At present, the game industry, as one of the pillar industries of the world's major economies, is being re-recognized by driving technological iteration, promoting technological innovation, empowering cultural dissemination and other value advantages. On December 14, the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association and the Industrial Culture Development Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly released the report "Super Digital Scene Source Power - Research on Game Technology and Innovation Application", which measured the contribution rate of game technology to cross-industry scientific and technological progress in 2022, of which the contribution rate of game technology to the scientific and technological progress of chips, AI, cloud computing, mobile phones and other industries reached respectively. 76%。From the perspective of revenue and user growth, the game industry also hit a new high this year, with revenue exceeding the 300 billion yuan mark for the first time, and the user scale reaching 66.8 billion people.
China attaches great importance to the development of the digital economy, which is a strategic choice to grasp the new opportunities of the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation. With the continuous breakthrough of key technologies such as artificial intelligence, as an important part of the digital economy, the essential attributes of the game industry have been re-recognized in recent years. Ao Ran, executive vice president and secretary general of the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association, said. It is worth mentioning that because of the diversity of the game ecology and the resource cohesion of the upstream and downstream industry chains, many new opportunities and possibilities are emerging in the game extension industry. Relying on the service industry derived from the game industry - "game play", it is currently driving new consumption and new employment in the development of the digital economy, and has attracted attention from all walks of life with a market size of 10 billion yuan.
A new path to play with the game
The development path of game companion play is similar to that of the game industry itself. With the rapid digitalization of the global economy, the international field is paying more attention to and investing in the game industry, and the game industry has become more strategic. From the passage of the Game Act by the European Parliament to the domestic mainstream ** call for innovative cognition to re-evaluate the value of games, games have long been more than games, and have become an important part of the technology industry chain, the competition for cultural discourse and even international competition.
The same goes for game companions. More importantly, as a game service industry, game companionship can broaden the boundaries of game value, drive new consumption, promote the spread of game culture, and drive the exploration and release of social values such as new employment in the game derivative industry, and actively promote the high-quality development of the game ecology to a certain extent.
According to the data, the industry scale of China's game skills social networking and companionship in 2020 will be about 26.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 52%. According to the report of Huajing Industry Research Institute, more than 50% of users in China's companion industry spend more than 200 yuan per month in the field of companion play, and the per capita consumption reaches 4536 yuan per month. According to iResearch's statistics, in 2021, the domestic game companion market will exceed 14 billion yuan, making it the fourth track in the e-sports industry in addition to games, live broadcasts, and events. Judging from the development trend, game companionship is bound to be a rigid demand of users. Whether we can grasp the upward trend and develop long-term norms has become the key.
At present, the supervision of platforms and the self-management of enterprises are being strengthened, and industry associations and participating platforms are also working together to clarify and formulate industry standards, so as to promote the standardized development of the game companion industry by improving the professional level of practitioners. It is understood that the E-sports Branch of China Communications Industry Association has issued the "Announcement on the Standards of Game Companion Practitioner Groups", which clearly stipulates the professional guidelines for game companions as a formal profession, and launches the "Game Vocational Skills Recognition Platform", through which professional certificates can be obtained. At the end of May last year, the association held the "'Game Service Professional' Vocational Skills Group Standard Final Review Meeting" to standardize the behavior of practitioners and provide a scientific basis for vocational skill recognition.
Play with the game to release social value
For the gaming industry, the power of social value should not be underestimated. Recently, the British gaming association UKIE and FTI released a report focusing on the economic impact of game technology spillovers, which shows that in 2021, the spillover effect of game technology in the UK created 1.3 billion pounds of output, contributing 7.0 billion to GDP£600 million. The gaming tech spillover supports 9,900 jobs in the UK.
As a new form of service in the downstream service industry of the game industry, game companion play can also be regarded as the value embodiment of the spillover of the game industry. The more intuitive manifestation is to drive the new consumption and flexible new employment of the young people of the digital indigenous generation. A game industry expert further explained that taking the development of overseas game companions as a reference, such as Japan, game companions are a formal profession that requires a high level of gaming skills and a good service attitude to meet the needs of different players. On some overseas game companion platforms, the average monthly income of the companion can reach 300 US dollars, and the income level is equivalent to that of ordinary blue-collar workers in Indonesia, and the head companion may even earn thousands of US dollars per month.
In terms of employment, People's Daily Online once commented that game play is a new occupation under the new business model of the platform economy, and this new employment model of "platform individual" provides new employment opportunities for people with different skills at all levels. As a new form of employment, games have become an important channel for workers to increase their employment and income. Statistics show that there are currently more than one million people in the game companion industry, and the monthly income can reach more than 3,000 yuan just by relying on part-time game companionship. It can be said that "game play" is playing an important role in driving workers' income, flexible employment, and high-quality employment, and is one of the forces that truly participate in driving employment and improving people's livelihood.