Record visitors bring joy to ChinaJoy

A record 354,000 visitors, from ordinary people to those who came in cosplay or dressed as cartoon characters, came to Asia's biggest annual gaming show, ChinaJoy, this year in Shanghai.

They braved a typhoon-related storms and hot weather for the four-day event, which closed on Monday and showcased more than 4,000 game and entertainment products in various categories, the latest gadgets and 5,000 computers.

Visitors numbers were up 11,800 on last year's event and on Saturday hit a one-day record of 139,000, organizers said.

About 600 firms, including 200 foreign companies, attended the B2B section, which is expected to lead to contracts worth about US$500 million, organizers said.

Virtual reality, e-sports and artificial intelligence were spotlights of the event.

VR giant HTC joined Formula 1 team McLaren during the ChinaJoy to launch the world’s first event combining VR, e-sports and off-line sport.

Under the McLaren Shadow Project, winners of the VR competition will be invited to the headquarters of McLaren in the UK for a real F1 racing experience.

WeChat's Tencent also showed off AI technologies, including facial recognition and data analysis, to protect children when they use mobile applications.

Yingyongbao, Tencent’s app store, which has more than 200 million monthly active users, will create “green” games and app, said Hou Xiaonan, Tencent Mobile Internet Group vice president.

Top firms including Tencent and NetEase, which offer diverse Internet products including gaming and e-commerce,  also displayed the latest digital entertainment products based on Chinese legends and stories, such as characters based on the feitian, or flying apsara, in Dunhuang Caves.

They also plan to distribute them to overseas markets.