Android game box positioning awkward, business model is exploring

Spring Festival holiday is always the day of the carnival, the most popular way of leisure games also suddenly glow new luster. In previous years, most people are holding their own mobile phones to play games, and as the game host in the domestic market gradually lifted, as well as the rapid development of smart TV and box, the family in the living room playing video games has become a new trend.

In China's game host market, policy is often the first factor determining enterprise risk. But when the government opens the door, the product and content are the determinants of the success of the participants.

Earlier this year, the State Council issued a permit for foreign-owned enterprises in the country to engage in equipment production and sales of game equipment, the release of more previously uncultivated market space, this is expected to promote the game host market maturity. In the previous year, the State Department had just ended a 13-year ban on games consoles, with Microsoft Xbox and Sony PS playing host to the Chinese market.

ZTE Nine City Coo Wang Hao told Tencent technology, the Chinese family to television this screen of the desire for the release of policy, which will start a new billion, or even hundreds of billions of markets.

Some domestic manufacturers have adopted the strategy of overtaking the corners, and have launched a video game host or box based on Android, hoping to fill the gap quickly with the rich content of the existing Android apps.

Small overlord and Ali tvOS together to create a sense of home game machine, Huawei launched Tron Android game host, Tcl announced into the video game industry.

However, the game industry executives told Tencent Technology, "Android game box positioning is more embarrassing."

Unclear positioning

Because of the policy control of video content, the video content of intelligent TV and box is difficult to break through new attempt. Therefore, in front of the domestic manufacturers of the development path mainly includes education market and game market, sports because of too small, short-term difficult to break through.

and the education market because of the excessive vertical industry chain, and the content of the professional strong, so enter a certain threshold. In contrast, the game market has been in the gray area for policy reasons, but it has accumulated a certain user, with the market opening, its development relatively fast.

However, the domestic game host market players on the quality of the game is very high requirements, and the Android game box is difficult to meet their needs. As a result, the Android box is primarily aimed at low-end users.

But a number of people in the industry are not optimistic about the outlook for this form. Industry analysts say it is now basically translating mobile games into televisions, which can never create real market value.

The industrial chain is difficult to sound

From a hardware standpoint, the Android game box is more performance than a regular TV set-top box. However, according to the current chip speed, some industry insiders believe that its performance in 2016 years to catch up with PS3, Sony this product was released 10 ago, its latest generation of products PS4 has been on the market for one year.

And the inherent adaptation of Android smartphones also exists in the Android game box. Game developers have told Tencent technology, because of the different game boxes on Android, the use of the chip is not the same, which led to the game developers the cost of adaptation is very high, and experience is not good.

Not only that, the Android version of the problem is also affecting the progress of game development.

Industry analysts said that, unlike the rapid popularity of smartphones, the game host market is still in the early stages of development, so the market is still very limited, which leads to a relative increase in the cost of matching.

For the game content itself, because of the same lack of support of large companies, small companies can not have the ability to support the market independently.

"Users don't need to churn out or play games that don't match, and now the Android game box doesn't offer better service," said the analyst.

Business model is being explored

However, in some industries, the biggest problem with the development of Android video games is that the industry has yet to find the best business model.

From the current point of view, the game host market has four kinds of models: Operating companies in the middle, up and down connected games and terminals;

Industry insiders say there is no sustainable business model in the area of Android video gaming. "There will be more manufacturers to launch the Android game host to try to occupy the opportunity to profit, but no company can really meet the needs of living room entertainment, so it is difficult to last." ”

The industry believes that the only possible breakthrough is the cloud game, the acquisition of copyright immediately after the host game "moved to" the Android video game box, but also need to solve the network and back-end server problems.

At the same time, the policy of decompression let practitioners feel new opportunities, Wang Hao that "the past policy of the current strict industry is a good news", the reason is to avoid vicious competition.

In his view, the overseas game host enters the Chinese market from the price, the game quantity and the charging model also has many disadvantages, and the operator's adjustment will make it competes with the Android video game host and the box class product in the same domain, compared to the latter will have the advantage.

Although the road ahead is not clear, but the rapid occupation of market gaps, the rapid introduction of products, this may be the market parties are currently the only concern.

ZTE's nine cities and other domestic Android game host has decided to start rapid expansion, increase market overall business plan. In the past some time, small overlord and Ali tvOS together to create a sense of home game consoles, Huawei launched Tron Android game host, Tcl announced into the video game industry.