The game version number has been suspended for half a year, and the layoff game company has been expanding

Reporter Li Haoyue

As of January 28, the State Press and Publication Administration's approval of game version numbers has been suspended for half a year.

"After the version was discontinued in July last year, industry insiders believe that 'it will soon be restored'. Fast forward to 2022, and few people think so anymore. Zhang Bing (pseudonym), the head of the business of a game company, told the Securities Daily reporter, "We no longer pin our hopes on the version number." ”

Previously, according to the situation when the version number was suspended in 2018, it was speculated that the most affected by the version number would be small and medium-sized game companies. According to the data of Tianyancha App, from July to December 2021, 14,000 small and medium-sized game companies with a registered capital of less than 10 million yuan were written off.

However, as the suspension of the version number becomes longer and longer, it is not only small and medium-sized enterprises that are affected, but also listed companies that have begun to lay off employees.

Recently, the market has circulated rumors that the heartbeat company "laid off one-third of its employees". In this regard, Huang Yimeng, the founder of The Heart Company, responded to the "one-third layoff" on the social platform, but the company did have a team adjustment, which was increased or decreased according to the company's actual business needs, and there was no so-called one-size-fits-all ratio.

Listed companies have successively appeared "optimization" of personnel, which means that the scope of the "wave of layoffs" in the field of games is expanding. The main reason is still related to the version number. Zhang Yi, CEO and chief analyst of Ai Media Consulting, told the Securities Daily reporter, "The suspension of the game version will definitely bring a series of sequelae and chain reactions, and layoffs are one of them." At present, except for Tencent, which will not have a particularly big change, the domestic business of other game companies will definitely be affected. It is also inevitable that the game industry will continue to have companies that have been fatally hit or even shut down. ”

According to GameLook statistics, compared with the 1405 game version numbers issued in 2020, the total number of version numbers in 2021 decreased by 46.26%, almost "discounted", and the total number of version numbers has decreased for four consecutive years since 2018.

Zhang Yi introduced that since 2020, with the tightening of the version number, the domestic shutdown of game companies is about 38,000. "After the version number was tightened, the industry believed that this was forcing the game industry to become a boutique." Before the game industry did not have a version number, the management of domestic games was very chaotic. For example, the market is full of all kinds of board games suspected of gambling; war-themed games, there are many elements of bloody violence. The management of these games is chaotic, and minors can also casually contact and recharge. In addition, before the emergence of the version number, the game industry threshold was low, 'money came quickly', and many investors even chose to abandon the industry and turn to the game field, which was not conducive to the rational allocation of market resources. ”

At the same time, the industry believes that "encouraging going to sea" is also one of the reasons for the tightening of the version number. The business leader of the heartbeat company told the "Securities Daily" reporter that the company's focus will be further tilted overseas. This year, its taptap community and game projects will invest more resources overseas.

In November last year, the Ministry of Commerce, the Central Propaganda Department and 17 other departments jointly issued the "Notice on Several Measures to Support the High-quality Development of National Cultural Export Bases" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), which mentioned that excellent traditional cultural products, cultural and creative products and digital cultural products such as film and television dramas and games were encouraged to "go global".

Zhang Bing told reporters that once the version number is stopped, it can indeed force the enterprise to go to sea. But there will also be a trend that there will be fewer and fewer pure Chinoiserie games.

Domestic games that have previously successfully gained a foothold overseas have attracted more than just Asian players. SensorTower data shows that in 2019, Lilith's "Awakening of Nations", which has set overseas revenue records, the two regions with the highest revenue contributions are South Korea and the United States. In recent years, the European and American markets have increased their desire for kryptonite for domestic games. SensorTower data shows that the U.S. market contributed $3.6 billion in revenue to China's top 30 mobile games abroad, an increase of 53% over 2020, replacing Japan as the largest overseas market for Chinese mobile games. But at the same time, judging from the Chinese games that were shortlisted in the top 10 in the US market revenue in the third quarter of 2021, there was an absence of Chinese style games.

"Recently, the 'top stream' of China's going to sea is Miha you's 'Original God', foreign awards have been won over and over again, and a newly launched Peking Opera character has been welcomed by many foreign players, cultivating their interest in Chinese opera culture." But this success is difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises to replicate. The technology is in place, and it also needs luck. If the version number continues to be suspended, there will be fewer and fewer pure Chinese-style games with themes such as Xiu Xian and Xuan Fantasy. Chinese-style games perform better in the Asian market, such as the Philippines, Vietnam and other countries that are easier to understand related themes, and foreign players in Europe and the United States have some thresholds to understand. In order to globalize, game companies must also conform to the aesthetic habits of overseas players. For example, in the explosive "Original God", the elements are very diverse. ”

Will the issuance of version numbers be "far away", will the impact on listed companies become more and more serious?

Zhang Yi believes that at present, listed game companies have successively carried out overseas business, and the version number will not have much impact on future performance, and the company will cut more local business lines, most of which are not doing well in the first place. "The signal from regulators is already very clear that the market does not need too many products of uneven quality, and the focus should be on improving the quality of the game." At the same time, through the regulation of the version number, more domestic high-quality games can be exported overseas, realizing globalization and occupying the international market. ”