"Rainbow Six" mobile game overseas beta, Ubisoft transformation strategy of the first trump card like this?

Since the release of the first teaser PV in early April this year, Rainbow Six Mobile has been in a state of being "urged" by players. TapTap shows that the shooting mobile game, developed by Ubisoft's Montreal studio, has been booked more than 200,000 times. Whether it is a new fan or an old fan, I want to see it as soon as possible.

Ubisoft did not let players wait too long, on May 3, the "Rainbow Six Mobile Game" that took three years of research and development conducted a closed A test in some parts of the United States, Mexico and Canada, and the test was limited to Android devices. As the A test progressed, the game's real-world effect was also exposed.

As a key step in Ubisoft's "Premium Free-to-Play" transformation strategy, the importance of Rainbow Six mobile game is self-evident. Especially considering that in the market, the shooting category segmentation track lacks high-quality CQB (indoor close combat) works, and the "Rainbow Six Mobile Game" born with a big IP can be said to be stepping on the gap in the market, and there are few competitors who can directly pose a threat.

But this does not mean that Ubisoft can sit back and relax, as far as the effect of the A test is concerned, there are still places for the game to be improved, and there are also many problems thrown to Ubisoft.

Player Demo Video:

The misunderstanding is lifted, and the taste is still familiar

Perhaps many old fans have been startled by the promotional pictures at the beginning of the mobile game.

In this promotional map, the realistic art style emphasized by the original Cailiu IP has disappeared, replaced by a flat style, which once made the old fans think that the Cailiu mobile game should become another "borderland". However, from the performance of the A test, at least in terms of restoring the realism of the terminal game, the player can rest assured, which can be seen from the player's comments.

Compared with only 10 operators when it was initially announced, the available role added value of this A test is 18, the offensive and defensive operators are half, and rook, SMOKE, ASH and other simple and easy-to-use old friends are among them. Of course, there is no shortage of characters like HIBANA that are more difficult to get started with. In short, whether for novices or veterans, the A test starting lineup has achieved better compatibility.

In terms of maps, the A test is consistent with the original announcement, only two [Bank] and [Border], and these two maps are also very classic in the end game version. In particular, the [Bank] map, while maintaining the depth of the design, does not have too complicated routes, which is very helpful for novices to quickly familiarize themselves with the game mechanics and shorten the gap with old players.

As a derivative work born under the slogan of "Transplant terminal game (Rainbow Six: Siege)", "Rainbow Six Mobile Game" is not much different from the end game version in terms of gameplay and mechanics, if you do not study carefully, the two can not be said to be very similar, can only be said to be basically the same. Including rope climbing, reconnaissance cars, wall damage and other settings, all of which are reflected in mobile games.

Due to the imitation of the mechanism setting of the end game, the competitive experience and depth of rainbow six mobile game are almost consistent, and the extremely low TTK (kill time) puts forward higher requirements for the cooperation between players, as well as the player's personal operation and reaction. If you compare "Rainbow Six Mobile Game" in today's competitive shooting mobile game, it may not be too much to classify it as the most competitive one.

Although "Rainbow Six Mobile Game" is similar to the end game in terms of core gameplay, characters and maps, the mobile game development team has admitted that due to the extremely high accuracy of the mouse and keyboard, the end game itself is irreplaceable. Therefore, the purpose of Ubisoft's mobile game is not to let end gamers play mobile games instead, but to attract new players in the most convenient and rapid way.

Deeply rooted in Tencent's true biography, the changes in "Color Six Mobile Games" cannot be ignored

Previously, GameLook reported that Tencent seemed to have helped a lot in the development of "Rainbow Six Mobile Game" by Ubisoft. This claim was then confirmed by Ubisoft.

According to Ubisoft, Rainbow Six mobile game is developed by its 11 studios in cooperation with Tencent. Throughout the development process, Tencent has been providing expertise and advice to the team. This is part of the collaboration between the two parties to expand the influence of IP to the wider community of mobile gamers.

Perhaps it is with the help of Tencent, in this A test, we also saw some optimization changes for the mobile terminal of "Rainbow Six". Although these changes did not bring much change to the core gameplay of the game, they improved the overall game experience by several notches.

For example, in terms of operation, the color six end game has always been a representative of the hardcore direction, especially after the introduction of the concept of character skills, the operation is more complicated than its similar shooting end game. In order to balance this complex operation on the mobile side, Rainbow Six Mobile Game has simplified the different operators in a targeted manner. Typical grenade launchers such as ASH are integrated from separate equipment to a lower-mount type, making it easier to fire grenades.

At the same time, considering that the mobile terminal emphasizes the fragmented experience, "Rainbow Six Mobile Game" has also accelerated the overall rhythm. Perhaps some veteran players have found that the speed of the operators in the mobile game is slightly different from the end game, including the speed of climbing and the speed of reinforcing the wall, which has been significantly improved.

In addition, in order to allow players to better distinguish between the enemy and us in the smaller mobile phone screen, the "Rainbow Six Mobile Game" changes the white silhouette of the friendly forces in the terminal game to blue, and the marked enemy silhouette will be presented in red, it is not difficult to see that the development team hopes to use the contrast color to better enhance the player's information perception.

It is worth mentioning that the criticized friendly damage settings in the end game have also been removed in the mobile game. In order to help players better play the operation, the mobile game also adds an auxiliary trajectory line to the throwing object, and the player can clearly see the landing trajectory when throwing the grenade. This change, not to mention the opponent player, even for the end player is also excellent, can greatly help players play such as smoke, back flash and other tactics.

In short, the above minor changes may seem small, but they can indeed greatly enhance the player's gaming experience, and this is not like the mature performance that Ubisoft, a mobile game rookie, can make. What kind of role Tencent plays behind it is really worth pondering.

Big IP derivatives have appeared together, and the shooting mobile game market will turn upside down?

Many times you have to admit that Ubisoft's AAA game, although not doing well, is really a super IP maker.

Take the "Rainbow Six" IP, according to Ubisoft's latest financial report, although "Rainbow Six: Siege" is slightly hardcore, the total number of players has still reached 80 million, and 10 million have been added in the past year. According to this momentum, and the positive impact brought about by the launch of mobile games in the future, Cailiu IP users are bound to usher in another wave of growth peaks.

It is not only Ubisoft who wants to expand the user disk by entering the mobile terminal, but also the EA next door is also playing this small calculation. At the end of December last year, EA's shooter game Apex Heroes released the 2021 player game data. The data shows that the total number of players for Apex Heroes in 2021 is 175 million.

Like Ubisoft, EA, which holds the super IP, has also started the mobile game process, and announced early that it will cooperate with Tencent to launch "Apex Mobile Game". At present, the mobile game has been fully equipped after several rounds of testing and optimization, and is expected to be launched on the iOS and Android dual platforms in May this year, and the game has more than 2.5 million reservations in taptap, which is likely to become a product that reshapes the pattern of the shooting category.

If Ubisoft or EA succeeds, it's not hard to imagine how they will affect the development direction of the entire European and American game market. At that time, there may be more and more traditional AAA manufacturers entering the mobile game market, and their super IP and mature AAA research and development technology can create products that far exceed their peers, which is conducive to expanding the scale of the mobile game market, while raising the threshold of research and development and the quality of categories.

But in this way, the risk is also obvious, the most important point is how to take into account the feelings of new and old players, without damaging the IP to earn money. To do this, you need to think deeply about all aspects of game development and operations. At this point, Ubisoft, EA and other 3A manufacturers obviously have a long way to go.

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