Chinese gaming companies show latest products at E3

LOS ANGELES — Chinese gaming companies showcased their latest products at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, held at the Los Angeles Convention Center on June 13-15.

In 2016, the growth of China's gaming industry was remarkable, with over 530 million gamers in China generating $24.6 billion of the industry's global market value worth more than $100 billion.

So far China's gaming market is still domestic. Yet more and more Chinese companies are looking to the global market. E3 has become one of the biggest platforms to showcase their products.

NetEase Games, China's second largest gaming company, showcased an English demo version of its new war massive-multiplayer online game "Conqueror's Blade" at E3.

"The best feature of this game is the creativity," Wang Xi, producer of "Conqueror's Blade," told Xinhua at the opening day of E3. "It provides a brand new war experience. It is very easy for players to get the point and start to enjoy the game."

"Conqueror's Blade" was designed for the global market, which contains both Western and Eastern cultural elements to meet the interests of different players.

Wang believed that the key factor to make a game successful is quality. Whether it is an American game or a Chinese game, "as long as it meets a high-level quality standard, people will love it," Wang said.

On the other hand, Chinese history is a big selling-point. As a first-time exhibitor at E3, Chinese game developer Wangyuan Shengtang Technology rolled out the updates of its popular games titled Faith of Danschant and Gujian Qitan at the event, which are single-player games both inspired by Chinese myths and legends.

"A single-player game is not only a game, it is also a novel, a feature animation," Meng Xianming, CEO of Wangyuan Shengtang, told Xinhua. "Good stories will draw a player into the experience and (he will) really enjoy it."

"Those are some of the most interesting stories," Eric Bailey told Xinhua after playing the demo of Gujian Qitan at E3. He said that it was the stories that attracted him the most, "because those stories are not something that you are used to in the United States. Everything that goes on there is fun to watch."

Although demos from Wangyuan Shengtang were Chinese versions, most of the players had little trouble understanding the basic story line. However, to officially enter the global market, Wangyuan Shengtang stated that English versions will be available in the future.

"I don't know Chinese but I can follow the story when playing," Darius Casey told Xinhua, adding that if there was an English version, he would "definitely buy it."

Story-telling might be a compelling feature of Chinese games. However, Chinese games still need to be improved to become more competitive.

"In terms of controlling and gaming experience, we still have many things to learn from the industry leaders," Meng said. "That is why we come to E3. We come here to learn, to communicate and to improve ourselves."