On November 3, 2026, Sony Interactive Entertainment held the “China Star Plan” press conference in Shanghai, officially announcing the latest progress of the fourth phase of the plan.
Since its launch in 2016, the China Star Project has gone through ten years and has selected a total of 19 domestic games, 11 of which have been officially launched. As an important project of PlayStation to support local game developers in China, China Star Project is also constantly adjusting its support methods, trying to provide development teams with more comprehensive help from game development, distribution to marketing.
At this press conference, the most talked about change is undoubtedly the further upgrade of the fourth phase of support: Sony Interactive Entertainment will provide a project investment worth US$1 million for each selected project, and at the same time introduce two new strategic partners, DENMU and Solutions 2 GO, hoping to provide more help to Chinese developers from different levels such as funding, development support and global distribution. At the same time, the third-phase selected work “Jue Xiao” will also receive an additional investment worth US$1 million, while “Daba: Watermarked Land” and “Subliminal” have respectively announced their release plans in 2027.
From the initial project selection to now gradually forming a cooperation network including investment institutions and publishers, China Star Project is trying to build a more complete domestic game incubation system. But what exactly does increased funding and resources mean for developers? Today, when domestic stand-alone games are gradually attracting attention from the global market, how can the development team find its own characteristics and truly become competitive in the global market?
With these questions in mind, after the press conference, we communicated with Bao Bo, Game Production Director of Sony Interactive Entertainment China, Ying Chao, game producer of “Jue Xiao”, You Rongchang, Managing Partner and CEO of DENMU Dreams, and Yusuke Katata, Vice President of Solutions 2 GO Asia. From the investment and incubation logic of China Star Plan, to the creative direction of domestic games and opportunities in overseas markets, the four interviewees also shared their own observations and judgments.
The following is the text of the interview
Q1. An important upgrade in the fourth phase of the China Star Program is to provide financial support of US$1 million for each selected game. Why did you choose to launch such an investment at this time? How do you hope this funding will help the development team?
Bao Bo: PlayStation’s increased investment in the project is also an endorsement of the work to a certain extent. This can help the development team attract more investors, publishers and other high-quality partners, which is our main purpose.
Of course, PlayStation’s investment can also help the team solve some practical problems in a short period of time. As for financial returns, our internal requirements are actually relatively small. More, we hope to do our part to support the growth of Chinese developers.
Q2. For the development team, what specific problems can an investment of US$1 million solve?
Should exceed: $1 million is certainly not a small amount of money. Even in the past, for some independent games, the production cost of a single game might only be $1 million. Of course, if it is a 2A or 3A scale product, it will definitely need more financial support.
Judging from the current domestic investment environment, a single transaction of US$1 million is not a small amount and can help the team solve many practical problems. In addition, the investment made by Sony Interactive Entertainment has a different meaning than simply obtaining a sum of funds. It also represents recognition of the team from an experienced senior in the industry, which is also very helpful.
Q3. In the commercialization process of the China Star Program, what support will Sony Interactive Entertainment and its partners provide to the selected teams? For example, Solutions 2 GO is responsible for global distribution and promotion. How will it specifically help Chinese developers obtain better business returns in the international market?
Yusuke on the other hand: Solutions 2 GO is first and foremost a global company. We have branches in North America, South America and Asia. This means that we have professional teams in different markets who are familiar with local conditions and can more accurately understand the needs and pain points of local users and players, and then formulate corresponding publicity and promotion strategies based on the characteristics of different markets.
On the other hand, based on my own experience as a Japanese game player, I have very high requirements for game localization, including whether the language translation is accurate, whether the expression is natural, and whether the overall content can be accepted by Japanese players. Therefore, Solutions 2 GO can also provide assistance to the development team in terms of localization, including translation proofreading, content confirmation, etc.
Q4. Will the US$1 million provided by China Star Plan be specifically in the form of project investment, or will it involve equity investment?
Bao Bo: What we currently use are project investments.
Q5. Dianmeng is mainly engaged in game investment. There are currently not many U.S. dollar funds focusing on the gaming field on the market. Why do you still choose to focus on gaming?
