Yesterday, a message spread rapidly overseas, and ushered in the attention and discussion of many fans and players - Cameron Studios, Disney, Zulong Entertainment, Tencent Games jointly exposed an IP adaptation mobile game based on James Cameron's "Avatar" movie universe (hereinafter collectively referred to as "Avatar Mobile Game").
Screenshot of the game on the overseas official website
In fact, as early as March of the previous year, Zulong released the 2020 financial report, which can roughly glimpse some clues. The financial report revealed that in Zulong's 2022 product reserves, there is such an IP licensed MMORPG game "Project B" is already in the research and development stage, and "this movie IP box office revenue exceeds 1.5 billion US dollars".
There are only a few movies with a box office of more than $1.5 billion, among which the more suitable for the MMORPG category is the three major science fiction IPs of "Star Wars", "Avengers" and "Avatar".
But at that time, this little mystery in Zulong's financial report was not solved. After all, "Star Wars" and "Avengers" have long been familiar with IP game adaptations, while "Avatar" IP game adaptations have few actions, and it is not so easy to be guessed in advance. Now, the sudden public Avatar mobile game has chosen China's release, and China's research and development has also attracted some people's curiosity.
So why did Disney and Cameron choose Tencent and Zulong? Up to now, "Avatar", which still dominates the world's film history box office with a box office of 2.8 billion US dollars, will burst out of energy in the field of mobile games?
When top IPs marched into multiplayer shooting RPGs
According to the official information, the Avatar mobile game will be a shooting RPG game built with Unreal Engine. Players can create their own Avatar and explore the beautiful world of Pandora. Gameplay modes include single-player story missions, co-op missions, and PvP modes, and characters can be upgraded through deep customization, ability upgrades, and innovative battles for touchscreens.
Among the keywords of a vote, the most noteworthy is undoubtedly "shooting RPG".
Shooting RPGs are not uncommon. Earlier, the birth time of this category is almost the same as that of FPS games, dating back to 1994, Looking Glass Studio's "Cyber Raiders". Closer to it, there are also many explosive products such as "Borderlands", "Radiation", "Escape from Tarkov" and so on.
However, the phase between shooting RPGs and online PvP is not very good. Shooting competitive games, focusing on the technical and information game based on numerical fairness, using marksmanship and consciousness to determine the outcome of the battle. But the cultivation system of RPG games is, of course, numerically. Therefore, although this category is "evergreen", it is difficult to solve the natural conflict between shooting gameplay and RPG cultivation. Multiplayer shooting RPGs are still a blue ocean.
However, games such as "Escape from Tarkov" have successfully solved the above problems through the reasonable cutting of shooting elements and RPG elements, which has opened up the horizon for the shooting RPG category. It can be seen that there is still a huge room for breakthroughs in shooting RPGs.
If the Avatar mobile game can explore the setting of the "Avatar Universe" in depth, find self-consistent logic and reasonable ways, eliminate the conflict between the core gameplay systems, and make a shooting RPG with sufficient balance of gameplay elements. Then, the instant coolness of the shooter game and the deep combination of the character cultivation of the RPG, the final birth is likely to be a thrill-filled, long-term vitality of the category leader products, and bring a new development direction for multiplayer online shooting RPG.
Another point worth paying attention to is, what kind of expression will the Avatar mobile game use to present the planet Pandora?
The biggest highlight and value of the "Avatar" movie is the use of 3D technology that leads the technological progress of the film industry, and the fantasy Pandora world that technology brings to the audience. For example, alien plants in the movie can not only emit visible light, but also interact with the environment and change their morphology when touched.
The same goes for animals. The animals such as the heavily armored horse, the hammer-headed thunder beast, and the lightning beast that appear in the movie are based on the earth creatures as a reference, but they have special shape and action characteristics, and there are also unique interactions between animals that form relationships through neural filaments.
In terms of world design, the planet Pandora has extremely obvious three-dimensional space characteristics. The "Hallelujah Mountains", where the final battle is located, are huge floating mountains formed by the maglev effect; at the bottom of the world tree, there is a huge underground space, and a complex environment formed by the intertwining of tree roots.
And these are still the tip of the iceberg of the complete setting of the "Avatar Universe". Language, culture, flora and fauna, ecosystems, planetary systems... The complexity and strong originality of "Avatar Universe" will inevitably bring great challenges to game adaptations.
Well, since it is a shooting RPG gameplay, the world built by the Avatar mobile game cannot be said to be big, but it is estimated to be small. Will it be a seamless, massive open world, or a multi-map design with a differentiated style? Can glowing plants and floating mountains be perfectly reproduced in the way the game is designed? The reproduction and restoration of various large scenes in the movie will also become one of the key reasons why people expect the Avatar mobile game.
Judging from the screenshots of the officially exposed game, the Avatar mobile game is likely to be an open world game.
In addition to the official description, combined with the "Avatar" movie, perhaps the mobile game will also add more diverse content such as survival, hunting, and mining. In short, the complexity of the Avatar theme setting makes the adaptation of the game have unlimited development possibilities.
