The forecast for the total revenue of the Chinese gaming market from PC games and mobile games for 2018 was lowered by the analytical firm Niko Partners.
The market turnover at the end of this year will be:
- for PC games — $15.2 billion (3.8% less than the previously predicted $15.8 billion);
- for mobile games — $15.6 billion (2.4% less than the previously predicted $16 billion).
Honor of Kings (aka Arena of Valor) is the highest—grossing mobile game in China
Nico Partners clarified that the figures are falling due to the freezing of the issuance of licenses for the release of mobile and desktop games.
This was caused by the restructuring of the Chinese authorities regulating the gaming market in the country. The Chinese authorities said that the restructuring will be completed by April 2019. Analysts at Nico Partners at the same time believe that this will happen earlier — before the end of this year.
China has stopped issuing licenses to new titles since March 28. Now only those projects that have managed to obtain a license in advance are released to the market.
At the same time, recommendations concerning underage players were issued in China (we are talking at least about limiting the duration of gaming sessions by the media giant Tencent). However, Nico Partners assures that this innovation has not affected their financial forecast in any way. Tencent itself, for example, said that the restrictions do not affect its income.
We should add that this whole situation, according to Nico Parnters, may lead to the fact that Chinese developers will be forced to refocus on imports instead of the domestic market.
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