Huawei Technologies stole the spotlight at this year’s edition of ChinaJoy, the country’s biggest annual digital entertainment expo in Shanghai, as the telecommunications equipment giant unveiled more than 40 video games that can run on HarmonyOS Next, the latest iteration of its mobile operating system.
HarmonyOS Next, which will end support for Android apps, will be officially launched for commercial use on Huawei’s upcoming flagship 5G smartphone series, the Mate 70, in the fourth quarter this year.
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Its HarmonyOS promotion marked Shenzhen-based Huawei’s first year with a central booth at the ChinaJoy exhibition floor inside the Shanghai New International Expo Centre.
Long queues formed at four separate sections exhibiting those featured titles at the HarmonyOS booth, as ChinaJoy attendees waited to take part in interactive activities, get free gifts and play video games on Huawei’s latest smartphones.
“It was exciting to see one of my favourite games Narake: Bladepoint Mobile and be able to run it on the new [mobile operating] system,” said Xu Xiaoyi, a 25-year-old Shanghai resident, who joined the queue for Huawei after initially setting out to see NetEase’s booth.
Xu said he hoped to see more foreign titles supported on HarmonyOS Next in the future, as ChinaJoy – with 369,000 total visitors this year, according to the event’s organiser – witnessed growing interest in the mobile platform’s launch and the native apps created for the system.
Huawei’s campaign at ChinaJoy showed how the company is building up anticipation for HarmonyOS Next, after the platform’s current iteration unseated Apple’s iOS as the second-biggest mobile operating system on the mainland in the first quarter.
People gather at the booth of Japanese gaming console giant PlayStation, owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment, at the recent ChinaJoy expo in Shanghai. Photo: AFP alt=People gather at the booth of Japanese gaming console giant PlayStation, owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment, at the recent ChinaJoy expo in Shanghai. Photo: AFP>
HarmonyOS was launched as an alternative to Android in August 2019, three months after the US government added Huawei to its Entity List. Under this trade blacklist, Huawei is barred from buying software, chips and other US-origin technologies from suppliers without Washington’s approval.
While some major Chinese video gaming studios, such as miHoYo and Perfect World, did not return as exhibitors this year, Sony Interactive Entertainment once again put on a major display at the event, where its PlayStation gaming console and a wide range of titles saw plenty of interest. Visitors had the opportunity to play more than 30 games, including yet-to-be-released titles, on the popular PS5.
Sony is the only one among the industry’s big-three game console vendors that continues to exhibit at ChinaJoy. Microsoft and Nintendo have been absent from the expo for years.
“This was my first year here, and I got here early … to get the very first batch of gifts including Valorant,” said Qiao Ni, a 19-year-old Shanghai gamer, who was keen to visit the booths of foreign studios. He expects to return to ChinaJoy next year.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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