Near the suspension of Blizzard games, the differences between Blizzard and NetEase intensified. After "backstabbing NetEase" twice, Blizzard China and NetEase seem to have no room for maneuver, and the peak turn of "reaching a settlement and renewing the contract before the game is suspended" is becoming more and more remote.
While Blizzard racked its brains to get a glimmer of life, major domestic game manufacturers were eager to try, and its figure was active in major game forums and platforms, competing for Blizzard game "refugees" by launching theme servers, similar "replacements" and other methods, and even had private servers targeting this gap, aggressively recruiting Blizzard game users, racking their brains to get a piece of the Blizzard game national server suspension.
In this process, the loss of Blizzard Games and the carnival of domestic game manufacturers are intertwined, which not only indicates that the domestic and foreign game industries have completed the offensive and defensive transformation to some extent, but also indicates that 2023 will be a year full of changes and turbulence in the game industry.
Two "backstabs"
Blizzard and NetEase have no room for manoeuvre
Looking at the mobile phone screen, NetEase's "Eternal Calamity" official account live broadcast the demolition of the Blizzard game big axe model in NetEase Park, "World of Warcraft" player Li Wei (anonymous) mixed tastes, can't help but sigh "An era is over." ”
Even 2 months ago, Blizzard unilaterally announced the news that Blizzard's domestic game would not be renewed one step ahead of NetEase, Li Wei still believes that the two sides still have "getting back together" or Blizzard can find a "takeover man" in China before the game is stopped.
At that time, Li Wei was still ridiculing: "World of Warcraft Nostalgia" players can even be nostalgic for the experience of changing agents.
However, the direction of things did not develop as Li Wei expected. Because Blizzard chose to "backstab" NetEase again. On January 17, Blizzard issued an announcement that it had sought assistance from NetEase to extend the contract for six months, but it was refused, so Blizzard will follow the suspension announcement and suspend the national server game service on January 23.
NetEase did not tolerate it, choosing to directly post a "line" with Blizzard and fierce words. NetEase said that Blizzard proposed a six-month extension of the so-called game service and other conditions, and made it clear that it would not stop continuing negotiations with other potential partners during the contract extension, and Blizzard's negotiations with other companies during the same period were all based on a three-year contract period. Considering the unreciprocal, unfair and other conditions attached to the cooperation, the two sides could not reach an agreement in the end.
NetEase responded to Blizzard's "six-month extension negotiations"
NetEase even wrote in the announcement: "Blizzard's proposal, including today's sudden statement, is arbitrary, unseemly and not in line with commercial logic." Its excessive self-confidence did not consider this kind of behavior of giving and taking, riding a donkey to find a horse, and divorce without leaving his body, which put players and NetEase in a position. ”
At the same time, NetEase's response announcement also set off the last "fig leaf" of Blizzard.
Previously, Blizzard launched the "Player Data Archiving Function", which is also nicknamed "electronic urn" by players, allowing players to download and archive their game data locally, so that when Blizzard finds a new agent in China in the future, players can use the "electronic urn" to get their data back.
In this regard, NetEase pointed out that this function was unilaterally proposed and developed by Blizzard, and has not been tested and used by NetEase, and there may be unknown security risks. Blizzard shall be solely responsible for the loss of the player's virtual property or inability to play as a result of this feature.
Deep into the hinterland
Game makers compete for Blizzard "refugees"
Approaching the date of the suspension of Blizzard Games' national server, more and more game manufacturers have begun to join the battle, but not to compete for Blizzard game agency, but to "take in" Blizzard game users who are about to "live in a fixed place", especially "World of Warcraft" game users.
Enter the "World of Warcraft" post bar as usual, a background advertisement of "World 3 New Year Costume "What to War" is hot, new 69 theme suit, low-burden and easy-to-cultivate green suit" came into the eyes of "World of Warcraft" gamer Xiaolin (anonymous). With the mouse sliding, "NetEase Warcraft Veteran Suit is hotly opened!" Go home, only to call the New Year" advertisement "Against the Water and Cold" also "compete on the same stage".
"World 3" and "Against the Water and Cold" "compete on the same stage" in "World of Warcraft" bar
According to Xiao Lin's recollection, in addition to "World 3" and "Against the Water and Cold", there are also games such as "Sword Warrior Love 3" and "Game of Thrones" that have also been advertised in the "World of Warcraft" bar. Especially after Blizzard and NetEase parted ways, the content of posts in Tieba has changed from the previous game strategy, team recruitment and fun story sharing to discussing which game is more suitable for World of Warcraft players.
For example, "Against the Water and Cold" launched a limited theme server "World of Warcraft Veteran Suit", which streamlined and themed the game based on the game habits of "Warcraft Veteran". By adjusting the equipment system, streamlining character development, adjusting the production of development materials, and designing the style and mechanics of quests, the gameplay and mechanics are more in line with the habits of World of Warcraft players. Interestingly, some players have found that the weapons given away by the World of Warcraft Veteran Suit "pay homage" to rare weapon shapes such as World of Warcraft's Frost Sorrow, Lyden's Fist and Egg Bow.
According to the cold water and cold, more than 300,000 new game users were added in the first weekend after the launch of the World of Warcraft veteran suit, and the number of players in the veteran suit has exceeded 800,000.
At the same time, on January 4, the Tencent MMO game "Taris World" also released a trailer. In the video comment area, some people pointed out that in the trailer, not only did they see the figure of the classic map of Winter Spring Valley, Nagran, and Blazing Blue Immortal Wild, but the trailer was full of "Warcraft elements" such as airships, dragons, world trees, and fishman armies. There are even netizens who found that "Taris World" found the original cast of "World of Warcraft", such as Huang Ying who voiced characters such as Sylvanas and Gianna, Yuan Guoqing who voiced characters such as Sal and Woking, and Liu Beichen who voiced characters such as Sagras and Tulayan.
