On November 3, 2026, the "2026 Annual Game IP Ecosystem Conference," hosted by the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association and organized by the Game Publishing Working Committee, the Digital IP Application Working Committee, and Gamma Data, was successfully held at the Suzhou International Expo Center. Themed "Digital Intelligence Symbiosis, Borderless IP," the conference invited numerous domestic and international guests to exchange ideas on game IP creation, operation, licensing, export, and the empowerment of the game IP industry by emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, discussing new directions for game IP ecosystem construction and high-quality industrial development.
At the conference, the Board Game and Mini-Game IP Innovation Service Platform was officially launched. The platform was jointly initiated by Beijing Gamma New Media Communication Co., Ltd., Beijing Junruyun Technology Co., Ltd., Microids China, Shushu Information Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., and Beijing Blue Box Technology Co., Ltd. It received strong support from Hangzhou Youka Network Technology Co., Ltd., Zulong (Tianjin) Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai Youyan Cultural Communication Co., Ltd., Beijing Normal University, and Communication University of China. The platform focuses on four core capabilities: creative incubation, cost reduction through technology, data-driven insights, and distribution/IP matchmaking, providing full-chain services from prototype to market for board game and mini-game innovation teams nationwide.
Below are the speeches by leaders and guests.
Leaders' Addresses
Wei Guoling, Executive Deputy Director of the Publicity Department of the Suzhou Municipal Committee and Director of the Municipal Press and Publication Bureau (Copyright Bureau), first delivered an address for the conference. Wei stated that digital intelligence technology has transformed from a tool into an important component of the IP ecosystem, with IP boundaries continuously widening alongside the integration of technology and scenarios. Suzhou regards games and animation as important tracks for the digital cultural industry, with Suzhou Industrial Park as the core carrier area, promoting the clustered development of digital content industries centered on game R&D and production. It has now gathered nearly a hundred game software companies, with revenue from game enterprises above designated size in the park exceeding 10 billion yuan in 2025, and overseas sales revenue surpassing 80 million USD. Facing new opportunities in the current game industry development, Suzhou will focus on three aspects to promote industrial construction: First, strengthen project support at the creative starting point, relying on multiple special funds to support digital cultural enterprises and encourage original premium content; Second, strengthen platform support in industrial synergy, leveraging platforms such as the National Cultural Export Base and the Game Enterprise Service Center in the Free Trade Zone to streamline the R&D, copyright, and compliance service chains, and deepen international exchanges and cooperation; Third, enhance IP value through integrated development, promoting the fusion of game IPs with film, television, animation, cultural tourism, and cultural creativity, expanding online and offline integrated consumption. In the future, Suzhou will continue to optimize the business environment, balancing regulation and service, to jointly build a prosperous and active game IP industrial ecosystem.
Li Hong, Secretary-General of the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association, delivered an address. Centering on the conference theme "Digital Intelligence Symbiosis, Borderless IP," he shared three insights: First, grasp cross-media development trends and expand IP value through industrial synergy. This involves not only improving the quality of individual works but also considering how characters, stories, and worldviews support long-term development, allowing different products to enrich each other and different business formats to drive one another. Second, focus on the fusion of short dramas and games to connect with new users through new content. Allow characters, scenes, and user emotions accumulated in games to find expression in new media, continuously accumulating long-term value. Third, promote digital intelligence empowerment and support continuous innovation through a standardized and open ecosystem. Leveraging the technological accumulation of the game industry and linking with AI tools, improve mechanisms for material openness, licensing supervision, and revenue distribution to empower small and medium-sized teams to participate in co-creation, while fulfilling responsibilities related to content orientation, intellectual property, data security, AI application compliance, and minor protection. In the future, the industry should adhere to the strategic positioning requirements of building a strong cultural nation and the objectives of promoting the sustained and healthy development of the game industry. In this process, the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association will continue to deepen collaboration with Suzhou, utilize existing industrial platforms, facilitate multi-party connections, cultivate game IPs with cultural connotation, market vitality, and international influence, and promote the high-quality development of the digital cultural industry.
