Strangely, a small city in China built an entire E-Game town, inviting “game talent” to live

Shaoxing is a city in Zhejiang province, located in the east of China. The city covers an area of ​​​​more than 8,200 square kilometers, owns a dense network of canals with more than 4,000 stone bridges and white traditional houses next to each other. Shaoxing city is about 1.5 hours south of Shanghai by train and 20 minutes east of Hangzhou.

According to SCMP, in the past, the city was built on the development of manufacturing industries. Currently, the economy is gradually transforming and this place has become a place to attract and develop video games. The city has built a lot of important infrastructure, increased subsidies and many business-friendly policies.

Previously, the city had created an ambitious program to become the “new capital of video games” in China. Shaoxing built a place called video game town (E-Game Town). The city has arranged for about 11,000 professionals, professionals and 2 video game companies to operate in this town.

At a forum on China’s video game industry in July, Ruan Jiandong, director of the Real Estate Administration Commission, said that Shaoxing City has invested heavily in the video game town. death. Since 2016, the city has invested about 6 billion yuan (about 843 million USD) to support companies operating in the industry.

Companies in the town of E-Game will enjoy tax incentives, business subsidies, free staff dormitory and shuttle service. A company in the video game industry may only have to pay 10% tax to the local government for the first two years.

In addition, Mr. Ruan said, the city also built 1,300 apartments, just a 15-minute walk from E-Game, for young talents in the field of video games to live. The E-Game township’s management committee is also available to subsidize whenever a company launches a new project. A video game startup that can IPO in China will receive 3 million yuan (about 420,000 USD) from the city.

According to market research firm Niko Partners, China’s total video game revenue (including mobile, PC and console games) is expected to reach 47.73 billion USD in 2022. This is higher than USD 45.49 billion in revenue in 2021.

However, China’s video game industry also saw growth slow after China banned teenagers under 18 from playing video games for more than three hours a week. At that time, new game publishing licenses also had to be suspended.

According to SCMP, Shaoxing offers many special offers to attract more video game companies, competing with big cities like Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Beijing. Jinke Tom Culture is one of the prominent companies in E-Game town. The company owns Slovenian Outfit7, creator of the popular Talking Tom & Friends game series.

Mr. Zhang Weizhang, CEO at Jinke Tom Culture shared with SMCP, the company moved to E-Game town 3 years ago to benefit from its favorable geographical location and good incentives for operating costs. motion. Mr. Zhang aims the company to become the “Disney of the mobile Internet era”.

One of the other prominent companies in E-Game town is Yushi Network. The company was founded in 2015, the main activity is developing video games on mobile phones. The company and other investors invested 500 million CNY to build a new office building in the town. The initial number of employees was only about 100 people, now it has increased at least 6 times.

Shaoxing’s attempt to become a video game hub has many similarities with Montreal, the most populous city in Quebec, Canada. Like Shaoxing, Montreal developed its economy through manufacturing industries such as textiles and electronics.

But in the early 1990s, Montreal promoted a campaign to attract major developers and publishers to turn the city into the “Hollywood of video games”. Montreal and the Government of Canada have offered tax incentives to attract companies like Ubisoft Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Square Enix and even Tencent Holdings and China’s miHoYo.

SCMP said that Shaoxing still has a long way to go if it wants to attract more world-class game developers and publishers to set up a company in E-Game town.

In China, Tencent is the operator of the largest video game business in the world and NetEase is the number 2 game publisher in the country. Both companies are currently focusing on expanding overseas operations amid shrinking domestic demand.

Source: South China Morning Post