Forgame Fully Upgrades Its Game Business
Embarking on a New Venture into VR Game with “Player No.1”
Embarking on a New Venture into VR Game with “Player No.1”
Publish Date:2019-07-02 source:Forgame
(Hong Kong, July 2, 2019) －Forgame Holdings Limited ("Forgame" or the "Group") (stock code: 00484.HK), a leading Chinese game developer and publisher today announced the acquisition of a 69.84% stake in Beijing Xigua Huyu Technology Co., Ltd (“Xigua Huyu”) for RMB150 million. This merger represents that Forgame fully upgrades its game business and ventures into the virtual reality game industry. By venturing into large-space VR stores under its “Player No. 1”, Forgame is expanding its game business from online to offline revenues. Forgame hopes to capture the boundless potential of new entertainment formats and gain first-mover advantage into the emerging VR gaming market.
“VR+” 2019 Global VR E-sports Eco Conference & Strategy Press Conference was held on June 28 at Beijing Wanda Vista Hotel. As conference hosts, Forgame and “Player No.1” gathered a host of strategic industry partners with high-quality contents, in order to further promote mutual cooperation, drive technology integration and boost development of the virtual reality ecosystem.
A new venture into VR game, fully upgrading game business
Forgame has officially launched the “VR One” program at the conference. This program is in partnership with “Player No.1” who will provide hardware manufacturers with online and offline product experiencing and selling platforms. “Player No.1” will also produce customized IP contents catering to different age groups and build a VR content distribution platform together with other leading content providers to protect the benefits of original game creators. In addition, it will collaborate with content providers and e-sports alliances to co-organize VR e-sports competitions.
Win-win situation, business synergies and a new VR ecosystem
Founded in 2015, Xigua Huyu is a leading Chinese VR game company of large-space VR R&D and operation. “Player No.1”, the VR brand under Xigua Huyu, features large-space real-time interactive VR game products for multiplayers. These VR games are based on self-developed IMPS (Infinite Multi-Target Positioning System) and VR technology. Contrary to the ordinary VR experience, large-space VR games are unconstrained by data lines and space barriers which provides players with a greater degree of immersion and interactivity.
At present,“Player No.1” has nearly 100 VR experience stores in operation and in preparation with each location having a retail footprint between 150 to 200 square meters. These VR stores can be found across tier 1-5 cities in China including Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Chongqing. The number of “Player No.1” stores is expected to exceed 350 by late 2019, and reach several thousand in 2-3 years.
In terms of content, 6 VR games are now available at“Player No.1” stores including a large-space PVP game Death Fire, multiplayer co-op PVE games Red Sea, Breathe Until We Die, Zombies Repair, and Sword and Magic, together with a newly launched room escape game Murder on the Sea Express (TBD).
At present, customers of “Player No.1” stores are mostly youngsters. Players aged 20 to 35 account for approximately 90% of the total customer base. Male players account for 55% and female for 45%. As “Player No.1’s” existing six games are more suitable for male players, “Player No.1” will develop more game products to cater to female player demand, as well as high-quality content for family interaction and children's entertainment to cover a wider audience. In the future, “Player No.1” plans to become a new retail experience center through expanding its VR business into new areas such as film and television, education and e-sports competition in addition to the large-space VR games.
Established in 2009 and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since 2013, Forgame Holdings Limited is a leading cloud-based games developer and publisher. Forgame’s latest acquisition of the VR technology company helps to upgrade and supplement its existing game business, especially under the pressure from squeezed profit margins of web games. Mr. Wang commented, “The large-space VR interactive entertainment solution of ‘Player No.1’ now allows cross-store networked battles in ultra-large spaces. China’s VR market is still an emerging market. This is why a VR company with extensive capabilities in hardware development, distribution and content development, as well as a viable business model, is very valuable to us.” Mr. Wang reinforced his confidence in Xigua Huyu and explained the reasons behind his commitment and vigorous promotion of “Player No.1”.
The strategic alliance between Forgame and Xigua Huyu will elevate the business and cement their leadership within the game industry. These two partners are ready to tap into their highly overlapped user base and connect better with gamers by developing an O2O game market. To achieve this, the partners will launch a foray into their service and value chain operations. For Forgame, continuous investment into the game market will unleash new opportunities and facilitate the successful integration of its existing business. With greater synergies from this merger, the company will create new growth opportunities.
A bright future powered by first-mover advantage
Over the past decades, console games, web games and mobile games have taken over the game industry by turns. Soon, we are heading into an era of VR-dominated immersive gaming technology. Compared to traditional gaming, VR games entertain with a more immersive experience and real-time interaction. As 5G networks start to roll out, VR application is expected to grow in popularity. According to statistics from IDC, it is estimated that there will be over 1 billion person-times to experience VR products as of 2023.
By collaborating with various strategic partners, “Player No.1” will further promote the improvement of game contents and R&D efficiency in the VR industry. With future rollout of phenomenal products, VR games will be popularized rapidly and trigger a new round of boom in the market with further integration of mobile games. In the future, the VR ecosystem could be integrated into a new platform for customers to consume “e-sports IP + content + scenario”.
Looking back on Forgame’s development milestones, success has been attributed to the company’s ability to keep a close watch on new Internet advances and in gaming technologies since its inception. Since the early days of VR technology, Forgame has actively deployed its VR business to gain first-mover advantage. The company has set its sights far to capture the boundless potential of new entertainment formats, awaiting the future explosive growth in the industry.
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About Forgame Holdings Limited (stock code: 484)
Established in 2009, Forgame Holdings Limited is a well-known developer and publisher of cloud-based games in China. In 2012, Forgame ranked first in net revenue among Chinese web game developers, accounting for 24% of the market. Its self-operated web game publishing platform 91wan has published hundreds of self and third-party developed web games, with more than 220 million registered users. On October 3, 2013, Forgame was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with stock code 00484.HK. In 2019, Forgame acquired Beijing Xigua Huyu Technology Co., Ltd and launched the brand “Player No.1”. The company started to explore the virtual reality (VR) game business, aiming to create a new way for customers to consume “IP + content + scenario”.