Justice Online

China’s Big Bet on AI for Games

The Chinese gaming industry has transitioned from experimental AI usage to a systemic, industrial-scale integration of artificial intelligence across production pipelines and core gameplay.

• Chinese game studios are aggressively industrializing AI to combat rising costs and falling hit rates, with companies like 37 Interactive reporting that AI now produces over 80% of their 2D art and assists in over 70% of ad video creation.
• The gap between Western and Chinese development is widening as Chinese firms prioritize rapid execution over risk minimization, exemplified by 37 Interactive shipping an AI-native mini-game in 10 days—a project that would traditionally require six months.
• AI-driven game cloning has reached industrial scale, allowing developers to produce knockoffs in roughly one day, which forces indie studios to build deeper creative moats beyond just novel concepts to remain competitive.