On December 22, the National Press and Publication Administration issued the Measures for the Administration of Online Games (Draft for Solicitation of Comments) (hereinafter referred to as the "Consultation Draft"), and the stock prices of many game companies such as Tencent, NetEase, CMGE, and XD plummeted.
Some netizens on Zhihu pointed out that the full text of this draft is about 23,000 words, and the value of each word is about 10 million yuan just counting the stock price changes of Hong Kong stocks Tencent and NetEase at noon today.
True one-letter thousand-gold.
However, it should be pointed out that the current "Measures for the Administration of Online Games" is still in the stage of the draft for comments, and the feedback deadline is January 22, 2024, leaving a period of one month, which means that many things cannot be determined, and there will still be various possibilities for the final version of the "Measures for the Administration of Online Games".
But before that, what exactly is written in this consultation draft, and why did it cause a shock in the entire Chinese game industry?
Game industry year-end "gift package", picture/X
The "Measures for the Administration of Online Games" is groundbreaking
Before the release of the draft for comments by the Copyright Administration today, the most talked about domestic games in the near future is the "Yuan Dream Star" launched by Tencent against NetEase's "Egg Boy Team".
Tencent invested heavily in various channels to publicize, claiming that it would invest 1.4 billion yuan for it, which once sparked heated discussions on the whole network. Not only that, Tencent has also adopted methods such as downloading cash red envelopes, getting rewards for the first login, continuous sign-in, and giving skins for the first charge, hoping to increase the number of players, activity and willingness to recharge.
Announcement of the Copyright Administration, photo/National Press and Publication Administration
However, in the draft released today, the Copyright Administration proposed in Article 18 to "restrict excessive use and high consumption of games", specifically stating that online games shall not set up inducing rewards such as daily login, first recharge, and continuous recharge, in addition:
Online game publishing business units must not provide or condone high-priced transactions of virtual props through methods such as speculation or auctions. All online games must set user recharge limits and publicize them in their service rules, and pop-up warnings should be given to users' irrational consumption behaviors.
At present, the outside world's views on this provision are quite polarized.
Some players believe that this rule means that players can no longer "prostitute" the manufacturer's rewards, even if it is a continuous check-in, in short, it will hurt the welfare of zero krypton players and micro krypton players, while another part of the netizens agree with the provisions of the draft for comments, believing that the design of daily check-ins/tasks has long become a pathology, involving the energy of game companies and players into a worthless "system".
The differences between players are not small, picture/Weibo
Theoretically, the publisher should hope to crack down on inducing rewards in the game through this provision, forcing game manufacturers to put more attention on the gameplay design and operation of the game itself. However, the current version of the draft is more lenient, and if this is the case, I am afraid that manufacturers will soon follow up with new, more subtle "inducement rewards" to improve the retention rate.
However, this is only one of the more controversial articles in the Consultation Draft.
It is forbidden to enforce battles and test suits...... The gaming industry may be hit again
Article 17 of the Draft for Comments reads: [Prohibition of Compulsory Battles] Online game publishing business units must not set up compulsory battles in online games.
In fact, as early as 2010, the Interim Measures for the Administration of Online Games (the Interim Measures) stipulated in Article 18 (1) that online game business entities shall not set up compulsory battles in online games without the consent of online game users.
However, neither the 2010 Interim Measures nor the just-released draft for comments clearly stated the definitions of "battle" and "mandatory", which has led to heated discussions among many players about this provision.
Photo/NetEase
You know, the core gameplay of many games is battle. For example, NetEase's strategic mobile game "The Shore of the Land" is a pure PVP mode, where one user matches another user, and fighting games are definitely indispensable. The question is, what does it mean to be forced? Does the Red Spirit Invasion count? Is it possible to bypass it by designing a "Battle Application"?
Unfortunately, none of these issues are currently certain, and to some extent, perhaps this provision remains a mere decoration most of the time.
In Article 21 [Technical Testing Specifications], the Consultation Draft further requires that no more than 20,000 users are allowed to participate in the game during the testing phase, and that the test user data is deleted.
On the one hand, the practice of limiting the number of test users will directly affect the scale and effectiveness of the test, resulting in incomplete game testing, increasing the possibility of problems in the later stage, and the cost of maintenance and updates. On the other hand, after the 2018 version number was frozen, stagnant, and shrinking, the test server has long become the only way out for games that have not received the version number.
The deletion test also limits the play of manufacturers and the experience of players to a certain extent. In the game testing stage, there are usually two ways to delete and not delete, and the specific way depends on the consideration of different manufacturers for different games, for example, the most discussed "Yuan Dream Star" has already started the deletion test, and last week (December 15) launched the undeleted test.
Photo/Tencent
Unlike deleted tests, which focus on core elements such as game operation and gameplay, undeleted tests can not only attract players to experience the game in advance and provide feedback, but also encourage core players to continue playing the game by retaining the game progress. Conversely, players can also develop in-game characters and assets from the beta phase without worrying about losing progress.
The Consultation Paper does not specify whether the deletion process will be "mandatory", but if it is not allowed, it will undoubtedly have a certain impact on both aspects.
In addition to the above-mentioned articles, there are several other articles in the draft that deserve special attention:
- Article 25 [Specifications for Game Currency Issuance and Trading Enterprises] The same enterprise shall not operate online game currency issuance and online game currency trading services at the same time.
- Article 27: [Random Selection]When providing random selection services, online game publishing business units shall make reasonable settings for the number and probability of drawing, and must not induce online game users to spend excessively. At the same time, users should be provided with other ways to obtain virtual props and value-added services with the same performance, such as exchanging virtual props and purchasing online game currency directly.
- Article 29: [Publicity and Promotion Specifications]Units providing publicity and promotion services for online games shall inspect the relevant supporting documents of the service recipients, check the content of the advertisements, and must not publish online game advertisements with inconsistent content or incomplete supporting documents. Online game live streaming must not have high tips.
In addition, there is Article 36 [Termination of Operation], etc., but it has long appeared in other measures and has attracted public attention many times, so I will not mention it here.
Life will find its way
On the same day that "Dream Star" was launched on all platforms, the 2023 China Game Industry Annual Conference was held in Guangzhou, at which the "2023 China Game Industry Report" was released.
Photo/China Game Industry Annual Conference
According to the report, the actual sales revenue of the domestic game market in 2023 will be 302.964 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.95%, breaking through the 300 billion mark for the first time, and the number of users will be 668 million, a year-on-year increase of 0.61%, a record high. Among them, mobile games accounted for 226.86 billion yuan, and client games accounted for 66.283 billion yuan.
According to the provisions in the current draft for comments, most of the domestic mobile games and client games will be affected to varying degrees, which is unknown in the long run, but the impact will be certain in the short term, including various means of retention, card drawing, monetization and so on.
However, it is at least certain that the domestic game industry will not be able to return to the free advertising model after all, because it has long been proved that the advertising model is far inferior to cultivating paying users, but for most small and medium-sized game manufacturers with low risk resistance, what will be the new way out?
I don't know, but there is a classic line in the movie "Jurassic Park" - Life will find its way out, which literally translates to:
"Life will find its way. 」
Title image from Pexels
CES (Las Vegas International Consumer Electronics Show) 2024 is about to be grandly opened, and Lei Technology will send a reporting team led by "One Tianming" to Las Vegas, Nevada, USA CES 2024 on-site reporting, so stay tuned.