Shanghai’s Digital Culture “Twin Engines” Accelerate: Game Industry Annual Conference and Online Literature Week Co-Chart New Landscape for Industry Integration

From December 17 to 19, the 2025 China Game Industry Annual Conference was held in Shanghai’s Xuhui West Bund, marking the first time this national-level industry conference has taken place in Shanghai. Concurrently, the fourth Shanghai International Online Literature Week brought together creators and industry representatives from 14 countries. The simultaneous hosting of these two high-profile events in the same city highlights Shanghai’s clustering effect and ecosystem advantages in the digital culture industry. It also signals that digital content, represented by online games and online literature, is accelerating its breakthrough beyond virtual boundaries and deeply integrating into the city’s development framework.

From “Metaverse Street” to Industry Clustering: Game Culture Shapes New Urban Scenes
In Xuhui’s Caohejing district, a 1.9-kilometer “Metaverse Neoworld” street connects leading game companies, commercial complexes, and public spaces. From Honkai: Star Rail-themed cakes to real-life installations recreating scenes from Arknights: Endfield, game IPs are moving from online to offline, becoming tangible and participatory elements of urban cultural life.

This street exemplifies the innovative integration of Shanghai’s game industry. As part of the conference’s supporting activities, “Metaverse Street” launched a series of themed pop-ups and debut exhibitions, linking with five cultural and tourism landmarks, including the West Bund Art District and Xujiahui, to form a themed experiential route titled “Exploring the Origins of Haipai Culture.” This initiative showcases cross-border integration practices in “gaming + cultural tourism + commerce.”

Evolution of the Gaming Ecosystem: From Product Development to City-Level IP Operations
At the forum “New Paradigms in Game Culture: Evolution from Products to Ecosystems,” industry experts explored the symbiotic relationship between the game industry and urban development. Taking Shanghai’s West Bund as an example, six major cultural and artistic venues have attracted over 500,000 offline visitors annually by hosting IP events such as Valorant mobile game trial sessions and Arknights immersive exhibitions, forming a cluster of “gaming + technology + art” immersive experiences.

The Shanghai Game Industry and Urban Development Research Center, unveiled during the conference, will further advance research and practical applications of the industry ecosystem. Areas like Caohejing have gradually built a “rainforest-like” industrial ecosystem integrating R&D, publishing, exhibitions, and consumption, driving the evolution of games from single products to multi-dimensional urban cultural symbols.

Online Literature Going Global Enters “Global Co-Creation” Phase: The Chinese Model Resonates Worldwide
During the Shanghai International Online Literature Week, writers from countries such as Russia, the United States, and the Philippines participated in the “Read and Explore Shanghai” tour. Russian writer “Guiltythree” remarked after visiting Yuewen Group and The King’s Avatar-themed restaurants: “The creative ecosystem and IP development model of Chinese online literature have opened up entirely new perspectives for my writing.”

Data shows that in 2025, Yuewen Group’s overseas platform WebNovel attracted nearly 400 million global users, drawing 530,000 creators worldwide and hosting over 820,000 original works. Among these, 538 hit works exceeded 10 million reads. The 2025 China Online Literature Global Expansion Trends Report, released during the Online Literature Week, pointed out that China’s online literature industry is transitioning from content export to a new phase of “global co-creation + localized operations,” with its industrial model becoming a cultural phenomenon of global influence.

“New Trio” Leads Digital Culture Integration: Building Experiential Urban Narratives
From online literature to online games, digital content IPs are achieving end-to-end integration in Shanghai—from online to offline, and from industry to city. This summer, the inaugural “Shanghai Summer” International Animation Month, jointly organized by CCG EXPO, Bilibili World, and ChinaJoy, demonstrated the immense potential of integrating culture, tourism, commerce, sports, and exhibitions.

With the simultaneous hosting of the Game Industry Annual Conference and the Online Literature Week, Shanghai is adopting a systematic approach to deeply integrate digital content with urban spaces. Following the evolutionary path of “product → scene → ecosystem,” virtual IPs are transforming into playable, consumable, and shareable urban life scenes, continuously infusing the city with innovative momentum that blends cultural depth and contemporary vitality.