How It Takes Two became China's Game of the Year (without even being released)
Daniel Camilo
Tuesday 1st February 2022
It Takes Two won Game of the Year 2021 at the Bilibili Game Awards in China. Which is impressive, given that the game isn't even officially available in the country.
The critically-acclaimed co-op title from Hazelight Studios does not have a publishing license in China, necessary for a game to be commercially (and legally) distributed in the Chinese market. And yet, it has been immensely popular in the territory since release.
Let's try to unravel and understand this apparent conundrum...
Bilibili (say it 10 times!) is a major video and streaming platform mostly popular and used in China. Think of it as a mix of YouTube, Twitch and TikTok. Among other features, people commonly use Bilibili's services to stream movies and TV shows, as well as to watch gaming streams. Due to its popularity, Bilibili is often where a lot of Chinese consumers see and learn about new games.
Daniel Camilo
On January 8th, the company held its annual Game Awards, with It Takes Two taking the grand prize for Game of the Year. At this point it should come as no surprise that the co-op adventure game continues to win GOTY awards, as it already won game of the year at The Game Awards (USA), and was included in many end-of-the-year lists from several different outlets. Also, my personal GOTY.
There's a lot to unpack here in order to understand the dynamics of the Chinese gaming market -- in particular when it comes to console and PC games -- as is the case with It Takes Two.
For a premium game (as in, not free-to-play) to be legally distributed and commercialized in mainland China (excluding Hong Kong and Macau), it is required to have a publishing license (ISBN) and IP certificate approved by local regulators. It
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