Movie companies are no longer just making films and game developers no longer just want to design new games — the key to success these days lies in the diversification of content across entertainment sectors

Visitors try out virtual reality games by Guangzhou-based company NineD during the China Joy convention. The Chinese gaming market is now estimated to be as large as the one in the US. Photos by Gao Erqiang / China Daily

The blurring of boundaries between gaming and other sources of entertainment such as Internet portals, social networks and films was the most prominent phenomenon at this year’s China Joy, the annual gaming and digital entertainment extravaganza in Shanghai.

Held at the Shanghai New International Expo Center from July 28 to 31, the event this year drew 325,500 visitors, an increase of 19 percent from last year. The burgeoning crowd numbers also reflect the growth of the gaming industry in China — according to the China Gaming Industry Report which was released at the China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference, an event that is part of China Joy, games developed in China achieved sales of $14.8 billion in 2015, taking up more than 70 percent of the market share.

The domestic gaming industry is also aggressively expanding to overseas markets, growing at a staggering rate of 87.4 percent every year for the past five years. Based on statistics from China’s gaming industry administration, the domestic gaming market had in 2015 hit $21.15 billion. This means China now has a gaming market that is as large as its US counterparts.

Experts said that much of this growth has to do with the diversification of entertainment content.

Huayi Brothers Media Group, one of the largest film and entertainment corporations in China, has been at the forefront of doing so in China. The company entered the Internet entertainment segment six years ago by introducing a slew of Internet games, primarily those for mobile platforms.

It has since followed up on that by creating complementary content in the form of film productions and Internet TV series.

In 2010, Huayi Brothers became the second largest shareholder of Ourpalm Co Ltd, a company that specializes in producing gaming content for smart phones and social networks. This year, Huayi became the second largest shareholder of Yingxiong Entertainment, a mobile game company dedicated to the promotion of e-sports.

Most recently, Huayi Brothers has also gotten involved in the development of Virtual Reality (VR) technology, having launched a VR experience center at the Wangfujing commercial center in Beijing.