Steam’s popularity reaches over 30m players in China
Nico Partners Analyst Daniel Ahmad recently tweeted that Steam now holds over 30 million players situated in China and it had a number of effects on various games and Steam itself. Those included games that would usually not see higher numbers if it weren't for the massive influx of players itself.
Dota 2, a MOBA game hosted on Steam was seen as one of the major contributors to why Steam gain high popularity with the Chinese market. There were also a number of other factors such as regional pricing and localised payments. To top it all off, many games with Chinese localisations also gained some solid popularity, especially games like Scroll of Taiwu and Chinese Parents.
Another major reason is as stated by Ahmad, "China's State Council issued recommendations that will make it easier (and not as lengthy) for internet cafe's and game companies to set up business in the country. It's a positive sign to see the promotion of new gaming entity creation amid a tough regulatory environment."
It isn't a secret that the Chinese government held a lot of restrictions or bans on various media products including games itself. With the State Council encouraging internet cafes and game companies to work more in the Chinese market, this may give the industry both domestic and global the go-ahead to utilise the Chinese markets for their games.
However, it is likely that the market will still have tough restrictions and regulations that game companies will need to negotiate with the Government to see if they could sell their games in China. On another note, Chinese Indie developers have seen success overseas and domestically which is a good sign that more developers from China will be interested in releasing their games to the Steam market and diversifying what we as gamers have to play.
What do you think about China's significant presence in Steam? Would you like to see more games developed from China?
