At this year's ChinaJoy, we've summarized 9 interesting things.
Text by Liu Shiwu and Guo Fu
Exhibition Exploration | 36Kr Games
Since 2004, the China International Digital Interactive Entertainment Exhibition (ChinaJoy) has been held for 22 sessions.
Many people who come to ChinaJoy would sigh that it's "not as good as before". Some players, after attending the BW or other exhibitions, won't come to ChinaJoy again. However, it cannot be denied that as one of the most established and professional interactive entertainment exhibitions in China, it makes sense that ChinaJoy has remained popular through the ups and downs of the gaming industry.
This year's ChinaJoy was still very popular. For example, at the Sony booth in Hall N1, you might have to wait in line for nearly two hours to play "Shadow Blade Zero". To get a close look at well - known Korean Cosers, you need to arrive early and wait in front of the booth. Even to buy Blizzard's merchandise, you have to wait in line in advance to get the purchase qualification...
Since 36Kr Games participated in the "AI + Entertainment Technology Conference" held during the exhibition as a strategic cooperation media and was deeply involved in the "ChinaJoy AIGC Conference", we only had a chance to fully experience the fun at the exhibition site in the last two days of the event. Here, we've summarized 9 interesting and share - worthy new things at ChinaJoy.
1. After the Korean Coser's Success, ChinaJoy Invited More
At the BW2025 exhibition a month ago, Yasal (야살), a Korean Coser and 2D blogger, was invited to support the booth of "Brown Dust 2" developed by the Korean game company Neowiz. This instantly caused a sensation in the domestic COS circle, and Yasal quickly opened an account on Bilibili. As of now, Yasal has over 1.7 million followers on Bilibili.
At this year's ChinaJoy, Yasal, along with two other Korean Coser partners, attended again and planned to participate in events related to popular products such as "League of Legends" and "DNF".
Yasal
Of course, there are also many excellent domestic Cosers. For example, the Cosers invited by the Lilith booth were as "high - quality" as ever, easily leaving a deep impression on people.
Lilith Booth
2. The Dark Horse "Red Desert"
"Red Desert" set up the same trial - play content at ChinaJoy as it did at BW, which was 4 boss battles. At the official invitation, we also had an additional experience of a different content - a key level related to the main plot. Besides battles with bosses and elite monsters, it also included large - scale battlefields, plot progression, and exploration of the large map.
The prequel of "Red Desert", "Black Desert", is an online game. It was rumored that Tencent would act as its agent when it was launched, but the game never entered the domestic market. Judging from the current quality, "Red Desert", which uses the self - developed Black Spaces engine, will most likely become a dark - horse product that surprises everyone.
36Kr Games Tries Out "Red Desert"
3. Mihoyo and Bilibili Didn't Attend This Time
In previous years, Mihoyo participated in ChinaJoy with single products. For example, last year it exhibited "Undawn", and the year before last, it showed "Honkai: Star Rail".
I remember that the year before last, when we entered the venue early, there weren't many players in many halls, but the booth of "Honkai: Star Rail" was already crowded. The related freebies were all given away in the morning. For Mihoyo, since there are no new products launched this year and it will hold its own offline events, it's understandable that it didn't participate in this year's CJ.
In contrast, Bilibili's BW exhibition has become quite mature. The BW2025 exhibition a month ago was extremely popular. Since Bilibili Games has mainly focused on distributing small and medium - sized games in recent years, it has moved its main focus to its own event. At the ChinaJoy site, the only thing that might remind you of Mihoyo is this giant Bumbu.
It Attracted Countless People to Stop and Take Photos
4. The Crowded Sony Booth
"Shadow Blade Zero" didn't participate in BW before and held its own offline trial - play event. At the CJ site, there was a trial - play experience of "Shadow Blade Zero" at the Sony PlayStation booth. Since the Sony booth is right at the entrance of Hall N1, the trial - play queue was crowded from the moment the venue opened. It was normal to wait for two or three hours to have a try.
