There is no mistaking China's huge culture for modern and traditional games. Both "mind games" and electronic based games can be seen everywhere you look, and the potential for these similar but separate markets appears to be huge despite the fact that they may lack a certain sense of glitz and glamour. The Spring Festival period provided families across the country with ample opportunity to partake in so-called mind games, such as Mahjong, Xiangqi (Chinese chess) or cards; and according to a sports and entertainment report (gSER) carried out by the gemba group, mind games are the fourth most popular entertainment activity among the Chinese population. Meanwhile, electronic games remain the popular choice among younger age groups, especially with regards to males.
However, tapping into the popularity of mind games for the purpose of generating profit and capitalizing upon the widespread popularity of electronic games in China remains contingent upon a number of external factors. With regards to mind games, 24 percent of the population is regarded as fanatics according to gSER data. Of this group, a massive 77 percent play mind games at least once a week.
Competitively speaking, mind games are slowly gaining recognition thanks to the World Mind Games event, organized by Sport Accord, an association of international sporting federations which is devoted to promoting both Olympic and non-Olympic sports across the world. The 2012 World Mind Games took place in Beijing; signifying their popularity within the country. With Sport Accord throwing their resources behind a number of federations related to mind games, including Bridge, Chess, Draughts, Go and Xiangqi, the level of interest in these games is slowly increasing as are marketing and sponsorship possibilities. Such possibilities are not confined to China as evidenced by the fact that some 24 platforms broadcast the 2012 Sport Accord World Mind Games, reaching 64 territories across the world.
But these games suffer from an image problem when placed alongside traditional spectator sports, and for that reason awareness is hard to garner. Prior to the 2012 World Mind Games, Hein Verbruggen, the president of Sport Accord and honorary member of the International Olympic Committee, spoke to CRIEnglish about the issue of awareness for the event. "If you look at the Asian Games," Verbruggen said, "they're very, very important in Asia but they're virtually not on TV outside Asia. They're building that up and ultimately it might come, but it's something that is kind of a learning curve you have to go through. These games, the Mind Games, are already much better than the previous ones [in 2011] in terms of awareness."
So, while a growing sense of awareness in competitive mind games could one day translate into marketing or sponsorship opportunities within China, these are still very early days. In contrast, the state of electronic games in China looks much healthier though they also face difficulties within the Chinese market. Online gaming accounts for a 90 percent share of the 56.96 billion yuan in revenue for China's video game industry in 2012, according to the 2012 China Game Industry Report. Mobile gaming represented only 0.1 percent of sales. However, online gaming has been criticized in a number of circles following the addiction of minors to certain brands of online game. As for mobile gaming, smaller developers are trying hard to monetize their offerings in a market where smartphone users are adept at skirting the official channels of distribution when it comes to downloading games. Meanwhile, the electronic games that most people think of in the west, namely those that are console based, don't even feature in the statistics covering China's gaming industry due to a 13-year-old ban on the sales of consoles.
A report published earlier this year in the China Daily, suggested that the Chinese ban on video game consoles, which has been in effect since 2000, may be reviewed in the near future by the government. In the first half of 2012, the online gaming industry in China generated revenue to the amount of 24.84 billion yuan (4 billion USD). Online gaming has exploded since the ban on video game consoles took effect, meaning that the legislation became rapidly outdated due to market developments elsewhere. Since then, government legislation concerning the gaming industry has been preoccupied with developing China-specific criteria for diagnosing minor's addiction to online gaming.
Portable gaming has found its way into the palms of almost everyone who owns a smartphone and video game consoles are still readily available on the gray market. These aspects all point to the likelihood of a reversal of the ban should it come up for review. Based on data from the 2012 China Game Industry Report, revenue from electronic games in China rose by more than 35 percent compared to last year and the total market revenue is expected to reach 21.7 billion USD by 2017. Add to this the fact that in 2012, the World Cyber Games took place in Kunshan, China, and it is clear that console manufacturers would be entering a mature gaming market if they were actually able to launch their consoles here officially. However, assuming that the ban were lifted, console manufacturers would then face the grim news that rampant levels of game piracy could prevent them from generating any profit via legitimate sale channels.