Gamers With Attitude

About Gamers With Attitude

*Gamers With Attitude PODCAST* is an AI-driven, but more opinionated than most humans, game-industry talk podcast — built for **overseas English listeners who want to understand how the Chinese game industry is changing**, told from the inside by two Chinese game practitioners. Host Shawn — a grizzled game-publishing veteran (modeled on real host 大盛) — and Serevnt, a sharp game designer/developer (modeled on real host 剑桑), dig into one China-game-world topic per episode: from why Chinese studios lean on remakes to how layoffs reshaped China's dev scene, from going-global (出海) strategy to why Chinese players experience customer service the way they do. No scripts, no hedging, no agreement just to be nice — if they disagree, they debate it. We're AI. But every line we say comes from real arguments, real data, and real stories from inside the Chinese game industry — the kind overseas players rarely hear first-hand. New episodes weekly. Perfect for your commute, before sleep, or when you're supposed to be working. Put your headphones on and hear what the game world is arguing about this week.

Publisher

sapphiron

Category

arts · leisure · tv & film

Language

zh

Explicit

No

First episode

20 Jul 2026

Latest episode

21 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

54 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   21 Sept 2026

   Ep.43 The Steam Pivot: Korea's Second Export Play

   **Summary:** Korea got pushed off the phone screen — so it moved twenty years of industrial capability onto Steam. Per a ChosunBiz calculation, Krafton and Pearl Abyss together sent Valve roughly 95.1 billion KRW (about 70 million dollars) in platform fees in a single half-year; neither company has ever disclosed the figure, which is the point. Shawn and Serevnt disagree about what the move actually is: a rational redeployment under headcount pressure, or a capability that was simply revealed. Then the twist breaks the clean-win story — Korea's number-one game export market is still China, roughly 29.7% of its game exports, and its most profitable single product is a China-market title. Changing battlefields didn't change the landlord. **Hosts:** Shawn (publishing vet) & Serevnt (game dev) 0:00Opening — a fee neither company would publish 2:25Now the board: Korean MMOs in every Chinese café, 1999–2010 3:08The flip — China takes the phone screen 5:57Rational redeployment, or retreat? 150 people against 1,000–2,000 6:33The pivot didn't create the capability —Lies of P's 90% 8:58The budget meeting: why the capability sat in the drawer 9:55A refugee's report card? 92 to 94 percent on Steam 10:47Policy time, not policy money — 1999 and the long substrate 12:12Three transferable conditions 14:39What China would have to build —Black Mythalone 15:35The clean-win story breaks: 29.7% and 60.3% 16:39Crimson Desertshipped. The stock didn't follow. 19:54New battlefield, same rent — the tiered cut 21:27Landing: the shelf life of a lead

2. 

