What will the future shape of gaming? This is the ultimate question that has haunted everyone's mind since the birth of video games. In the past few decades, whether the imagination of games surpasses the status quo of technology, or the development of technology gives games room for change, video games, which have always been at the forefront of scientific and technological exploration, have always been an important guiding sign for us to judge the future.
The recent AIGC craze has made us sigh again and think about how much impact the leap in technology will have on video games overnight. Recently, CMGE also announced that its "Sword World" will release concept CG on April 20 this year and open pre-orders at the same time, release a real PV on April 27, and conduct the first test from the end of May to the beginning of June.
This work, which has invested more than 300 million yuan in research and development, is finally about to be lifted, and the endless discussion of the meta-universe seems to be one step closer to us.
[On April 20, "Sword World" released concept CG synchronously opened for appointment]
28 years of national first game IP, creating an open world of Xianxia
As we all know, CMGE is the best IP company in the industry, and there are countless IP adaptations of mobile games in their hands, including the previously released "Sea King Blood Route", "The Legend of the New Condor Heroes: Iron-Blooded Danxin", "True Three Kingdoms Unmatched" and "Soul Street: Born to King" and so on have achieved good results. This time, the national first game IP fairy sword taken out by CMGE has been precipitated for 28 years since its launch in 1995, accumulating more than 600 million users, and the derivatives market such as film and television dramas, books, mobile games, and script killing is even more thriving.
【Fairy Sword World Open World Concept Art】
According to the observation of the game gyro, the positioning of "Xian Jian World" is the open world of Xian Xia, which is fundamentally different from the open world of martial arts on the market at present. From the perspective of text deconstruction, the differentiation of the theme is mainly in the characters "fairy" and "xia".
"Xia" is easier to understand, it is nothing more than the spirit of chivalry, the righteousness of the rivers and lakes, which is the core spirit of Chinese martial arts. And this "immortal" is something engraved in the DNA of the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, whether it is the myth of Nuwa making up the sky, praising the father day by day, or the various exotic beasts of Liaozhai Zhi and the Mountain and Sea Sutra, or the various legends of cultivating immortals, strange fairy magic, mysterious fairy cave heaven and otherworldly fairy monsters, can be summarized as "immortal" and "strange", which is the core of the fantasy of oriental fairies.
Since it is a work of the open-world track, it must be the level of the industry's front-line in terms of plot, characters, freedom, exploration and other dimensions, combined with the industrialized pipeline, in order to complete the production volume and precision of this masterpiece. In the past fairy sword single-player works, the plot existed in a linear narrative structure, and it is believed that in the open world map of "Fairy Sword World", players can not only encounter classic characters of the fairy sword era, but also have other stories with the characters, so that the characters and NPCs have new experiences and personalities, providing players with a more immersive and realistic fairy sword.
【Fairy Sword World Open World Concept Art】
When it comes to the open world, it is certainly impossible to bypass the topic of "degree of freedom", the seamless map of 384 square kilometers of "Sword World" allows players to roam freely in the vibrant national style map, there is the beautiful scenery of Yuhang Town, Suzhou, Hangzhou water town in the south of the Jiangnan, and the western region style of Bashu Yuzhou and Yudu, there is no air wall between the scenes, and you can see it. At the same time, players can interact with every grass and tree, river and water in the map scene, stepping on flowers and plants, crossing rivers, climbing trees, waterfall showers... It's like exploring and interacting in the real world.
In addition, the official also announced a series of black technologies, including ultra-long-distance vision, 24-hour dynamic lighting, realistic flower and grassland wind field effects, weather systems, 3A-level technical rendering, real-time physical light and shadow, etc., these real visual effects and audio and painting technologies will make the in-game scenes and character models more realistic and natural, allowing players to have a deeper immersive experience.
Intelligent AI NPC technology is also a highlight of CMGE in "Sword World". With the help of Wen Xin Yiyan and AIGC technology, NPCs will make corresponding feedback according to the player and environment, such as rain umbrellas, lighting lights in dark, and generating replies in real time according to player questions, etc., which makes all NPCs no longer emotionless piles, but "real people" full of life, making the entire fairy sword world more vibrant.
【"Immortal Sword World" animism】
With the blessing of these technologies, "Immortal Sword World" may single-handedly pick the beam of the fairy open world track and compete with many martial arts open world. We look forward to "Fairy Sword World" to carry more diversified user emotional value and reshape the "domestic light" of the new era of games on the basis of the 28-year historical accumulation of Fairy Sword IP.
With the new "helper" of "Immortal Sword World", explore a different metaverse content ecology
At the moment, the "boom" of the metaverse seems to have calmed down compared to before, but this is a necessary stage for everything to develop and settle after the bubble bursts. Capital is still entering the game one after another, but compared with "hot money", we have now returned to a more rational attitude and perspective to look at the metaverse - whether it is the "14th Five-Year Plan" for the development of Shanghai's electronic information industry released by Shanghai, or the "2022 Wuhan Municipal Government Work Report" released by Wuhan, the new policies formulated by local governments have mentioned that we need to help the development of the metaverse more from the aspects of technology research and development, industrial integration, and commercial implementation.
