Generation Z young people have now become the main force of pan-entertainment consumption, and digital games are one of the important ways for young people to choose entertainment, and include social interaction, cultural inheritance, competitive struggle and other forms of entertainment. For Gen Z players, choosing a good game, or choosing a good game "label", requires them to find the answer through continuous attempts in today's fragmented development of the game industry.
On May 20, the NetEase Game 520 conference was held online, releasing 30 new games, based on the diversified game product matrix supported by the world's major ip, combined with the understanding of player needs generated by NetEase's years of operating games, which is bringing a more benign data growth cycle.
After watching the entire live broadcast, 36Kr found that NetEase Games did not talk about the recent hot concepts such as "meta-universe" and "the next Internet era", but still showed the purest side of game companies - better game services for larger players, better social and game experience to promote more humane works.
NetEase Game Popular IP "Fantasy Journey to the West"
<h2>In the era of "diversified + boutique" games, NetEase Games has gone out of its own way</h2>
In the past year, affected by the global epidemic, digital entertainment has begun to occupy more people's leisure time, and the "home economy" has begun to erupt into greater potential.
In 2020, the output value of China's game market reached 278.687 billion yuan, an increase of 20.71% year-on-year. The data proves that for the Chinese game market, which has gradually faded the demographic dividend, this home economy tide has also re-entered the track of rapid growth in the industry's overall revenue.
Among them, while consolidating its own industry position, NetEase Games is showing the more mature and humane side of its brand to the public.
<h2>New and old IP are on the battlefield, what is the difference between today's NetEase games? </h2>
The 2021 Outlook released in early 36Kr | Game e-sports: blockbusters no longer need to be "big factory release", new forces try to rise" article once wrote, "For NetEase, the strategy of multi-category, high-quality self-developed games has been the foregone conclusion of its differentiated play with other game manufacturers." ”
Today, a few months later, the changes brought about by NetEase Games seem to have confirmed our original judgment.
First of all, start with the 520 conference - the 520 NetEase Game Conference held for 7 consecutive years has now become a virtual world event that integrates product release and "player online party". NetEase has divided the game works into four links for release, covering the updated versions of mature works and the upcoming new game products. The content release of the 4 links is more like the 4 "game IP universes" created by NetEase Games combined with its top product development, IP development and game operation capabilities.
"Dream Linkage" between the Oracle's mobile game and the Ultraman series
In fact, NetEase Games has always been good at the content and category expansion of a single IP, and the value development of IP itself is a long-term strategy of NetEase Games. But from quantitative change to qualitative change, it seems that it is more able to find out from this 520 conference.
Taking the collection of oriental-style games that players are most familiar with as an example, in addition to the previously well-known "Yin and Yang Division" and "Decisive Battle!" In addition to games such as Heian Kyo, Yin yang division: Baiwen card, and "Yin and yang division: monster house", new games such as the new RPG adventure "Codename World", the casual reasoning game "Yin Yang Division: Monster Class", the idol cultivation game "Codename: Onmyoji idol project" and other new models have also been announced, and the Big Talk Westward Journey IP has also launched a placement version and other works, which are also boutique games developed by NetEase for the feedback and needs of different players.
Among the more than 60 products unveiled this time, 30 are new products that have not yet been launched in the domestic market, including many themes and categories that NetEase has rarely involved in in the past, such as "Codename: ATLAS" with the theme of the end of the ocean survival, "Project IN" with the theme of the end of the steampunk theme, "Unknown Record" with a single-player plot reasoning mobile game that focuses on cyberpunk style, and "Mission Zero" with 2v4 infiltration against the mobile game.
From the expansion of more themes and the richness of categories, it can be seen that NetEase Games is determined to bring players a more diversified experience. NetEase Games, which has accumulated a lot of money, already has a number of game plates or products of its own and different styles today. Enjoying the game has also become an important reason for players to choose this brand.
<h2>"Gaming + Social" led to a better Gen Z entertainment experience</h2>
"Diversified game matrix + boutique content" can be said to be the core of NetEase games, but NetEase games, which are famous for game categories such as MMORPG, shooting, cards, SLG, sandbox survival, etc., have long been more than the boutique content brought to players, and their product characteristics are also in line with the game social needs of Z generation players.
Not long ago, the game social platform TT Voice and the Mob Research Institute jointly released the "2021 Online Social Behavior Insight Report of the Online Generation". The report shows that the "online generation" (or generation Z), led by the post-95s and post-00s, has taken games as one of the important ways of social behavior. For this generation, the Internet is a native culture engraved in the genes, and the Internet generation has a strong sense of individuality, unwilling to easily reveal their desire for companionship, more willing to stay at home alone, through the virtual world to show their true self.
Image source: 2021 Online Social Behavior Insight Report
It is not difficult to see from the data results that games, as the dual carrier of cultural and spiritual sustenance, have become an important medium for leisure and entertainment and friendship expansion in the hearts of Generation Z users.
At this point, games such as Light Encounter meet the spiritual needs of these players very well. While experiencing the grand virtual world, you can also become friends with the "strange player" and travel with him/her in the Sky Kingdom, exchanging gifts and collaborating on missions. In such a warm game environment, the emotional bond between players is also different from the experience brought by competitive social games, and the organic integration of excellent independent game works and social networking is also a major attraction in NetEase Games' new works in recent years.
