On December 16, the 2021 China Game Industry Annual Conference continued in Guangzhou Huangpu. At the meeting, Zhang Yijun, the first vice chairman of the China Audio-Visual and Digital Publishing Association and the chairman of the Game Working Committee of the China Audio-Visual and Digital Publishing Association, officially released the "2021 China Game Industry Report" and was interviewed by Aoyi News reporters after the meeting.
In the report, Zhang Yijun pointed out that in 2021, the actual sales revenue of China's game market was 296.513 billion yuan, an increase of 17.826 billion yuan over last year, an increase of 6.4% year-on-year. Although the income still maintained growth, under the influence of the gradual decline in the economic effect of the home economy and the decline in the number of explosive products, the growth rate was reduced by nearly 15% compared with last year.
In addition, in terms of user scale, the number of Chinese game users has maintained steady growth this year, and the scale of domestic game users has reached 666 million, an increase of 0.22% year-on-year, the growth rate is the lowest in the past 8 years, and the number of users is gradually saturated.
It is worth noting that the growth rate of the overseas market of games is relatively considerable, and the revenue achieved this year is 18.013 billion US dollars, an increase of 16.59% year-on-year.
Zhang Yijun said that the current game going to sea has become a strategic choice for most game companies, and with the improvement of the international competitiveness of China's game industry and the growth of the scale of going to sea, the international influence of Chinese culture and Chinese elements will also be enhanced and expanded.
With the implementation of strict regulatory measures by the competent authorities, the growth rate of sales revenue in the game market this year has also decreased significantly, so has the momentum of rapid growth of China's game industry come to an end? Zhang Yijun expressed caution, he believes that the significant reduction in revenue year-on-year is related to the decline in the marginal effect of the "home economy", and the listing of new games has also been suspended after the release of the new regulations.
Zhang Yijun pointed out that the current development of the country has shifted to high-quality development, and market revenue is a very important indicator, but it is not the only indicator, and it depends on the quality of development. At present, it cannot be said that the rapid growth of this industry has come to an end, or that there has been an inflection point. "We can't just look at the current year, but at least three to five years of development."
The development trend of the game industry depends on at least three to five years
Aoyi News: Under the strict supervision of government departments, coupled with the uncertainty of the international economic situation, we have also seen a sharp decrease in sales revenue in the game market this year, is the momentum of the rapid growth of China's game industry ended?
Zhang Yijun: From a performance point of view, the market revenue growth we released did have a significant reduction compared with last year. After the release of the new regulations in August, the launch of new games has also been suspended. But that doesn't mean that our industry (high growth) is coming to an end, or there's an inflection point, I don't think so.
In the analysis we just mentioned the "home economy". Because of the sudden outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, people have nowhere to go, and they don't know how to be good for a while, and the "home economy" plays a certain role in it. After more than a year, people have gradually adapted to such a new normal, and the marginal effect of the "home economy" is declining.
On the other hand, the development of our country has changed from quantitative growth to high-quality growth, and the process of development has different stages. Therefore, when we measure the development of the industry, market revenue is a very important indicator, but we cannot use this indicator as the only judgment, we also have to see how the quality of development is.
If the domestic game market is compared with overseas, it is actually more telling. I've been saying that the cultural style of games originally came from overseas, and its research and development standards, including some technologies, came from a lot of overseas. The maturity of the overseas game market is also very high. If we look at the time starting point of development, we are at least 10 or even 20 years apart.
But now that our development can catch up, what does that mean? Because overseas revenue is real money, your game is not good, the audience will not praise you. The maturity of overseas markets is relatively high, which cannot be ignored. So is the game industry coming to an end? I don't think so, we still have to look at what the reason is, whether it is the pursuit of quantity or quality, and we can't just look at the current year, at least three to five years of development.
The shortage of talents and the shortage of supply are indeed the problems we are facing now
Aoyi News: At the sub-forum of this annual meeting, many big names in the industry mentioned that one of the bottlenecks in the development of the game industry lies in the lack of talents. How to solve it?
Zhang Yijun: All industries develop to a certain stage, especially when they begin to develop to the middle and high-end, they generally encounter the problem of lack of talents. Because at this stage, it is not something that can be solved by general knowledge and general skills. The bottlenecks encountered in the development of technology in our country are actually similar to the problems encountered in the development of the game industry. Now the game industry is not only to meet the needs of the domestic market, but also to participate in international competition, and in the international competition, not by bragging, advertising and so on can solve the problem, good products not only have to have capital investment, but also need talent and wisdom. The question is, after a certain level of development, can we keep up with these aspects? Can you adapt? The more the industry develops to the high-end, the more prominent this problem becomes. The shortage of talents and the shortage of supply are indeed the problems we are facing now, and we are also trying to solve them.
Aoyi News: Are colleges and universities able to keep up with the cultivation of talents in the game industry? Many game companies say that their talents are cultivated by themselves, and the professional settings of colleges and universities are disconnected from the job needs of the market.
Zhang Yijun: For a long time, for a long time, society still has some negative views and some prejudices about it. After all, it is necessary to consider the general view of the public, which may also cause educational institutions to be more sensitive, and there is pressure to set up a game major and cultivate game talents. And now the talent in the field of games, in fact, many are not professional origins, games are a comprehensive art, the need for talents in all aspects, many from college computer programming majors, and even art majors, music majors. There are also like Zhejiang Polytechnic, Shanghai Polytechnic, Beijing Normal University, etc., which have set up some majors that are more suitable for the training of comprehensive talents in games. With the development of the game industry, it is possible that more universities will focus on this aspect of construction in the future, so as to better transport talents in this area.
As a sports competition, e-sports is indisputable
Aoyi News: "E-sports" has become a hot word since this year, especially after the Chinese team EDG won the championship, compared with the negative views of the society carried by "games", "e-sports" is more considered to be a competitive sports category, can you please talk about the difference between the two?
Zhang Yijun: E-sports I think indeed by the social negative views on the game involved and affected, in fact, as early as the beginning of this century, the State General Administration of Sport has included e-sports in the 99th sports competition, e-sports is officially included in the category of sports competitions, plus the last Jakarta Asian Games, e-sports as a performance project, this Hangzhou Asian Games e-sports will be as a formal competition project, it can be seen that it as a sports competition, is undisputed.
Why is it influenced by the negative perception of the game? It is because the medium used in the competition, that is, the work comes from the game, so the cultivation of talents, as well as the daily training of players, are inseparable from the game, which may make some people have a more superficial view, that is not cultivating competitive skills, but not doing the right thing, haha.
In fact, as a sports competition, a relatively special competition project, e-sports on people's skill requirements can be said to be no worse than other projects, and even higher requirements, the so-called sports competition, no matter which type, in the end is actually challenging the human limit, e-sports is the human thinking ability, coordination, understanding ability of the limit challenge.
So, I think for esports, we still have a lot of work to do to correct people's prejudices and misconceptions. We have recognized this problem, but this work is not only what we industry associations need to do, but also need national authorities and research institutions to solve this problem from theory and some more standardized statements and practices. However, I believe that as people deepen this problem, when social pressures are alleviated, esports will also develop further.
By next year's Asian Games, judging from the existing team strength of our country, we are very hopeful of achieving good results. In this process, positive publicity may also dissolve some of the more negative stereotypes of the public to a certain extent.
Coordinator: Xie Jiangtao
Written by: Aoyi News Reporter Liu Jie Feng Xiaohui
Video: Aoyi News reporter Jiang Dan