Comment & Opinion

Taipei Game Show 2017 celebrates 15th anniversary in January with developers and publishers from 25 countries

A look ahead to the Asia-Pacific games industry event

Taipei Game Show 2017 celebrates 15th anniversary in January with developers and publishers from 25 countries

Taipei Computer Association (TCA) recently announced that Taipei Game Show, which will be celebrating its 15th anniversary, will take place from January 19th to 24th, 2017.

In the announcement, it revealed the new year theme “In the Game, To the World,” and unveiled the scale of the business area, the “B2B Zone”, and the entertaining area, the “B2C Area”. Publishers such as Bandai Namco, Konami, PlayStation and Ubisoft are among the exhibitor list.

Though the event is yet to take place until January 19th, the virtual interaction of the “B2B Zone” has been highly active. Since the biz-matching system online, over 500 business meeting invitations were sent out from the trade visitors and exhibitors.

With the increasing worldwide attention to the Asia-Pacific games market, the organiser predicts the degree of business matching will reach a new high this year, and expects over 1,000 business sessions to be held in the two-day event.

According to a Newzoo report, 58% of the growth of global games market in 2016 came from Asia-Pacific region. The top five countries in terms of revenue include China, Japan and South Korea, while Taiwan ranks 15th globally with revenue of $980M.

This shows that the APAC game market should not be ignored.

Asia Pacific Game Summit: 5 Themes with the Focus of New VR Applications
(Period: Jan. 19th - 20th, 2107)

The conference Asia Pacific Game Summit (APGS) will take place in Taipei at the same time with the “B2B Zone”. In earlier this year, APGS was held overseas for the first time in Kaihin-Makuhari, Tokyo, with industrial professionals sharing insights to Taiwanese market operation, attracting lots of attention from the Japanese games industry.

APGS will cover five major fields: industrial trends, marketing and promotion, indie games, VR, and game development and design. Heavyweight speakers are invited to share their stories.

HTC Vice President Raymond Pao will reveal HTC Vive application in VR technology, and Facebook Client Solution Manager Curren Seow will deliver keys to gamer loyalty building and management through live streaming platform.

B2B Zone & Indie Game Festa: Taiwan— The Gateway of Asian Market
(Period: Jan. 19th - 20th, 2017)

The “B2B Zone” focuses on business matching and game IPs trading. On January 19th to the 20th, 213 games companies and teams from 25 countries will gather in Taipei to participate in the exhibition.

In addition to the local companies, overseas game developers, publishers, third-party payment companies, and advertising platforms will also showcase at the “B2B Zone”, including FOVE, Cyber Z, Silent Bark and Jeonnam Global Game Center.

To enhance the internationality, Taipei Game Show partners with various global exhibitions, such as “Level Up KL” in Malaysia, “Electronic Sports and Gaming Summit(ESGS)” in Philippines, “GameStart Asia” in Singapore, and “Busan Indie Connect Festival” in South Korea. These event organisers will participate in the Taipei Game Show 2017, in the hope of fostering international gaming industry communication.

Further, since the “Trade Visitor Pre-registration" went online, trade visitors from Europe, America, Southeast and Northeast Asia have reserved their visits to Taipei Game Show 2017, including representatives from 4:33, 6 Waves, Bandai Namco, DMM, Electronic Arts, NCSOFT and Tencent.

The “B2B Zone” will last for two days, and it's estimated it will facilitate over 1,000 sessions of business matching.

B2C Area: Exhibitor Lineup Reveals
(Period: Jan. 20th - 24th, 2017)

With the record-breaking 450,000 public visits in previous year, the number of participating companies in the “B2C Area” has risen sharply. For the 2017 edition, confirmed exhibitor lineup includes PlayStation, Bandai Namco Taiwan Ltd., SEGA Games, Ubisoft, KONAMI, mixi, Gravity, Google Play, and HTC Vive.

In January, players will be able to enjoy online games, mobile games, console games, VR games and live streaming events brought by over 50 game companies at the “B2C Area”.

Besides, as a means to show appreciation to online players’ support to Taipei Game Show, the organiser will partner with the live streaming video platform, Twitch, to broadcast the program “TGS live” together in both English and Chinese versions.

In Asia Pacific game market, Taiwan players are known for high acceptance to multiplatform games from various cultural backgrounds, reflecting the free competition and liberal market of Taiwan.

The lineup of “B2C Area” exactly corresponds to this phenomenon. And according to the report by MIC, the revenue of Taiwan game market reached $42B NTD in 2015, among which mobile games accounts for the largest part at $24.3B NTD.

The high market penetration rate in e-sport and smartphone devices results to the driving growth of the whole market, and it is estimated that the Taiwan game market revenue will reach $53B NTD by 2019.

Taipei Game Show 2017 Information

B2B Zone & Indie Game Festa
Target Audience: game industry professionals
Date: January 19th - 20th, 2017
Venue: 2F, Hall 1, TWTC
[Link: Official website, Trade visitor pre-registration]

B2C Area
Target Audience: players and general public
Date: January 20th - 24th, 2017
Venue: 1F, Hall 1, TWTC
[Link: Official website]

Asia Pacific Game Summit
Target Audience: game industry professionals, students, academics
Date: January 19th - 20th, 2017
Venue: 2F, Hall 1, TWTC
[Link: Official website]

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