher in greater opportunities.The game industry will take the road of independent innovation more firmly, tell the story of China more vividly, and integrate with technological innovation at a higher level.

The trough in 2022 has passed. Can the game industry see the "rainbow" in 2023? Let’s wait and see.

Produced by Nandu Big Data Research Institute

Network content ecological governance research center

Writing: Luo Yun

Source: 2022 China Game Industry Annual Conference and 2022 China Game Industry Report.