CMGE Ventures into Sport Games with Code: Basketball 3V3 under Development

BEIJING, Aug. 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, CMGE, a leading global IP-oriented game-based ecological company, announced that it has completed the investment in Continents Sport, and now CMGE holds 51% of the shares of Continents Sport and officially becoming its controlling shareholder. The flagship development project of Continents Sport is Code: Basketball 3V3, a cross-platform (pc, console and mobile phone) sport game jointly developed by Zhao Yongshuo (Korean), the "Father of Street Basketball" and Liu Jingbin (Chinese), the R&D head of Chinese version of Freestyle, A popular basketball game on PC.It is expected that the game will be tested by the end of 2022 and officially launched in mid-2023. In the meantime, CMGE will build a "street basketball game ecology" featuring Chinese style.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee, with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, has attached great importance to sports. In order to further the Healthy China Strategy and the national fitness strategy, China has accelerated its journey towards a leading sporting nation, and built public service systems for national fitness with higher level to give full play to national fitness in improving people's health, promoting human development, driving economic and social development and presenting the soft power in culture. For that purpose, the State Council has launched the National Fitness Program (2021-2025), with the aim to build better public service systems for national fitness, provide more convenient public fitness and increase the size of the national sport industry to CNY 5 trillion. In addition, as 3×3 basketball, a mode of street basketball, has been officially included as an official Olympic sport since the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, it is recognized as the world's most popular team sport in cities worldwide as an emerging sport style.

The popularity of 3×3 basketball among people has set a solid foundation for its development in China. Since China claimed men's and women's gold medals of 3×3 basketball at the 18th Asian Games Jakarta Palembang 2018, women's gold medal of 3×3 basketball at FIBA Basketball World Cup China 2019, and women's bronze medal of 3×3 basketball at Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the development of 3×3 basketball in China is booming and now embracing a historical moment: the Super 3 league, that is aligned with the CBA 3X3 League, was officially launched on December 11, 2021. Yao Ming, the Chairman of Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), said that the launch of Super 3 is conducive to promoting the popularization and improvement of 3×3 basketball in China and will be a pilot for the event management system reform of the CBA. As a local event IP, Super 3 will also cooperate with the FIBA and countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative to make the event a platform facilitating international sport cultural exchange.

In addition, the total market size of e-sports in China in 2020 was over CNY 145 billion as a result of the rapid development of mobile e-sports game and e-sport ecological market. It is estimated that, by 2021, the market size of e-sports would exceed CNY 180 billion. The inclusion of e-sports as an official sport in the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC)'s landmark move of announcing first-ever Olympic Virtual Series, amazing development of e-sports policies in multiple cities and launch of new e-sports games all are drivers to the continuous development of e-sports. In the future, e-sports will incorporate more sports and technological elements and further integrate with urban cultural development. What's more, e-sports is becoming more and more popular as it is now serving as an important role in people's daily life. As MOBA and tactical competition/shooting game events lead the development of e-sports, other types of e-sport games are also embracing their wonderful future. Among those games, sports games have raised widespread concern since 2020. Taking FIFA events as an example, in China, in addition to FIFA Online 3 Star League (FSL) and Chinese E-sports Football League (CEFL), Chinese Football Association (CFA) also established the national team for e-sports as international FIFA-based events have been launched. Both the member recruitment and establishment of China national e-sports football team and Shanghai e-sports training team indicate that national and local e-sports teams will be a common trend in the future. At the same time, events regarding console and VR games will diversify the ecology of e-sports games.

In the context of the construction of a leading sporting nation, the professionalization of 3×3 basketball and the rapid development of e-sports market, CMGE has made a brilliant decision to set foot in the sports game market. Focusing on 3×3 basketball (street basketball), CMGE determines to independently develop its cross-platform game Code: Basketball 3V3 and build a "street basketball-based e-sport ecology" featuring Chinese style.

The developer of the game Zhao Yongshuo, the "Father of Street Basketball", has over 21 years of experience in game development and profound influence over PC games and mobile games. He led the development of the PC game Freestyle. The game was launched in 2005, and has been operating for 16 years so far, boasting over 200 million players and a total revenue of over CNY 3.5 billion. In the e-sports industry, Freestyle has been included in the World Cyber Games (WCG) as a game, and given birth to three major events of Freestyle Professional League (FSPL), Super Freestyle Association (SFSA) and Freestyle International Association (FSIMA), making itself a popular on-line basketball game with over 125 million players. The development of Code: Basketball 3V3 is undertaken by the original developers of PC game Freestyle, Liu Jingbin and Zhao Yongshuo, whose partnership has lasted for years. This perfectly ensures the game quality and experience.

Similar to Freestyle, Code: Basketball 3V3, according to its developer, features street basketball bullfighting and gameplay of 2V2, 3V3, Olympic mode and others. The game uses Unity 3D engine for the special high definition rendering pipeline (HDRP) and elements of AAA games. While presenting realistic images and remaining street cultural elements, the game also combines elements of Chinese style in terms of audio-visual senses and world outlook. Street basketball gaming experience aside, Code: Basketball 3V3 also boasts DIY settings. Player skins, balls and courts can be personalized, including the colors and patterns of balls and styles of the court floor, walls and billboards of and around the court. Besides, the game also allows content creation. Players can upload design works and download them at the Design Workshop to develop personal styles.

Xiao Jian, the Chairman and CEO of CMGE said that, "We really appreciate the partnership with the two outstanding designers Zhao Yongshuo, the 'Father of Street Basketball' and Liu Jingbin. As a leading global IP-oriented game-based ecological company, CMGE actively responds to the 'National Fitness Program (2021-2025)' and will combine its strength and Continents Sport's rich experience in R&D and operation to develop Code: Basketball 3V3, a cross-platform Chinese-style street basketball game featuring Chinese style and related e-sports game events for basketball fans. With our efforts in the game and related events, we are looking forward to deepening our development in the global sports game market."

SOURCE CMGE