On July 30th, Cailian Press reported that ChinaJoy ended yesterday, attracting a record-high 0.367 million visitors.

The enthusiasm of players is fully reflected in the details of the exhibition booths, crowded aisles and deafening cheers.

Going overseas and AI are still hot topics among ChinaJoy insiders. However, unlike last year, the focus is now on how to root itself in local markets, fine-tune operations and expand into emerging markets. The discussion on AI and games has also shifted from reducing costs and increasing efficiency to achieving breakthroughs in gameplay.

The return of Blizzard games caused a stir on site.

For many gamers, the most anticipated aspect of ChinaJoy each year is the heavyweight product releases from game developers, the global debut of new games, and famous game producers interacting with players face-to-face.

As the first exhibition after the return of the Chinese server, Blizzard is undoubtedly one of the most eye-catching companies at ChinaJoy this year. A large number of viewers poured into the Blizzard booth as soon as it opened each day, and the booth had to stop admitting visitors within an hour.

On the morning of July 28th, Nathan, the executive producer of Hearthstone, announced at the Blizzard booth that Hearthstone will return to Chinese servers on September 25th, and players can receive all the missed cards for free. This news further heightened the enthusiasm on site.

(Cailian Press reporter at Blizzard game booth at ChinaJoy)

Nathan told the media, including Cailian Press, that the team is working hard to ensure the smooth launch of the game on its Chinese server, and they will conduct a lot of tests next month focused on the Chinese market. He emphasized that the player return rewards this time are designed specifically for the Chinese market. The team is also designing some activities and in-game behaviors to encourage players to obtain more card packages and rewards.

Nathan also mentioned that compared with when Hearthstone was launched on mobile devices in 2015, there are now many more mobile games available. There are visually stunning and experiential games such as Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact 3rd in the market, so the past success of Hearthstone cannot be taken for granted. He said, "We still need to focus on the fun that our game can provide, such as turn-based gameplay. I believe that such advantages will continue to bring surprises to players for the next decade."

Nathan also emphasized NetEase's assistance in Hearthstone's return to the Chinese market. Holly Longdale, executive producer of World of Warcraft, said that Blizzard has undergone major changes, including leadership and team adjustments, in the past period of time. She has seen changes in the preferences of Chinese gamers and hopes to seize and pay attention to this point, and at the same time explore whether new opportunities can be brought to Blizzard in the future.

"Chinese players and audiences are very, very important to us," Holly Longdale recalled. When the team was unable to continue operating World of Warcraft in China, they felt very frustrated. Now that they have the opportunity to return to the Chinese market, they are very excited.

Holly Longdale told Cailian Press that although returning to the Chinese server seems simple, it is actually a very challenging task. Therefore, their focus now is to cooperate with NetEase to ensure the smooth operation of the game, while providing an excellent and stable gaming experience. In the future, players will also see a lot of new content, including the brand new World of Warcraft: Shadowlands and seasonal content on classic servers.

Going overseas has become a "must-have" for Chinese game companies, and this consensus was evident during ChinaJoy this year.

The most frequently heard phrase by reporters from Cailian Press when communicating with insiders in the gaming industry during ChinaJoy this year was "going overseas". In the BTOB exhibition hall at ChinaJoy, almost all of the companies were related to going overseas, and the number of foreign exhibitors and foreign visitors increased from last year. According to official data released by ChinaJoy, there were a total of 743 exhibitors this year, including 436 in the BTOB hall and 307 in the BTOC hall. There were 319 foreign-funded companies, accounting for 43%, and nearly 8,200 foreign visitors.

(Cailian Press reporter at ChinaJoy BTOB exhibition hall)

Cailian Press observed that among the exhibitors related to going overseas, third-party service companies such as payment, marketing, and advertising agencies were the main focus, while gaming development companies were relatively few. Insiders in the gaming industry at the scene told reporters that going overseas is a complex process that cannot be accomplished by a single company. Companies that specialize in game content development can more efficiently and accurately promote their products in overseas markets through partnerships with third-party service providers, and this type of collaboration is often more cost-effective than self-operation.

(ChinaJoy BTOB Exhibition Hall, photographed by Caijing News Agency)

Cailian Press found that among the companies participating in the exhibition related to going abroad, third-party service companies such as payment, marketing, and advertising agencies were the main players, while game development companies were relatively few. Industry insiders at the scene told reporters that going abroad with the game is a complex process that cannot be completed by a single company. Game development companies, by cooperating with third-party services, can more efficiently and accurately push their products to overseas markets. Such cooperation is often more cost-effective than operating independently.