PlayStation Booth
5. The Trial - Play Booth of "Late Ming Dynasty: Feathers of the Abyss"
"Late Ming Dynasty: Feathers of the Abyss" set up a trial - play experience area with 30 computers on - site, and the overall area was quite large. However, the Lingze Mao team wasn't deeply involved in this exhibition. Besides displaying the logos of the developer Lingze Technology and the publisher 505 Games, the logos of the service operator Baijiahe and the Game Catalyst Bureau also appeared (the name of the domestic publisher Bilibili didn't appear).
6. The Traditional Approach of Established Manufacturers Is Straightforward and Effective
Established game and hardware manufacturers still stick to the traditional "big stage" + "Showgirl catwalk" package. It has to be said that even if the game - related content isn't very rich or eye - catching, and sometimes there aren't many people stopping when the Coser introduces new game characters, as soon as it's time for the catwalk, people will immediately raise their cameras and phones. At the Giant Network booth, after the catwalk, the host didn't forget to lead the audience to cheer "Giant Network, Super Awesome" while there were still many people around.
Giant Network Booth
On the other hand, there were also many interesting activities during the exhibition. On the second day of the exhibition, a staff member holding a sign for the trial play of "Planet: Reboot" walked around in Hall N2 for promotion, and there was always a baby dragon behind him.
The Baby Dragon!
7. Tencent Games Remained Extremely Popular
This year, Tencent occupied most of Hall N4, setting up activity and rest areas. Products such as "Valorant", "Valorant Mobile", "Dungeon & Fighter", and "Rune Wars" all took up a large area.
The number of visitors in Hall N4 far exceeded that of other halls. Soon after the venue opened, it started to restrict entry, allowing only people to leave. To ensure the flow of visitors, security guards even joined hands to form a human wall to separate Tencent Games' booth from those of other companies. If you were inside, you could only struggle in the crowd.
The Venue Often Allowed Only Exit
8. Phil Spencer Came to the CJ Site
During the event, Phil Spencer, the CEO of Microsoft, came to the site and tried out NetEase's "Destiny: The Stars".
Spencer and Xbox Attach Great Importance to the Chinese Market
Considering the overall trend, this also shows that ChinaJoy's influence overseas is constantly expanding. There were obviously more foreign faces at this year's event than in the past. Even if you turned on the TV at night during the event, you could see CGTN reporting on the ChinaJoy site. If we look back half a month, there were many other examples - Sony increased its business investment in China, and Hideo Kojima came to Shanghai during the BW exhibition.
9. More Hardware Products Focus on Technology and Companionship
Products like "Her from the Other Side" are becoming more and more popular. "Whispers from the star" launched by Anuttacon founded by Cai Haoyu will soon be available on the Steam platform. In addition to software, many manufacturers seem to be developing new products with technological features in the direction of both software and hardware.
For example, at the booth of Shuban Technology, we experienced an AI - companion hardware product. This product can achieve functions such as perspective tracking, character customization, voice dialogue, and touch interaction. It uses AI to drive a 2D girl to perform actions like greeting and dancing in the virtual space.
36Kr Games' Trial - Play Shoot
Moreover, at another booth, a company exhibited AI - driven "robot dolls". These dolls' dance performances attracted many visitors to stop and watch.
Some on - site players said it was "a bit abstract"
The established game live - streaming platform Huya also launched a robot called "Huya i Super Body". This is a desktop - level smart robot jointly developed by Huya and Yingzhi Technology, based on the e - sports team IP. Besides providing real - time game strategy guidance, including hero positioning, minimap vision prompts, and equipment selection suggestions, it can also follow up on event dynamics, version updates, and expert strategies through the cloud - based intelligent tracking system.
Huya Is Also Exploring AI Smart Hardware
CreateAI, a subsidiary of the autonomous driving company TuSimple, finally launched its first product - a game centered around the IP of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes". According to the official introduction, this game is developed using UE5 and will restore classic characters and more than a hundred classic scenes from Jin Yong's works. At the event site, character design drawings of Zhou Zhiruo, Huang Yaoshi, etc. were also shared.
Incidentally, CreateAI also showcased two other products at the site: "Breath of You", an immersive AI virtual character companionship product for female users, and ACG Fans, a community for creating and sharing 2D cultural content.
It seems that they are really going to make a big splash in the gaming industry this time.