You Rongchang: The annual revenue of the game market is approximately US$200 billion. Compared with other markets, it is not small at all. In fact, it is a very huge industry. But in financial markets, the gaming industry feels relatively small.
I think there are many inconsistencies between the financial attributes of the game industry itself and the traditional financial market. Although the game market is very large and is one of the most important cultural industries, if you invest in games using the traditional method of investing in VC or technology companies, it will be difficult to obtain returns similar to those in the technology industry.
We have been thinking about how to solve this problem. The game industry also requires continuous capital investment, so we choose to invest only in games. From fund structure, transaction design to overall structure and team configuration, we are all designed around the characteristics of the game industry. We hope to provide fund investors with a return that is different from AI or other traditional financial investment fields, which we call “Uncorrelated Return”. From this perspective, gaming is a very interesting investment area.
Of course, jokingly, there are already a lot of people investing in other industries, but we feel there is still a lot worth exploring in the gaming industry. Finally, there is another very important reason, which is that we really like games. I have always felt that people should do what they like.
Q6. In the past, the China Star Program has proposed the project selection criteria of “fun, good-looking, and good-sounding”. But by 2026, with the popularization of virtual production technology and the application of AI tools, players’ expectations for domestic 3A games seem to be increasing. Has this set of standards changed today?
Bao Bo: The selection of game projects is actually a very complicated process. If you consider it purely from the perspective of return on investment, investing in large-scale projects may be a safer choice. However, the China Star Plan has chosen to support small and medium-sized development teams from the beginning, so it is more focused on incubation. It also assumes the responsibility of improving the development environment and building a developer community.
Therefore, our requirements for return on investment are not that high, and we hope to help domestic game development teams improve their overall level. Only when there are more and more high-level teams in the market and healthy competition is formed between them can excellent works have the opportunity to continue to emerge.
In the past two years, players have been exposed to more and more excellent games, especially “Black Myth: Wukong”. Including the past two days, I have been playing “Shadow Blade Zero” and it is indeed doing very well. The investment scale of these games is relatively high. Although it cannot be compared with top overseas projects, it is already a fairly large investment project in China. Generally speaking, this kind of investment scale can also provide a certain guarantee for the quality of the work.
What we have to do is actually to train the development team so that they can gradually master how to manage and use larger-scale funds. When a team receives an investment of US$10 million, can it spend the US$10 million well and ultimately produce a high-quality product that meets the investment scale? Even if everyone gets the same $10 million, the final quality may be very different.
The help we can provide is to help the team gradually establish a more mature industrial process and accumulate more development experience. Game development itself is not inferior to high-tech projects, because it involves the collaboration of a large number of people, and cutting-edge technologies are also used in programming, art and other fields. We need to rely on experience and efficiency to continuously improve team management levels and produce games as high-standard products.
Only in this way will the team be able to further expand its scale in the future and have the ability to handle higher amounts of investment. When the team can use large-scale investments rationally and achieve good market returns, everyone will not feel that the money is wasted. Whether it is rich game content, high-quality art performance, or excellent combat performances and a large number of animations, it can be a concrete manifestation of this investment.
Therefore, the most important goal of the China Star Plan is to help local teams grow so that they have the ability to undertake larger-scale projects and at the same time make good use of their funds. In addition to technology, we will also look for different partners, such as Denmu and Solutions 2 GO, to help these teams go to overseas markets.
You Rongchang: I believe that the development of Chinese games in the past ten years has mainly focused on improving “quality”. The so-called quality is actually based on industrialization to a large extent, because in the past, Chinese stand-alone games did not have a complete industrialization foundation. Although this aspect is not yet fully mature, with the help of various aspects, great progress has been made.
However, I think there is no shortage of product supply in the game market today. What is really scarce are interesting and distinctive works.
Maybe five or ten years ago, as long as a game had the concept of “China 2A” or “China 3A”, it would gain market attention. But this phase will soon pass. Next, the game still needs to find its own characteristics. Good quality is only a basic requirement, not everything. On the contrary, some smaller products, even if they are not so outstanding in terms of production quality, have the same chance of gaining market recognition as long as they are distinctive enough.
