Why? There are F2P games on consoles. If the in game purchases have to go through the console store-front/API, they're just as profitable for the console companies as download titles (30% of all revenue).
Here's some upcoming F2P titles:
Gaming in China
- Thread starter tuna
- Start date
Here's some upcoming F2P titles:
Silent_Buddha
Legend
The key wording there is "aren't generally found on consoles." In a previous post I mentioned that was slowly changing, but is still the case right now.
The 2 most popular genre's in China for instance are F2P MMO and F2P MOBA. F2P MOBA is dominated by DOTA 2 and LoL which don't exist on console. There isn't currently a high profile F2P MOBA on console that I'm aware of. You can count the number of F2P MMO's on consoles on the fingers of one hand. And of the MMO's available on console, they're available for play on PC which negates the need of a console in the first place. MMO's also being easier to play on PC certainly doesn't help matters there.
Also the revenue model doesn't just extend to games, but consoles as well. Part of the console revenue model is that eventually you'll be making money from each console sold in addition to the licensing revenue for games. If most console sales are limited to gaming centers that vastly limits the amount of hardware you can sell which greatly limits your revenue stream.
IF F2P was as huge on consoles as it is on PC and if the consoles were prevalent in Chinese gaming centers then we could potentially see them gain some ground. They certainly won't make any money on games that don't require an online connection AND an associated online profile, however. As those games would just be bought once while 10's, 100's or 1000's of players play that one physical copy of the game.
Regards,
SB
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
Not sure what you're saying here. Are you suggesting Sony are misleading investors?
Perhaps because Sony have not developed many (or any at all?) games that have fallen foul of other country's national certification processes?
I think you're just reading more into what he said. Sony are used to competing against gaming with different pricing models and it's not held them back. Censorship does as both a developer and publisher.
The iphone would like to have a word with you, in fact based on this
http://www.cnet.com/news/china-passes-us-to-become-apples-biggest-iphone-market/
not only does it destroy that statement it puts it's corpse into a rocket and launches it into the sun
Look at the most popular titles in china. They aren't available on the consoles. They are mostly multiplayer titles.
Now look at the games on the consoles. Their multiplayer component will be fairly deserted of players given China is its own closed off online console region for a brand new console that isn't selling too well.
A chinese gamer is looking at a game will be unable to play with his friends or with a huge community of online gamers unless they buy the same expensive game.
Why not just buy a pc or continue to play in the cheap computer/gaming cafes.
Also a console will certainly be the 4th expensive electronic purchase. 1st phone, 2nd computer, 3rd flatscreentv, 4th... finally maybe the console. In a country where only 13% of its 450 million households [many of the households are dual income earners from husaband and wife] earn together the equivalent of over $25000 a year. There is still over 50% of households in many cases with both adults working still combined make under $10,000USD a year.
http://blog.euromonitor.com/2015/06/india-resists-the-bric-slowdown.html
Now look at the games on the consoles. Their multiplayer component will be fairly deserted of players given China is its own closed off online console region for a brand new console that isn't selling too well.
A chinese gamer is looking at a game will be unable to play with his friends or with a huge community of online gamers unless they buy the same expensive game.
Why not just buy a pc or continue to play in the cheap computer/gaming cafes.
Also a console will certainly be the 4th expensive electronic purchase. 1st phone, 2nd computer, 3rd flatscreentv, 4th... finally maybe the console. In a country where only 13% of its 450 million households [many of the households are dual income earners from husaband and wife] earn together the equivalent of over $25000 a year. There is still over 50% of households in many cases with both adults working still combined make under $10,000USD a year.
http://blog.euromonitor.com/2015/06/india-resists-the-bric-slowdown.html
The succes of iPhone shows that chinese people have money to spend if they think it is worth it.
On phones.
This is the thing about China, it has population of over 1.4 billion. Consoles can actually carve out a niche market in china and still pull in decent userbase numbers.
If consoles only had a penetration of being in 10% of all US households there would only be a console in 11-12 million homes. If consoles were to do this in China it would roughly 45-46 million.
China's middle class is growing at an astounding rate. Perceived realities of today such as the chinese being poor and dependent on PC cafes and F2P titles might not be the realities of tomorrow.
http://thediplomat.com/2013/05/half-a-billion-chinas-middle-class-consumers/
We would have waited a long time for a broadband based Xbox Live, if MS strategies were heavily weighted towards the present. Whether consoles can make a dent in the China or not, its ultimately dependently on someone actually attempting to create a market for consoles in China.
If consoles only had a penetration of being in 10% of all US households there would only be a console in 11-12 million homes. If consoles were to do this in China it would roughly 45-46 million.
