Pathea Games: Leading Chongqing's Game Industry to the World

Chongqing- Pathea Games is a key national cultural export enterprise in Chongqing. In recent years, their games, such as My Time at Portia, have been well received by domestic and foreign players for their excellent art style and content production. The total global sales volume has exceeded 2 million copies, with revenue in the millions of dollars.

A cultural background for the universal worldview

Established in 2012, Pathea Games is relatively well-known in the domestic and international markets. The company's founder, Wu Zifei, went to school in the United States and lived there for many years. At that time, he wanted to prove that Chinese people could also develop games that make players worldwide feel good.

Deng Yongjin, vice president of Pathea Games, accepted iChongqing's interview. (iChongqing/ Wang Yiling)

"In our products, we will strive to create a cultural background that humans can understand all over the world," said Deng Yongjin, vice president of Pathea Games. "In addition, our company employs many foreign employees, and they know how to integrate the culture in a way foreigners can understand into game products. From a market perspective, they also know how these foreign players usually receive information, so our products can be pushed to more players worldwide."

Deng Yongjin is discussing new game writing with the foreign employees of Pathea Games. (iChongqing/ Wang Yiling)

Saving 2-3 months to speed up the release date

In 2021, Chongqing became the only comprehensive pilot city in the central and western regions to expand the service industry and stimulate new momentum for greater openness. "Setting up a pilot review mechanism for gaming content on local networks" was a project launched by the Chongqing Yuzhong District to develop the game industry. The review of game content is the key factor in whether a game can quickly get approval and release.

Chongqing Yuzhong District set up a pilot review mechanism for gaming content on local networks. (iChongqing file photo)

When this pilot is approved and implemented, it can save at least two to three months in the game research and development process, greatly reducing the pressure on enterprise funds and product launch. "By then, not only Chinese companies but also foreign game producers will be willing to enter the Chinese market and come to Chongqing so that their products can be launched quickly," said Deng.

Strong Support from the local government 

Talking about the overall business environment in Chongqing, Deng said that Chongqing is getting better and better. First of all, the education quality in Chongqing is improving. Now all universities in Chongqing have an open mind to operating schools, which means more talents will emerge. Professional talents are an essential foundation for enterprises, especially for the creative game industry.

The second point is that the Chongqing government has attached great importance to the game industry in recent years. The more the government pays attention to one sector, the more supportive policies will be given to this industry, and enterprises will also get more opportunities for market promotion and policies.

In recent years, Chongqing has seen the emergence of many other globally well-known game companies. More practitioners are willing to join these companies to create excellent products jointly when there are increasing excellent companies in a city. From this level, the development atmosphere of games in Chongqing is vastly improving.

(Yan Jundan, Liu Jingjing and Ge Rongchen as interns, also contributed to this report.)