Q7. The China Star Project has always positioned itself as a game incubation project. Have you discussed repositioning the program over the past few years? Or have you determined the direction of incubation from the beginning and hope to continue to deepen it on this basis?
Bao Bo: The China Star program itself is an incubation project with a selection nature. We will only incubate projects that we think have potential. This is a premise.
I think there are two key points for whether a project can be successful: first, it must be able to successfully complete development; second, its final quality must be good enough. In terms of commercial performance, the most basic requirement is that it at least cannot lag significantly behind similar products. Only when such standards are met will we consider support.
There is no size limit for projects supported by the China Star Program. We hope to find a truly outstanding project, and as long as it is competitive among similar products, we are willing to help it grow.
Therefore, we will still focus on incubation, but we will maintain strict standards in project selection.
Q8. The current environment of China’s game market is changing, and products of various sizes and quality are constantly emerging. As a partner, what advantages do you value most when cooperating with the China Star Program? Why do you think the cooperation between the two parties can be complementary?
You Rongchang: I think we are a good fit with Sony Interactive Entertainment’s China Star plan.
Because in the Chinese market, we have been exposed to many projects, including a lot of excellent ideas, but not many projects that can actually turn the ideas into a complete game. I believe that this situation will gradually improve in the future, but at this stage, for investors, a project may have a good idea, a great creativity, and even a demo that performs well, but there is still a lot of difficulty in going from these contents to the final completion of a game.
The China Star program can help in this regard, which gives us less worries. We can focus more on the highlights of the game itself, its market positioning, and the fun it can bring to players, without worrying too much about specific production aspects.
Yusuke on the other hand: The China Star Program has helped us complete the first round of project screening, so the projects that come to us have basically gone through a certain degree of quality verification, which makes us feel more at ease.
In addition, since the project can be selected into the China Star Program, it means that it will receive considerable support from Sony Interactive Entertainment. Including subsequent game launches and publicity and promotion, you will have the opportunity to get help from PlayStation. For example, getting exposure through State of Play is also very important support for us.
Q9. China Star plans to provide an investment of US$1 million for selected games. Will this further enhance partners’ confidence in the project?
You Rongchang: $1 million can be a very different proportion of the overall budget for projects of different sizes. But we have had many cooperations with Sony Interactive Entertainment, and PlayStation has always been very cautious about project investment. So when PlayStation is willing to invest $1 million in a project, that’s a pretty significant endorsement in itself. For us as partners, this significantly increases confidence in the project.
Yusuke on the other hand: If the game is supported by the China Star Program, Sony Interactive Entertainment will definitely provide corresponding help when promoting it in the Chinese market. This can help the game gain more attention and popularity. The Japanese market will actually pay attention to this. Japanese players and publishers will care about whether a game is welcomed in the Chinese market and whether it has a certain popularity. These factors will affect their judgment.
Q10. In the process of Denmu’s contact with different game projects, will there be misalignment between developers and investors’ focus on a game?
You Rongchang: Overall, our goals are the same, but everyone looks at a game from their own perspective. Many times, developers will understand and evaluate their own works entirely from the perspective of their own teams, so they may ignore some opinions from the market. But on the other hand, if you blindly make games based on market feedback, it will be difficult to make something unique enough. Therefore, in the end, it is actually a process of constant coordination and balance.
When communicating with developers, we first understand how they view the game, and then based on this, we evaluate whether their judgment on the game’s features and direction is reasonable.
We’ll also bring more outside perspectives to the development team. Because during the development process, the team needs to continuously obtain feedback from the outside world to form a relatively complete feedback loop. But this is actually not easy, because when you ask for advice from relatives, friends or friends in the industry, the other party is often reluctant to point out the problem directly.
As a partner who shares interests with developers, we can express our opinions more directly. Of course, the development team can choose to accept it or not, but I think being able to provide such feedback is very important in itself.
