During a presentation at the Games Convention Asia in Singapore, Lisa Cosmas Hanson revealed some insights into the minds of Chinese gamers.

Niko Partners, the research firm Hanson runs, tracks the attitudes of Chinese gamers, and has noticed some recent changes: the Chinese are as hungry as ever for games, but they now want to dictate the content they use.

Niko Partners counts gamers as people who spend one hour or more per month playing. Up until this point, said Hanson, “the market has been completely supply driven. They’ve been happy to play whatever’s come their way. We have noticed a shift towards a demand driven economy.”

Hanson said that this is a natural maturation of a market. Up until now, when researchers asked gamers what inspired them to play a particular game, the answer had always been ‘Because my friend plays it.’ But that changed this summer. The new answer is: ‘Because it’s the best in its class.’

According to the Chinese government there are more than 100 game operators, but Hanson said that only 20 of those can be counted at any one time, based on operations and revenues. She said that operators “need to shift to fill demand rather than supply games of their choosing”.

The projected revenues for online games in China should reach $3.65 billion (£2.2b / €2.5b) in 2009. By 2013, the revenues will hit an estimated $8.8 billion (£5.4b / €6b). Hanson also said that 83 per cent of gamers have a PC at home, which is much higher than the national average of around 14 per cent.

In spite of the growth, regulatory problems continue to hamper the market’s expansion. Hanson said there have been changes in the Chinese agencies that control every function of operations, and went on to detail a power struggle between the Ministry of Culture and the General Administration of Press and Publication that will have an effect on the game business. “Next year will be an interesting year in this market,” she offered.

Words by N. Evan Van Zelfden