Policy Promotion
Yin Weidong, Deputy Director of the Publicity Department of Suzhou Industrial Park and Director of the Bureau of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, presented policy promotions. Suzhou has achieved simultaneous progress in inheriting traditional culture, technological innovation, and high-quality development. As a model of China-Singapore cooperation, Suzhou Industrial Park boasts strong comprehensive strength, having won the "nine consecutive championships" in the comprehensive evaluation of national economic and technological development zones and ranking fourth in the comprehensive evaluation of national high-tech zones. Currently, the park has basically built a digital content innovation industrial cluster centered on game R&D and production. The park currently hosts over 14,700 cultural industry units with nearly 50,000 employees. In 2025, there were 252 cultural enterprises above designated size, with revenue of approximately 99.79 billion yuan, ranking first in Suzhou. Facing the development of the game industry, the park strengthens the game industry from multiple dimensions including original sourcing, content production, distribution and operation, product development, license application, cultural export, industry leadership, event hosting, and platform construction. It aims to build an excellent business environment for the game industry and fully promote the upgrading of the game industry's development level.
Release of the "2026 Report on the Development of IP in China's Game Industry"
Tang Jiajun, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association, released the "2026 Report on the Development of IP in China's Game Industry." He stated that the game IP market in 2026 exhibits six characteristics: concentration of head IPs and increased value of original IPs; AIGC permeating the entire IP lifecycle; normalization of cross-media development; deeper integration of offline collaborations with culture, commerce, and tourism; scaling and standardization of derivatives and brand licensing; and IP-assisted game exports entering deeper cultural waters.
The market size of China's game IP is projected to reach 299.23 billion yuan in 2026. From January to September, IP-based products accounted for 81.4% of the game market's revenue, with IP games making up 63% of the top 100 mobile games by revenue. Among these, the market size for original IP games is estimated at 146.783 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.4%; licensed IP games reached 133.583 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.2%. In terms of collaborations and derivatives, 90% of the top 20 mobile games by revenue have conducted in-game IP collaborations, and nearly 80% of users have paid for offline events in the past year; the sales revenue of official flagship stores for major game IP derivatives is expected to reach 10.171 billion yuan.
Finally, Tang Jiajun concluded that China's game market has entered a stage of refined growth amidst existing stock, with development logic shifting towards long-term IP asset operations. Games are becoming core carriers for cross-media digital cultural assets and cultural export. Meanwhile, IP protection, content compliance, and long-term narrative capabilities will continue to face ongoing tests.
Guest Keynote Speeches
Stéphane Bonazza, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Shiro Games from France, delivered a speech. On the theme "The Pros and Cons of IP," he argued that while licensed IPs offer advantages in game exposure, they cannot compensate for inherent product quality defects. Citing the licensed example of Dune, he explained that importing IPs requires thorough understanding of the original work while preserving creative space, and outward licensing requires safeguarding the creative core and clarifying ownership of new content. Furthermore, he stated that IP is an asset requiring full-cycle management; only through product quality and clear rights agreements can the commercial benefits of IP be transformed into sustainable corporate value.
Hervé Sohm, CEO of Old Skull Games from France, delivered a speech titled "Beyond Replication: Intellectual Property, Collective Imagination, and Games in the Age of AI." He pointed out that while AI has reduced the time required to create a game from months to days, it can replicate gameplay, art styles, and trailers, but cannot replicate the shared memories, beloved characters, and active communities accumulated over years between players and IPs—what he calls "collective imagination." He proposed evaluating projects based on three time scales: "recognizable in one second, immersive in one minute, and engaging in one hour." Using Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Deathmaster as an example, he illustrated how to create more precise and fresh gaming experiences around "sub-IPs" within a major IP. Regarding the Chinese market, he noted that IPs like Sun Wukong are "instantly recognizable" to Chinese players but require building awareness from scratch overseas. Therefore, he suggested that IP holders should control the worldview while overseas teams study adaptation strategies to jointly create games that remain faithful to the original work while being accessible to new players.
