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
- "Tencent is making a game similar to "Phantom Beast Palu", and in China, a number of companies are developing a similar mobile version of Palu, and the budget of 10 billion yen is almost 10 times that of "Phantom Beast Palu"! Next year, there will be a large number of "Genshin Impact" quality monsters (or two-dimensional beautiful girls) such development games, which is a great time. ”
Recently, Takuro Mizobe, CEO of Pocketpair, the developer of "Phantom Beast Palu", shared his views on social media on Chinese mobile game developers making "Palu like" games.
Industry news
[1] On April 18, Youzu Network officially announced two important high-level appointments. Deitch is the Chief Product Officer (CPO), responsible for product planning and R&D project management, and Wu Xi is the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), responsible for global distribution and user growth. Both new executives report directly to CEO Chen Fang.
[2] Major listed game companies have recently disclosed their 2023 annual reports. Overall, in 2023, 6% of Hong Kong-listed game companies will have a year-on-year increase in revenue, with a maximum increase of 703%, nearly 7% of profits, most of which will turn losses into profits, and more than half of them will cut expenses and lay off employees, with the highest layoff exceeding 40%. Gyro dismantled the financial report in detail.
[3] On the evening of April 15, Perfect World released its 2023 annual performance report. According to the report, Perfect World's revenue last year was 7.791 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.57%, and its net profit was 491 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 64.31%. According to Perfect World, the company currently has more than 10 new products under development, including self-developed mobile games such as "One Punch Man: World", "Perverse Million King Arthur: Ring", and "Light Ink Cloud Town".
[4] More than 7,000 people have signed a petition on the official website of the UK government, asking the UK government to monitor the actions of game publishers and ensure that the game can still be played after the shutdown. The petition proposes that developers should preserve players' digital assets after the shutdown so that they can continue to play normally without additional intervention. Not long ago, Ubisoft discontinued its buyout online game "The Crew 1", which sparked controversy among players.
[5] According to foreign media reports, Take-Two, the parent company of developers such as R-Star and 2K, announced that it would lay off about 5% of its employees, and about 579 people were affected by the layoffs. T2 said the move will save the company $165 million a year in response to slowing revenue growth for PC and console games.
[6] Not long ago, Mistplay, a mobile game loyalty observation platform, released the "2024 Mobile Game Consumption Report", pointing out that 32% of paying users intend to spend less on mobile games in 2024, and more people think this way among the "heavy Kryptonite players" who spend more than $100 on mobile games, and about 41% of this group intend to reduce spending. In addition, more than 7 out of 10 "heavy krypton players" spend more than one game per month.
[7] A few days ago, Koei lowered its revenue forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024. Koei forecasts that game sales for the fiscal year are down about $70 million, or about 11 percent, from previous expectations, while net profit is down sharply by 28 percent. Developed by the ninja group and released in March this year, Ronin Rise is one of the most relied on products of Koei, which hoped to sell more than 5 million copies.
[8] Sensor Tower released the top 10 list of the world's most popular mobile games in terms of revenue and revenue growth in March, and said that Scopely's "Monopoly GO!" attracted $277 million in the global App Store and Google Play in March, returning to the top of the global mobile game best-selling list. Among them, 79.4% of the game's revenue comes from the US market, 3.7% from the French market, and 3.6% from the UK market.
Product Observations
[1] On April 18, Papergames' first open-world dress-up adventure game "Infinite Nuan" started the official live broadcast of the actual machine demonstration. It was officially announced that the "Fantasy Test" will be launched on April 24, when players can come to this place full of imagination and wonder to adventure and feel the wonder of the warm world.
[2] On April 17, Guangzhou Baitian announced that its game "Food Language" will officially stop operating in Chinese mainland on June 18 this year. Soon after the news was released, the relevant entry topped the hot search on Weibo, arousing heated discussions among players.
[3] miHoYo's new work "Jeopardy Zero" has started the "noise test" this Thursday. This is the third test of the game, and it is a limited deletion billing test. Gyro also reviewed the new additions to the game.
[4] Greedy Games landed on the national server with "Beast Lords: New World", climbed to the first place on the TapTap reservation list, and the sixth place on the TapTap fast explosion soaring list, and officially opened the test this Thursday.
[5] Lilith's new product "Sword and Crusade: Departure" opened for beta this Thursday, and Gyro has deeply disassembled the game. After its overseas launch in March, the product quickly topped the iOS free charts in 10 countries and regions, including the United States and Canada.
[6] "Happy Fishing Master" was a big hit, and it entered the top 10 of the domestic iOS best-selling list this week, and the operating company behind it is Beijing Tuyou.
[7] The two-dimensional antiquities anthropomorphic mobile game "Wuhua Mixin" was in public beta this Friday, and this product was developed by the Word Club Studio and jointly published by Bilibili Games.
[8] On April 18, the new game "Dragonstone War" developed by Tencent Kaibo Network was exposed, it is reported that "Dragonstone War" aims to become an independent branch of the domestic game SLG market, and is a Western fantasy war strategy mobile game, players will play the role of a lord, using the power of Dragonstone and elite troops to regain lost territory. In siege battles and world boss battles, players can fight alongside their allies while meeting social and combat needs. In September last year, the product was tested overseas under the name "Dragon Fighter".
Investment and financing express
Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) announced that it has successfully raised $7.2 billion in new funding, of which $600 million will be allocated to invest in startups in the gaming industry, which may include companies that develop new games, gaming platforms, game-related technologies or other innovations in the gaming industry. This funding is a considerable amount for any company, especially after a difficult period in the start-up world, and the results of such funding are particularly significant and significant.
Note: Some information may have occurred earlier than this week, but because it has been reported less or has not yet been reported, it is classified as this week's weekly report.