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Chinese game engine creator Cocos is the fast-food equivalent of Unreal Engine, powering hit mobile titles
- Xiamen-based Cocos is the game engine that helped create nearly half of all mobile games in China in 2018
- Unlike its competitors known for complex 3D games, Cocos founder Zhe Wang says he aims to offer the simplest and most budget-friendly game engine
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If Epic Games’ Unreal Engine were a fancy restaurant – where customers could expect to pay high prices to enjoy leisurely meals – Chinese competitor Cocos Technologies would be the “McDonald’s or KFC of the market”, according to Xiamen-based Cocos’ founder Zhe Wang.
Both companies are known for their game engines, which are software frameworks to build and create video games, providing support for programmers to quickly put together code and render graphics.
Such platforms have become increasingly more popular and important as users spend more time on mobile devices. Mobile games made up 75 per cent of total game sales in China in the first half of the year, according to a report by government-backed China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association.
Many of these are built at least partially with Cocos, which powered half of the top 10 games in China in May, according to data firm Qimai Data. Cocos said that in 2018, 45 per cent of mobile games in China and 30 per cent of those worldwide were created with the help of its game engine.
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90-year-old Japanese grandma flexes fingers for video gaming
90-year-old Japanese grandma flexes fingers for video gaming
But as smartphones become increasingly more powerful, people are demanding more from their game engines, and competitors such as Unreal and Unity Technologies’ Unity are picking up momentum.
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