Mobile Games in China: Ongoing Industry Transformations, Emerging Game Genres, and Evolving Player Dynamics

Abstract

This chapter offers an in-depth, up-to-date, and panoramic analysis of the mobile game landscape in China, with a particular emphasis on the interplay of the tripartite components of the industry, game content and players. Set against the backdrop of decades of state policy of vigorously incubating a national pillar industry while maintaining tight control of game content and market entry, it contemplates how monetization of mobile games has turned into a core focus of wireless service providers through the consolidation of a unique business model incorporating a variety of well-coordinated distributing platforms, marketing venues, app stores and value-added services targeting tiers of gamers and gameplays. It also scrutinizes the stages of evolution of the Chinese mobile game industry from scratch to prosperity in a short span of less than two decades, and analyzes the variegated dynamics of the game players as well as the game titles that pervade the market. It ends with some future prospects and emerging trends in the mobile game industry in China.