Chinese touch for universal stories

The world may be pandemic-ravaged, but that is not deterring companies such as Suzhou Nikki Co Ltd, better known as Papergames, to boldly continue their go-global plans. Such companies believe a business-as-usual approach could actually help restore normalcy to people's lives.

Liu Chenxi, the gaming content developer and publisher Papergames' chief operating officer, said: "Despite the impact of the novel coronavirus, we will continue our annual outbound campaign this year, possibly starting with the release of the new game Shining Nikki in Japan and South Korea."

Shining Nikki is a sequel and upgraded work of Papergames' iconic product Miracle Nikki, a fashion-related mobile game. Released in 2015, Miracle Nikki allows players to dress a virtual character with different digital clothing and accessories.

By the end of 2019, the overseas market accounted for 69 percent of the annual revenue of Miracle Nikki, while domestic players contributed less than one-third of the game's annual income, according to Papergames' estimates. This can be partly attributed to the go-global strategy that the seven-year-old gaming company launched in 2016.

Different from other gaming companies that heavily rely on industry giants such as Tencent for distribution, Papergames mainly distributes its games itself. It believes that creates more efficiency, given that its understanding of the games is better than anyone else. But more importantly, the gaming company can be closer to the users, said Liu.

"When we distribute the games developed by our own studio, we can receive user feedback in the first place and make timely adjustment. In this way can we produce games with better quality," he said.

An example is the skin complexion of characters in Miracle Nikki. It is only when they reached the European and US markets that Papergames realized that it did not include all skin colors. The closer ties with users helped the company to make such small changes instantly, said Liu.

While Miracle Nikki's sequel has been steadily gaining players' favor over the past few years, it was Mr Love: Queen's Choice released at the end of 2017 that won the company instant fame. With the player assuming the role of a young female entrepreneur who romances four male suitors, Mr Love: Queen's Choice overtook the then smash hit King of Glory on the Apple Store's free download charts in less than a month in China. The game crowned the Apple Store's free download charts when it debuted in South Korea in mid-July of 2018.

By the end of last year, the domestic market accounted for 65 percent of Mr Love: Queen's Choice annual sales. Although Liu admitted there are high barriers to overcome to distribute such dating simulation games beyond the Chinese culture, the overseas market still contributed about 35 percent of the game's income in 2019.

According to the 2019 China Gaming Industry Report jointly published by game publishing working committee of the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association and global market consultancy IDC in late December, Chinese gaming companies reaped nearly $11.6 billion in annual sales in the overseas market last year, up 21 percent.

This has overtaken the gaming companies' 15-percent annual growth rate registered in the domestic market.

The United States has accounted for the largest share (almost 31 percent) of gaming companies' overseas income. Japan was second with 22.4 percent contribution to total overseas income while South Korea was third with about 14.3 percent, said the report.

While the global mobile game sales revenue increased 9.7 percent year-on-year to top $68.1 billion last year, Chinese gaming companies collectively took the lion's share (30 percent), dislodging other market players from the US, Japan and South Korea.

Deng Hui, gaming industry sales director for Google China, said that the annual growth rate of Chinese gaming companies registered in overseas markets is now double the number reported in the domestic market. The prevalence of mobile games has facilitated their overseas expansion and mobile payment systems have solved the biggest difficulty that web-based game developers faced a decade ago.

For mobile game publishers, overseas markets may be attractive destinations, but Liu acknowledged that understanding them, especially their local culture, entails high costs.

"The differences resulted from various cultural backgrounds, whether it is ostensible features such as user habits, or more in-depth things such as the fundamental demand for games. This will result in the cost of understanding. If you try to explain the differences by adding explanation in a game, it will be very annoying and significantly affect the user's experience," he said.

In this sense, when Chinese gaming companies expand overseas, they should try to deliver messages or tell stories with values that are universally accepted, for there are always similarities in human nature, Liu said.

"We can say with all confidence that the production capability of Chinese gaming companies is first-rate in the world. What we lack now is creation if compared with industry big names such as Disney and Nintendo. But with the development of the Chinese gaming industry over the past few years, I believe we will catch up in that aspect very soon."