In addition, even the figure of "private server" has appeared in various posts. "Soon the national service will be closed, ready to gather enough 50 Warcraft loyal players, just start..." The official uniform is closed, we will not be closed, this side can really retire" and other remarks also appeared in the major comment areas, and the discussion was hot.
The cake is big
But it's not a good score
However, although major game manufacturers have made every effort to recruit "Blizzard game refugees", its effectiveness remains to be seen.
"I have also tried some including "Against the Water", "FF14", etc., and found that their player base, game design, etc. are completely different from World of Warcraft, I can't say that these products are not fun, I also know that many lost Warcraft players have switched to other games, but in the end I will still choose to return to Azeroth." Kobayashi said, "Warcraft is not only an emotion, not only an epic, but also like a small society, and I am also running my own business in this game. ”
Zhang Shule believes that the above games are difficult to become a substitute for Blizzard's games, and are closer to a kind of "co-branding" marketing without Blizzard's consent. Before Warcraft is about to stop serving, launch "high imitation" or play emotional cards, in addition to the not very important task of grabbing customers, more is to show their muscles, so that more Warcraft hardcore players have a sense of identity with their own game brands, and establish a certain cognition and product association for subsequent solicitation.
Liao Xuhua of Analysys also said that the relevant behavior of the above-mentioned game manufacturers is more like a part of the update and operation of the Spring Festival file, and the game content provided in fact cannot meet the needs of Warcraft players. Warcraft's game content and community are irreplaceable by other games, and these behaviors can only attract a very small number of Warcraft players, and most of the Warcraft players are difficult to be attracted and retained by other games.
"In particular, many game users of Blizzard Games are over the age of thirty, and apart from feelings and habits, they are no longer core main players." Zhang Shule added, but they are also hardcore enough, and if they can introduce some, they can add a lot of points to the game's reputation.
Kobayashi's attitude also validates the above statement. When asked if a new agent will return World of Warcraft, Kobayashi firmly said: I will not hesitate to transfer the data, I believe that other players are the same, World of Warcraft carries the memory of a generation, and the identity of Warcraft players is still very proud. Only World of Warcraft allows more than twenty people to chat and push copies in the voice channel, and no second game can do it.
There are few "takeover men"
Blizzards may enter a recession
Whether it's the parting of ways between Blizzard and NetEase, or the mutual testing of gamers and game makers, at the end of the day, it is still necessary to pay attention to how Blizzard games will remain in the Chinese market.
At present, it seems that there may only be two ways to go in front of Blizzard: one is to abandon the domestic market and let players play in American and Taiwan servers, facing challenges such as a sharp decline in revenue and the impact of the game ecology; The other is to find a "takeover man" and continue to maintain the overall market of the Chinese market.
Zhang Shule believes that the B station, which is returning to the game profit scene, Perfect World, Giant Network, and ByteDance, which is not well attacked in the domestic game market, may have certain desires. But this desire is easily dispelled by Blizzard's domineering. Blizzard China's attitude is changeable and too strong in copyright and operation, but Warcraft and Hearthstone have reached their peak in the Chinese market, which has greatly discounted the takeover price given by the "takeover man".
However, the industry does not have too much expectation for Blizzard to successfully find a "takeover man" in China.
A game industry analyst revealed, "The game was suspended for two weeks before talking to others about the extension, and this time node was not chosen correctly, most likely because Blizzard China's process of finding the next national server publishing partner was not smooth, so it had to temporarily hold Buddha's feet." ”
The above analysts also said that in addition to the game version number needs to be re-applied, because in the "Diablo: Immortal" pearl jade in front, when Blizzard looks for the next partner, it will most likely require it to have the research and development capabilities of game IP mobile games, a complete mobile game project generally requires a 2-3 year game development cycle and huge capital investment, if you sign a 3-5 year contract, you will face the embarrassing situation of just having income and separating, "especially Blizzard twice." After backstabbing NetEase, a number of game companies have to be more cautious about Blizzard. ”
A brokerage analyst who focuses on the Internet even said frankly, "I think basically no company can take over, if a game can't even make money from NetEase, it means that no company can make money." ”
"Even without this failed renewal, Blizzard Games has begun to enter a period of decline in China, and Blizzard is unable to meet the market's demand for high-quality games and high standard operations." Liao Xuhua believes that in the future, Blizzard Games needs to face the lack of mature operation of NetEase, the decline of the game may be further accelerated, old players will continue to lose, and fewer and fewer people will be willing to try Blizzard's new products. Blizzard China's choice this time is a "floor oil" on their downhill path.
At the same time, Blizzard is no less stressed abroad than at home. In December last year, after regulators including the European Commission and the British Competition and Markets Authority, the US Federal Trade Commission also filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, making Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the "largest acquisition in game history", full of uncertainty, when Blizzard, which lost the Chinese market, may be at a disadvantage in negotiations with Microsoft.
Produced by: Nanduwan Finance Society Science and Technology Innovation Studio
Written by: Nanduwan Finance Agency reporter Chen Peijun
Past Report Review:
Blizzard "broke up" with NetEase Games, publishing multiple games in China accounting for 14% of revenue
Warcraft is suspended, how to deal with player accounts and assets? NetEase responded: Will negotiate with Blizzard
Negotiations with NetEase failed, and Blizzard will suspend the national server game service on January 23
NetEase responded to Blizzard: The statement was arrogant and unseemly, and it never sought IP control