According to official ChinaJoy announcements, the 2025 ChinaJoy (China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference), held at the Shanghai New International Expo Center from August 1st to 4th, attracted 799 exhibiting companies. The exhibition area reached 25,000 square meters, with total attendance hitting 410,300 visits, setting a new historical record.
Looking at the data alone, this is definitely good news for the booming domestic digital technology, gaming, and even ACG industries in China. After all, in such a large venue as ChinaJoy, as long as exhibitors provide good booth experiences and distribute more merchandise perks, the promotional effect will certainly be much stronger than placing ads on various platforms.
However, the less favorable news is that for visitors who traveled from downtown Shanghai or surrounding cities to attend this year's ChinaJoy, braving the weekend average high temperature of 35 degrees Celsius in Shanghai, this exhibition was undoubtedly another huge test of their physical stamina and patience. Although we gamers and anime fans often say that passion can overcome all obstacles, when I entered Hall N1 of the Shanghai New International Expo Center on August 1st—the opening day, which was supposedly less crowded—I still felt a hint of apprehension facing the extremely long trial queues at various booths and the crowded scenes where people were packed shoulder to shoulder everywhere.
In fact, on the first day of the exhibition, I actively chose to stay away from the popular booths. Games like Phantom Blade Zero and Red Desert were titles I had wanted to play for a long time, but the queues were absurdly long, forcing me to give up. I wanted to check out the booths of major online game companies to see beautiful cosplayers, but the stages were surrounded by layers of crowds, leaving no space for a 200-pound guy like me to squeeze in. After much thought, I wandered around different halls, trying to find less crowded niche booths to use my media pass for some merchandise perks. Surprisingly, my luck was quite good. Besides many unexpected gains, I saw some interesting booths. They might not have had the lavish stage setups of big companies, nor were their demo games as blockbuster, but thanks to years of player support and companionship, they still attracted considerable attention at this year's ChinaJoy.
What caught my attention first was not a specific booth, but a Gumball wandering around different booths seeking employment as a worker. It is the mascot of the mobile game Gungeon and was the only mobile booth at this year's ChinaJoy focusing on "re-employment after layoff."
Speaking of this Gumball's entrance, it was indeed quite unique. Setting aside its unusually long legs compared to others, holding a sign that read "Nine-Year-Old Game 'Gungeon' Seeking Employment Online," it seemed that wherever it went, the air was filled with the distinct vibe of a corporate worker's "blessings."
At the Palworld booth, it humbly sought employment, willing to become a Pal and endure a 007 schedule with no days off. At the Wuthering Waves and DNF booths, it voluntarily applied to be an Echo or an Abyss Boss, promising players increased drop rates without any tricks. Additionally, it engaged in awkward dance battles with mascots from other games at various booths, directly challenged the currently popular domestic animation character Nailong, took photos with visitors, and invited them to try out games, all to make up for the KPI gap left by 20 million players running away. If it weren't for veteran Gungeon players nearby telling me that this was likely a stunt by the game officials to celebrate the ninth anniversary, I might have actually tossed a few coins to this Gumball and invited it to work at 3DM.
Alright, jokes aside, but based on my understanding, Leiting Games, the publisher of Gungeon, did not participate in this year's ChinaJoy. As a game that has been around for nine years, Gungeon currently faces the same dilemmas as many older titles—limited channel resources, declining overall revenue, lack of visibility and exposure, and difficulty in retaining or regaining players. Although it once kept countless players up late grinding dungeons with its highly playable roguelike gameplay, causing liver pain just at the sight of its icon, the decline in online player numbers has led the development team to seek ways to regain topic discussion. Hence, the idea of "jungling" at ChinaJoy emerged, hoping to connect more with players through flexible methods.
Besides offline job hunting, Gungeon, this old game entering its ninth year, is also trying to revitalize itself through various means.
