Developers are waiting for Google Play to return to the Chinese market

China is one of the largest markets for the gaming industry, but, like any of the markets, it has its own characteristics. According to analysts from Niko Partners, the turnover of the local market was about $ 5.5 billion in profits last year, but only a small part of this went to foreign developers, and there are several reasons for this. Google officially left China in 2011, which means that there is no Google Play in the country and instead, about 200-400 local stores for Android smartphones have been opened, preventing the creation of a single tool for distributing content to all publishers and developers.

High fragmentation of devices with Android forces foreign developers to abandon the independent distribution of their own applications and games. Instead, local publishers who take a fairly high percentage of any type of income in the application, from in-app purchases to a standard monthly subscription to any of the services, are popular.
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Therefore, almost all developers now sincerely hope that Google will return to the local market with Google Play.

“As developers, we really want Google Play to return to the Chinese market as soon as possible,” said RedAtoms studio vice-president of GamesBeat, who released Three Kingdoms Now.

Studio representatives are also unhappy with the high commissions that publishers have to pay. This eliminates any competition with local developers who can distribute their applications with a much smaller commission. Moreover, even such large publishers as Netease agree with foreign developers.

“The market for Android devices is currently in a terrible state. From the point of view of our company, it would be great if Google returned to China. This would be beneficial for developers and publishers. And the government certainly knows this, ”said Netease manager Harry Huang.

Not so long ago, rumors of negotiations between Google and the Chinese government regarding the possible return to the local market appeared on the network. Officials feel pressure from representatives of the IT industry and local residents, whose increased technical literacy raises questions about the illogicality of the ban on using Google Play.

In the case of commissions, the situation sometimes reaches the point of absurdity - local publishers can take about 70% of the total income in the game, compared to 30% in the case of Google Play. And of course Google Play provides the ability to license your own projects, and this is a serious problem for the local market at the moment.

“It seems to me that Google Play will fix the situation with copying games and their mechanics in China. Now, with the release of a successful overseas project, you can almost immediately find a similar clone in the Chinese market, ”says 6Waves executive director Stephen Lee.

The re-launch of Google Play in China could have a significant impact on the mobile market for games and applications in general. Despite the small solvency, the number of potential users allows you to fully compensate for this. And the total income from this segment can make China one of the most important markets for mobile developers, to the struggle for which the largest publishers join.