China to host a BW "OSL" - Page 10

On June 27 2012 10:49 haduken wrote:
Hmm, is gaming still banned on TV? with out TV exposure => no sponsor.

On June 27 2012 14:02 iky43210 wrote:
The chinese will not play a game if it cannot be pirated or is free (few exception to this rule), with that set out sc2 is doom to fail in china and I don't see influx of new chinese generation gamers will pursue a decade old game when there are many free and more modern games out there such as LoL/dota2/counterstrikeclonex123/mmo

On June 27 2012 14:29 Caihead wrote:


Racial stereotyping aside, this is caused more by the outrageous price point of games when compared with the average wage level in china right now, a brand new game like diablo 3 or SC2 costs upwards of 400 rmb when converted, easily over a pre-university student's monthly allowance if he's in the middle or lower class. I'm chinese and I pay for all my games on steam because I have the previlege of paying for them from official sources over seas, there's alot of stigma against even "official" game retailers in china because piracy is so rampant - which again, is not caused by lower moral standards or w/e, but just the fact that the people didn't have money.

Like for example: The average wage levels of a lower to lower-middle class employee working in China's urban areas is around 2000-3000 rmb per month, where as the middle to upper-middle class make anywhere between 3000-10000 on average (the upper class makes a ridiculously higher sum of money but that's true in most societies), a PS3 or Xbox360 or upgraded PC set up could cost upwards of a few thousand rmb or even upward into the ten thousands. The proportion it is to your income is huge. People in the west complain about full price games being 60$ USD or Euro, but that's a much smaller proportion when compared to your average income level than say 400 rmb to 2000 rmb.

I'm pulling the figures right now off bnet, it's been 2 and a half years since SC2's come out, and it's still ~300 HK $ which translates to around 250, where as diablo 3 is 399 or 525. It could attribute to more than 20% of a middle class family's monthly disposable income, it's alot.

On June 27 2012 14:49 iky43210 wrote:


you can sell games there at $5 a copy and it still wouldn't make a difference. Asia customers(beside Japan) just don't have the same beliefs in intellectual properties as the westerners. Most of them believes software should be free of charge while in the west majority still respects intellectual properties.

It's pretty much why every game made with Asia market in mind are usually f2p. If Blizzard wants to suceed in the asia market (not just china, but everywhere else), they need to incorporate f2p model for that area or they're not going to make it outside of creating one of a kind master piece.

On June 27 2012 14:58 Caihead wrote:


Don't have the same beliefs in intellectual property? Have you been to taiwan, hongkong, shanghai, beijing, shenzhen (where i live), seoul, singapore, etc? These are places that are growing epicenters of high tech industry. Japan has established itself because of its economical reforms which were successful, mainland china has been under economical reform for just 30 years. Your argument makes no sense, a f2p game can be just as easily ripped off its intellectual property as a 60$ game, the prize tag wouldn't matter if that was the issue. F2P games succeed in china precisely because of their free nature and the small monetary transactions that people can afford. Has nothing to do with intellectual property. How do you expect reasonably that some one with almost no disposable income pay for expensive overseas softwares just to run his computer which would cost many times over his monthly income because of currency exchange rates and trade levies?

Yea, the situation is terrible in China in terms of protection of intellectual property, I'm a personal victim as is the company i'm working for, that doesn't mean that people don't understand the concepts or beliefs, just that the associated legal system isn't fleshed out yet. And they are often forced to violate it because they don't have a choice in the matter, or resort to playing f2p games.

On June 27 2012 14:49 iky43210 wrote:


its not racial stereotyping, its marketing and business sense, which I severely thinks Blizzard asia department is completely incompetent just by looking at the bridges they burn in China such as the deal with the9 and the fiasco with diablo 3 and Korean customers. Their product manager should've raised many red flags when they decide to make return of the lich king with WoW

On June 27 2012 15:10 Caihead wrote:


It's marketing and business sense in the respect that western companies are not willing to lower their price points, that's literally it. Baidu is successful in China, China Mobile/unicom is successful in China, as is Microsoft and Apple. Apple markets itself to the upper class in China to avoid the price point conflict, and Microsoft turns a blind eye to lower price points and piracy to ensure their hold on the market. Nothing about it has anything to do with the Chinese' understanding of intellectual property. Google bombed out of China where as Baidu is massively profitable.

On June 27 2012 15:10 iky43210 wrote:


I work as a marketing/product manager in a software company in Taiwan, respect for intellectual properties are something you learned from as a society, not individually. I'm just going to tell you that you're not going to get many customers willing to pay for software in Asia. Lets put this into perspective, nearly 90% of the customers here bought our hardware with software incorporated in them while in the states nearly all our sales are through software. We specifically made hardware and software links because we know softwares have no worth to individual buyers (companies are of different stories)

what I am saying is not politically correct, but its the truth.

f2p games can't be ripped off of its intellectual properties, that made no sense. People would either pirate the game to play them for free, and if they can't (incase of online games), they go play something else that will. And trust me when I say those monotary transaction from f2p games are far from cheap, they are used to believe software should be free that they won't pay money for those that aren't

Here's something to put into perspective on Piracy, and the figures aren't any better now

Country 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998
Korea 75% 76% 70% 67% 64%
U.S. 31% 26% 27% 27% 25%
Japan 66% 55% 41% 32% 31%
Taiwan 72% 70% 66% 63% 50%
China 97% 96% 96% 96% 95%
Total World 49% 46% 43% 40% 38%

On June 27 2012 15:12 iky43210 wrote:


hardware is not software. Hardware has plenty of worth to Asia consumers

On June 27 2012 15:14 Caihead wrote:


Jesus christ these figures are ridiculously dated, have you seen China in 1998? I think only about 1/50 people had a computer, and 1/10 people had a phone. F2P games can be ripped off their intellectual properties by exploiting assets, unless your understanding of intellectual property is as shallow as "if it's free it has no intellectual property". There's a huge difference again between not willing to pay for the product because it's expensive and not respecting your intellectual property. Notice that having the software readily installed is a marketing decision that's completely irrelevant of the price you charge, nor the intellectual property of the software.

On June 27 2012 15:21 Caihead wrote:


So... Baidu/microsoft/apple IOS/China Mobile/unicom phone operating system software is hardware? Most of the most profitable companies in China are software companies that provide services for Phones, computers, and so forth. Microsoft has continued its XP system and support in China for far longer than its expected life span due to its lower price point. And also, hardware doesn't hold intellectual property? >_>

On June 27 2012 15:29 iky43210 wrote:


I high light the keyword. Sell to businesses, cause they are entities and not individuals that must respect intellectual properties

microsoft made a windfall in china because they were able to get legislature to pass that all computers must be sold with a legitimate operating system. They have tried cutting costs to their OS with no avail back in the 2005s, now they just try to fight it with law enforcements in the 2010s

On June 27 2012 16:14 TheShimmy wrote:
Who cares about all the piracy issues?

THIS IS FREAKING BROODWAR BEING REBORN

On June 27 2012 14:49 iky43210 wrote:


you can sell games there at $5 a copy and it still wouldn't make a difference. Asia customers(beside Japan) just don't have the same beliefs in intellectual properties as the westerners. Most of them believes software should be free of charge while in the west majority still respects intellectual properties.