Q11. “Jue Xiao” is a selected project in the third phase of the China Star Project. After joining the project, what kind of cooperation process has the team experienced with Sony Interactive Entertainment? Now that you have received an investment of US$1 million, what practical impact will it have on the subsequent development? Are there any ideas that have been put on hold due to resource and budget constraints that now have the opportunity to be revisited?
Should exceed: After being selected into the China Star Program, we have experienced many nodes of cooperation and collaboration. We will submit different versions regularly, and the China Star Project team will help us with evaluation. We also have audio, sound effects and other support departments to help us, including organizing trial activities.
In 2024 and 2025, we have provided offline trials at ChinaJoy’s PlayStation booth. These activities are important opportunities for us to contact players and collect feedback, and they also allow us to obtain a lot of valuable opinions.
The game has been in development for many years, and the team naturally generated a lot of ideas during the process. But ultimately, we still need to be able to quickly introduce players to what this game is and what its core features are. Therefore, at this stage, what we have to do is not to continue to diverge, but to converge.
We don’t think about adding more content just because we’ve received investment. The core goal at this stage is to refine the feedback collected through player trials and exchanges with friends in the industry over the past two or three years, and integrate the most important content into the game.
What we hope to create is not a large-scale, all-inclusive top-notch luxury feast, but to polish the most essential content and core quality first. This is the most important thing next.
Q12. “The Dawn” received additional financial support this time. When re-evaluating the project, what changes did Sony Interactive Entertainment focus on? Is it an improvement in team development strength, or is the project showing new potential?
Bao Bo: We have actually been communicating about the investment in this project for a long time. The official announcement of the investment this time is just a post-processing step in the whole process. We recognize the development capabilities and speed of the “Jue Xiao” team, and the project itself is also unique enough.
Our investment evaluation is a comprehensive and ongoing process. For example, we will exchange game versions at different stages to understand the team’s development plan, funding arrangements, staffing, etc., and will also communicate more frequently with the development team, project investors, and other partners.
Q13. By joining the China Star Program this time, what potential does Solutions 2 GO see in the Chinese gaming market? Combined with your experience in overseas markets, what kind of works do you hope to find from the Chinese development team?
Yusuke on the other hand: Judging from the current development trend of the entire game market, including “Black Myth: Wukong” and “Shadow Blade Zero”, these Chinese games have received very good responses in overseas markets and have also attracted the attention of many players. Therefore, we hope that after these two works, we can continue to discover more excellent games from the Chinese market.
Everyone also mentioned “Daba: Land of Watermarks” just now. The background of this game is based on the culture of Western China. Since Japan and China have some cultural similarities, some of the cultural elements involved are not unfamiliar to us.
We have also communicated with the game development team before. I was deeply touched when I listened to their introduction to the game background and related content. They have prepared a lot of information, and what we are seeing now may only be the tip of the iceberg. It would be a very good thing if the highlights and creative ideas in these materials can be better conveyed to overseas players.
Bao Bo: “Daba: Land of Watermarks” is mainly based on the culture of Western China, which involves cultural elements from different regions such as Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and Shaanxi. For this content, the development team had collected information from all over the country and spent a long time before finally settling down to the content in the game.
The core of this game is actually a very Chinese story with distinctive Chinese cultural characteristics. We also look forward to sharing more relevant information with you in the future.
Q14. Most of the domestic stand-alone games that have attracted attention in the market this year are in the field of action games or ARPG. This is related to both the technical accumulation of the domestic team and market demand. From the perspective of China Star Plan’s project support and investment partners, would you be more inclined to choose game types that have been proven by the market, or are you willing to take risks and support some new types and ideas?
You Rongchang: We invested in Star Wars: Galaxy Racers. This is a Star Wars-themed racing game, with no Jedi or lightsabers, just racing cars. When we decided to invest, many people thought we were crazy.
Indeed, many people think that there is a problem with the market positioning of this game: people who like Star Wars may not like racing, and people who like racing may not pay attention to Star Wars. But as you can see from the final market performance, this game has received a lot of recognition.
Therefore, we do not adopt a top-down investment philosophy. We do not think that a certain game type is popular and only invest in this type. What we are more concerned about is whether a product can present a unique enough fantasy, whether this fantasy is attractive enough, and whether the size of the game itself can support such creativity.
