ChinaJoy to feature 5G, eSports

The major catalysts of the Chinese game market in the future will be eSports and 5G technology, a ChinaJoy forum heard on Thursday. 

This year's ChinaJoy Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference, Asia's top gaming exhibition, will kick off on Friday with more than 350,000 visitors expected to join the four-day game and animation feast as well as 60,000 professionals from over 30 countries' game publishers, related enterprises and institutions.

In the first six months, China’s game industry revenue reached 114 billion yuan (US$16.8 billion), an 8.6 percent growth year on year. Shanghai now accounts for a third of the national revenue, according to the China Gaming Industry Report.

The city's first eSports week will take place during ChinaJoy with the opening ceremony on Saturday of the 2019 Global eSports Conference. Guests from the industry at home and abroad will discuss Shanghai and China's eSports policies and global growth. 

“Shanghai has definitely become a major eSports center nationwide and even in East Asia, thanks to booming game industry development and policy support,” said Robert Xiao, chief executive of Perfect World Co. 

The Shenzhen-listed Perfect World is to hold top eSports events and train eSports talent in Shanghai to build a complete ecosystem in the sector, which Xiao called an “NBA in the virtual world.”

Several eSports competitions, including the ChinaJoy Cup and National Electronic Sports Tournament, will be held during the week. 

In the first six months, China's eSports revenue reached 46.5 billion yuan, up 11.3 percent year on year. 

Also under the spotlight at ChinaJoy is 5G, following the recent issue of commercial licenses nationwide. 

Cloud gaming, which allows players to enjoy games directly without downloading client ends, will become popular in China, especially in the mobile game sector, Deng Tao, global marketing and sales president of Huawei Cloud, told the ChinaJoy forum. It depends on greatly improved Internet speed with 5G, he said.

At the ChinaJoy venue, the Shanghai New International Expo Center, there will be a section for the fashionable toys which are growing ever more popular with young people. With this year marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, there will also be a section showing China's growth over the period in digital ways.

Besides the regular China Digital Entertainment Congress and China Game Developers Conference, a new event — CHINAJOY ACG CON — will discuss values in the animation, comic and game fields.

Japan's Bandai Namco will display Dragon Ball World Adventure exhibits to celebrate the legacy and future of Akira Toriyama's global Dragon Ball franchise.

This year also marks the 80th anniversary of comics label DC's Batman. Warner Bros will join ChinaJoy for the first time with a special Batman show, along with a series of celebrations.

Domestic game publishers will also showcase games featuring Chinese elements and traditional Chinese culture, such as Tencent Games' "Moonlight Blade" and NetEase's "Justice," both of which have a background of ancient China and a martial arts theme.

A new WeChat application CJ Mofang (Rubik's cube), which came from the idea of "More Fun," has been released by organizers to provide services for visitors that include information research, maps and guides, social networks and toy sales.