If you want to choose a representative word for this year's Chinese game market, "volume" seems to be no longer appropriate.
At a time when the direction of players' payment is becoming more and more difficult to figure out, some people are gradually expanding their eyes and betting on some more personalized and subdivided categories.
After all, instead of thanklessly rolling up the art scroll welfare roll gameplay in the established category to try to attract more paying players, it is better to study the subdivision track and develop a new player group.
And the mecha game is such a new subdivision track.
It's hard for me to describe to you in dry words what kind of apprehension and excitement I felt when I saw a brand new mecha action game on TGA, and I can't express my shock when I saw the logo of Xishanju in simple words-
A major domestic manufacturer famous for martial arts games, made a first-class mecha action, which is the most unexpected "science fiction story" this year.
After all, when it comes to mecha games, there has been almost no such thing in China in recent years.
Mecha is a romantic and seemingly unpopular subject. Its vertical audience is clearly visible – men who love guns, steel, and machinery. However, the cost of making a top-level realistic mecha game is frighteningly high - the production team needs to find a bigwig-level designer to complete the machine design on the premise of making a good game, and then, it is best to tie a "Gundam" or "Tianyuan Breakthrough"-level IP......
The lack of successful cases that can be used for reference, and the potential sunk cost is clearly visible, which will of course lead many manufacturers to regard the mecha theme as a "chicken rib" that they are unwilling to touch.
So when "Limit Solving Machine" and "Ganglan" gave players a little mecha shock at the end of 2023, the surprise and doubt overshadowed the surprise in my heart for a while, and also threw a question out.
Mecha theme, can it really be popular in China?
One
Although the subdivision of the mecha category has a small voice in the current market, this does not mean that it has no potential and scale, despite the lack of head products, there are still many games that can be named "mecha".
For example, the ancient MMO online game "Machine Battle OL", which has gone through 16 years of old-timers, is still in continuous operation, but whether it is the game form of 45° top-down view or the complex gameplay accumulated under 16 years of updates, it has become the threshold for new players to enter the pit.
Next door, such as "Heavy Duty Queen" and "Mobile Sentai Team", the fate of works with elements of the second game is actually similar, and they never compete with those head second games, bury themselves in managing their own player groups, develop their own new content, and focus on a player who serves them well.
As a result, there are no new works to drive growth and activity, and they can only rely on the chassis of this part of the players who like mechas, and these domestic mecha games are now in such an embarrassing scene, but from another point of view, it is precisely because of this group of player chassis that they can continue to maintain, and this is also the proof that the mecha category still has potential. And this potential finally ushered in a concentrated explosion in August this year in "Armored Core 6", which was separated from ten years.
"Armored Core 6" quickly slashed the sales of 2.8 million copies, and also won the TGA Best Action Game, even considering the influence of FS itself and its other IPs, for a not very popular theme, this result is still very good.
But this achievement is only the success of "Armored Core 6" itself, not the prosperity of the mecha action game category. In fact, if players want to find a game experience similar to "Armored Core" in China, they can only choose between "Gundam: Clash of Battles" and "Mobile City Alpha", and there are too few choices.
However, the overseas market next door is not much better, and mecha enthusiasts all over the world can only rely on "Armored Core 6" recently, and after the content of "Armored Core 6" itself is rapidly consumed, players can only pinch their noses and choose "Mecha Battle Demon" or "Mobile Suit Gundam Guild Battle Mission 2" for fun.
Therefore, the appearance of the restriction machine at the TGA has really raised the expectations of a wave of foreigners
This gives Xishanju the confidence to develop the global market.
Whether it is the first exposure to TGA, or the landing on the dual mainstream platforms of PC and console, it is actually a high-profile announcement of the "Aiming Global" strategy of "Unblocking Machine". It was a very sound decision. After all, mecha is a foreign concept, and there is no cultural threshold for understanding. And even if it is viewed from a global perspective, compared with the head games of the same category, the level of "Limit Solving Machine" displayed in the actual machine is also very good.
Two
So, in such a favorable environment at the right time, place and people, can "Limit Relief Machine" become the next hit.
Of course, this is a question that will take a year of official operation of "Limit Solving Machine" to make a conclusion, but judging from the quality shown by the current several broadcasts, it at least has the potential to lead the track of mecha games.
As a game aimed at PC and console, the Limit Solver first pulled the picture expression to a very high level, the dazzling sunlight reflected by the wings when the airframe was flying in the air, the traces left on the sand when the ground was fighting, and the water surface affected by the movement and light of the body at the same time during the water battle, etc., all showed off their skills in the picture is very "able to fight".
After the teaser was released, Nvidia also officially released the news of the release of DLSS3 and ray tracing. With NVIDIA's vaunted DLSS frame rate optimization and ray tracing, the bar for getting excellent graphics is lowered. So that more players can experience the excellent performance they show.
As for the design that some Gundam players are most concerned about, it does not copy the exterior armor design and V-shaped antenna of the "Gundam" series, nor is it the pragmatic style of the "Armored Core" series that can be seen at a glance. Instead, it inherits the advantages of both at the same time, and strives to be meticulous in the material, armor and joint details of the body, so that each body can have a distinctive and highly recognizable image.
If players like smart and cool mechs, they can choose Narujin and Black Panther, and if they prefer a heavy industrial style, this Triceratops can also meet the expectations of players.
In terms of gameplay, they chose 3V3 and 6V6, which are more intense and entertaining, and the PVP gameplay first ensures the community activity of players, and the more competitive confrontation will also quickly screen the audience of the game, so that players who are keen on this can continue to maintain their enthusiasm for the game. And the PVE gameplay against the super-large mech in the demo may also allow players who don't like PVP to experience the charm of this game.
What's more, it is an online game, and the most important thing in Xishanju is the experience of online game operation, thanks to the rapid dissemination and sharing attributes of online games, it seems that "Unblocking Machine" not only serves the original fans of the mecha category, but also has the ambition to broaden the audience.
"Limit Solving Machine" seems to really understand what players want, the picture, machine design, gameplay, community, they do their best to polish where players may be harsh and dissatisfied, in the case of a weak mecha game market, so careful to create such a cost-effective behavior to create such a mecha game, Xishanju's ambition is obvious, they may just want to lead this category through "Limit Solving Machine", and open up the blue ocean of the mecha game market at home and abroad.
Guo Weiwei himself is a top glue guy, and the machine design is almost the part that "Limit Solving Machine" has to worry about the most.
As for in such an environment, whether "Limit Machine" can really create a piece of heaven after it is launched, we seem to need to wait for the market's answer, but the author believes that "Limit Machine" is becoming a meteor that crosses the blank blue sky of mecha games.
After all, for players, there will always be people who look forward to the clash of steel and the clash of firepower.