It Takes Two's themes of family, love and divorce might have resonated with Chinese audiences more than the average AAA shooterīack in 2020, Animal Crossing New Horizons was one such case as well, with the game becoming hugely popular in China despite not having a legitimate version launched. Presumably, neither Hazelight Studios nor Electronic Arts attempted to have its game published in China, that I know of. The process to acquire such documents is usually triggered by the game's developers, who are required to have a local publishing partner in order to launch their game in China. It Takes Two doesn't have either, currently. There's a lot to unpack here in order to understand the dynamics of the Chinese gaming market - in particular when it comes to console and PC games - as is the case with It Takes Two.įor a premium game (as in, not free-to-play) to be legally distributed and commercialized in mainland China (excluding Hong Kong and Macau), it is required to have a publishing license (ISBN) and IP certificate approved by local regulators. How can a game be available and popular in China if it hasn't been published? At this point it should come as no surprise that the co-op adventure game continues to win GOTY awards, as it already won game of the year at The Game Awards (USA), and was included in many end-of-the-year lists from several different outlets.

On January 8th, the company held its annual Game Awards, with It Takes Two taking the grand prize for Game of the Year. Due to its popularity, Bilibili is often where a lot of Chinese consumers see and learn about new games. Among other features, people commonly use Bilibili's services to stream movies and TV shows, as well as to watch gaming streams. Think of it as a mix of YouTube, Twitch and TikTok. What are the Bilibili Game Awards?īilibili (say it 10 times!) is a major video and streaming platform mostly popular and used in China. Let's try to unravel and understand this apparent conundrum. And yet, it has been immensely popular in the territory since release. The critically-acclaimed co-op title from Hazelight Studios does not have a publishing license in China, necessary for a game to be commercially (and legally) distributed in the Chinese market.

Which is impressive, given that the game isn't even officially available in the country. It Takes Two won Game of the Year 2021 at the Bilibili Game Awards in China.

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