Golden time for Chinese game developers

China’s game developers have an “historical opportunity” to expand into overseas markets, thanks to their advantages in mobile gaming, an increased user base and lower costs, industry officials said on Wednesday.

Games appear on diversified platforms including smartphones, where Chinese developers have a leading position.

Globally, there are about 2 billion game users, compared with 100 million in 2000, industry officials said during the Unreal Open Day forum in Shanghai.

The event was held by Epic Games, a major game engine provider covering 7.5 million developers and 250 million players cross various platforms.

With Unreal game engine and services, Chinese developers can bring “more serious games on mobile devices to the world,” said Tim Sweeney, Epic Games’ CEO and founder.

Huang Yimeng, CEO of Xindong Network, said overseas income has accounted for 50 percent of its total in a short period. The company will also debut an English version of Taptap, a popular game recommendation community in China, to help local developers expand globally.

Chinese game developers, including Xindong, have “booming income and historic opportunities” as they win warm responses in markets like Southeast Asia and Japan, Huang added.

Chinese game developers generated about US$6.1 billion in revenue in 2018, up 49 percent year on year, according to researcher App Annie.

Epic Games has also launched a global online store to charge developers only 12 percent of revenue, compared with 30 percent with other platforms like Steam and App Store.

With its China Star project, Sony also supports Chinese developers in publishing games for over 90 million global PlayStation users, Sony said at the event.

Global markets are now more accessible to Chinese game developers with various choices in platforms and cross-platform services, analysts said.