Earlier this year, the State Council issued a notice that allows domestic and foreign-funded enterprises to engage in the production and sale of game-play equipment throughout the country, releasing more market space that was previously unexplored. This move is expected to prompt the game console market to mature. In the previous year, the State Department had just ended a 13-year ban on game consoles, and game consoles such as Microsoft's Xbox and Sony PS were able to enter the Chinese market.
Some domestic manufacturers adopted the strategy of cornering overtaking and launched Android-based video game consoles or box products. They hope to use existing Android applications to enrich content and quickly fill market gaps.
The Cassidy and Alibaba TVOS teamed up to create a somatosensory home console, Huawei launched the Tron Android game console, and TCL announced its entry into the video game industry. However, there are game industry executives told Tencent Technology, "Android game box positioning is more rampant."
Unclear positioning
Due to the policy's control of video content, it is difficult for smart TV and box video content to break new ground. Therefore, the development path that lays in front of domestic manufacturers mainly includes education market and game market. Because sports are too small, it is difficult to break through in the short term. The education market has a certain threshold due to its excessively vertical industrial chain and strong professionalism. On the contrary, although the gaming market had been in a grey area for some time due to policy reasons, it has accumulated a certain number of users. With the opening of the market, its development has been relatively rapid. However, players in the domestic game console market have very high demands on the quality of the game, and Android game boxes cannot meet their needs. Therefore, Android box is mainly aimed at low-end users.
However, many people in the industry are not optimistic about the prospect of this form. Some industry analysts have said that basically the mobile games are now being translated to televisions, which can never form a true market value.
Industrial chain is difficult to improve
From the hardware point of view, the performance of Android game boxes is higher than that of ordinary TV set-top boxes. However, according to the speed of chip upgrades, some people in the industry believe that their performance will have to catch up with the PS3 in 2016. Sony’s product was released 10 years ago, and its latest generation PS4 has been on the market for a year. And, the inherent adaptation problems of Android smartphones also exist in Android game boxes. A game developer told Tencent Technology that due to the different standards for each game box that is equipped with Android, the chip usage is also not the same. This results in very high matching costs for game developers and the experience is not good.
Not only that, Android's version issues are also affecting the progress of game development. Some industry analysts said that unlike the rapid adoption of smartphones, the game console market is still in the early stage of development, so the market size is still very limited, which leads to the relative increase in the cost of adaptation. For the game content itself, it is difficult for a small company to have the ability to independently support the market because of the lack of support from large companies. "Users don't need to make games that are tedious or unmatched in the entertainment experience to fill demand. Now Android game boxes do not provide better services," said the analyst.
Business model is exploring
However, according to some industry insiders, the biggest problem in the development of Android TV games is that the industry has not yet found the best business model.
From the current perspective, the game console market has four modes: the operating company is in the middle, connecting games and terminals up and down; the terminal products are dominant, and the industry circle is built around the hardware; the game developers are packaged from start to finish; the distributors control the final link.
Some industry sources stated that there is currently no sustainable business model in the field of Android TV games. "There will be more vendors launching Android game consoles to try to gain a lead in the machine, but no company can really meet the demand for living room entertainment, so it is difficult to last." The industry believes that the only possible way to break through is cloud gaming, which means getting After the copyright, the host game is quickly "moved onto" the Android TV game box, but at the same time it needs to solve the problems of the network and the back-end server.
At the same time, the decompression of policies has created new opportunities for practitioners. Wang Hao believes that “the strict control of past policies is a good news for the current industryâ€. The reason is that vicious competition can be avoided. In his opinion, overseas game consoles entering the Chinese market also have many disadvantages in terms of price, number of games, and charging models, and the adjustment of operators will make them compete with Android video game consoles and box products in the same field. Compared to the latter, it will have advantages.
Although the front road is not clear, the rapid occupation of market gaps and the rapid launch of products may be the only concern of all parties in the market. The forerunners of domestic Android game consoles such as ZTE NINETOWNS have decided to start rapid expansion and increase the overall market operation plan. For some time in the past, the bully and Alibaba TVOS teamed up to create a somatosensory home console, Huawei launched the Tron Android game console, and TCL announced its entry into the video game industry.
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