China's Video Game Industry Raked in $13 Billion Last Year

China's video game industry brought in $13 billion in revenue in 2013, a 34 percent increase over 2011's $9.7 billion figure, the China Games Party, a committee that governs the games industry in the region, revealed at the recent China Game Industry Annual Conference.
 
Client-based PC games represented more than 64.5 percent of revenue totalling approximately $8.7 billion, according to the results reported via 17173 and translated by Games In Asia, while browser games and social games brought in $2 billion and less than $1 billion, respectively. Domestically developed games experienced a 30 percent year-on-year growth, drawing in $7.8 billion for the year.
 
Console games only generated roughly $15 million in total revenue. Earlier this year, China began to reconsider its 12-year long ban on the sale of game consoles with the Chinese government detailing a policy blueprint in July to end the ban on the production and sale of consoles. It was revealed in September that Microsoft formed a joint venture with Shanghai media giant BesTV to launch a hardware device into China, offering streaming entertainment services into the country.
 
Last year's China Game Industry Report found that the online game market represented more than 90 percent of the $9.7 billion revenue, with $9.1 billion (56.96 billion Chinese Yuan), while mobile gaming brought in only $520 million. The report predicted that the Chinese game market will grow to $21.7 billion by 2017 with a projected annual growth rate of 12.4 percent.