In 36Kr's view, the social needs of players are not only the focus of the head game development and operation team, but also the result of users' natural selection after experiencing countless games.
Compared with the hard socialization brought by the large traffic entrance, NetEase Games seems to be unique on the road of social networking. From MMORPG, which is relatively inclined to natural social relationships such as "Journey to the West" and "World of Warcraft", to the mobile Internet era, more types of social needs have been generated, and while user habits have changed, NetEase is also groping for product design, and gradually combines good social experience with more diversified content.
For example, the SLG category represented by "The Coast of the Land" and the new "Endless Lagrange", etc., the game introduces larger-scale group collaboration and confrontation; "Decisive Battle!" MOBA categories such as "Heian Kyo" and the new "Marvel Super War", as well as asymmetric competition types such as "The Fifth Personality" and the new "Mission Zero" emphasize instant communication and cooperation, and players are different through the form of game social networking. It is worth mentioning that more new games released this year, such as "Yin Yang Division: Monster Class" and "Egg Boy Party", are more like party games for young people with mild leisure.
"Marvel Super Wars" with strong competitive social attributes
<h2>The triumph of "content is king"? NetEase has stepped out of its own game path</h2>
According to the financial report, net profit of NetEase in 2020 was 73.67 billion yuan, an increase of 24.4% year-on-year, of which NetEase game revenue reached 54.61 billion yuan, accounting for 74.1% of NetEase's overall revenue; in the first quarter of 2021, NetEase revenue continued to maintain a year-on-year growth rate of 20.2%, with a net income of 20.5 billion yuan, of which the net income of online games was 15 billion yuan.
Games such as this year's open beta mobile game "Celestial Oracle", "Fantasy Journey to the West" and "After Tomorrow" that were online earlier have also ranked at the top of China's iOS best-seller list; in terms of going to sea, NetEase Games also ranked second in the 2020 global publisher list released by App Annie. It is worth mentioning that this time, the 520 also opened an English and Japanese version for the first time for overseas markets, and released 19 games. Affected by the first quarter of 2021 financial report and the 520 press conference, the Hong Kong-listed NetEase stock price (09999 NetEase-S) also rose by nearly 10% in two days.
From the earliest well-known portal in China to the influential game giant in the world today, NetEase has found its own positioning. But when we pull the perspective back to the game industry, NetEase seems to be more "humane" than most game companies driven by commercial value, and the style of NetEase games is no longer like that of traditional game manufacturers.
What is a big factory? In the understanding of most people, large manufacturers need to have top development capabilities, issuance capabilities, capital reserves, talent reserves... Of course, most of these qualities are owned by NetEase, but if the uniqueness of NetEase games is netease, it should belong to NetEase's understanding of "the essence of the game is content".
In the era of mobile games, there is no shortage of "cutting leeks", and such a game design tone has helped countless small and medium-sized manufacturers benefit a lot. In the game industry, it seems that NetEase Games has not followed the pure business logic and kept the concept of "content is king" so far. In the game industry, it is manifested in the above discussion, constantly polishing and innovating the gameplay, categories, and quality.
In the past decade, the innovation of NetEase games has been carried out on the basis of consolidating its basic disk, and while launching new categories of games such as "Light Encounter", "Wilderness Action", "Minecraft" (China agent), "Pokémon Adventure", NetEase has not stopped making excellent IP content into new ways that all kinds of players hope to try.
Of course, just looking back at the live broadcast itself, the CG video of more than 60 products is overwhelmed, and perhaps for core gamers, they will pay more attention to the gameplay characteristics behind each work. To a certain extent, the common growth and mutual achievements of players and NetEase Games have enabled this company to continuously climb the rankings of major game giant manufacturers in the world, while still maintaining the original intention of "player-oriented".
In addition to mobile game products, NetEase is also showing the culture, entertainment and competitive concepts carried by the game itself to every game lover in more scenes and in different forms.
Based on NetEase CC live broadcasts and different game works, NetEase is creating a more professional and user-participatory e-sports event around the NeXT series.
On the other hand, NetEase Games previously led the establishment and launched the VR offline experience machine in 2020, and also announced a partnership with Planet O at the 520 conference, and the two sides are jointly building a next-generation immersive flagship entertainment center.
Planet One Easy Planet
After a year of preparation, planet one, a next-generation leisure and entertainment complex integrating VR games, e-sports, catering and new retail, will officially meet players at Magnolia Plaza on the North Bund in Shanghai on June 5. In addition, Planet O's main partners NetEase Shadow Core, the operator of the F1 Esports China Championship, Jiushi Sports, and the DRL Drone Racing Alliance, will disclose more cooperation projects on the opening night of June 4.
In today's game industry gradually returning to "content first", the barriers to channel distribution have gradually been weakened, and more and more manufacturers have begun to focus on content innovation. NetEase's innovative choice in games and interactive entertainment is "multi-way parallel", and the result of such a choice may be to gain greater competitive strength for NetEase in the next game era.
As a veteran game giant in China, in the past few years, NetEase Games has not chosen to eat the "old book" of blockbuster games, but has invested a lot of manpower, funds and time costs for different scenarios, different needs, and different product categories to provide players with a game entertainment experience.
Such innovation is the most difficult exploration in any industry, but today, the game universe built by NetEase Games has begun to take shape, and its "people-oriented" concept is also transforming every player into a game lover, while looking for their own side of the world in the game world.