China's middle class is growing at an astounding rate. Perceived realities of today such as the chinese being poor and dependent on PC cafes and F2P titles might not be the realities of tomorrow.
http://thediplomat.com/2013/05/half-a-billion-chinas-middle-class-consumers/
We would have waited a long time for a broadband based Xbox Live, if MS strategies were heavily weighted towards the present. Whether consoles can make a dent in the China or not, its ultimately dependently on someone actually attempting to create a market for consoles in China.
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And luxury cars (*), TVs, luxury watches, pc's, tablets, cameras, whitewear appliances, overseas holidays, foreign investment, houses (~half the houses sold in auckland are sold to chinese families, which is terrible but a debate for another day) etc etc etc. I'm off to china at the end of this year, mate keep up with the news, WRT standard of living things have rapidly changed
(*) BMW china #1, USA #2. Merc USA #1, china #2. Audi china #1 germany #2. porshe #1 usa, #2 china (sold 76 less thus 99% sure will overtake this year) , VW #1 china
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Silent_Buddha
Legend
Not PCs. Not tablets. Those are generally low price items, except Apple branded items (status symbols and a symbol of wealth). The Chinese spend more on phones than their do on both of those combined.
The more affluent Chinese like to spend money on status symbols. A phone is something easily shown off. A car is an obvious statement of wealth. If you have a guest at the house the TV along with the furniture are the first things shown off. They want to be seen at the beach, but will spend thousands of dollars in an effort to avoid getting tanned (women). Being seen at a beach shows they have enough wealth to take time to do something other than work. But being tanned is a symbol of poverty or the working class. White untanned skin is a symbol of wealth and stature. IE - for the affluent people in China, a LOT of money is spent to show off that they have money.
Gaming isn't part of that. Hence why mobile gaming is a tiny fraction of the gaming market in China despite the Chinese spending a lot of money on their mobile devices. Those earning the money aren't the ones doing the majority of the gaming in China. They are too busy working, socializing (networking), and showing off their wealth in the little free time they have available.
The vast majority of gaming in China is done in gaming centers or on used PC hardware that is often quite ancient (and extremely cheap) compared to what we're used to in the West. Hence why F2P (PC), MMOs (PC), and online gaming (PC) make up the vast majority of gaming related revenue. It also helps that combined with the extremely cheap entry price, they are also not pirateable.
Now in another generation or so (10-20 years) when the Affluent Chinese people have kids that are in their teens that don't "have to work" and are spoiled by their parents, then we might see a migration to more leisure type activities like console games or mobile games. Maybe... Unless they just continue with the gaming trends that have already been established in that country.
TL: DR - The affluent Chinese are too busy working to make money and spending money to look like they have money to spend a lot of time gaming.
Regards,
SB
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D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
Didn't know about the tanning thing. Very interesting.
tongue_of_colicab
Veteran
Pretty common in Asia. Japanese do the same though I'm not sure if they truly spend thousands of dollars on it. At least for the Japanese it's a matter of extreme sunblock and covering as much skin as possible. Not sure actually what you could do to avoid getting a tan that could cost you thousands of dollars.
Skin whitening soap, face masks (first time you see it you go WTF are they burn victims), lazer procedures yes skin whitening is common for some ppl in asia
Theyre still gonna cost a reasonable amount of cash
my point as the member here, Pixel, points out (dont know if its correct but assume it is)
13% of chinese households earn > $25,000. Well the thing is population is > 4x the population of the US, thus 13*4.5 = 58% (normalized to USA population) so over half, wait .... not every US household earns over $25,000. From a google, 72% do. 58% vs 72% is close esp when you consider the 58% is growing a lot faster than the %72.
Im not saying the avergage chinese is richer than the average american, obviously not true, my point is theres a huge number of chinese that can buy consoles, should they choose to (as proven by the iphone, car, tvs etc sales) Not a huge percent, but huge numbers
low price? So they're not using intel processors or even AMD but some cheap chinese version?
Theyre still gonna cost a reasonable amount of cash
my point as the member here, Pixel, points out (dont know if its correct but assume it is)
13% of chinese households earn > $25,000. Well the thing is population is > 4x the population of the US, thus 13*4.5 = 58% (normalized to USA population) so over half, wait .... not every US household earns over $25,000. From a google, 72% do. 58% vs 72% is close esp when you consider the 58% is growing a lot faster than the %72.
Im not saying the avergage chinese is richer than the average american, obviously not true, my point is theres a huge number of chinese that can buy consoles, should they choose to (as proven by the iphone, car, tvs etc sales) Not a huge percent, but huge numbers
DuckThor Evil
Legend
I thought it was pretty funny that in Thailand it was the sun lotion products that were behind locked doors in some super markets. I had to go ask the cash register lady to come open it for me
