A weather vane that hides the guidance of future editions.
Wen | Xing Shubo
On April 11, according to the official website of the State Press and Publication Administration, the approval information for domestic online games in April 2022 was announced. A total of 45 game titles have been issued. This is the first edition number issued this year since July 2021. The last time the online game version was suspended was in 2018, when the suspension lasted for nine months.
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Goldman Sachs released a research report saying, "This action may indicate that the entire mainland online game industry may have met the compliance requirements for game content protection and cleanup, and believes that restarting online game licensing can revitalize the industry's investment and research and development of new games." ”
As of April 12, Tencent's game revenue has returned to the level of the Spring Festival, and the market value of Bilibili and NetEase has risen sharply, and even the market value of game live broadcasting companies such as Douyu and Huya in the game industry chain is also rising.
From a macro perspective, the success of the Qinglang action, the landing of the juvenile protection policy and the just need for family entertainment during the epidemic are the main reasons for breaking the ice of this edition.
In detail, the 45 games released this time and the companies in which they are located still reflect the weather vane of the future version guidance, and there are several points worth thinking about.
01
Large factories are not on the list, and small and medium-sized manufacturers have become the objects of support
In the version number released this time, the game companies with the highest market capitalization of games are on the list, including Tencent, NetEase, and Bilibili. On the one hand, the reserves of game versions of these companies are already rich enough, and the suspension of version numbers does not affect the launch of new games in the short term, on the other hand, it is actually a vane for the resumption of the issuance of this version number, that is, supporting small and medium-sized manufacturers.
China Business Daily reported that the suspension of version numbers has a certain impact on game giants such as NetEase and Tencent, but it is not huge, and if the version number can be reissued, it will definitely be good for the entire industry, especially a large number of small and medium-sized game companies.
Analysys think tank also analyzed that "some small and medium-sized enterprises have limited game reserves, most of which have only 1-2 products, and urgently need products to go online and achieve output." ”
Not only that, due to the cost of development restrictions, small and medium-sized manufacturers can only choose low-volume games such as page games, leisure cards, and other low-volume games, and these low-volume games are the hardest hit areas of low-quality skinning games in the past, due to the large base, which has previously become the focus of regulation.
Therefore, on the one hand, the regulation of the version number is to support small and medium-sized manufacturers and solve the urgent need for small and medium-sized enterprises to solve the difficulty of product launch; on the other hand, it is also regulating the total amount, guiding small and medium-sized manufacturers to exert their strength in high-quality games and abandoning low-quality games. It is not difficult to see that none of the low-quality page games released this time are on the list, but there are realistic works such as "Honor Workers" developed by Liangya Games, which is one of the meanings of this regulation.
Image source: taptap
Honor Striker is a mobile stand-alone game and an indie game. The game revolves around migrant workers in the city, with a taptap score of 9.3. After learning the news of the release of the version number, some players rushed to the home page of the small manufacturer in Shenzhen for the first time to tell them:
In recent years, domestic small and medium-sized independent game manufacturers have focused on realistic themes, such as "Chinese Parents", "Perfect Day" and other works are very good. In the past, they were difficult to spot on a large number of new tours. After the version number regulation, I believe that in the future, independent games of small and medium-sized high-quality manufacturers will be easier to take the stage.
Liu Mengfei, a game research scholar at Beijing Normal University, believes that "the origin of realism is to connect the root causes of social problems with solutions, so we should also start to launch such a movement in the game industry, so that realistic games can be connected with serious social issues, carry meaning and cause impact." ”
02
Youth puzzle games become the highlights, simulating the rising tide of business
Among the version numbers announced this time, there is a Shenzhen Zhongqingbao Interactive "Cast TimeMaker" that is a console stand-alone game logged on to the Nintendo game console Switch; there are four client games, and the remaining 40 are mobile games. There are two mobile games that are specifically labeled as "mobile-casual puzzle" games, namely "Wantland Ranch" and "Fun Manor".
Puzzle games are divided separately, indicating that the regulation in the field of puzzle games for teenagers will be more stringent in the future, but at the same time, those high-quality puzzle games will be greatly developed.
This also shows that in the past, the extensive game classification method of the mobile game page game terminal game host will gradually use themes and categories to subdivide in the future, which is the progress of the regulatory level.
At the same time, it also means that small giants in market segments may be born under different categories and create a new blue ocean, which is of great benefit to promoting healthy and orderly competition in the game industry.
Specific to the current definition of the blue ocean of puzzle games, simulated business games are more favored in terms of categories. The same is true of Sandstone Time, which also received the version number this time. What they all have in common is that they all borrow from the simulation game Ranch Story, a series that has been recognized by various countries as a children's puzzle game suitable for sub-supply for 30 years. At present, simulated business games are the category that is most suitable for youth protection and game development, which also means that this category will be a must for soldiers this year.
