Publishing a game in China: the questions, answered.

EightSix is a China market entry advisory for PC and mobile games. We help Western studios find the right Chinese publishing partner, negotiate the deal and check what the publisher delivers after launch. We are advisers, not a publisher: the studio keeps its IP, its Steam page and the final say. The name comes from +86, the dialling code for China.

Mostly self-published indie and small AA studios whose game already shows Chinese interest: Simplified Chinese reviews, a wishlist skew towards China or localisation requests. Pre-launch or recently released, PC or mobile. Western publishers with a slate can book a fixed-fee China readiness audit instead.

No. We do not take a licence, a build or any share of the IP, and we do not run localisation, marketing or store operations. The Chinese partner funds and runs those under a contract we help you negotiate. Our work is the assessment, the shortlist, the negotiation and the reporting checks.

Yes. For PC games the route is usually Steam Global with a Chinese co-publisher. For mobile games we match you with vetted publishers for WeChat Mini Games, TapTap, Bilibili Games and the Android stores, who fund the adaptation and pay a share of revenue.

Sydney, which puts us two to three hours ahead of Chinese business hours and lets us cover European mornings. Chinese partners are reached in their working day; studios in Europe and North America get replies within one working day.

Publisher-side experience: global paid media across 20+ territories, Asia marketing and AAA launches into China inside a major European games publisher. On one launch China became the largest player base. We do not publish client testimonials yet and the site says so; the free assessment is the better test of how we work.

By one of three routes. Sell on international Steam, which players in mainland China use, with proper Simplified Chinese support and usually a Chinese co-publisher for marketing. Release inside the mainland on Steam China, WeGame or the app stores through a licensed Chinese publisher that files for the game licence. Or sign a Chinese mobile publisher to adapt and operate the game. Most indie and small AA PC studios start with Steam Global.

Not for your existing international Steam release: the storefront does not ask for one, and players in China buy there under your own Steamworks account. A domestic release on Steam China, WeGame, TapTap or the Chinese app stores does need the game licence (版号, often called an ISBN), and only a mainland publishing unit can file for it. Local operations and promotion are not exempt from regulation just because the game is on Steam Global, which is why we assess the storefront and the proposed local activities together.

Steam Global is the international Steam storefront, reachable from mainland China and where most Chinese Steam spending happens. Steam China is a separate onshore service Valve operates with Perfect World, where every game needs government approval held by a Chinese publisher. A Chinese translation of your Steam page does not put your game on Steam China.

On Steam Global the timeline depends on localisation, testing and Valve’s review, which you control; two to four months is a reasonable plan. A domestic release waits on the licence: the statutory review is 80 working days, but practitioners report 10 to 15 months end to end with one to three rounds of modification notices, after the months spent signing a publisher first.

No. The NPPA’s service guide for imported games requires the applicant to be a domestic publishing unit holding an online publishing service permit, and foreign investment in internet publishing is prohibited under the Negative List. A licensed Chinese publisher files in its own name. EightSix does not obtain ISBN approvals; we identify the regulatory questions to resolve and the partner handles compliance.

A small slice. Imported game approvals were 98, 110 and 95 in 2023, 2024 and 2025, and 46 in the first nine months of 2026 against 1,525 domestic approvals. Scarcity is why a domestic release is a selective, slow route and why Steam Global is where most Western PC games start.

For a Steam Global release: funds and runs the Simplified Chinese localisation, the campaign on Bilibili, Douyin, Heybox, TapTap and WeChat, community and player support, the localised Steam page and the launch moment, for a share of China revenue. Regional pricing stays with you, set with our advice. The game stays on your Steam page.

Three to five on the shortlist, each vetted rather than listed, with our notes on each. You choose who to meet. Where more than one wants the game you compare terms side by side; if your genre only supports two credible candidates you get two and we say why.

Look the company up on the national enterprise credit system (gsxt.gov.cn), match its name to the games it claims on Steam’s publisher pages and, for domestic releases, to the NPPA’s monthly approval lists. Ask for a developer you can speak to. A publisher that cannot be traced to its own catalogue is a publisher to walk away from.

Yes. We check the company, its record in your genre and the terms it has put forward, and tell you whether to proceed, renegotiate or look further. If the approach is good we say so; the shortlist is there to give you a comparison, not to replace a sound offer.

You do, throughout. The publishing agreement scopes exactly what the partner is authorised to do (marketing, localisation, the launch, and for mobile the adaptation and SDK integration), with no assignment of IP and with reversion clauses written in. We negotiate those boundaries before you sign.

Not full access. Steamworks lets you grant permissions by role, so a partner can be given the marketing and store-page rights it needs without the ability to change pricing, release settings or ownership. Keep the account, the build upload and the pricing with the studio.

