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The global gaming industry would do well to look at Asia in the coming months for a model of growth — particularly when it comes to mobile gaming. All signs point to nearly every country — with the exception of China perhaps — poised for continued big growth. Companies across the region are investing in gaming, and more countries are welcoming investors and startups that are positioning them to follow in the footsteps of larger markets such as Japan’s.
Reports from market-intelligence firm Niko Partners project that Southeast Asian countries will have generated $784.4 million in gaming revenues in 2014. Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam have all seen an uptick in the popularity of online gaming, with mobile games emerging as a big player. While the region is certainly behind China by a few years in terms of investment and business participation, there is room for local and foreign development. Businesses looking to get in on the southeast Asian scene can build partnerships with local game companies as there is still much room for growth in this region. Analysts from the research firm predict that Indonesia will see the fastest growth out of the aforementioned companies over the next five years, and that Vietnam will boast the largest number of gamers by that time.
There is speculation as to the saturation of the Chinese gaming market. Earlier this year, the market was expected to boom and surpass the U.S. one, which is generally agreed upon to be saturated. But an infographic from video game research firm SuperDataResearch shows that the Chinese mobile gaming market is near-saturated itself, and foreign businesses are having trouble making inroads. The infographic also highlights trends in other countries: Japan’s mobile gaming market is on the up-and-up, with RPG games accounting for 19% of all Android games in September. Increased mobile penetration in India is leading users to adopt mobile gaming at surging rates.
But what China’s market will do remains to be seen, especially because large businesses in the country are still heavily pumping money into the gaming industry. Alibaba — China’s largest e-commerce company (and arguably the world’s) — has revealed that it teamed up with a Beijing-based mobile game publishing startup to create KTplay, a new social gaming platform. The platform is currently running only in China, but has plans for international expansion.
Healthy figures are on the horizon for gaming businesses in many Asian countries, and the further adoption of mobile devices will only spur that growth — particularly in regions that are working on developing higher-speed networks.
