Per editor: Li Zedong
On May 17, the topic of "Jing Yuan" appeared on Weibo hot search, what is the situation?
On the afternoon of May 17, some players reported that after the new character Jing Yuan of "Honkai: Star Dome Railway" was launched, players had a problem of delayed recharge, and the official later posted a blog saying that it had noticed the problem and was urgently investigating and repairing.
Image source: Mihayou "Honkai Star Dome Railway" official website
"Honkai: Star Dome Railway" released a Weibo saying that it has received feedback that some players have experienced delays in recharging to their accounts. The technical staff is now in urgent investigation and repair, please pay attention to the subsequent official announcement for the actual repair time. We apologize for the inconvenience caused by in-game announcements and player community announcements as soon as the problem is fixed, and thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
On May 16, the latest data from the Sensor Tower store intelligence platform showed that in April 2023, China's mobile game products ranked in overseas market revenue and downloads, of which "Genshin", "PUBG Mobile" and "Puzzles & Survival" ranked among the top three in terms of overseas mobile game revenue, and "Honkai: Star Dome Railway", "Piano Star" and "PUBG Mobile" ranked among the top three mobile game downloads.
It is understood that "Honkai: Star Dome Railway" is a galaxy adventure strategy game self-developed by Shanghai Mihayou Network Technology Co., Ltd.
The "turn-based" gameplay is hotly debated
As the latest installment in the Honkai series, the game world of Honkai: Star Dome Railway has come to a vast universe, and "embark on a journey by train and roam the planets in the universe" is the theme of the game. Players will travel between planets with very different social structures, technological levels, cultural systems, and historical backgrounds, depicting the changes and growth of characters in highly differentiated worldviews.
But unlike Genshin's open-world adventure, Honkai: Star Dome Railway is a 3D turn-based strategy RPG.
Image source: Courtesy of the company
David said the game was first established in 2019 with the goal of "exploring new directions for the Honkai series." At the beginning of the project, the team identified a "relatively light and operation-oriented game category", turning Honkai: Star Dome Railway into a turn-based strategy RPG. In addition, another project concept of "Honkai: Star Dome Railway" is to create "playable animated dramas".
As soon as the news of the launch of the new game came out, netizens discussed on social platforms: "Onmyoji: Finally a competitor again", "The IP of Mihayou is too explosive here", "My original god has not yet played and understood and released a new game". But there is also no lack of opinions on "I don't like turn-based" and "turn-based in what era".
David said that in order to expand the player base of Mihayou and allow people who are not good at action games to try Mihayou's products, "Honkai: Star Dome Railway" basically establishes turn-based gameplay. In his opinion, each type of game has its own audience.
According to Mihayou's player questionnaire survey, whether it is a PC, mobile phone or home console platform, there are quite a few "people who like turn-based RPGs". According to the results of the closed beta survey of "Honkai: Star Dome Railway", 95% of players gave feedback that "as long as the game itself is fun and the graphics are good enough, there is motivation to continue playing".
Explore AI tools to aid R&D
As a two-dimensional IP independently created by Mihayou, "Honkai" has won the favor of two-dimensional enthusiasts with its unique character image and world view setting, and Mihayou has also relied on this IP to create a two-dimensional cultural industry chain covering games, comics, animation, light novels and other products. Among them, "Honkai Academy" is the first mobile game product developed by Mihayou.
According to the prospectus submitted by Mihayou in 2018, the main sources of the company's revenue during the reporting period were the mobile games "Honkai Academy 2" and "Honkai 3", and the revenue of these two products accounted for 98.82% of the operating income in the reporting period. As of June 30, 2017, the cumulative amount of recharge turnover of "Honkai Academy 2" exceeded 1 billion yuan; The number of game accounts in "Honkai 3" exceeded 22 million, and the cumulative recharge turnover exceeded 1.1 billion yuan.
Image source: Screenshot of Mihayou's 2018 prospectus (filing draft).
According to the data, Shanghai Mihayou Network Technology Co., Ltd. has successfully registered a number of "Honkai: Star Dome Railway" trademarks in 2022, with international classifications including daily chemical products, furniture, financial property management, communication services, social laws, etc.
The reporter of "Daily Economic News" learned that since the project was established in 2019, the development team of "Honkai: Star Dome Railway" has also expanded to 500 people in four years. For each planet that appears in the game, its copywriting and art settings take a full year from start to finish.
David revealed that Mihayou and the "Star Dome Railway" team have begun to explore AI tools to assist game development. For example, to make the game more immersive, the team added AI technology to the NPC's behavior pattern. "The virtual world that 'provides everything you need' through games is one of the future directions for entertainment products."
Mihayou's vision is to create a virtual world in which one billion people around the world want to live by 2030.
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