2018 is bound to be no ordinary year for Esports in China. On May 16, 2018, the Asian Olympic Committee announced the inclusion of esports in the Jakarta Asian Games, opening a new era of esports. On August 26, the Asian Games in Jakarta, the first Asian Games e-sports gold medal was won by the Chinese AOV team, this moment makes countless Chinese e-sports people burst into tears, because e-sports has been able to proudly win glory for the country.
But the excitement is more of a return to reason and related media analysis, the e-sports in Asian games the biggest winner is tencent and blizzard two game companies, included in the game 6 of the Asian games tencent has a “hero alliance”, the AOV, three royal war, blizzard has a starcraft ii and the hearth legend two game. But I think that although e-sports into Asia for Tencent and Blizzard have greater good, but the biggest winner is not only these two game companies, and e-sports itself.
Tencent’s urgent need for esports in Asia
According to market research firm Newzoo, the world’s 25 largest game companies by revenue generated a combined $94.1 billion in 2017, with Tencent topping the list with $18.1 billion in game revenue, accounting for 15 percent of the global total. But there are still some problems that Tencent can’t get over.
First of all, Tencent games have a poor impression in the minds of players, and the inclusion of its games in the Asian Games will help improve people’s impression of Tencent games. When it comes to Tencent games, people’s inherent impression inevitably comes to the labels of “plagiarism” and “money laundering”. In a social adjustment report, 43.16% of the surveyed people think Tencent has “money laundering” behavior, and 35.32% of them say Tencent is in line with the label of “money laundering”. Tencent, which has topped the global game revenue list for five consecutive years, is eager to get rid of the label of “plagiarism”. The three games are strongly selected for the Asian Games, which can greatly improve people’s impression of Tencent.
On the one hand, the patriotic feelings invested by the audience in the Asian Games can transfer the players’ prejudice against Tencent games to the team enthusiasm in Tencent games competition, diluting the players’ prejudice against Tencent games. On the other hand, the inclusion of Tencent’s next three popular games in the Asian Games has fulfilled so many people’s esports dreams that people will be somewhat grateful for these games, thus changing the perception of Tencent’s games.
Secondly, Tencent’s games are facing difficulties in going out, and its inclusion in the Asian Games will help expand its international influence. Tencent is the world’s largest gaming company by revenue, but domestic revenue accounts for the majority. Since 2017, the domestic game market has become saturated, and it is necessary for Tencent games, which makes most of its revenue in China, to go global.
There are two ways for Tencent to go global. One is to acquire or invest in other foreign game companies and use other game companies to build overseas markets for Tencent. The other is to develop products and export products, and then achieve the purpose of going out. In the first way, Tencent is comfortable with the game. In the second way, Although Tencent has been trying hard, the launch of WeGame platform shows Tencent’s determination to go out, but the market performance is flat. The e-sports entering Asia is of great significance for Tencent to go out.
The inclusion of the game in the Asian Games adds to Tencent’s international exposure ahead of the event, as esports has been included in a major international multi-sport event for the first time. In addition, the promotion of the games through the numerous international media resources of the Asian Games also increases the exposure of the games, thus indirectly increasing the popularity and influence of Tencent in the international game industry (at least in Asia).
Finally, Tencent’s gaming business is growing slowly, and its inclusion in the Asian Games could help spur growth. Tencent’s earnings report for the second quarter of 2018 showed that online game revenue increased by 6% to 25.202 billion yuan, a significant slowdown compared with previous quarters, and it was the first time that game revenue growth fell to single digits, hitting a record low.
The inclusion of three games in the Asian Games is an opportunity for Tencent’s game business. The Asian games is second only to the Olympic Games and World Cup, its international influence is self-evident, the Chinese team in these projects had placed these projects will be on the media, and then more group to play these games, finally promote the growth of tencent games business, so tencent is e-sports into one of the biggest winner.
E-sports in Asia blizzard “Old trees in spring”
“Blizzard products must be excellent”, this sentence can highly sum up the image of Blizzard in the hearts of players. Blizzard’s commitment to excellence, regardless of the cost of time, has left it facing a loss of players and a loss of popularity. The inclusion of Hearthstone and StarCraft 2 in the Asian Games is a great opportunity for Blizzard to make its presence known to the public. In addition to its strong reputation, the inclusion of esports in the Asian Games is likely to solve blizzard’s problems.
