Yu Ruichao of Tencent IEG: Innovating for Quality, Building a New Ecosystem for Industry Development

Shanghai – The 2025 China International Digital Entertainment Congress (CDEC) summit forum, a key event held alongside ChinaJoy, convened in Shanghai on July 31st. Under the theme “Gathering New Quality Productivity and Catalyzing Global Resonance,” this year’s conference united government officials, industry experts, and corporate representatives to engage in in-depth discussions surrounding technological breakthroughs, globalization strategies, and the international expansion of Chinese cultural products within the digital entertainment sector.

Yu Ruichao emphasized that technological innovation is a “marathon” demanding endurance, requiring sustained strategic focus and consistent accumulation. “Currently, it is crucial to fully leverage the vital role of gaming scenarios in AI development, propelling games to become a significant driver of innovation,” Yu stated. “We must seize the trend of AI empowerment extending from the production end to the user experience, opening up greater opportunities for industry growth. Simultaneously, we should actively practice ‘Tech for Good,’ promoting the dissemination of gaming technology’s value to more fields, benefiting a wider audience.”

The following is the full text of the speech:

Respected leaders, esteemed guests, friends:

Good morning! It is a pleasure to be at ChinaJoy, engaging with you all in discussions of topical industry issues.

The theme of this forum revolves around new quality productivity. I’d like to begin with the origins of gaming. In 1952, in a Cambridge University laboratory, scientists manipulated knobs to play “Noughts and Crosses” on a vacuum tube computer. That flickering light was the “first cry” of electronic games, and also an early cradle of AI research.

One might say, gaming is inherently linked to cutting-edge technology. Technological advancements drive game innovation, while gaming applications constantly contribute back to technological breakthroughs. This “double helix” structure makes gaming a “test bed” for new quality productivity.

In April of this year, the National Press and Publication Administration released the “Network Publication Technology Innovation Leading Plan,” comprehensively outlining the requirements for cultivating and developing new quality productivity. How do we implement this “Leading Plan”? How do we promote innovative development? I have the following reflections:

Firstly, innovation is a “marathon” that tests endurance, whether in technological breakthroughs or content creation.

In the past two years, many have felt a significant breakthrough and transformation in certain cultural and technological sectors seemingly overnight. From DeepSeek to “Black Myth: Wukong,” the results are inspiring and exhilarating. However, these moments of brilliance are not “sudden inspirations,” but the result of accumulated effort.

The gestation of new capabilities requires time to take root. In the field of AI, for example, we established a dedicated laboratory back in 2012, comprehensively deploying various AI technologies. Before launching the “Hunyuan” model, we had already fine-tuned several specialized models in real-world applications like advertising, taking small but rapid steps. When the “spring” of generative AI suddenly arrived, our technological foundation was already somewhat established, laying the groundwork for keeping pace with the era of large models, and leveraging technology to drive the development of advantageous businesses. To run this “marathon” well, Tencent has made long-term high-intensity investments: in the past three years alone, our R&D expenditure has neared 200 billion yuan. As of March this year, we hold over 46,000 global patent authorizations, ranking among the top globally in comprehensive innovation capabilities.

We maintain this step-by-step approach in our gaming business as well. Globally, those works standing at the pinnacle of their respective genres have almost all been cultivated in specialized tracks for more than a decade. Take “Delta Force: Hawk Ops,” for example. The development team has been deeply rooted in the shooter genre for many years, allowing them to accumulate strong technical and product capabilities. This year, Tencent Games’ evergreen lineup has further expanded, with more products shining globally. Behind this report card is not a smooth upward curve, but more of a step-like progression. There are periods of seeming stagnation, and missteps during trial and error, but the pace never stops. I believe there are no shortcuts to innovation, requiring sufficient patience and determination, as well as the ability to seize opportunities.

Secondly, gaming is becoming a critical variable in achieving a new round of breakthroughs in AI technology, and we should seize and utilize the unique role of gaming scenarios in technological innovation.

This February, Microsoft unveiled the “Muse” model. Trained in gaming scenarios, it can generate images in real-time based on player actions. This potentially means that players may be able to create entire games with just a gamepad in the future. This is not the first time gaming has played a significant role in generative AI. Before launching ChatGPT, OpenAI upgraded its training methods using “DOTA2.”