   20 Sept 2026

   Quarterly Quest .5: The P&L Behind the Waifus

   Title: Quarterly Quest QQ5 — The P&L Behind the Waifus (Rebuilding miHoYo's Books From Public Data) Series: Gamers With Attitude PODCAST — Quarterly Quest Tagline: The business of games, for the people who invest in it. Summary: The most profitable-sounding company in games publishes nothing. No filings, no bond disclosures, almost no interviews. Tonight, two Chinese game practitioners rebuild miHoYo's silhouette from public data — with a qualifier on every number. AppMagic's mobile-only estimates put its five titles at roughly 913 million dollars in 2025, down from about 1.77 billion in 2024: Honkai: Star Rail about 406 million (from roughly 871), Genshin about 319 (from roughly 710), Zenless Zone Zero around 188 (from roughly 305). Cumulative is a different world: Niko Partners estimated Genshin passed 10 billion dollars across all platforms by end-2025, and Zenless topped about 600 million on mobile in two years — some 17 percent of Genshin's pace. The bottom half of the P&L — costs, profit, research spend — simply doesn't exist in public, so we bound it with audited neighbors instead of inventing it. Is the 2025 reset a version-cycle dip or a structural slide? Three scenarios, no verdict. And the mirror question: why would a company this cash-rich never list at all? This episode: Deep Dive ｜ The Playbook Hosts: Shawn (publishing vet) & Serevnt (game dev) Chapters:（真时间戳；segs 时长累加 + gaps 静音，TOTAL = MP3 = 18:52，DELTA +0.00s） 0:00 Opening — a company with no financial statements just had its mobile estimate halve 1:37 The black box — what "industry inference" actually means (tracker blind spots) 4:00 The revenue spine — three pillars, fandom economics, and the lifetime-versus-annual trap 8:05 The 2025 reset — version cycle or structural slide? (the fight of the night) 10:03 The missing rows — costs, profit, R&D: bounding what nobody can see 13:03 The Scenario Room — pipeline pays off / growth downshift / the industrial moat 15:09 The replay — the Perfect World scoreboard stays frozen 15:51 The mirror — why never list, and what it costs either way 18:01 Closing — read the shadow, keep the maybes Scenario Room: Three scenarios, everything if-then, no verdict. Scenario A — the pipeline pays off: new titles catch the slide and mobile estimates recover with the next version cycle. Triggers: a fresh launch's first-quarter mobile estimate; the tracker ranking holding steady after the launch spike. Scenario B — the growth center shifts down: Genshin and Star Rail age faster than new releases backfill. Triggers: a second straight year of mobile decline; steeper fade on older banners. Scenario C — the industrial moat materializes: reusable character assets, one engine stack and content industrialization show up in the cost structure. Triggers (hardest to observe, no filings): hiring, content cadence, occasional public detail. Shawn leans between A and B; Serevnt keeps one foot on B as the warning track. Which one do you think? [Vote link placeholder] The method card (take this home): never add a lifetime figure to an annual figure; never mix a mobile figure with an all-platform figure; gross player spending is billings, not booked revenue; and a black box is bounded with audited neighbors — ranges, never a flattering middle number. Sources (public; attributed with publisher + date; links to be attached per item at publish — no URLs invented): - AppMagic via Statista: miHoYo mobile IAP ≈$1.77B (2024) → ≈$912.7M (2025), five titles, iOS + Google Play only - AppMagic via PocketGamer.biz: per-title mobile — Star Rail ≈$870.9M→≈$405.5M; Genshin ≈$710M→≈$319.4M; Zenless ≈$305M→≈$187.8M (2024→2025) - PocketGamer.biz (2026-07-13): Zenless Zone Zero ≈$600M+ on mobile in two years — about 17% of Genshin's pace - PocketGamer.biz citing AppMagic: Star Rail lifetime mobile crossed ≈$2B by March 2025 - Niko Partners via Icon Era: Genshin lifetime player spending ≈$10B+ across all platforms by end-2025 - Hurun Research Institute via Game World Observer: miHoYo valuation ≈$24.2B end-2024 (≈$7.1B in 2022) — a valuation, not a traded price - Sensor Tower via Tmtpost/Tencent News (2026-08-21): Chinese mobile publishers took more than 40% of global top-100 mobile revenue - 36kr Global (2026-08-06): co-founder Cai Haoyu's reported AI pivot (single-outlet report, wording downgraded on air) - Chinese trade press (DoNews/9game/TapTap, 2026-06~09): new pipeline — Honkai: Nexus Ani (崩坏：因缘精灵) testing July 2026, Star Valley (星布谷地) reservations, gamescom 2026 showcase - 中国经济网 (2026-05-18): "miHoYo steps out of Genshin's comfort zone" (framing, attributed) Cross-promo: If you enjoy this podcast, check out the original Chinese version, 游戏人有态度. Disclaimer: This episode was entirely AI-generated; AI opinions do not represent the views of this show. Disclaimer (finance): Nothing in this episode is investment advice. We only discuss publicly available information. Always do your own research.

3. 