As for why there are so many action games in China, I think it has to do with the stage of industry development. Relatively speaking, action games are more likely to produce outstanding visual and performance effects, and it is also easier for players to intuitively feel the quality.
Therefore, I think there is no problem for everyone to choose action games at this stage. But in the long run, developers will definitely want to explore more different directions, and we also believe that Chinese games will have a lot of room for development in this regard.
Q15. China Star Project will provide specific suggestions to the development team, but at the same time, it will also respect the developers’ own creative ideas. During the actual cooperation process, such as the cooperation with the “Jue Xiao” team, did the two parties have different views on the game design? If so, how is it handled?
Bao Bo: For cooperative projects, if we find that something is not done well, we will definitely give our opinions directly. For example, we may tell the development team that the game’s impact is not good enough, and the coordination between vibration, sound effects, and animation is not good enough.
But developers are always the main body of the project, and it is ultimately up to them to decide how to modify it, or whether it needs to be modified. If developers think there is a solution that is more suitable for them, we usually respect their ideas because they are the front-line operators and executors. “Jue Xiao” itself is a very good project, but we actually don’t have that many opinions to offer. However, in the future we may also give some suggestions on aspects such as handle vibration, because PlayStation has always attached great importance to handle feedback.
Developers often have their own unique design ideas, but in the actual production process, it is difficult to take all factors into consideration 100%. This is a very common situation in game development. If we find some issues, both teams work together to discuss how to resolve them.
I think this is actually a process of mutual learning. For example, if you are good at riding a bicycle, I can learn from you; if I am good at playing basketball, you can also learn to shoot from me. Cooperation is such a process.
You Rongchang: I think game development teams can be roughly divided into three types.
The first is that no matter what opinions you put forward, they think they have no problem, and may even have a very heated argument with you. This type of team often lacks a sense of security and is too concerned about outside evaluation. I think this is not a good state of cooperation.
The second is that whatever opinions you put forward, they will implement them as if they were imperial edicts. This is also not ideal, because the game produced in this way may no longer be the developer’s own work.
The third type is a team that I think is ideal: they are willing to listen carefully to all opinions, and then selectively absorb and apply them based on their own actual situation.
I think a good game development team should have such capabilities. After listening to what I just shared, I became even more interested in the “Jue Xiao” team.
Q16. Influenced by successful domestic works, more and more domestic games have begun to enter the market. In addition to art style and cultural themes, as investors, what other aspects do you use to judge whether a game has its own characteristics? Are there any projects that didn’t seem particularly outstanding at first, but after actually trying them out or experiencing the demo, you changed your views?
You Rongchang: Games are a very complex thing. For the current market, visual performance is indeed very important. It’s hard to imagine a game that has no visual features at all but relies solely on other aspects to achieve market success. While this is not impossible, it is certainly rare. So, I think vision is always an important factor.
However, we don’t like to objectively dismantle games into culture, themes, or other separate parts for analysis. What we are more concerned about is: What kind of experience do you hope to bring to players through this game? Is the experience unique enough?
For example, in “Daba: Watermarked Land”, combat is one of its main experiences, so we will focus more on combat. But for other games, they may hope to attract players through 100 different plot lines and 100 different story experiences, so the proportion of combat is not that high.
Therefore, the most important thing is to figure out what kind of Fantasy this game hopes to present, that is, what kind of fantasy and experience it hopes to bring to players, and whether it can deliver this experience well. This is what we value more.
I think the current problem facing Chinese games is not a lack of creativity. Many projects look good at first glance, but after you actually play them, you will find that there are many problems.
Especially in the Demo stage, because the experience time is relatively short, the development team is often able to well demonstrate what they most want to express. But whether these contents can support a complete game is another matter. After all, a game may require players to invest 10 hours or even 20 hours, which is completely different from a movie.
Many people who make games may want to make the game like a movie, always thinking about telling a story to the players. But the problem is that the game has 10 hours of experience time, and you can’t tell the story to the players all the time. It is very difficult to tell a story through the gameplay itself and at the same time make players feel interesting during the game.
