Opinion: Why can’t China make high-quality games?

As a Chinese gamer who has been playing games for half of my life, there has always been a question about why we did not produce games that can be renown on a global scale. Being a world leader in the 21st century, China has been a pioneer in numerous fields and industries. However, when it comes to gaming culture and industries, we are more like a newborn. 

When the game industry started to grow in the 1970s, China had intense political and economic reform, according to a 2016 article in the Guardian. That, unfortunately, made the Chinese miss the first wave of their contact with a new rising form of art. Consequently, this missing of this fully immersed atmosphere of gaming caused many regretful incidents. 

For Chinese gamers, we tend to be lacking the culture of playing console games, which narrows the type of games we usually play. Also, the miscomprehension of purchasing a game for numerous Chinese gamers is deadly. One of the main attributor of this misunderstanding is some Chinese websites, where the piracy of other games’ ideas is prevalent, and people can play them for free. Gradually, along with the public’s incapability to view websites and content outside of China, the general public, especially teenagers, do not comprehend the notion of purchasing a game. 

Regardless of the product produced, any company has one fundamental goal: to earn a profit. Meanwhile, in the United States or Europe, it may be reasonable for a game company to develop 3A games (games that use a massive crew and budget to develop).

Nonetheless, in my opinion, it seems to be a mere childish pursue for top Chinese companies’ leaders to create 3A games that do not have a stable payback. It may be an honor and dream for the talented Chinese game developers to produce a 3A game that will mark itself as a milestone in the game industry. For the leaders of those enterprises whose job is to maximize the profit earned, it is nonrealistic and dangerous. The fact that the ideology of one-time purchasing is often absent from Chinese gamers generated this dilemma for the Chinese game developers. 

The rapid development and the increasing prevalence of mobile phones offer many Chinese the possibility to play games more conveniently. Before the vast production of mobile games, PC games have always been the top choice for Chinese players, according to PC Gamer.

Lamentably, the dogma that innumerable Chinese parents held — the pursuit of being an e-sports player has no future — chocked the game industry. This oppressive atmosphere branded countless teenagers with guilt, shame and fear.

Nevertheless, the relaxation of the tension between Chinese parents and the game industry finally showed its sign with the gradual passing of time. By the time mobile games earned the public’s preference based on their convenience, PC games’ influence wanes with the dream that Chinese game developments use to have. Since phones cannot perform high-quality games well, it is nearly impossible for game developers to pursue their dream.

After all, when choosing paths between making easy profits or providing thankless attribution to the game industry milestone, it is inevitable that many game developers and companies go with the former. As someone who greatly concerns about the advancement of China’s economy and society and the art products, we present to the world. I believe we certainly can provide awesome games to the world, but the current community is merely not allowing the producers to do it.