The Politics and Economics of Independent Game Distribution in China and Hong Kong

19 NOV 202111am—12.30pm

The paper studies the circulation of independent video game in the online distribution system of China and Hong Kong. It explores the ways that game content becomes available in the niched mobile independent game market of the region. The paper investigates the unique digital distribution system that is impacted by disintermediation of game publishing in the global PC and console game markets. One goal of this paper is to unfold the complex political and economic factors that shape today’s game circulation system in China and Hong. The paper looks into pattern of game circulation in both formal and informal economies in the region. It argues that both economies altogether cultivate the region’s unique industry development pattern for independent game. The paper aims to map out linkage among corporations that shapes region’s publishing infrastructure. The paper also seeks to understand how independent game developers maintain their production autonomy while they strategize to maximize profits in the publishing network set up by major players (ie. Tencent and Alibaba) and foreign platform giants (ie. Apple iTune and GooglePlay) in game publishing. Challenges that independent game developers encounter at the levels of government regulation and corporation censorship are also evaluated. The paper includes data analysis based upon fieldwork interviews with independent game developers and publishers in China and Hong Kong from 2015 to 2018. Conclusion of the paper discusses cases of effective efforts for independent game specifically for China’s highly censored and hyper commercialized mobile game market.