Chinese developers have announced a boycott of Huawei and Xiaomi stores due to high commission

Before the release in China, the creators of mobile games Genshin Impact and Rise of Kingdoms removed their projects from local Android stores, which belong to smartphone manufacturers. Developers are protesting against the high commission, which is 50%.What happened and why?

Last Friday, the companies miHoYo (Genshin Impact) and Lilith Games (Rise of Kingdoms) announced that their games will not be available in Huawei and Xiaomi stores, as well as in Vivo and Oppo app stores.

This is reported by the South China Morning Post.

The main claim of the developers is the 50% commission charged by these stores. For comparison, Google Play, banned in China, charges 30%. The same applies to the App Store, which is officially available in China.

A year ago, the stores of the mentioned manufacturers accounted for a total of 34% of the entire Android market in China. Abandoning this market share will obviously seriously reduce the potential revenue of games in their native region.

However, against the background of stricter regulation of the sector in China, as well as success in Western markets, local companies seem to be starting their crusade against local manufacturers who are not ready to value partners and change under new conditions.

“The refusal of Genshin Impact and Rise of Kingdoms to cooperate with the main Android distributors indicates that the evil mantra “distribution rules everything” is becoming untenable. In fact, the gaming industry has moved into an era when quality content rules everything,” says Pei Pei, analyst at Sinolink Securities.

Are they afraid for the fate of these games in China?There are more than 300 Android stores in China with different conditions, as well as the App Store works quite legally, so Lilith Games and miHoYo definitely have a choice.

And they use it.

For example, Rise of Kingdoms — in addition to iOS and the official website — since last Wednesday can be found on TapTap, which belongs to X.D. Network Inc. and does not charge a commission, as well as on 9Game, owned by Alibaba and charging the same 50% (publishers are either not completely consistent, or were able to agree on special conditions).

At the same time, Rise of Kingdoms, which was released outside China in 2018, has already shown a good start in China. The Lilith Games project became the fifth in the list of the fastest growing iOS games in the country.

Genshin Impact, on the one hand, can count on a successful global launch — even before the release, which took place on September 28, the game attracted over 18 million pre-registered users worldwide. On the other hand, it is unknown how much the withdrawal from the aforementioned stores will affect the popularity of the miHoYo project in China.

Also on the topic:

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• Niko Partners: There are 720 million gamers in China, two-thirds of whom live outside major cities
• Is there any news?