年中国网游市场将占全球半壁江山

【英文原文】

China Poised to Claim Half of Global Online Game Market, Report Says

Games are serious business in China. The country's online game market will reach 41 billion yuan by 2012 ($6 billion), accounting for half the global market, according to newly released data from Inc., a Beijing-based third-party data analysis firm (related report in Chinese here).

The report states that almost two-thirds of China's 338 million Web users are now online game players. The online game industry, which currently accounts for more than half of the total Internet economy, will see strong annual growth at a rate of 20% in future years, the report says.

The mainstream remains the awkwardly named sector of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, or MMORPGs. In October, six out of the 10 most popular online games in China are MMORPG games, according to the report. World of Warcraft by Activision Blizzard, Inc. (ATVI) still tops the list with the most registered players and peak simultaneous online users. But the current government regulatory fighting over its Chinese license, held by Inc. (NTES), may yet have a negative impact on the game, according to the report.

Casual games--simple games such as card games--take second place with three ranked among the top 10 game list, while Web page games--such as Tencents' QQ games--are emerging as a new growth area. According to the report, by the end of Octover 2009, there were 1.54 million users playing the top five Web page games, with each user playing for an average of 30 minutes a day.

The report also discusses the problem of the 'free-to-play' business model that's prevalent in China's online game sector. While many games companies in the U.S., for example, charge subscription fees, most Chinese games utilize the free-to-play model, which allows players to try out a game without paying. The longer players stay in the game, the more likely they will be to pay for in-game items to move up into higher levels of play. But that also means that people who spend the most money are the best performers.

The report notes that China's game developers have been considering subscription models since earlier this year. Among the top 10 games, four are subscription-based titles and two were commercially launched this year, including Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd.'s (SNDA) major new title, AION. The says that a shift to the subscription model would be more likely to create a sense of equity and fairness in the games, because the top players would be those who spend the most time playing, instead of those who spend the most.

China's online game revenue in 2008 was CNY20.8 billion, accounting for about 27% global share, ahead of South Korea at 21% and slightly behind the U.S. at 29%, according to an earlier report by Shanghai-based market research firm iResearch. The firm also predicted that China is likely to surpass the U.S. to become the world's largest by the end of 2009.

【中文译文】

2012年中国网游市场将占全球半壁江山

网络游戏成了中国的重要行业。北京第三方数据分析公司新公布的报告预计，2012年中国网络游戏市场规模将达到人民币410亿元（合60亿美元），占据全球网游市场的半壁江山。

的报告说，目前中国3.38亿网民中有将近三分之二都是网络游戏玩家。报告说，中国网络游戏行业目前占据了互联网经济总规模的半数以上，在未来还将以每年20%的速度增长。

主流网络游戏仍然是大型多人在线角色扮演游戏 (MMORPG)。报告说，今年10月，中国最热门的10款网络游戏中有6款都属于大型多人在线角色扮演游戏。动视暴雪(Activision Blizzard)开发的《魔兽世界》(World of Warcraft)在注册用户和最高同时在线人数方面仍然排名榜首。但报告指出，目前围绕着这款游戏大陆运营权的政府监管纷争可能会给《魔兽世界》带来负面影响。网易公司目前持有《魔兽世界》的中国大陆独家运营权。

牌类游戏等休闲类游戏在10大热门游戏中占据了三席，仅次于大型多人在线角色扮演游戏；而腾迅QQ游戏等网页游戏正逐渐成为一个新的增长领域。报告说，截至2009年10月底，排名前5位的网页游戏玩家总数达到154万人，玩家平均在线时长为30分钟。

的报告还讨论了目前在中国网络游戏行业盛行的装备收费模式问题。举例来说，很多美国游戏公司都是按照时间收费的，但大多数中国网络游戏都采取了装备收费模式，玩家可以免费试玩。用户玩游戏的时间越长，就越有可能花钱购买游戏装备，以获得更高的游戏级别。但这也意味着花钱最多的玩家就在游戏中表现最好。

报告指出，中国网游开发商自今年年初以来一直在考虑按照时间收费。在排名前十的网络游戏中，时间收费型网游占据了4个席位，其中两款是今年才开始商业化运营的新游戏，包括盛大互动娱乐有限公司(Shanda Interactive Entertainment)的主要新游戏《永恒之塔》(AION)。说，转向时间收费模式更有可能给游戏带来公平和公正感，因为玩的最好的玩家将是那些花时间最多的人，而不是那些花钱最多的用户。

中国上海市场研究公司艾瑞咨询集团(iResearch)此前的一份报告说，中国网络游戏市场2008年收入为人民币208亿元，约占全球市场的27%，这一比例高于韩国的21%，略低于美国的29%。该公司还预计，中国可能会在2009年底前超越美国，成为全球最大的网络游戏市场。