I'm thrilled to see the global popularity of Chinese games. Titles like Genshin Impact, Wuthering Waves, ZZZ, Star Rail, Love and Deep Space, Infinity Nikki, Arknights, Azur Lane, Black Myth: Wukong, Marvel mobile games, and upcoming releases such as Neverness to Everness, Ananta, and Azur Promilia are making waves worldwide.
Looking back, the games I played as a kid were all Red Alert, StarCraft, Warcraft, Counter-Strike, and the like. Back then, everyone praised foreign game companies, believing Chinese companies would never be able to make great games. Times have changed—now most Chinese players are playing games made by Chinese companies.
Moreover, Chinese forums now widely believe Japan and South Korea have completely lost their competitive edge in mobile game development. Many joke that popular Japanese and Korean mobile games mainly provide Chinese forums with amusing memes and adorable fan art, while genuine loyal players are scarce. Japan may still hold some competitive edge in large-scale buy-to-play games, but Chinese players seem largely indifferent. Most Chinese gamers play mobile games, and despite the lack of enthusiasm for buy-to-play titles, China's production standards in this genre are rapidly catching up to the world's highest levels.
Now, Chinese players and forums increasingly focus their expectations for Chinese games going global on cultural export—how “anime-style” games can break free from Japanese influence, and how contemporary Chinese ideology, traditional virtues, and classical art can be disseminated worldwide.
Within domestic discussions, games like Genshin Impact and Ananta have faced criticism. Detractors argue that Genshin Impact's English title, derived from Japanese, amounts to “making a dowry for Japanese culture.” Ananta, meanwhile, is criticized for essentially reconstructing a new Japan within its anime-inspired world—a move deemed unacceptable for a next-generation game that should not use Japanese architecture and culture as its backdrop or narrative foundation.
As a casual gamer myself with some research into both Chinese and foreign game companies, I plan to write several articles on Chinese games going global and cultural exports in the future, should time permit, to further explore this topic.