The loss of game players is serious, and the inclusion of the two games in the Asian Games is not only conducive to reducing the loss of players, but also to attracting some players back. Although most of blizzard’s games are high-quality, most of them are more than ten years old, which has already made players tired. In addition, the endless emergence of competitive products has led to a serious loss of players of blizzard’s classic games such as StarCraft and World of Warcraft.
Players still have feelings for Blizzard, and Blizzard games selected in the Asian Games, is a direct driving force for the return of old players. For the spectators of the Asian Games, although they have not played the games of Blizzard, any sports event is irresistible to the sports enthusiasts, so they may try the games of Blizzard, which leads to the increase of game players. For the players who are still playing Blizzard games, the entry of e-sports into Asia legitimizes their games and gives them a strong sense of pride, so that they can continue to stay in Blizzard games and avoid the loss of some players.
The heat of the game is not as good as before, the e-sports into Asia is conducive to increasing the heat of its games, maintain its exuberant vitality. Blizzard doesn’t have many games, but world of Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, Hearthstone, and more are classics. However, with the exception of Hearthstone, the popularity of the other games has declined due to the fact that they were released much earlier in the game’s life cycle, and blizzard continues to update gameplay with little success. For example, World of Warcraft 8.0, which was launched on August 14, although it added new story, new characters, new gameplay and new payment mode, has been lukewarm for nearly half a month. The well-known game review website IGN only scored 8 points, which is 1.1 points lower than world of Warcraft 7.0’s 9.1 points.
The presence of two other Blizzard games at the Asian Games has helped to increase the visibility of Blizzard’s games and thus the popularity of the games. Asia in recent years have been the focus of the world, the development of the Asian games as a top Asian sports events, the focus of global e-sports in the Asian games for the first time, of course, is the focus of the media, and blizzard not only occupy one-third of the events and good reputation, under the dual factors will greatly promote the increase of the heat of the game, to maintain its vitality.
E-sports into Asia on China’s e-sports impact is limited
In 2003, The General Administration of Sports of China recognized e-sports as a sports event, which kicked off the development of E-sports in China. However, the development of e-sports in China is still unsatisfactory until today. Although the e-sports into Asia will bring new vitality to China e-sports, can let people have a better understanding of e-sports, but the change is not a game can be completed.
First, the public’s prejudice against Esports in China won’t disappear anytime soon. “Video games are a minefield. They involve killing, violence and racism. They will never be a part of the Olympic Movement,” Ioc President Thomas Bach said. As for the general public, according to the Report “China E-sports Marketing Market Survey” released by PlayPlus, 40% of respondents hold a negative attitude towards e-sports, among which traditional sports fans are particularly prominent. Even e-sports into the Asian games, combined with the Asian electronic sports federation chairman Kenneth fok for its name, but does not eliminate the public immediately e-sports prejudice, for a long time to just to play the role of induced by people, gradually eliminate the prejudice against e-sports, e-sports to be accepted by the public in China, still need a long way to go.
Second, China’s esports audience, though expanding, is still small. Although e-sports has successfully become an event of the Asian Games, the domestic media did not broadcast the e-sports events in time until after the games, which missed the good opportunity to expand from the target audience to other groups and did little help to expand the audience of E-sports in China. E-sports brand Playplus released a “China e-sports Marketing Market survey” report shows that in 2017, the audience of E-sports in China was 220 million, it is expected that the audience of E-sports in China will expand this year by “e-sports into Asia” and other e-sports stimulation, may reach 280 million people. However, compared with traditional sports, table tennis alone has an audience of 300 million (according to the New York Times in 2016), so even if the audience of esports has expanded, it still cannot change the fact that the audience is small.
summary
The introduction of e-sports into Asia is not accidental, but the development of e-sports industry is becoming more mature, the promotion of game manufacturers and the Asian Games itself to absorb fresh blood to maintain the vitality of the tripartite result, it is a win-win choice.
For game manufacturers, e-sports can not only promote the game and company, but also prove the strength of their company and products, and expand their influence in the game industry. Finally, for e-sports itself, although it cannot immediately bring higher attention, wider audience and greater influence, e-sports will be more perfect in the integration with the Asian Games, so as to promote the development of e-sports and maintain the lasting and vigorous vitality of e-sports.
Article/Liu Kuang public number, ID: Liukuang110, this article first kuang Venture capital network