On December 12th, local time in the United States, the TGA2024 awards ceremony concluded in Los Angeles. The domestically produced AAA game ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ won the Best Action Game and Players’ Voice awards, highlighting a new stage in the global influence of Chinese games. In addition to ‘Black Myth: Wukong’, several highly anticipated new games showcased their latest trailers at the TGA awards, with many Chinese manufacturers behind the scenes.
On one hand, the latest trailers for domestic products such as ‘Honkai: Star Rail’ and ‘Subnautica: Zero’ from miHoYo, ‘Infinite Nikki UP3’ from DieZhi Games, and ‘Limit Breaker’ from Kingsoft, attracted global players’ attention with high-quality content. On the other hand, several major works invested in, published, or developed by Tencent also made a stunning appearance, demonstrating the global influence of Chinese games. Among them is ‘Path of Exile 2’, which was praised by entrepreneur Elon Musk and set a new record on Steam with 459,000 peak concurrent players on its first day. The developer of ‘Path of Exile 2’ is Grinding Gear Games from New Zealand, which was officially invested in by Tencent in 2018 and by March 2024, Tencent had achieved 100% ownership of GGG. Additionally, Tencent and Nexon jointly developed the hardcore action RPG single-player game ‘Kazan Khazan (provisional name)’, which is currently ranked second in Wegame reservations and is planned to be launched in China as soon as possible. FromSoftware, which won the TGA Game of the Year for ‘Elden Ring’, announced a new IP derivative work ‘Elden Ring: Nightfall’, a brand-new multiplayer cooperative game expected to be released in 2025 and listed on the Steam store. Tencent invested in FromSoftware in 2022 and became its second-largest shareholder. The event also showcased several games invested in and jointly developed by Tencent, such as the AAA action game ‘Dying Light: Beast’ from the Polish game studio Techland, the cyberpunk-style game ‘Wolf’s Bane’ developed by the Swedish game studio 10Chambers, the sci-fi themed third-person shooter online game ‘Warframe: 1999’ developed by the Canadian game company Digital Extremes, the action-adventure RPG mobile game ‘Game of Thrones: Winter Road’ developed by the South Korean company Netmarble, and the domestic second-element masterpiece ‘Ming Chao’ produced by Kuro Game, which attracted player attention and discussion. According to media reports, the proportion of works related to Chinese manufacturers (including self-developed, invested, and controlled) in this year’s TGA nominations has reached 22%, second only to Japan’s 32% and close to the United States.It can be said that the global gaming landscape is being reshuffled and entering a tripartite confrontation with the United States, Japan, and China as the core. In recent years, Chinese game companies such as Tencent, NetEase, Mihoyo, and Game Science have participated in the development of the global game industry through various forms such as investment, distribution, and independent research and development.
It is worth noting that on the day before the TGA awards ceremony, at the China Game Industry Annual Conference held on December 12, Ao Ran, executive vice chairman and secretary-general of the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association, clearly stated that in order for China’s game industry to gain greater advantages and achievements in the fierce international competition in the future and move from product ‘going overseas’ to a higher-quality game ‘globalization’, it must build new and more comprehensive capabilities. Not only must it ‘go out’, but also ‘go in’ and ‘go up’. The overseas achievements of high-quality games such as ‘Black Myth: Wukong’, ‘Delta Operation’, ‘Dark Zone Breakthrough’, ‘Honor of Kings International Version’, and ‘Genshin Impact’ are obvious to all. The competitiveness of Chinese game companies in the international market has reached a new height. In particular, the successful practice of Chinese manufacturers in the Gaas (Games as a Service) model has provided new operational ideas for global game enterprises. According to a global industry survey this year, 65% of enterprises are making Gaas games, and 30% want to make Gaas games. Chinese manufacturers are also gradually building influence on a global scale through strategic investment, and the internationalization process of China’s game industry has entered a new chapter.