Looking at the existing metaverse games on the market, some only exist in technical frameworks, lack playability and content ecology; Some only have content forms, but lack the economic system and architecture that fits the Internet 3.0 form. For manufacturers, product form differences are the key to defining whether metaverse products can "run out", and for players and consumers, sufficient content consumption is the absolute pillar. The arrival of AIGC's "helper" is bound to stir up a new storm in the meta-universe game market, and meta-universe products such as "Sword World" that take a differentiated path will not lose this opportunity at this inflection point.
CMGE's national style metaverse game "Sword World" was established in 2021, according to official disclosure information, in order to give players a more realistic "meta-universe" experience, "Sword World" has set up a variety of novel "meta-universe" gameplay, including private space, leisure and entertainment, vertical social networking, virtual performance, free creation and business economy.
[Watch a virtual performance on the "Sword World" metaverse platform]
Based on the positioning of CMGE as a "content-based meta-universe", the game "Sword World" has a core difference from the meta-universe platform games based on blockchain, WEB and other technologies in the market today, and it emphasizes UGC community socialization, user interactive experience and the business ecology that combines virtual and real inside, and has more connotation and commercial value.
In short, the "Fairy Sword Spirit Realm" of "Fairy Sword World" is a meta-universe space expanded by CMGE based on its open-world games, in which players can experience the fun of leisurely life, free creation, entertainment and social networking, and virtual and real consumption.
In this small world, CMGE builds a content creation environment for players on the one hand to achieve a prosperous creator economic ecology; On the other hand, it provides a gamified virtual and real combined business system for brick-and-mortar businesses to create a virtual and real integrated business format. To sum up in the words of CMGE CEO Xiao Jian, that is, although "Sword World" is based on games, it has surpassed a game.
In order to support this grand virtual world and complex economic system, and to give players a more realistic and smoother game experience, "Sword World" has also invested in a number of advantageous technologies, including 384 square kilometers of seamless large map technology, 24-hour lighting, weather change system, intelligent AI NPC and UGC creation tools. When it comes to AI and UGC creation, we have to talk about this year's hot new applications and new tracks, ChatGTP and the AIGC track it represents.
Behind "Sword World" + AIGC: CMGE's long-term investment in emerging fields
Since the beginning of this year, ChatGPT has exploded the door to a new world of AI with its popularity, and has also set off a new round of AI wars among major Internet technology manufacturers. Abroad, Google, Microsoft's ChatGPT version of the search engine war is in full swing. Domestically, both Internet giants and start-up technology companies are ready to roll up their sleeves and do a big job.
With the entry of these manufacturers, the popularity of ChatGPT and the AIGC track represented by it continues to rise, and the discussion of new AI technologies in the industry is also quite hot. Among them, there are discussions about ChatGPT-4's role in helping art painting, writing programs, papers, etc., and there are also concerns that it will replace human resources. But it is undeniable that the arrival of ChatGPT and even AIGC will be a huge revolution, which will have a strong role in promoting the metaverse industry.
At present, domestic Internet manufacturers such as Tencent, Netease, and Baidu are actively layout. Tencent told the media earlier that it currently has a layout in the relevant directions of ChatGPT and AIGC, and special research is also advancing in an orderly manner. A while ago, Baidu's launch of the generative AI product "Wen Xin Yiyan" caused heated discussions, and its CEO Robin Li also responded to core questions in public.
[Baidu "Wen Xin Yiyan" released, "Immortal Sword World" as its partner]
In their view, the time for AIGC has arrived. CMGE is obviously aware of this, and officially announced the cooperation between "Sword World" and Wen Xinyan, both parties intend to apply AI capabilities in fields including intelligent NPCs, UGC creation ecology, etc., and jointly explore greater commercial value and market space at the technology application layer.
Why did "Sword World" first catch the "AIGC" express train? In our view, this stems from CMGE's foresight and keen sense of emerging fields. They entered the early stage of the metaverse concept, decisively tried new things when the development of AIGC was emerging, actively participated in the product form and business model exploration in the metaverse or WEB 3.0 era, and never gave in to being the first to eat crabs.
More importantly, the meta-universe, "Sword World", and AIGC are all products born of long-term ideas and long-term investment, and their encounters are, in a sense, the connection of stars, and the return of a hundred rivers to the sea. The metaverse has been developed for many years, and between the advance and retreat of many manufacturers, CMGE still insists on investing more than 300 million yuan, patiently accompanying the growth and maturity of the industry. The emergence of the metaverse game of "Sword World" and the emergence of ChatGPT-4 are the products of thick accumulation.
Kung Fu pays off, and now, with "World of Swords" expected to be launched in 2023, CMGE is also about to officially launch in the metaverse game arena. We are optimistic that companies that adhere to long-term principles can better meet revenue expectations in the metaverse game field, and the application of AIGC technology in "Fairy Sword World" and even the entire game field is also very exciting.