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Think the gaming industry will enter an era of pandering to the Chinese market?

BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69


Wukong sales are absolutely insane and it’s mostly coming from PC sales in China. Palworld was also massive there. I think the big publishers will aggressively go after that market, but how?

What would the gaming equivalent of this look like?

81AYkid1ChL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg
 

mdkirby

Member
The world will. As Americas empire ends, and chinas transition to the top is completed, they’ll be the primary market the world will appeal to, and will be the primary cultural exporters and financiers of western content.

A big part of Americas meteoric rise was the creation of Hollywood, which was an important tool in the U.S. exporting their ideology and culture, and projecting soft power during the last century. China will need to do better at this than they are, and replicate that sort of model. They are starting to tho, things like black myth, and the other big games coming in the next few years, and the three body problem are them slowly finding their feet.
 

Holammer

Member
A new era of Chinese pandering you mean, we already had tons of it.
China however is in a worse situation economically and politically to demand the usual kowtowing, so I don't think it'll be as bad as it used to be. Pander too hard to the CCP may cost you other markets and your reputation.

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Hookshot

Gold Member
Problem is, if you "loan" an IP like Assassins Creed to them to make it more appealing to their market , it's "sequel" is going to be a clone that cuts you out anyway.

Damned if you do and damned if you don't. Especially with some of the west happy to use them to counter the "woke".
 

LectureMaster

Gold Member
This statement is rather superficial.

If by pandering, they mean to replicate the the level of success of Wukong, it won't work. Black Myth is a special case, it is the first proper high quality AAA game from China for two decades, and Journey to the West is like culture DNA in every Chinese - even many people who are never gamers and wanting to check the game out has no barrier to enter.

That being said, even without Wukong, Chinese has been the largest user base on Steam and are consistently the second by a huge margin. The buying power has been significant. For many best-selling blockbusters, China already contributed huge, e.g. Elden Ring.

If the gaming industry really want to attract the Chinese market, they answer couldn't be simpler- just keep making great games, and folks will buy it.Make quality games that everyone buys, then Chinese is no exception either.

And don't ever think of pandering CPP, cause the government gives no fuck about gaming at all. In fact, remember not long ago, many still deem game as "electronic opium".
 
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RoboFu

One of the green rats
no, game publishers have always been in the Chinese market in some form and they have always made a lot of money there. league of legends, counter strike, geshin impact, clash of clans. making hundreds of millions a year. its always been a thing just not well publicize because of the state of the country.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Would much rather they don’t do either. Pandering to CCP is not a great thing.
Can't say much about that. My experience with chinese games is very limited, but so far I haven't seen anything weird while playing Wukong for example.
 
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cireza

Member
We are already constrained into feeding them a shitton of money because of all the goods they manufacture and aren't made anywhere else, personally I would like to spend money about creative/artistic works for products coming from other countries including mine, the West and Japan preferably.
 

Holammer

Member
This statement is rather superficial.

If by pandering, they mean to replicate the the level of success of Wukong, it won't work. Black Myth is a special case, it is the first proper high quality AAA game from China for two decades, and Journey to the West is like culture DNA in every Chinese - even many people who are never gamers and wanting to check the game out has no barrier to enter.

That being said, even without Wukong, Chinese has been the largest user base on Steam and are consistently the second by a huge margin. The buying power has been significant. For many best-selling blockbusters, China already contributed huge, e.g. Elden Ring.

If the gaming industry really want to attract the Chinese market, they answer couldn't be simpler- just keep making great games, and folks will buy it.Make quality games that everyone buys, then Chinese is no exception either.

And don't ever think of pandering CPP, cause the government gives no fuck about gaming at all. In fact, remember not long ago, many still deem game as "electronic opium".
If Sucker Punch reveals a game based on Wong Fei-hung, oh boy... That'd be ultra hardcore Chaaaaina pandering.
I would still buy it.
 
Hollywood tried pandering to China for several years before the Corvid and it went badly for them. Let's see what the gaming industry does lol

But if pandering to China means less wokeshit then I'm unironically for it. We need less trash like Concord, Star Wars Outlaws, Assassin's Creed Shadows, Dustborn, etc. in this industry
 
The world will. As Americas empire ends, and chinas transition to the top is completed, they’ll be the primary market the world will appeal to, and will be the primary cultural exporters and financiers of western content.

A big part of Americas meteoric rise was the creation of Hollywood, which was an important tool in the U.S. exporting their ideology and culture, and projecting soft power during the last century. China will need to do better at this than they are, and replicate that sort of model. They are starting to tho, things like black myth, and the other big games coming in the next few years, and the three body problem are them slowly finding their feet.
this. if what the western entertainment industry has been doing up till now can be described as 'pandering' to the west, then, yes, it will now be 'pandering' to the east. because what they will always be 'pandering' to is where the profit is to be found...
 
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Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
One mid game and now you're all loosing your minds. You're all so starved of decent singleplayer games that you're hoping we turn to the chinese for games? Fucking lmao. We shouldnt pander to anyone. I just want good games, thats it. Fuck cares who makes them.
Wukong is fantastic, it’s their first fucking game and they are shitting all over well established devs in the genre.

They delivered in the gameplay AND graphics department. Something that certain Japanese studios made it seem like was impossible. Go look at Team Ninja or From.

Turns out they just lacked the talent and ambition to do both. God bless GameScience. They are on the map.
 
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NickFire

Member
The size of the potential market was always known, and the financial success of Wukong will definitely be noticed by all of the big pubs. So I don't think its a stretch to assume that market will be given more consideration by developers who answer to a big pub. I don't think that counts as pandering though. I'm also not convinced that "pandering" is necessary to draw an audience in China.

If we are talking about needing to pander to the government to be allowed to sell games there I suppose that could become an issue. But that sounds like a fools errand to me. Way too much risk that such a game would be rejected by both western markets and the Chinese market. Pure speculation on my part is that the majority of "gamers", and the segment of society who wants everything censored in China, have little overlap.
 

NecrosaroIII

Ultimate DQ Fan
A big part of Americas meteoric rise was the creation of Hollywood, which was an important tool in the U.S. exporting their ideology and culture, and projecting soft power during the last century. China will need to do better at this than they are, and replicate that sort of model. They are starting to tho, things like black myth, and the other big games coming in the next few years, and the three body problem are them slowly finding their feet.
I know someone who went from a Capital R "America First" republican to a "The CCP is just misunderstood" sympathizer because of Tiktok and Chinese dramas.

They probably need to just stay the course.
 

Braag

Member
A game like Wukong could have only been made by a Chinese dev I feel like. Their understanding of the culture and all the themes from the original novel wouldn't have been brought to life the same way if a western studio was in charge, because they want to pander towards every minority group. Where as Game Science really just wanted to stay faithful to the source material as they used it as an inspiration for the game.
 

Loomy

Thinks Microaggressions are Real


Wukong sales are absolutely insane and it’s mostly coming from PC sales in China. Palworld was also massive there. I think the big publishers will aggressively go after that market, but how?

What would the gaming equivalent of this look like?

81AYkid1ChL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg

I think this is the opposite of your question. The Great Wall is an example of pandering to the West.

To answer your question, though, I have a hard time seeing western productions making more of dent in China than it is already. I think what is more likely to happen is more Chinese studios making games that appeal to a western audience, but still very identifiably Chinese. Think about how you can almost immediately spot a Korean game.
 
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