I have received yet another interesting email which gives a lot of insight into what is happening here. It sounds fascinating and exciting and I am sure they will have a big impact on the global industry:
Dear Bruce,
I could not help but take an interest in your recent blog post “About Empire Craft” (http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/07/19/about-empire-craft/) where you received an email from OPI staff. If she was the one responsible for writing the e-mail then, like her, I am part of the new wave of foreign-born or foreign-educated Chinese who are joining companies in mainland China to oversee their overseas expansion into English markets. I work at Snail Game in Suzhou (www.snailgame.net) and like Megan I have also just joined my company in the past week to head their North American games operation division.
The Chinese market and its games are still relatively invisible in the eyes of Western press, so very little people in the West know much about it. I just wanted to drop a few words to tell you a little bit more about the local market. Most of the games produced here in mainland China are imitation products of previous market leaders and it really is a market that is relatively void of originality, but having worked at a couple of game companies and interacted with many more, I can assure you that the games developed for the Chinese market wouldn’t contain a drop of malicious software. The Chinese government is extremely strict, and most games even have anti-addiction systems that limit the number of hours an account can play for a day, and any such movement could possibly prompt a move from the government that would destroy their entire company.
What OPI and Snail Game want is simply profit. I can tell you that there is movement in the market where these companies are trying to bring over to North America some of the unique co-operation business models employed here in China that will cause a complete sea-change in how games are reviewed and recommended in the Western market, but it is hard to get the media companies (IGN, 1UP, Gamespot) to budge.
I am hoping to develop a blog soon where I can write more about the gaming industry in China. It’s an incredibly huge and successful market that is only growing every year — if only because millions of new “netizens” come into the market each year as China continues on its economic growth path and the rural areas slowly become urbanized and the farmers turn into city dwellers.
Companies like Snail Game and OPI have difficulty penetrating the Western market because we do not have many contacts there. I believe Perfect World is one of the only Chinese companies that has enjoyed success in North America, but they are still lacking and marketing consultants like yourself could definitely develop a Chinese clientele if you so desire. Please quote me your consultancy rates as well; I think that I would not be able to afford you given the strength of the British pound and the relative shoestring budget that I am on but hopefully we will have the opportunity to work together in the near future.
Greetings from Megan Liu, head of Overseas Business Department of Oak Pacific Interactive (OPI). I joined OPI just over one week ago and my responsibility is to lead OPI’s overseas business(game).
I happen to find your website: http://www.bruceongames.com/ and read some your articles. I respect your expertise and I already found many interesting points of view in your blog.
I bumped into a short comment you made on your blog (dated July 15th, 2009; subject title: Empire Craft, the next Evony). In you comments, you link Empire Craft with Evony. You then suspect that Empire Craft is malware. I would like to clarify that Empire Craft and Evony are in no way related or similar. I will share some facts about OPI and its products.
OPI is one of the leading (browser-based) webgame developers and operators in China. OPI has reputable venture capital funding from Softbank (Japan) and General Atlantic, Doll Capital Management. Last year Softbank invested over $US430 Million and Son Masayoshi now sits on our board of directors. The company and development team are not associated with either Evony or Eric Lam. Empire Craft is developed by OPI and has no hidden agenda or malware to gain revenue. None of OPI’s products are malicious. OPI is targeting long term growth, has expanded into overseas markets and is trying to attract loyal players. It also developed The Secret of Heavely Book (http://t.mop.com/) which won the 2008 ChinaJoy Jinling Game of Year and is gaining popularity.
I understand some game operators might use inappropriate or deceptive marketing information to increase their market and profits. This short term strategy always leaves a bad taste in players’ mouths and negatively impacts the serious industry players such as OPI.
I admit there are areas of improvement in OPI’s current English product offerings e.g. the User Agreement that you found so similar to Evony’s. I am determined to help OPI to improve these areas so that we can introduce a wonderful, enjoyable webgame experience to players outside China. I really admire your background and marketing experience and I hope we can keep in touch and to see if we can find some potential opportunities to cooperate in the near future.
For more information about OPI please check: http://www.oakpacific.com/english/about.htm
For OPI games in China please check: http://www.imop.com/
If you have further questions about OPI and our products, please feel free to contact me. I’ll be very glad to assist you in the future. .
Best regards,
Megan Liu (刘春华)
Overseas Business Department – Game Center
Oak Pacific Interactive
No.8 North Third Ring Road East, Chao Yang District ,Beijing, P.R.China Zip Code: 100028
So the world economies are in the middle of a recession. But the game industry was Teflon coated and kept on booming, having a record Q4 ’08. But not any more, the retail/high street side of the industry has hit a brick wall.
The first problem is that the consoles are too expensive. The Wii is still at launch price and the PS3 is still at the price when they stripped out a lot of its capabilities, whilst the 360 has gone a long time since the last price drop. So we are only selling about half the number of consoles that we should be. We all know that all three of them are coming down in price later this year, why not do it now and benefit from the extra game sales such a move would bring? Of course in reality there is some price dropping, by retailers and presumably supported by the manufacturers. But this is not the same as a fully fledged price drop.
The danger of this double whammy is that people will move onto other things to fill their time with. And some of them might forget to come back to gaming later in the year when the industry finally gets its act into gear. So we will lose their spend forever. It really is not very good for us to treat our valuable customers in this way.