A revenue base defined as something other than net of Steam’s cut, refunds, VAT and withholding; recoupable costs that are not listed and capped; a marketing commitment that is a number in a conversation rather than in the contract; worldwide or multi-territory rights asked for in a China deal; a term with no reversion; and any request for money up front from the studio.

Marketing commitments and revenue reporting are tracked monthly against the contract. When something slips we raise it with the publisher and document it. Most slips are fixed at the first conversation; if one is not, the reversion clauses negotiated up front define your exit and the paper trail backs it.

There is no upfront fee. When a Chinese partner signs your game, EightSix charges a one-off fee of £5,000, or £10,000 including the launch review, credited in full against our share. The share is 20% of China net revenue up to £50,000 cumulative, then 10% above that, for the agreed term. Publishers can book a fixed-fee China readiness audit, quoted per slate, with no share.

Published first-hand accounts cluster around half of China revenue, with the publisher carrying local marketing cost; a 60/40 split in the developer’s favour is also reported. The headline split matters less than the revenue base it applies to, which costs come off before the split, and the order of recoupment. A worked example on the same 70/30 split can move thousands of pounds between the parties.

On Steam Global with a co-publisher: usually nothing in cash from the studio, because the partner funds localisation and marketing and recoups from revenue. Self-publishing on Steam Global means paying for localisation (vendor rates from about USD 0.06 to EUR 0.12 a word), creator outreach and a Chinese-speaking community presence yourself. A domestic release adds the publisher’s service fee, legal and notarisation work and content changes, which one lawyer-authored guide puts in the tens of thousands of yuan before localisation.

Royalties paid out of China typically carry 10% withholding tax, plus 6% VAT withheld on the royalty. Ask who bears the VAT, whether the publisher will supply tax certificates so you can credit the withholding against your own tax, and confirm the treaty position for your country with your accountant before you sign.

Chinese players judge against local norms, not dollar prices: under CNY 100 for indies, CNY 198 to 298 for big games. Valve’s suggested China price has sat at roughly 60% of the US price, and its March 2026 pricing tool offers three conversion methods that can differ by a factor of two. Use the purchasing-power method as the starting point and expect China to be among your cheapest regions.

Pull the Steamworks regional report for sales and wishlists by country; it exists even though the public wishlist page hides it. Group your Simplified Chinese reviews by theme. If you have 2,000 reviews overall and 200 in Chinese, Steam shows a separate Chinese review score, and the gap to your overall score is the most useful number on the page.

Deeper and longer games: Chinese reviewers judge balance, build depth and length closely, and a 20-hour game can be called too small. Co-op over-indexes. Forced PvP and betrayal mechanics fall flat. Published cases run from under 5% to over 60% of players from China, and genre fit explains more of that spread than localisation quality does.

Chinese scores run lower across the board, so compare against similar games rather than against your English score. The recurring triggers are balance changes in early access, forced accounts or region locks, translation register rather than accuracy, silent changes to a translation players already knew, price, and any public remark that blames Chinese players. A Chinese-language statement from the studio’s own account is the response that has worked.

Heybox (小黑盒), the Steam companion app Chinese PC players use for discovery, ratings and discounts; one developer reported Heybox users at over 70% of sales. Then Bilibili for creator videos, Douyin for short vertical clips and Xiaohongshu for a specific audience. WeChat, Kuaishou, Tieba and NGA are unproven for PC marketing in the public record.

No. The Chinese publisher plans and runs the campaign on Bilibili, Douyin, Heybox, TapTap and WeChat. We review the plan and the spend against what was promised in the contract, raise gaps with the publisher and keep the final say with you. You can bring your own creator relationships into the plan.

Usually not. A co-publisher typically funds the Simplified Chinese localisation and recoups it from revenue, and some publishers pass on games that already shipped a Chinese version because the launch moment is gone. If you do localise first, scope it as a testable brief and have a native speaker review the register, not just the accuracy.

Send your Steam, App Store or Google Play page. We read the public evidence (Chinese reviews, language share, comparable titles) and anything you choose to share (regional sales, wishlists, retention for mobile), identify likely publisher fit and outline the next questions. A plain-English reply within one working day. No pitch, no obligation, and your IP stays yours either way.

If the demand and the route look right, we agree the scope in writing and start the shortlist. If they do not, we say so and tell you what would change the answer: a particular signal to watch for, a localisation step, or a different route. Nothing is invoiced at either point.

Weekly through the launch window and monthly after that: every revenue statement checked against the contract before you see it, commitments tracked, and a plain-English summary. You have a single point of contact and can raise anything in between.

Yes, and you should: it is your partner and your game. We prepare you for each conversation, sit in where it helps, and take up the detail (statements, commitments, slips) so the relationship stays about the game rather than the paperwork.

Through the assessment form, or by email to contact@eightsixgames.com. We reply within one working day. EightSix Games is on LinkedIn as well.