A classic game IP with a history of more than 20 years and a value of 100 billion yuan- "Legend", its copyright dispute finally came to an end at the end of 2021. The Supreme People's Court made it clear that Shanghai Shengqu Games, a subsidiary of Century Huatong Group, legally enjoys the "legendary" IP copyright.
The history of "Legend" in China is also a "legend". In 2001, the Korean online game "Legend" was introduced to China by Shanda Games, opening the door to china's online game market. In 2014, Shanda Games was sold by Shanda Network. In 2019, Century Huatong completed the merger and acquisition of Shanda Games for 29.8 billion yuan and renamed it "Sheng qu games".
After more than 20 years of operation and promotion, the overall IP value of "Legend" has exceeded 100 billion yuan, and after the completion of mergers and acquisitions, the game territory of Century Huatong Group has been expanding, becoming the "first game stock" of A shares.
Legend celebrates its 22nd year in the Chinese market. Putting aside past disputes, in the new year, can the "old IP" be lightly loaded?
Turn around and go out to sea
"Legend has opened the door to Online Games in China and made the Chinese game market today." In the view of Wang Tuo, chairman of Century Huatong Group, the company that once grew up by introducing overseas games is now choosing to turn around and go to sea. "Overseas has a vast market potential, and exporting our original games overseas also has the significance of cultural 'going out'."
On April 28, 2021, Century Huatong's Diandian Interactive launched the first self-developed "meta-universe" game "LiveTopia" (Shining Town), and Roblox, the world's largest multiplayer online creation game, was launched. In less than 5 months, it has become a phenomenon-level game, with more than 40 million monthly active users, the highest daily active users exceeding 5 million, the cumulative number of visits exceeding 620 million, and the number of users on the Roblox platform exceeding 100 million, "LiveTopia" has also become a phenomenon-level game specifically mentioned by the CEO of Robles in the second quarter earnings report.
"LiveTopia"
"In a big open world, with user-produced content, this is a big direction for future game design." Wang Yao said that in "LiveTopia", there is a very realistic urban system, subway, airport, road traffic, players can also have a piece of their own area, in which to build a variety of houses, as well as countless costumes, props, pets, vehicles and even airplanes and cruise ships, in this open world to play their own life.
Century Huatong has also become the first listed company in China to develop and operate a meta-universe game, "In the future, we will continue to strengthen the research and development of products in related fields." Wang Yao said.
From virtual to real
In the economic field, virtual and real seem to be two sides of the coin, two ends of the game, but with the explosion of a new concept, the "metacosm", people have found that the virtual world and the real world can be integrated.
"Entering the world of the 'metaverse' from reality requires an entrance, and the 'Revival Ode' we created in Shanghai is an attempt." Wang Yi said that in August last year, the red culture experience space operated by Century Huatong- "Fuxing Song" was officially launched in Huangpu District, Shanghai, and through the one-stop red culture theme experience project, it evoked the "empathy" of the young generation for red memory.
Public welfare red cultural exhibition space "Revival Ode" Haishar / photo
"In the future, there will definitely be technologies where virtual and real feel the same." Wang Tuo said that in fact, whether it is VR (virtual reality) or AR (augmented reality), it is only the "deception" of technology to people in terms of vision and hearing, and it is relatively weak in terms of touch and smell. "The current virtual world may not be able to feel exactly like the real world, and the brain-computer interface may be another attempt from virtual to real."
In recent years, Century Huatong has focused on the transformation of achievements in brain-computer interfaces, digital drugs, dream interventional therapy and other applications, and cooperated with Chen Tianqiao Luo Qianqian Research Institute to jointly develop digital drug products. At present, there are three finished products, namely "Children's Autism VR Screening and Training System", "Attention Enhancement Training System", "Cognitive Impairment VR Assessment and Rehabilitation System", these products are undergoing clinical trials, and the application process is registered with the relevant national regulatory agencies.
"We're essentially a tech company." From virtual to real, it is also the layout direction of Century Huatong in the industry. In 2020, Century Huatong cooperated with Tencent to build the largest supercomputing center in East China in Songjiang, which is positioned as the largest artificial intelligence supercomputing hub in the Yangtze River Delta and the top three in the country, and will undertake various large-scale AI algorithm calculation, machine learning, image processing, scientific computing and engineering computing tasks, and create a new generation of infrastructure base with leading scale in the country. "Relying on the digital base and super computing power, I hope that our exploration of the metaverse can gradually land." Wang Said.