The booth of MediaGo, an intelligent advertising platform under Baidu International, was very popular. MediaGo mainly engaged in overseas advertising agency business. According to on-site staff, MediaGo's five new deep learning models can achieve accurate predictions at every step of the marketing funnel of attention, interest, and conversion, helping foreign game companies achieve optimal advertising performance.

China Telecom (601728.SH) also brought CTG's "one-stop game distribution solution" to the event. According to the introduction, the scheme focuses on multiple scenarios in the three links of game R&D, publishing and operation, and builds a whole-process solution system.

"For example, for the resource requirements such as cloud hosts and storage during the game R&D stage, CTG provides flexible server architecture options based on customer volume and cost requirements, solves the problem of multi-terminal adaptation, and quickly deploys overseas game packages, which can be cloud-based. On the second day, the manufacturers benefit from faster version iteration speed, more ample testing time, and can quickly advance their games from R&D to launch, thereby seizing market opportunities." said the CTG spokesperson.

(ChinaJoy BTOB Exhibition Hall, photographed by Caijing News Agency)

The Chinese game export market is regaining its growth. According to the "2024 H1 China Game Industry Report", while domestic income from self-developed games has declined, the actual sales revenue of self-developed games in the overseas market in 2024H1 was US $8.554 billion, a year-on-year increase of 4.24%.

Many listed companies, such as Zhejiang Century Huatong Group (002602.SZ), 37 Interactive Entertainment Network Technology Group (002555.SZ), and Beijing Ultrapower Software (300002.SZ), have deeply laid out in the field of game exports. Hu Xin, assistant to the chairman of Zhejiang Century Huatong Group and director of public relations, told Cailian Press that Century Huatong will continue to increase its efforts in game exports in the second half of this year.

However, as more and more Chinese game companies choose to go overseas, there are still inherent problems such as greater growth pressure, rising costs, various internal competitions, cultural differences, lack of localized talents, and regional exchange rate fluctuations.

"Lightweight will be one of the global gaming market trends." said Peng Mei, vice president of 37 Interactive Entertainment, adding that currently, global users exhibit more fragmented characteristics, and the main appeal is short time consumption, fun play, and low-spending players.

In the specific distribution process, Peng Mei said that 37 Interactive Entertainment still insists on a "customized strategy" to promote and operate according to different countries and regions. In the game operation stage, 37 Interactive Entertainment prolongs the game lifecycle through the addition of a large number of local elements, continuous version updates, and operational activities.

Peng Mei revealed that 37 Interactive Entertainment is still actively looking for CP (cooperation partner), but in this process, it is more inclined to CPs with core advantages and characteristics, such as innovative gameplay, planning, higher technical barriers, or unique art styles.

Game AI is in the early stages of development.

Last year's ChinaJoy coincided with the AI technology application wave, and games powered by AI became a hot topic at the industry forum. In the past year, listed game companies such as 37 Interactive Entertainment, Perfect World (002624.SZ), Yoozoo Interactive (002174.SZ), Giant Network (002558.SZ), and Kingnet Network (002517.SZ)have been promoting the use of large models and AI technology in gaming.

Cailian Press noted that game AI is still a hot topic in 2024. However, compared with last year, the discussion has shifted towards practical scenarios of game AI, and the focus has shifted from AI helping the game industry reduce costs and increase efficiency to how AI can promote breakthroughs in game play.

"In the past year, the most commonly practiced area in the industry is improving efficiency using AI in artistic personnel and customer service personnel. However, in terms of planning, the breakthrough of AI in gameplay is currently a direction that everyone is more concerned about." said an A-share listed game company spokesperson to Cailian Press.

The spokesperson added that the company has fully used AI technology to optimize the workflow internally. In customer service, translations and other links, AI has helped to reduce costs and increase work efficiency. Next, the company will focus on exploring how AI can upgrade game play (such as intelligent NPCs). The investment in AI has also been raised to a strategic level.

Ping Dazhi, vice president of NetEase, believes that the improvement and efficiency brought by AI are expected to become a way for the game industry to break free from the traditional growth constraints and development paths, and to break the impossible triangle of cost, quality, and efficiency that has been difficult to reconcile for a long time.

"By making AI 'open source' to players and enabling them to better integrate into the entire game ecosystem and form a benign feedback, it can also expand the UGC content sector. We believe that in this way, it is possible to realize the transformation from PGC dominance to the dual-line parallelism of PGC+UGC, thereby alleviating the problem of content output." said Ping Dazhi.

A game industry insider told Cailian Press that the ceiling of large models and AI technology in the game industry is high, but considering that the technology itself is still undergoing continuous iteration, and that computing resources are expensive and talent resources are lacking, the current stage is still in early development.