   18 Sept 2026

   Quarterly Quest .4: The LP Turn

   Title: Quarterly Quest 4 — Perfect World Hands Its Cash to Someone Else's Fund Series: Gamers With Attitude PODCAST — Quarterly Quest Tagline: The business of games, for the people who invest in it. Summary: A red bottom line and a green cash flow, side by side in the same half-year paper. Perfect World — the Shenzhen-listed studio behind Jade Dynasty, Tower of Fantasy and April's global launch of Neverness to Everness — reported a net loss of about 118 million yuan for 2026's first half, while operating cash flow came in around 647 million yuan, up 28.89 percent. Over the same stretch it signed three fund subscription announcements worth roughly 600 million yuan, all as a limited partner, all into "emerging technology," with no voting seat, no consolidation, and not one industrial-synergy clause — while its R&D spend fell from about 2.23 billion yuan in 2024 to about 1.78 billion in 2025 and headcount dropped from 2,575 to 2,116. Tonight's question isn't whether the checks were placed well. It's what it means when a game company trades its product-development clock for a financial-investment one. This episode: Deep Dive ｜ The Playbook (26:59) Hosts: Shawn (publishing vet) & Serevnt (game dev) Chapters: 0:00 Opening — a red bottom line, and cash up almost 29 percent 3:12 Perfect World, and three fund checks in six weeks 6:27 The clash — rent someone else's judgment, or lock seven years 10:18 The one deal that fits the business — and has no price on it 13:23 Two clocks — accounting timing vs. a business getting smaller 16:48 The Scenario Room — efficiency, a hollow pipeline, or a split 19:20 The replay — the QQ3 scoreboard stays frozen 21:44 The blade — same GP, two game companies, one question 25:10 Closing — whose story will the next game be? Scenario Room: Three scenarios, everything if-then, no verdict. Scenario A — the allocation works: the funds find their footing in AI or compute and post a paper gain, the company gets that tech exposure at a lower organisational cost than building it, and the cash from Neverness to Everness lands as recognised revenue over the coming quarters (the company says its contribution begins releasing from Q3 onward). Triggers: observable fair-value moves or investment income on the investment line in later filings; the live product's gross billings stop sliding. Scenario B — the swap's cost shows up: capital is locked through a 2-year investment plus a 5-year exit window, the R&D pipeline goes hollow. Triggers: R&D spend and headcount keep falling year on year; pipeline launches slip. Scenario C — both at once, structurally split: cash keeps flowing outward while the product line goes lightweight, and the company becomes a publisher that happens to hold financial assets. Triggers: investment assets' share of net assets keeps rising as the catalogue shrinks to smaller builds. Shawn leans A; Serevnt leans C, with B as the warning track. Which one do you think? [Vote link placeholder] The sharpest mirror — same GP, two game companies: Perfect World's September subscription went to Tianjin Lisi Xingshen (50 million yuan). Century Huatong's July commitment went to Tianjin Lisi Xingque (150 million yuan, 35.46 percent, its largest LP seat). Different funds, same manager: both run by Tianjin Lisi Mingtang, both under Hainan Lisi Private Equity, same controlling person — Cao Xi (public records: a founding partner of Monolith and a former Sequoia China partner). Within about two months, two listed game companies routed roughly 200 million yuan combined — our arithmetic — into different funds run by the same firm. Two data points, no conspiracy inferred: only the public facts of two announcements and the money each company actually put in. And the contrast that has already cashed in: Century Huatong's indirect stake in Moore Threads added an estimated 640 million yuan to its 2025 fourth-quarter net profit — about 53 percent of its prior-year net income — a realised line, not a promise. Sources (public; attributed with publisher + date): - Perfect World 2026 half-year report (Shenzhen Stock Exchange / Cninfo, 002624.SZ): H1 revenue about 2.75 billion yuan, down 25.47 percent; net loss attributable to shareholders about 118 million yuan (against a profit a year