Hong Kong’s New Creative Industries: The Example of the Video Games Sector

Abstract

Hong Kong has considerable creative and entrepreneurial resources, and the opportunity to build a vibrant set of creative industries, including in the new sectors such as video games, animation, and computer graphics. However, as it stands, some of these industries, especially that of the games industry, are fledgling in nature. Strong supporting institutions already exist, but it is essential to discover how industry can be better supported with existing and new resources — financial and otherwise. The opportunities are immense, but so is the competition. The new entertainment media sectors are growing at a faster pace than most economic sectors in many countries. At the same time, the expected global markets for new creative industries (especially games and animation) are considered to be huge.¹ India’s NASSCOM estimated the global market for animation to be approaching US$50 billion, while one consultancy, DFC Intelligence, reported that the total global games market (including PC, online, and console) would rise from US$33 billion in 2007 to US$57 billion by 2009.² At the same time, investments in virtual worlds, including associated technologies and social networking sites, in the US alone have been in the few hundred million dollars range per quarter over 2007.³