China's most-anticipated upcoming games: terrifying news for domestic developers?

We talk a lot about what already-released games Chinese gamers are talking about and playing at the moment, and frankly, that list doesn’t change too much from month to month. League of Legends, Dungeon & Fighter, Crossfire: these are the staple games of the Chinese gaming masses.

But could that be set to change? What upcoming games are Chinese gamers most excited about?

Independent Chinese gaming site 17173 tracks discussion and sentiment about upcoming games in China using data from votes, commenting, and other behavior patterns on its site. And while it may not be completely representative of China’s feelings, it is one of the biggest gaming sites in the country, and its data are definitely interesting to look at. So without further ado, here are the upcoming games Chinese gamers are most excited about right now:

In case there’s anything on there you don’t recognize, here’s the list in plain text:

1. MU2, Webzen (South Korea), MMORPG
2. Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard (USA), MOBA
3. Cabal 2, ESTsoft (South Korea), MMORPG
4. Master of Meteor Blades, Kongzhong (China), MMORPG
5. World of Warplanes, Wargaming.net (Cyprus), Flight
6. Titanfall, Respawn (USA), FPS
7. Fantasy Frontier, X-Legend (Taiwan), MMORPG
8. ArcheAge, XL Games (South Korea), MMORPG
9. Kingdom Under Fire 2, Blueside (South Korea), MMORPG/Strategy
10. Lineage Eternal, NCSoft (South Korea), MMORPG
11. ASTA: The War of Tears and Winds, Polygon Games (South Korea), MMORPG
12. Dungeon Striker, Eyedentity Games (South Korea), MMORPG
13. Elder Scrolls Online, Bethesda (USA), MMORPG
14. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, Square Enix (Japan), MMORPG
15. Echo of Soul, NHN (South Korea), MMORPG
16. Project Black Sheep, Neowiz (South Korea), Action
17. Tianya Mingyue Dao, Tencent (China), MMORPG
18. EverQuest Next, Sony Online (USA), MMORPG
19. Guild Wars 2, NCSoft (South Korea), MMORPG
20. Bless, Neowiz (South Korea), MMORPG

While this list may look a bit terrifying for domestic developers (you’ll note that there are only two on this list), it’s worth pointing out that 17173 readers are likely among China’s most hardcore and tuned-in gamers, and are likely more in touch with what’s happening in global gaming than the average PC gamer. Still, though, one has to wonder why Chinese developers aren’t able to generate more excitement then all these foreign (mostly Korean) games right now.

(via 17173)

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UPDATE 3-6-2014: Changed “Eyedea” to “Eyedentity Games”.