earlier); non-recurring-adjusted net loss about 211 million yuan; operating cash flow net about 647 million yuan, up 28.89 percent; cash and equivalents about 3.52 billion yuan, roughly a third of total assets; games revenue about 2.64 billion yuan, down 9.19 percent, about 96 percent of the total; games-segment net loss about 88.79 million yuan; selling expenses about 1.03 billion yuan, up 213.05 percent; R&D spend about 756 million yuan, down 19.80 percent; film-and-TV revenue about 103 million yuan, down 86.56 percent - Perfect World 2025 annual report: revenue about 6.66 billion yuan; net profit about 731 million yuan; operating cash flow net about 1.09 billion yuan; year-end cash about 3.55 billion yuan (about 33.88 percent of total assets). Company-disclosed data show R&D falling from about 2.23 billion yuan in 2024 (about 39.98 percent of revenue) to about 1.78 billion in 2025 (about 26.75 percent), with R&D headcount down from 2,575 to 2,116 - Three fund subscription announcements (company filings): about 500 million yuan into Jizhi Dengyue II, a 14.2857 percent commitment to a fund with a provisional 3.5-billion-yuan target size and a 2-year investment plus 5-year exit period; about 50 million yuan into Lisi Xingshen; about 50.4 million yuan into Fuzhou Huizhu — roughly 600 million yuan total, all paid directly by the listed parent, all with a stated direction of "emerging technology," all with no voting seat, no consolidation, and no industrial-synergy clauses - VAST / Sanqi Wanwu: reported B and B-plus rounds totalling about 3 billion yuan, led by Matrix Partners China, with Perfect World listed among strategic investors — its ticket size not disclosed (company has not stated an amount) - Dividend: 3.30 yuan per 10 shares, about 640 million yuan total, about 87.59 percent of 2025 net profit — company filings. Dividend plus external subscriptions ≈ 1.24 billion yuan of cash out in one direction (our arithmetic) - Same-GP finding: Perfect World × Tianjin Lisi Xingshen and Century Huatong subsidiary × Tianjin Lisi Xingque — both managed by Tianjin Lisi Mingtang under Hainan Lisi Private Equity, controlled by Cao Xi — company announcements (Perfect World; Century Huatong) and public records; the roughly 200 million yuan combined total is our arithmetic - Century Huatong: indirect interest in Moore Threads of about 4.17 percent via Guosheng Capital; estimated impact on 2025 Q4 net profit of about 640 million yuan, about 53 percent of its 2024 attributable net income — company filings and Chinese financial media - Comparison set (as limited partners): Century Huatong — 150 million yuan into Lisi Xingque, 35.46 percent, largest LP; Giant Network — 150 million yuan into a Yunfeng vehicle (target size about 3 billion yuan), passive; miHoYo — 50 million yuan (about 9.76 percent) into an AI-and-metaverse fund and 100 million earlier; 37 Interactive — 50 million yuan (9 percent) into the same earlier fund, plus more than 30 direct hard-tech bets — Chinese financial media - Industry context: game approvals hit a seven-year high in 2025 (about 1,771, up about 25.07 percent) — which is why approvals are not the explanation for the R&D pullback; Tencent's 2025 R&D ran about 85.75 billion yuan, up about 21.18 percent, against Perfect World's two-year fall — industry tallies drawn from annual reports - Overseas reference: Sony's 250 million US dollar strategic investment in Epic (July 2020); Japanese game companies more often build their own CVC than hand money to a third-party fund ("more common," never "never") — public coverage - QQ3 Replay: the Kaiying–Wemade transaction still had no close or termination announcement as of September 17, 2026; approvals from the development regulator, commerce authority and foreign-exchange authority remain pending, with the company flagging timing as uncertain; Korean media reported a planned October 30 close (reported, not confirmed) Cross-promo: If you enjoy this podcast, check out the original Chinese version, 游戏人有态度. Disclaimer: This episode was entirely AI-generated; AI opinions do not represent the views of this show. Disclaimer (finance): Nothing in this episode is investment advice. We only discuss publicly available information. Always do your own research.

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