In fact, since entering 2022, the analog business category has shown explosive growth.
"No Regret Huaxia" was recommended on the iOS homepage, and the new tour "The Ark of Tomorrow" announced by "Tomorrow's Ark" also chose the simulated business category, and women also chose the simulated business category to "Codename: Butterfly", "Contemporary Life", Xian xia class "My Gate Sect", "The Head of The World", the hardcore Benge management game "Brave Blacksmith Shop", "I want to open a dart game", "Mingsu Simulator", etc. have released test files and updated content this year, and even the SLG strategy game "Return to Empire" has also marked the "simulation management" TAG on the game label.
The game type conduction effect is obvious.
Starting in 2020, with the theme of "Collection! Marked by the cumulative sales of animal forest friends reaching 22.4 million, the development and growth of the global simulation management type finally blossomed in the domestic market in 2022.
Anxin Securities Research Report believes that the two suspensions have forced the game industry to become high-quality and go to sea. "The focus of the first round of suspension is to reorganize the order of the game industry; this round of restart and distribution focuses on the implementation of the protection of minors, affirming the cultural value of high-quality games, and encouraging games to go to sea."
Image source: Network
Compared with other categories, the gameplay of simulated management is relatively slow and hot, and it has always been a niche category in the past. However, the advantage of simulated business is that it can integrate other categories of gameplay, so the choice of themes is broader, which also means more opportunities.
Nowadays, for the domestic market that emphasizes the protection of teenagers, analog business naturally has the attributes of light violence and weak pornography, coupled with its own inherent puzzle casual play, and has a wide audience overseas. This category is a rare type that meets the needs of all parties in the current policy environment and market environment.
03
A-share small giants are collectively released, advantageous categories are surrounded by points of assistance, and the industrial chain is more closely linked
In this edition list, from the perspective of mobile game categories, casual, fairy, and strategy games are the big heads. These are precisely the categories that the giants are not good at and these A-share Hong Kong stock small giants are good at, such as the casual games of Sanqi, Gigabit, Youzu, Kaiying Network, Xishanju, Perfect World's Xianxia RPG, and the music game of the Heartbeat Network. They surround their own advantageous categories to help, in the past they sought survival under the giants, and now rely on the superior categories for development. At the policy level, it has also given them a shot in the arm.
Among the companies on the list, in addition to many small and medium-sized independent game manufacturers, there are also many small giants.
"Dream Voyage" operated by A-share listed company Sanqi Interactive Entertainment, "Tower Hunter" operated by Gigabit, "Junior Three Kingdoms: Pocket Battle" operated by Youzu Network, "Legend of Dragon Teng" and "The Way Forward" under Kaiying Network, and Hong Kong listed companies such as Dream World and Heartbeat Company also have products on the list. There is no other U.S.-listed game company except Baidu on the list.
The release of the version number of "Tower Hunter" makes the rumor that "the second dimension is not judged" self-defeating
Supporting A-share domestic game manufacturers has always been a consistent policy of the game industry, because they carry the heavy responsibility of independent innovation and game going to sea.
For a long time, A-share game companies have been criticized for poor game quality and rely on buying to survive. However, after the two regulations in 2018 and 2021, the products and corporate image of A-share game companies have been greatly improved. For example, 37 Interactive Entertainment's match-3 game "Puzzles & Survival" has long occupied the top ten of the domestic game list, and the game engine independently developed by Xishanju and Perfect World. Especially after the release of the Cocos financing news, one of the world's three major game engines, in April, people were surprised to find that this domestic game engine is being applied in countless domestic games, such as "Fishing Master", "Fantasy Journey to the West", "Happy And Happy", etc.
A game developed using the cocos game engine
The release of the version number, the collective release of A-share small giants, not only because of supporting domestic game manufacturers and guiding them to force high-quality games and overseas games, but also because of the policy encouragement of A-share game companies to drive the development of the entire industrial chain.
If the sea is the embodiment of the soft power of game culture, then the game engine is the manifestation of hard power. Unfortunately, at present, the popular works of mainstream manufacturers rarely use domestic engines or even independent engines, and the use of domestic engines such as Cocos has always been the first choice for small and medium-sized second-line and third-line manufacturers.
In the future, with the policy guidance of market changes and the progress of the technical strength of domestic manufacturers, such a situation will be greatly improved, making the upstream and downstream of domestic game manufacturers more closely linked and becoming an iron plate. This was not possible in the market environment where there was no grass under the giant tree in the past.
Now, with policy encouragement and self-effort, these plants and trees also have the energy to grow into big trees.