Therefore, I think the most prominent problem in domestic games at present is that the demo is very attractive, but the final game may not reach the same level. This is the issue that deserves more attention. As for the lack of creativity in Chinese games, I’m not worried at all.
Q17. The China Star Program has introduced new partners this time. What are your main criteria when selecting partners? What kind of help do you hope these partners will bring to the plan?
Bao Bo: Denmu and Solutions 2 GO are both partners of great significance to the China Star Project. Because we found that the problems faced by many selected projects during the development process are actually relatively similar. For example, the team has fewer resources in overseas markets. Therefore, we hope to introduce some partners to help them complement this support.
On the other hand, many selected projects also require partners to have certain game judgment skills and be able to provide truly effective feedback. For example, Denmu has an international perspective and has professionals who can evaluate games from different perspectives. This ability is very important, not only for us, but especially for the development team.
As for Solutions 2 GO, they have been working with PlayStation for over 20 years. Some of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s offices around the world are also co-established with Solutions 2 GO. Therefore, it can be said that China Star plans to cooperate with Denmu Dianmeng and Solutions 2 GO.
Q18. Looking back on the development history of the China Star Program, what changes have occurred in the projects you are exposed to today and the difficulties encountered during its advancement compared to five years ago? At this point in time, how do you view the development of China’s stand-alone game industry?
Bao Bo: I think domestic developers have gone through a process of self-discovery and self-understanding.
First of all, there are many outstanding talents working in large game companies in China. They already have high incomes, so they may not be willing to leave their original jobs and develop stand-alone games.
Secondly, there may not be as many people who really love stand-alone games and are willing to invest in this field as you think. However, the number of relevant talents and teams has indeed grown significantly in the past two years. Perhaps because of the success of “Black Myth: Wukong”, everyone has seen the development momentum of domestic stand-alone games, and more and more teams have become optimistic about this field and are willing to start a business.
Third, the difficulty of developing stand-alone games is very high.
But my biggest feeling now is that the Chinese team is indeed very strong. This time I also experienced “Shadow Blade Zero” specifically, and I think it has been done very well. Coupled with the many development teams we usually come into contact with, there are some projects that have not been officially announced yet, and their team strength will definitely surprise everyone.
I think that Chinese developers have been working hard, and although the whole process has twists and turns, it is generally developing upward.
Should exceed: For those who want to develop stand-alone games, the current environment is definitely much better than in the past. But if we say whether domestic stand-alone games have entered an explosive period, I don’t think they have yet. You can also take a look at the projects that will be launched next. The number of projects that can be truly counted is actually limited, and there is still some time before the centralized harvest stage.
However, the overall trend is completely different from two years ago or even a year ago. I think the direction the industry is headed is positive. Including “Shadow Blade Zero” has achieved very good results, we are also very happy, this is a confidence boost for all developers.
You Rongchang: If we want to use a simple criterion to judge whether the spring of stand-alone games in China has really arrived, I think we can look at the revenue share of Chinese masterpieces in the Chinese market. If the revenue share of Chinese masterpieces in the Chinese market can be less than 50%, it means that this spring has really come.
I feel like we are still some way away from that day. Spring may be coming, but it’s not really here yet.
The Chinese market is of course huge, but the world market is even bigger. So far, Chinese games’ exploration of overseas markets and global markets is actually still at a very early stage. There are still a lot of opportunities here, and there is still a lot of room for development in the future.
Yusuke on the other hand: First of all, I am very much looking forward to that day, and I hope that Solutions 2 GO can participate in it and provide help to Chinese developers. It would be great if we could do our part for everyone. In addition, I hope that not only the game itself will achieve better sales results in the future, but also everyone’s views on stand-alone games will change, so that more people will pay attention to this market.
As more and more people pay attention to stand-alone games, the entire market will expand and the market share will continue to grow. In this way, the pie of the entire industry will become larger, and the China Star Plan will also be able to gain more development opportunities. I think this will form a very good positive cycle, and I am very much looking forward to this day.
