Sony Interactive Entertainment to Invest $140,000 in the China Hero Project

In a recent live stream event (local Chinese event), Sony’s China Production Team Director, Bao Bo, revealed that Sony will invest 1 million Yuan or $140,080 in the China Hero Project to support small as well as established gaming studios in the region. China Hero Project is a local development programme to support indie studios in China, it was started in 2017, and already the programme was able to support a total of 17 games in two batches, the first one in 2017 and then in 2019. 

Interestingly 7 games out of the 17 are already released. Genshin Impact being one of them, released in 2020, was backed by Sony through a deal in 2019 between Sony Interactive Entertainment Shanghai Subsidiary and Shanghai miHoYo Network Technology Co., Ltd, the developer studio behind Genshin Impact. 

Genshin Impact was an instant hit upon release and became the most profitable game of the world. It was the most successful product of the China Hero Project, and according to Tatsuo Eguchi, president of SIE Shanghai, the greater interest of Sony in the Chinese gaming industry is the result of the success of the strong going partnership between miHoYo Network and Sony and ultimately the success of Genshin Impact in a short period. 

Not only games like Genshin Impact have attracted the Japanese tech giant to take more interest in the Chinese gaming industry, but it was also reported that Microsoft regrets losing the Genshin Impact exclusivity deal for Xbox consoles.

And now Microsoft is aggressively establishing long deals and licensing regarding Chinese IPs. This new investment by Sony in the China Hero Project will be an answer to that and to hold its ground strong in the Chinese market. 

As reported by Reuters, Bao Bo revealed in an interview that this current batch of China Hero Project will support 10 or more games enrolled in the programme without genre discrimination. “The scale of the third phase will far exceed the previous two,” Bao said, adding that Sony will publish some games and its PlayStation Studios will support enrolled projects. 

Other than that, it was also confirmed that Sony will be the publisher of Convallaria and Lost Soul Aside, the two games that were a part of the previous two batches of the programme. Sony has been able to sell over 3.5 million units of PlayStation 4 in China and 670,000 units of PlayStation 5 since its launch in China in May 2021, as revealed by SIE CEO Jim Ryan. 

Tatsuo Eguchi, president of SIE Shanghai, claims that Sony aims to sell PlayStation 5 twice the number of PlayStation 4 sales in China. According to him, the China Hero Project will be helpful for them to meet that goal. 

We want gamers around the world to better understand the creativity that comes from China. I have always had a dream which is for console gaming to become a regular part of daily entertainment for Chinese people,” he said.

So, what are your thoughts about this new investment by Sony in the China Hero Project? Let us know in the comment section below.