Virtual love produces real money

Female-oriented interactive digital games prove popular and lucrative

Chinese women are changing the "game", literally. And giving birth to a potential multibillion dollar business in female-oriented gaming.

For long, the 30 billion yuan ($4.73 billion) gaming market in China has targeted male consumers with content full of hardcore action, weapons, violence, macho muscular superheros and shapely girls. Sorry, no cute animals. Why, even the color scheme of most games was grey and brown.

The tide is turning though.

An interactive dating game entitled Love and the Producer, developed by Suzhou, Jiangsu province-based Paper Studio, allows women players, or gamers, to date four lifelike digital characters or e-boyfriends－potential heartthrobs with enviable qualities and desirable qualifications (a tough CEO, a powerful policeman, a genius scientist, and a charming entertainment superstar).

The game, whose predominant color scheme is purple and pink, has emerged an unlikely hit, a runaway commercial success: monthly sales revenue so far from the launch date of Dec 20, 2017 is over 200 million yuan, according to data tracking firm Jiguang, and is likely to rake in up to 300 million yuan by the year-end.

In the process, Love and the Producer is not only rewriting the rules of the gaming market but shaping a new socio-economic dynamic.

In addition to the four heartthrobs, Love and the Producer boasts an immersive setting and well-crafted graphics, which have impressed millions of Chinese female gamers.

In a sense, Love and the Producer is akin to Western dystopian stories. Only, the protagonist (that is, the person playing the game) is female, an ambitious executive who has to revive a troubled TV production company by launching a riveting reality show.

According to data tracking firm Jiguang, over 7 million downloads of the game have been recorded so far. There are 2 million daily-active users, and 94 percent of them are women.

While downloads are free, the players have so far parted with some 600 million yuan more to keep progressing to higher levels of the game, just so that they could experience the thrills of winning the best of the four virtual boyfriends.

Unlike in real life, however, the gamer is under no tearing hurry or pressure to choose one of the four e-guys. This aspect has impressed Shen Xuanxuan, 33, a marketing executive at a global information technology firm in Beijing.

For Shen, checking "messages" sent by her beloved e-dates has become a morning ritual. "Currently, I don't have a boyfriend. The virtual characters effectively fill that void, and they are so good at their job."

Shen is not alone in her praise for the game. Female players welcome the freedom of developing the storyline, said Neil Wang, president of Frost & Sullivan Greater China.

Love and the Producer unfolds several intertwined storylines but does not quite delve deep into any tale. This allows players to interact with the four male characters via phone calls and social media apps.