With King's IPO making headlines, there were strong words during an investment panel at the GMGC 2014 in Beijing.

Chinese publisher Ourpalm floated on Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2012, and has leveraged that listing spending over $600 million in 2013, acquiring developers Playcrab, Shang Game and Dovo.

The company's VP Jia He reckons Chinese financial sentiment is changing faster.

Talking through a translator he said, "If you want to list your mobile games company in China, do it in the next six months.

"The market is cooling. 2015 will be more risky. If you can't list in 2014, I think you need to look at M&A instead."

Every which way...

His remarks came the Chinese games industry experiences opposing currents in terms of financing. Many mobile companies listed in 2013, with other such as LineKong planning on doing so.

However, some of the big floated PC publishers are considering going private. Giant Interactive has recently been bought back from its US listing, while Shanda Games is considering a buyback proposal led by its chairman.

The problem, according to Singtel Innov8 MD William Bao Bean is that game companies, especially mobile game companies don't scale well.

"One success doesn't lead to another success. I'm not smart enough to pick the developer that will have more than one hit," he said. "I prefer to invest in platforms."

Feng Deng, chairman of Northern Light Venture Capital, was more positive on investing in games, but he cautioned you need to spread the risk.

"We gamble on the probability of success. You need a portfolio," he said, adding, "We're more interested in the team. Don't just invest in content development."