Xu Ming, CEO of Guojing Sports, delivered a keynote speech titled "Let Passion Become the Path: Healthy Guidance of Game Esports and the Long-Term Value of the IP Ecosystem." She pointed out that the industry has moved from an era of user acquisition to an era of "quality improvement within existing stock," where human value, rather than traffic, is most valuable. In this context, Guojing Sports focuses on healthy esports, building a full-cycle growth system and promoting the Healthy Esports Growth Plan. This revolves around strengthening physical health, stabilizing mindset, understanding the industry, meeting good mentors, and seeing a wider world, implemented through six measures: First, advance the compilation of healthy esports service standards to fill gaps in content and service standards; Second, collaborate with Bixin to promote flexible employment for certified esports guides; Third, conduct esports study tours; Fourth, deepen localized services in places like Fujian; Fifth, create the "Same Frequency AI" system to amplify teachers' capabilities; Sixth, prepare to establish a Roots Seeking Fund to promote cultural exchange among overseas Chinese teenagers. She stated that the industry should lay out "four steps" for teenagers, from cognitive preparation and skill cultivation to academic pathways and employment guidance, letting passion truly become a path to the future.
Lu Keyan, Brand Group Leader at Tencent Interactive Entertainment's TiMi Marketing Center, delivered a speech. Focusing on the theme "Integration of Intangible Cultural Heritage and Digitalization: How Honor of Kings Brings Traditional Culture into the Modern Game World," Lu proposed a co-creation model to bridge intangible cultural heritage (ICH) and digital games, rejecting simple label-based transplantation. By collaborating with museums and ICH institutions, ICH culture is integrated into game carriers, supplemented by educational derivative content, making traditional culture playable and perceptible. Adhering to bidirectional digital inheritance, the approach leverages national-level IPs to reach young audiences, balancing accurate cultural expression with modern aesthetic innovation. It also explores cultural export,挖掘 common emotions to achieve cross-cultural communication, providing digital solutions for the living inheritance of ICH.
Liang Ding, Co-founder and CTO of VAST, delivered a speech on "AI 3D Asset Generation and Game IP Creation." He introduced Tripo's support for generating 3D assets from text and images and multi-view inputs, focusing on two major models: Tripo H3.1, suited for high-poly detailed production, and Tripo P2.0, designed for low-poly game asset production. He highlighted self-developed pioneering capabilities such as semantic segmentation, 8K PBR textures, Magic Brush, and one-click rigging. These features support various access methods including the Tripo Studio workspace, plugins, APIs, and Agents, streamlining the entire game asset production pipeline. This serves industries such as gaming, XR, film and television, and 3D printing, helping creators efficiently complete industrialized production of IP-related 3D content.
Montgomery Singman, Managing Partner at Radiance Strategic Solutions, delivered a speech titled "From Gordon Ramsay to Bruce Lee: Practical Practices and New Rules in International IP Licensing." Combining his personal negotiation experiences with the cross-border IP licensing cases of Gordon Ramsay and Bruce Lee, he pointed out that signing is just the beginning of IP cooperation, with approval processes and IP reactivation often being overlooked. IP cooperation should move from simple branding collaborations to deep content co-creation, and cross-border licensing contracts must clearly define key terms such as approval timelines, regional and platform definitions, and ownership of derivative content. He also proposed that Southeast Asia is not only an export market but also a source of IPs waiting to be explored, which can be implemented through a tripartite cooperation model involving "IP holders, development teams, and local publishing partners." Discussing changes brought by AI, he believed that while AI reduces content production costs, it does not lower licensing thresholds; instead, it amplifies the approval pressure on IP holders. He suggested exploring new licensing models: IP holders approve style packs once, ensuring that content generated within AI tools is pre-compliant, with the tool then sharing revenue with the IP holder based on usage volume.
The holding of this conference further strengthens the continuous expansion of IP value, providing more ideas for the development of China's game industry and even the broader cultural and creative industries.