The three major factories join forces to create a new height of IP games?
YY so much, then again: what step can avatar mobile games do?
It has been 12 years since the first release of "Avatar". Compared with science fiction IP such as "Star Wars" and "Avengers", the expansion and exploration of IP value in "Avatar", especially the excavation of IP games, seems to lag a lot. The reason is not that the IP potential is insufficient, but that its adaptation is too difficult.
If you want to bring the charm of the "Avatar" movie to people again, you must restore the style of Pandora's alien world, and you must ensure that the expressive moment of the picture is online. The diversity and uniqueness of alien organisms also require very careful study and polishing.
From this, we can also roughly conclude that the Avatar IP adaptation of the game has these requirements for all parties involved in the production and distribution:
The game should highly restore the planet Pandora to meet the player's expectations for the avatar world;
3. The R&D party must have rich experience and technical strength in the corresponding gameplay categories, and need to have a strong ability to control the subject matter;
The distribution side needs to cover the global "Avatar" audience and pan-users, so it needs to have strong global distribution resources.
Based on this conclusion, let's take a closer look at the partners of Avatar Mobile Games:
R&D party Zulong Entertainment, even in the world, can be considered as the ceiling of mobile RPG research and development strength. Zulong's existing product line, MMORPG not only accounts for most of the country, but also covers a variety of themes such as Oriental Immortals, Oriental Fantasy, Western-style Magic, Two-Dimensional, Three Kingdoms and so on. According to the financial report, Zulong's flagship product "Dragon Fantasy" has performed extremely strongly in Europe, America, Japan and Southeast Asia, and the global cumulative turnover has exceeded 3 billion yuan, with a cumulative registered player of more than 32 million.
Combined with the characteristics of "Avatar", Zu Long's past involvement in various world view themes will make them more capable of exploring the potential of world view and fully presenting the theme. In recent years, the strong performance in overseas markets has also made Zulong more capable of grasping the needs and preferences of global users and making global IP "return to the world".
It is worth mentioning that there are many aerial scenes in the "Avatar" movie, such as driving an aerial vehicle or riding a flying animal. And Zu Long's "Royal Sword Love" and "Sky Era" and other products just happened to be the selling point of free flight.
The publisher of the game is a new overseas brand that Tencent just launched not long ago: LEVEL INFINITE.
We know very little about this LEVEL INFINITE. But given the several new products currently announced by LEVEL INFINITE, we can probably speculate that this is a publishing brand focused on providing high-quality games to users around the world. Even more exquisite than the concept of "boutique game". In terms of product type, there seems to be some "specialized multiplayer" feeling.
Warhammer 40k: Dark Tide, Edge of Rebirth, Famine: New Home, GTFO, Arena of Valor... Level INFINITE's list of released products highlights a "fine".
Avatar mobile games are among them, which may also mean the positioning and value of this game. Of course, there is also the huge influence of the IP licensor Disney, and the supervising director of Cameron Studios, which is not listed for the time being.
In addition, Ubisoft also unveiled the new game "Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora" at this year's E3, and said it will also be released in 2022.
epilogue
So, what should we expect from the Avatar mobile game?
In the view of Dragon and Tiger News, although the information disclosed by The Avatar mobile game is limited, from the above-mentioned category track characteristics, manufacturer attributes, IP characteristics, etc., the Avatar mobile game may refresh our cognition from these three places.
The first is the shaping of the world. "Avatar" can be called the work of James Cameron, according to foreign media sources, the total cost of the sequel series may exceed 1 billion US dollars. From the perspective of the scarcity of IP adaptation content, whether it is Cameron or Disney, it has always been cautious about Avatar IP adaptation. Well, this also means to a certain extent that Zulong's technical strength and THE RELEASE PLAN OF LEVEL INFINITE have been recognized by Disney and Cameron.
Therefore, the mobile game's shaping and scene restoration of Pandora's three-dimensional world, as well as the polishing of details such as lighting and modeling corresponding to "glowing plants" and "floating mountains", may refresh our technical understanding of the construction of mobile RPG worlds.
The second is the balance and trade-off of gameplay content. It is true that Zulong has rich experience in MMORPG research and development, but online multiplayer shooting RPGs are still a relatively lacking methodology category. The "mobile game first experience" of The Avatar IP has taken such a big step, which may mean that Zulong has found a new foothold in this category track.
Finally, it's a little Easter egg. The exposure message mentions, "Players will create their own characters and explore the world, upgrading them through deep customization, ability upgrades, and innovative battles for touchscreens." "This innovative battle against the touch screen has given Dragon Tiger News a headache for a long time - is it a new touch screen interaction logic? Special gameplay modes? Or a unique battle crafting system?
In short, Avatar mobile games give enough reasons to look forward to, even room for reverie, in all aspects. Whether the box office champion in film history can continue to shine in the game market, let's wait and see.