For instance, it collaborated with Lost Castle and Kairosoft, blending different game styles to launch various operational activities, bringing fresh experiences to players. Meanwhile, the upcoming in-game 88 Gumball Festival update on August 7th will abandon traditional version updates, introducing new themed dungeons and operational activities to optimize the game pace. Returning veterans can enjoy numerous conveniences, quickly catching up with version content while reducing grind and burden. Beyond the game, Gungeon's official operations have always focused on a humorous and self-deprecating interactive style, constantly trying to bridge the distance with players. In addition to continuously innovating version content and using collaborations, new gameplay, and system optimizations to avoid player fatigue, pulling off the "re-employment after layoff" stunt at ChinaJoy further verifies their attitude of patiently listening to player feedback and sincerely improving the game experience. If you were once a veteran player of Gungeon, now is clearly a good opportunity to return.
Apart from the game officials focusing on "humble stunts," I discovered another old friend who loves pulling pranks at ChinaJoy—the IGG booth, which appears almost every year without fail. This year, it continued to uphold its brand slogan "GAMERS AT HEART," creating impressive booth experiences for its many popular games. The gorgeous stage setup combined with trendy elements following current internet hot topics made the IGG booth a focal point for many visitors to stop and watch at this year's ChinaJoy.
To give some concrete examples. Due to the recent viral popularity of Korean cosplayers at Bilibili World, IGG, which is always highly active online, specifically invited popular Korean cosplayer "Liv" to cosplay the popular in-game character "Lucky Baby" in the Lords Mobile area, interacting actively with players. Meanwhile, two other beloved Korean cosplayers, Yasal and Nari, made a surprise appearance at the IGG booth and explored the exhibition together with Liv, raising the enthusiasm of the on-site audience to a new height and boosting the popularity of the entire IGG booth to unprecedented levels.
Furthermore, IGG invited magician Laurn, a regular guest at the Shanghai International Magic Festival. His wonderful performance perfectly blended the game worldview of Fate War, IGG's flagship strategy simulation management game themed around mythological warfare, with the recently viral single "Shuffle." This uniquely implanted the distinctive gameplay style of this flagship product, which has received major global recommendations from Apple, Google, and Huawei, into the minds of players in a unique way.
In addition, IGG also invited popular humanoid robots to their booth this time to interact actively with the audience. Besides wonderful performances on the main stage, various lucky draws were arranged at regular intervals to give benefits to players, continuously creating buzz. This kept the popularity of their booth in Hall N2 consistently high, making it a beautiful and memorable highlight of this year's ChinaJoy.
Finally, let's take a look at 3DM's own booth. This is our first time participating in ChinaJoy as a publisher. Sharp-eyed players should easily spot the familiar yellow chubby chicken at booth G606 in Hall N1. As one of the most influential game culture communication platforms in China, 3DM is dedicated to providing players with game news, reviews, guides, localization, community services, and promotion of legitimate games.
Last year, we launched our mobile product "3DM Games" APP, a player community app tailored for Steam players that integrates a game store, achievement tracking, game tools, and game videos. It received considerable recognition from players. This year, 3DM has established the publishing label "3DM Games" and officially entered the game publishing industry. Leveraging years of accumulated industry experience and resource advantages, we are committed to providing comprehensive support and customized services for game developers worldwide.
Currently, Tokyo Underground Killer, published by 3DM Games, is available on the Steam store and has garnered attention from the player community both online and offline. At the 3DM Games booth during this year's ChinaJoy, we provided players with the opportunity to try out this fast-paced action game with a unique art style. Players who completed specific challenges on-site could also win rich prizes carefully prepared by us. We hope everyone had a great time. In the future, as a publisher, 3DM Games will continue to bring more interesting and fun games to Steam players worldwide. Please stay tuned.
Finally, although the four-day ChinaJoy has successfully concluded, it must be said that it was truly exhausting. Although my WeChat step count gets maxed out every year during these few days, if you ask me whether I will go next year, my answer is definitely yes. After all, before I evolve into a middle-aged man with a beer belly discussing cars, houses, and stocks with those around me, I still want to experience more moments of brushing past strangers with similar interests in the venue. This has nothing to do with our identity or age, because we gathered here simply out of passion.