In recent years, domestic game manufacturers have gone abroad in a big way, and various actions from China, such as the layout of new global/regional products, overseas investment and mergers and acquisitions of Chinese enterprises, and cooperation with overseas enterprises, have been frequent. In the face of more and more successful trial cases, can we find the latest opportunities suitable for ourselves? Every weekend, we will take stock of the key points of the week for you.
Voices in the industry
- "Barrage interactive gameplay, everyone try not to think of it as a game, it is more similar to communication, it is more similar to advertising in communication, what you need is exposure, and what you need to do after exposure is conversion." ”
At this month's FBEC2023 conference, Pu Guannan, founder and CEO of Starscape, gave a speech on the theme of "Exploration of Star Warriors on the Barrage Track", sharing Starscape's experience in the exploration of the barrage track.
Industry news
[1] On the morning of December 25, the game industry ushered in the last batch of domestic game versions in 2023. So far, a total of 1,075 game versions (977 domestic and 98 imported) will be issued in 2023, which has exceeded that of 2021 and is twice as many as in 2022.
In this batch, Tencent-related products include "Counter War: Future", "Assassin's Creed: Heroes" and "World of Taris", and NetEase Games has 2 self-developed products approved, namely "Firefly Assault" and "Poetry of the Four Directions". Other noteworthy products include, but are not limited to: Xishanju's "East: Plain Solitary Hung", XD's "Heartbeat Town", Glacier Network's "Super Awakening", 4399's "King of the Party", Celadon Game "Lost Light", Ladder Network's "Aura Star 2", Moon Whisper's "Ring of Fire", Canghuo Game "Echo of Vision", Yishi's "Sword Walking", etc. The release of this edition number has also been voiced by the official media, releasing a positive signal to the industry.
[2] On December 27, the three major indexes of Hong Kong stocks opened collectively higher. At the close, the Hang Seng Index rose 1.74%, the Technology Index rose 2.58%, and the State-owned Enterprises Index rose 2.09%. Reflected in gaming stocks, many gaming stocks rebounded, some up more than 15%. Hong Kong game stocks rebounded significantly on the day, with Zenyou Technology, Seventh Avenue, Zhongxu Future, Hometown Interactive, NetEase, etc. rising by more than 10%. Following Tencent, Sanqi Mutual Entertainment, and Giant Network, Century Huatong, Xinghui Entertainment, Zheshu Culture, and Beiwei Technology also announced repurchase and increase plans. It is reported that the total amount of their repurchase funds is not less than 10 million yuan and not more than 100 million yuan.
[3] Recently, NetEase has been exposed or "rekindled" with Blizzard, and the "World of Warcraft" national server is expected to return. However, in response to this news, neither Blizzard nor NetEase responded.
Recently, the company has checked and found that Wangzhiyi (Shenzhen) Network Co., Ltd. was formally established on November 7 this year, with an injection of 1 million yuan, and the company's executive director and legal representative is Wang Yi. He is also the Senior Vice President of NetEase, responsible for terminal games, mobile games, product introduction and other businesses.
[4] Recently, DataEye, an advertising and marketing data agency, released a "2023 Domestic Game Effect Advertising White Paper", from the content of the "White Paper", we can see some obvious trends: First, in the market of buying materials, the mobile game buying market has picked up, and mini games have grown explosively. Second, in terms of the trend of buying volume, important marketing nodes during holidays are "cold", and more advertisers choose to stagger peak delivery. Third, in terms of materials, the speed of creative consumption has increased, and the quality of material content has been pursued. Fourth, at the level of buying volume themes and types, the legend is still strong, and the second element has achieved a breakthrough in the buying market.
[5] According to foreign media sources, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick (Bobby Kotick) officially stepped down on December 29, after which Activision Blizzard will be supervised by Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft's game business.
[6] On December 28, Steam announced the best-selling games of 2023 on Steam (the top 100 with the highest gross revenue). The list is divided into platinum, gold, silver and bronze lists, with games on the platinum list including: Dota 2, Apex, Starfield, Sons of the Forest, PUBG Battle Royale, Destiny 2, CS2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Baldur's Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077 and Hogwarts Legacy.
Product Observations
[1] Tencent's mobile game "Cookie Man: Kingdom" was launched on December 28 and won the top 1 on the free list and the 10th on the best-selling list. The game also linked the snack brand Want Want and the popular film and television IP Zhen Huan, bringing better recognition to this overseas image.
[2] The SLG mobile game "The Lord of the Rings: Strife" developed by NetEase will be available for pre-order on December 25. According to the official website, "The Lord of the Rings" is an officially licensed, NetEase's new high-quality SLG masterpiece, under the core gameplay of the season-based geostrategy, players become strategists, fight side by side with classic characters in the original book, and experience epic battles in the vast world of Middle-earth. According to online information, "The Lord of the Rings: Discord" was launched overseas at the end of 2021 and received the edition number in September this year.
[3] On December 26, a new game with a sci-fi gunfight theme and card type called "Codename: Radium Flash" was first exposed PV, which was developed by Hangzhou Xinguang Liumei's Reflection Fox Studio. Xinguang Liumei has developed products such as "High-energy Figure Group" and "Flying Dragon Knight", and it is said that "Codename: Radium Flash" is its first self-developed and self-developed product in China.
[4] According to foreign media Game World Observer, statistics from SteamDB show that a total of 14,423 games will be released on the Steam store in 2023, an increase of 14.5% year-on-year. October was the month with the highest number of new games landing on Steam, reaching 1,320, followed by August and March, with 1,285 and 1,270, respectively. The three new games with the largest number of simultaneous online players are Hogwarts Legacy (879,000), Baldur's Gate 3 (875,000) and Sons of the Forest (414,000).
Investment and financing express
[1] A few days ago, Hangzhou Alibaba Overseas Information Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Ali Overseas) was exposed to be a shareholder of developer Chengdu Dongji Six Senses Information Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as East Pole Six Senses), accounting for 32.6% of the shares. The Six Senses of Dongji is developing a new game "Codename: Twenty-Four Solar Terms", which is a nature exploration and collection game with the theme of solar term culture. Although the investor Ali Overseas has not been established for a long time, it is backed by Alibaba Group, and Ali Interactive Entertainment, a subsidiary of the group, has also invested in many game teams earlier, such as Guangzhou Lechuang Interactive, Guangzhou Beichen Starlight, Shanghai Taylorfang, etc.