The People's Republic of China has a higher population than any other nation on the planet. That's a big audience with a proven appetite for video games, but political and economic factors have played into creating a market there which is rife with piracy and dominated by free to play games. However, thanks to Steam gaining support for some Chinese forms of electronic payment last year, change is in the wind. On September first, Chinese indie title Lost Castle will launch out of Early Access. It's already sold 130,000 copies, though, and 100,000 of them have been sold in China.
According to Iain Garner, who has been working with Chinese game developers for about four years and curently represents Lost Castle's publisher Another Indie, the introduction of Chinese payment methods to Steam didn't knock free to play off the top of the hill in China. It did, however, give players more options. "The first game to make a real impact via Steam was GTA V. Like the rest of the world, gamers here were anxiously awaiting the title and when it came out, many decided that now was the time to give legitimate gaming a go," he says. "Since then China has steadily risen and is now the third biggest purchaser on Steam according to SteamSpy."
In addition to this general rise in premium game purchases by Chinese players, Garner has seen that a significant number Chinese gamers are willing to support local indie developers. "Lost Castle experienced this on a dra...