Over 1.4 billion yuan in generous dividends: What is the confidence behind "gaming expert" G-bits?

China Economic Journal reporter Li Zhe, Beijing report

Benefiting from the strong performance of games such as Legend of the Staff Sword (Mainland Version) and Ask the Sword for Immortality (Mainland Version), the “game bellwether” G-bits (603444.SH) reversed its performance slump in 2025.

Recently, G-bits’ disclosed 2025 annual report shows that the company achieved operating revenue of 6.205 billion yuan, up 67.89% year on year; net profit was 1.794 billion yuan, up 89.82% year on year.

Meanwhile, G-bits continues its generous dividend policy—proposing a cash dividend of 70 yuan per 10 shares, for a total cash dividend of 502 million yuan. If combined with the dividends paid previously in the first half and the third quarter, G-bits’ total dividends in 2025 exceed 1.406 billion yuan, accounting for 78.41% of the net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company in the consolidated statements.

Reversing the performance slump

The financial report shows that among G-bits’ core games, Ask the Dao Mobile ranked first with revenues of 1.938 billion yuan. The titles launched in 2025—Legend of the Staff Sword (Mainland Version), Ask the Sword for Immortality (Mainland Version), Legend of the Staff Sword (Overseas Version), and Come and Dig for Treasure, Dao You—contributed revenues of 1.703 billion yuan, 824 million yuan, 792 million yuan, and 603 million yuan, respectively.

Regarding the operating strategy for games going forward, G-bits Chairman and General Manager Lu Hongyan said: when profitability is relatively good, they will actively expand the market; if the product is already moving toward stability, they will maintain steady operations; if the product is in a loss state, they will not simply stop the product—rather, they will do their best to adjust it so that the product moves above the line of break-even on a long-term basis, in order to maintain long-term operations.

A reporter from China Business Journal learned from G-bits that in 2025, driven by Legend of the Staff Sword (Overseas Version) and Ask the Sword for Immortality (Overseas Version), G-bits’ overseas operating revenue totaled 929 million yuan, up 85.80%.

When discussing overseas market expansion, Lu Hongyan said that from a medium- to long-term perspective, G-bits’ strategy for going overseas has not changed. “The overseas market is very large, and the China market accounts for only about one-third of the global market, so going overseas has always been the direction we are firmly committed to advancing. Compared with before, our performance has indeed improved somewhat, but compared with the entire industry or domestic peers, we still have a lot to catch up on, and there is still much room for improvement.”

As for the next direction for overseas expansion of Legend of the Staff Sword (Overseas Version), Lu Hongyan said: “We will try one country/region at a time, and places such as Europe, the United States, Japan, and South Korea are all core markets that we prioritize.”

Driven by the above multiple games, G-bits achieved operating revenue of 6.205 billion yuan in 2025, up 67.89%; and net profit of 1.794 billion yuan, up 89.82%. This ended the downward trend that had been ongoing since 2023 and 2024. In addition, in 2025, G-bits’ net cash flow from operating activities was 2.796 billion yuan, up 123.91%.

While disclosing its 2025 performance, G-bits also released a dividend plan—proposing to distribute a cash dividend of 70 yuan per 10 shares to all shareholders, for a total proposed cash dividend of approximately 502 million yuan. Together with the previously announced dividend plan, G-bits’ total dividends in 2025 exceed 1.406 billion yuan, accounting for 78.41% of the net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company in the consolidated statements.

While new games drove growth in performance, G-bits’ selling expenses in 2025 reached 2.083 billion yuan, up 112.46% year on year. In this regard, G-bits stated that in 2025, games including Legend of the Staff Sword (Mainland Version), Ask the Sword for Immortality (Mainland Version), Legend of the Staff Sword (Overseas Version), Come and Dig for Treasure, Dao You, and Nine Pastures were launched, requiring significant distribution investments.

Lu Hongyan said that although G-bits will expand its user pool through user acquisition, the core focus is still whether the product can bring users new experiences. “As long as the game experience is fresh and fun for users, whether the supply of games is sufficient or whether acquisition costs rise, it will not create too large an impact.”

It is worth noting that in the fourth quarter of 2025, G-bits’ operating revenue was 1.719 billion yuan, down 12.65% from the third quarter, and its net profit after deducting non-recurring gains and losses fell 7.71% compared with the third quarter. In this regard, G-bits said that its core product Legend of the Staff Sword (Mainland Version) saw a decline in revenues, leading to a corresponding decrease in operating revenue and profit; the new game Nine Pastures was launched in December 2025, and because distribution investment was large in the pre-launch period, it had not been profitable as of the end of 2025.

AI changes the “moat”

In its 2025 financial report, G-bits repeatedly mentioned the impact of AI on the gaming industry and stated that it would conduct a series of experiments around AI. Such as integrating AI technology into game development processes including planning, art, programming, and testing, to improve R&D efficiency and enhance the game experience.

“AI changes a lot every month. Previously, we mainly saw AI as helping with capacity—reducing costs and improving productivity. But now we already have a brand-new perspective: for game creation, AI can greatly accelerate prototype testing and iteration speed. Especially with the very large progress made in AI programming over the past year, this will allow many of our ideas to be realized very quickly and with great agility. In terms of art resources, AI also produces outputs at a faster pace, which provides great help when conducting certain iterative tests.” Lu Hongyan said, “AI has already shifted from being a tool to being a partner that co-creates with us. Over the past year, the impact from AI programming has been the greatest. Accordingly, the organizational structure must also be adjusted to some extent; how to adjust it is still being explored. We will always pay close attention to changes across all industries (not just the gaming industry). In the future, with AI empowerment, so-called super-individuals can play an even bigger role—meaning one person can be equivalent to a team from before, and even more efficient—because this efficiency is not simply about increasing capacity, but about a leap in iteration speed.”

Built on the logic of ROI (return on investment), game companies previously formed a series of R&D processes and ways of thinking; but as the availability of AI keeps getting stronger, that prior R&D logic is changing.

“With AI’s help, some things that previously had low input-output ratios and that we would not have done will now be done. Once we change our thinking, overall production efficiency will undergo a qualitative change,” Lu Hongyan said. “In the past, even though we had ideas for some things, the cost to realize those ideas was high, so we tended to validate them using other methods—such as reasoning, market research, and player interviews. That is a decision and judgment based on ROI, meaning that before doing anything, we should use the lowest-cost method to do it. Now that we can use AI programming, we can quickly realize our ideas. Maybe I go to sleep, or while handling other matters, I make time to interact with AI, and the task is already done. This allows me to validate real ideas more accurately than all the reasoning, interviews, and research.”

However, in Lu Hongyan’s view, currently AI’s contribution to capacity has not yet truly brought about a revolutionary qualitative change, but it may be possible in the future. Therefore, for game companies, compared with production, the real focus should be on design. “At present, production may still be an important competitive advantage, but with the development of technology, design is what will become the true competitive advantage. This means that the old ‘moat’ is no longer valid.”

Editor: Dong Shuguang Review: Wu Kezhong Proofread: Liu Jun

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