Sony Interactive Entertainment (Shanghai) will put a project investment worth US$1 million into every game selected for the fourth round of its China Hero Project, the company announced at an event in Shanghai on 3 November 2026. Sony’s announcement, published in full by Gcores, also names two new partners: DENMU, an investment firm focused on the global games industry, and Solutions 2 GO (S2G), a distribution company that it says has worked with PlayStation for 22 years.
The money is not limited to the new intake. Unending Dawn (绝晓), a third-round open-world action game, gets the same US$1 million to speed up development. Two other third-round titles received dates: Daba: Land of Water Scar is due in spring 2027 and 潜阈限界, which has no announced English title, later in 2027. S2G plans to help release both. DENMU is already an investor in Daba, which is made by DarkStar; its Steam page lists PlayStation Publishing LLC as publisher, English and Simplified Chinese text, and a 2027 release. The fourth round is still recruiting through [email protected]. IT Home, citing Gamersky, reports that Sony’s China game production director Bao Bo said the selected projects would be announced soon.
From 1 million yuan to US$1 million
The figure is a large step up. When Sony relaunched the programme for its third round in November 2022, Bao Bo said it would invest more than 1 million yuan (about US$140,000 at the time) in each game, BusinessDay reported. Sony now says the project has selected 19 Chinese games since 2016, 11 of which have been released. Its public China Hero Project page lists eight titles in production, including Unending Dawn, Daba and 潜阈限界, and released games such as F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch, Lost Soul Aside and AI Limit. CE-Asia, which published AI Limit in March 2025, described its development and publishing work at the event.
The fourth round itself opened on 31 July 2025 with Virtuos, RichTap and PlayStation Studios Creative Arts as new support partners, Yystv reported at the time. Unending Dawn, from the Chinese studio Parcae’s Fate (织命旅途), joined the third round in July 2024 as a multiplayer open-world action game for PS5 and PC, Gcores reported then; no release date has been given.
“PlayStation keeps refining the China Hero Project and increasing its investment,” Sean Kelly, who heads Sony’s China software business and leads the programme, said in the announcement. The stream of good Chinese games, he added, has made Sony “more certain of the huge potential and enthusiasm of Chinese developers”. Tatsuo Eguchi, president of Sony Interactive Entertainment (Shanghai), described the aim as a bridge that brings PlayStation hardware and games into China and takes more Chinese games to players worldwide.