Obstacles for Social Game Developers in China
Guest Blogger: Zhou Hao is the Founder of Winzone, which developed the browser game “Dark Agreement”（黑暗契约), which is now in Open Beta. Zhou Hao has four years of experience in the gaming industry, built a payment system that allows users to pay cash at Internet cafes in exchange for virtual goods, and is an expert blogger on BloggerInsight.com.
“Happy Farm” is exploding in China and the developer Five Minutes raised USD 3.5 million from DFJ (Draper Fisher Jurvetson). It begs the question: how can developers capitalize on the growth of social games in China?
Social games are a blessing for Chinese social networks. The revenue model for social and web games is proven. The alliance of gaming and advertising will generate the majority of income on social networks. Tencent's Qzone now proudly says, “No, we don’t display any ads from third parties. We use all our advertising to promote our own games!"
But this does not mean that all Chinese social game developers will benefit from these trends. To move from individuals or small teams to serious and profitable companies, developers will have to overcome three significant obstacles.
1. Standardize Social Games; Creativity Carries High Risk
In China, web games are now part of a long industry chain. On the one hand, this is due to China’s enormous population (which brings countless young game players); on the other hand, it benefits from its successful industrialization. You can create a profitable web game as long as you have the following elements: various mature components and designs; fashionable graphics; and effective promotion channels. A little creativity in the details helps, but it can even be done without any creativity at all.