From “Fine Art” to “FineWonders” to “KaiWu,” we have witnessed Tencent AI’s progression from specialized to general-purpose. The door to general artificial intelligence has only just opened, and we believe that the deep integration of gaming and AI will stimulate even greater new quality productivity.

Thirdly, we should actively embrace the changes that AI brings to the industry. This change is extending from the production end to the user experience, providing gaming with a larger realm of imagination.

The onrushing tide of generative AI is landing on the production end first. Industry reports show that AI is accelerating its penetration into all aspects of the industry, with virtual content production and AI production pipelines currently the most heavily invested areas. Tencent has also conducted in-depth explorations in conjunction with its own business. I’d like to share two representative cases from this year: One comes from our AI department. Tencent “Hunyuan” recently launched a game visual generation platform, essentially providing designers with a complete AI toolkit that can improve efficiency by dozens of times. This is a manifestation of general AI capabilities migrating to specific businesses. The other comes from the native game technology department, which launched a full-link AI solution for game creation last month, focusing on specific pain points in game development such as bone binding and animation production, truly freeing up the hands and time of artists. Combined with the recent sharing of industry colleagues, a clear feeling is that although these innovative explorations start from different paths, they ultimately converge like multiple rushing streams, forming a surging momentum to promote the quality and efficiency of the entire industry and develop it to a higher level.

In addition to the production end, there have been more explorations at the user experience end in the past two years. Currently, more deployments are seen in intelligent NPCs. For example, “Peacekeeper Elite” has connected the digital spokesperson Jili to the DeepSeek large model, which can provide personalized feedback based on player dynamics. AI teammates have also been recently launched, boasting long-term memory capabilities, capable of chatting like real people, and of understanding and executing player combat instructions. This type of exploration is essentially a revolution in the underlying logic of interaction, promising to gradually evolve toward dynamic storylines, bringing a “personalized” gaming experience.

Of course, innovation at the user experience end is only the beginning, and faces issues such as AI anthropomorphism and the quality of generated content. However, it is certain that when AI truly understands “human needs,” changes at the user experience end will no longer be sporadic functional innovations, but a restructuring of the entire gaming ecosystem. This is our challenge, and our opportunity.

Finally, the empowerment of new quality productivity extends both internally and externally. We hope to promote the value of gaming technology to more fields, benefiting more people.

At Tencent, we often say “Tech for Good.” These four words represent putting the warmth of technology into socially-conscious problem solving actions. I’d like to share a story about “forgetting” and “awakening”: Last year, a retired aunt came to a hospital in Beijing. She used to be a kindergarten teacher when she was young and loved reciting poetry. But in recent years, she often remembered the first line of a poem but forgot the second. More worryingly, she often forgot to put salt when cooking, or even forgot to turn off the stove, nearly causing accidents. She initially thought “this is what happens when you get old,” until doctors diagnosed her with mild cognitive impairment, also the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. This is her dilemma, and the common dilemma of more than 38 million elderly people in China. Then this aunt joined the exploratory clinical trial of “Tencent Brain Training.” During the trial, she effectively improved her impaired cognitive abilities through cognitive training in daily life scenarios such as poetry and cooking. Based on medical science, and with the assistance of gamified design, 98% of the subjects completed all the training and achieved good results. In May of this year, this software obtained a medical device registration certificate and will become an “electronic prescription” for more patients.

This story is the latest reflection of our commitment to value “for Good.” In addition to caring for older adults, we also cover culture inheritance, rural revitalization, ecological protection, and other fields. We used gaming technology to create projects such as the “Digital Central Axis – Microcosm,” assisting Beijing’s Central Axis in its successful World Heritage application last year. Recently, Tencent was also invited to participate in this year’s World Heritage Conference, sharing our innovative explorations in digital cultural protection with the world.

Currently, the global technology wave is surging forward, and the deep integration of new quality productivity and industry has become the “must-answer question” of the times. The answer lies not in chasing the concept of trends, nor in pursuing traffic gimmicks, but in the solid development foundation of the industry, in the ardent needs of hundreds of millions of users, and more in the process of our collective endeavors. Let us work together to forge ahead, move toward “new,” and jointly build a new industry ecosystem! Thank you all.