From August 21 to 23, the 2024 Zhejiang Service Trade (Cologne) International Game Exhibition, organized by the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Commerce, was successfully held at the Cologne International Exhibition Center in Germany.
The exhibition was held in the form of an exhibition-within-an-exhibition, leveraging the 2024 Gamescom (the German Games Industry Exhibition) in Cologne. Gamescom is the largest comprehensive business exhibition and interactive game and entertainment exhibition in Europe, and is also the only large-scale international exhibition in Germany that concentrates game software, hardware, entertainment equipment, information software and equipment. The total exhibition area reached 230,000 square meters, with more than 1,400 companies from 64 countries and regions including China, Japan, South Korea, Italy, the United States, Dubai, and Brazil participating, and about 350,000 visitors attending.
In recent years, more and more Chinese game companies have participated in this industry event, attracting a large number of European and American players with high-quality game graphics and artistic design. The Black Myth: Wukong, which is hailed as China’s first 3A masterpiece, was even enthusiastically pursued by global players at the 2023 Cologne Game Exhibition, winning the Best Visual Effect Award of that session. Through diverse scenes and high-quality music, not only can high-quality game products be promoted to the overseas market, but unique Chinese cultural elements can also be used to attract fans.
The 2024 Zhejiang Service Trade (Cologne) International Game Exhibition focused on organizing 12 Zhejiang companies to participate, including NetEase (Hangzhou) Network Co., Ltd., Intoillusion (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd., Anji Flowing Cloud Co., Ltd., Zhejiang Wizard Games Co., Ltd., Shaoxing Weilanyunshu Culture Media Co., Ltd. and Hangzhou Xingfan Advertising Media Co., Ltd. The exhibits covered PC games, mobile games, AR/VR platforms, game controllers, video game consoles, and anime IPs, comprehensively and multi-dimensionally showcasing the overall image and characteristic achievements of Zhejiang’s game and animation culture industry.
During the exhibition, Zhejiang companies displayed their latest game products and technologies, attracting the attention of many domestic and foreign audiences and buyers. Among them, the self-developed Chinese martial arts open-world game The Sixteen Sounds of the Yanyun brought by Hangzhou NetEase Leihuo Technology Co., Ltd., which for the first time focuses on the scarce historical facts of the “Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms” period, providing an adventure in an unrestricted chaotic world and creating a brand-new virtual world for global users, won wide acclaim from the on-site audience for its exquisite graphics and unique gameplay. Intoillusion (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd. also exhibited its self-developed IP system “Nine Lands Fantasy”, attracting many on-site players with its combination of adventure RPG and random card battle gameplay. Anji Flowing Cloud Co., Ltd. brought its self-developed AR/VR equipment, allowing the audience to personally experience the immersive gaming experience brought by virtual reality. Hangzhou Xingfan Advertising Media Co., Ltd. exhibited its global creative game publishing brand Erabit, which has currently published nearly 10 PC and mobile games from global developers such as 20 Minutes Till Dawn, Brotato and Meta-Ghost: The Breaking Show, and has received good reviews on platforms like Steam and Google Play. Shaoxing Weilanyunshu Culture Media Co., Ltd. brought several original Chinese animation IPs such as Lucky Cat and Happy Fish, Tiny Little Gods and Qi Huan Shui Jing Jing, seeking cross-industry cooperation in the entertainment industry.
Major game companies at home and abroad such as Microsoft, Capcom, Sega, Bandai Namco, Ubisoft, Nexon, Konami, 2K Games, Sber Interactive, Tencent, Seasun, Mihoyo, and S-game all participated in this exhibition. The event concentrated a large number of online and offline media and KOL resources, attracting the potential attention of tens of millions of global game users. The exhibition set up a business negotiation area. Leveraging the online B2B platform of the Cologne Game Exhibition, through pre-match screening, overseas famous game companies, veteran users, game media representatives and other representatives were invited to have one-on-one offline negotiations and exchanges with Zhejiang companies, laying a good foundation for future cooperation.
The successful holding of the 2024 Zhejiang Service Trade (Cologne) International Game Exhibition not only provided Zhejiang game companies with opportunities to showcase their strengths and expand into the international market, but also demonstrated the development achievements of our province’s digital service trade, enhancing the international visibility of Zhejiang’s game industry.
