After decades of dominance by the United States and Japan in the gaming industry, China’s influence is expanding as its tech behemoths acquire gaming companies worldwide.
As a result, several experts believe video games will appear different in the following years. European game firms will try to influence or utilize their rounds to promote Chinese values. It remains to see, but some experts believe that minor modifications will occur in the following years.
According to British-Chinese writer Lu-Hai Liang, some of these principles may differ from what many people think of CNBC. For example, Chinese female gamers represent a sizable market. There have been numerous female lead games and game studios that thrive in this space.
According to CNBC, Thomas David, a semiconductor engineer in the United States, gamers will see more titles in which the good guy is from the West. China’s gaming industry is highly regulated. It forbids the release and sale of games that feature specific political viewpoints, gambling, gore, nudity, and various other things in its home market.
Chinese culture
“This topic of how China may utilize games to disseminate its culture is really significant and generally overlooked,” said Abishur Prakash. China has numerous means to communicate its values to the rest of the world through games and develop a new form of global power, Prakash explained. One option is to prohibit the discussion of particular themes, such as Taiwan or human rights.
According to him, China may also construct new hubs within games that highlight China’s power. Alternatively, they may also utilize games to generate financial and commercial dominance. The upcoming Chinese games may only enable gamers to buy stuff in digital Yuan, Prakash speculated. Alternatively, Chinese platforms, such as TikTok, may be incorporated into Chinese games.
According to Steven Bailey, chief analyst at Omida, Chinese businesses content for quite some time and recognize that such modifications will not support successfully developing games for the West.
Tencent
For years, Tencent and NetEase have been amassing holdings in gaming companies outside of China with no opposition. Tencent continues to acquire the number one game in every category in North America and Europe, tweeted tech investor Rodolfo Rosini in February. That is significant because games have a cultural impact.
For years, Hollywood has promoted American principles and defended the country’s military strength around the world. Now it may be China’s turn to try the same thing, but this time using video games. However, whereas Hollywood frequently criticizes the United States and the acts of Washington, D.C., China’s tech titans would not be able to say anything negative about Beijing, which has complete control over all of its domains.
China boasts the most players of any country. This makes the country a hugely valuable market for those who can get into it. One of the reasons why U.S. and European gaming companies accept Chinese funding is that they are legally required to partner with a Chinese company before their game can distribute in the nation.
In the United Kingdom, Sumo became the latest gaming company to sell to a Chinese digital juggernaut on Monda. They unveiled their $1.26 billion agreement with Tencent. When CNBC questioned how, or if, Tencent will influence the games on which Sumo is working, neither company reacted quickly.
Tencent also invested $150 million in Reddit in 2019. Some Reddit users are anxious about this. They fear that the network might face further censorship. That, however, does not appear to have occurred in any substantial way.
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