Tencent Rubik's Cube really has something now.
"Dark Zone Breakout" has achieved results that far exceeded everyone's expectations, with more than 100 million global user registrations and 10 million monthly active users in the two years since its launch, and its revenue in February this year surged by 90% month-on-month, breaking the highest revenue record since the open beta.
On the other side of the commercial performance, the Rubik's Cube still holds products such as "Under the Inhuman" and "One Piece: Ambition". The two PVs released so far in "Under the Alien" have 4 million and 6 million views on Station B respectively, and the barrage is handsome, explosive, and awesome...... Can't believe it's something made of a Rubik's cube.
Including the Rock Kingdom Mobile Game, which is challenging the open world...... You can feel how much strength the Rubik's Cube, which used to be silent in Tencent's four major studio groups, has been holding back in the past few years. After a number of new works are now unveiled on stage, how high is the morale of this group of people.
And this kind of morale came to a new high point two days ago - without any warm-up, the Rubik's Cube directly released the paid Android test of the national server and the international server of "Ace Warrior 2", and even today's official tweet said that Android will not be deleted.
This is an unthinkable action in the commercial products of large manufacturers in the past. After all, this means a lot of risks: lack of test data support, uncontrollable market expectations, elusive player reputation, and too little room for adjustment of the product...... But the Rubik's Cube did it anyway, and will return all the recharge amount that players had in the original Ace Warrior.
It can be seen that the Rubik's Cube is quite confident in "Ace Warrior 2". So where does this confidence come from?
01 The content is solid enough
After two days of experience, Grape Jun found that the completion of "Ace Warrior 2" does not look like a product that has just been exposed and tested for the first time.
The overall audiovisual experience of the game is complete and unified. This time, the game adopts an American cartoon rendering style, with a bit of "Borderlands" flavor, the modeling strokes are heavier, the texture is tougher, and the quality of textures and modeling is at the level that a large manufacturer should have.
The character design and scenography are stylistically consistent and individual, but at the same time in line with the Asian aesthetic.
At the same time, the game is musically more aggressive. The previous theme song of "Ace Warrior" was "I Was King" by the Japanese rock band ONE OK ROCK, and this time the "Ace Warrior 2" hall used the British rock band Muse's "Panic Station", which is accompanied by a strong drum beat, which is very suitable for the atmosphere of the game to want users to "get high".
In fact, we can also see from the vinyl records and jukeboxes that frequently appear in several transitions that the team wants to further enhance the listening experience of users this time.
Including the switching and transition of the interface at all levels of the game, it basically revolves around this set of audio-visual system, for example, the click sound effects of different function buttons are different, some are like retro video games, such as FC; Some of them feel like arcade coins to start the game.
Does this description sound like an introduction to two-dimensional games? Yes, Ace Warrior 2 shows the flavor of a two-dimensional content game in many ways. For example, the novice tutorial guides, and the game has a separate set of plot performances.
Each character will have a different prep standby animation, and depending on the character in the game, there will be different dialogue in the game.
Another example is the gameplay tutorial and skill demonstration, which uses a performance similar to the "Fallout" Pip-Boy, and makes a separate set of retro animation-style short films, which are explained by the corresponding voice actors of the characters.
The game also made a dormitory for each character. These dormitories will shape the charm of the characters through the style of the room, the type of ornaments, the movements of the characters, and the voice dialogue.
And there are currently ten dormitories like this, and each has a different style, ornaments, and interactive actions.
Therefore, in terms of the quality, volume, and completeness of the content, "Ace Warrior 2" can almost be regarded as an official product. The server and underlying technology are also very stable, and I have basically not encountered any bugs in the two days I have been playing. This is probably also the confidence of the game to dare to directly open the undeleted test.
02 Think clearly
Of course, the self-confidence of "Ace Warrior 2", in addition to the excellent quality of the product itself, I think a large part of it comes from the success of "Dark Zone Breakout".
After "Dark Zone Breakout" came out, "Ace Warrior 2" naturally continued to choose fair competition, subdivided the track, and used appearance as the main means of monetization: passes, skin direct purchase gift packs, various avatars, spray paint, hanging accessories, etc.
For this commercial model, the Rubik's Cube didn't even have any hesitation, and the first test of "Ace Warrior 2" directly put the undeleted files and paid malls on the market.
At the same time, the design logic of the game's core gameplay is also very similar to that of "Dark Zone Breakout": although it is a mobile phone, it will show the core fun of category gameplay to the greatest extent, and will only simplify some small functional points.
And with the accumulation of experience in the two FPS games of "Ace Warrior" and "Dark Zone Breakout", "Ace Warrior 2" also has enough guarantee in terms of shooting feel and hit feedback.
The market positioning strategy of the product is also the same as the original "Dark Zone Breakout", which is based on the card position of gameplay label + category track. After all, similar short TTK hero competitive shooters have not yet appeared strong enough monopoly products on the mobile side, which gives "Ace Warrior 2" a chance.
This also explains the lightning raid-like launch of "Ace Warrior 2" - before everyone reacts, they go directly to the field to face real users, real matching environments, and real data, and start iterating and accumulating.
Although the game was launched suddenly, a series of supporting announcements have been prepared, and a large number of head anchors including Dream Tears, the shy, and Ning have been found, including future e-sports clubs, global events, bonuses, prop sharing, etc., which are also in the plan.
Therefore, although "Ace Warrior 2" is still only the first exposure and first test, the entire game from gameplay design to market ideas is already a mature product. The difference between the current game and the "official launch" is, I think, that some operational activities and peripheral functions (such as exciting kill replays) are missing.
03 Conclusion
From the previous "Under the Inhuman" and "Dark Zone Breakout", to the current "Ace Warrior 2", you will find that the "bright face" that Enzo, the president of the Rubik's Cube, said before is really not a pretty word.
In this product, we can feel that the team is increasingly emphasizing the brand and tonality. If you look at the opening logo design of the game, it shows their ambition.
Rubik's Cube now chooses to make an art style with a stronger personality and recognition, as well as something that can show the team's aesthetics, rather than taking the pan-user route of eating the big plate. It is not difficult to see that the goal of "making vertical categories into categories" carried by "Dark Zone Breakout" has become one of the strategic directions of the entire Rubik's Cube.
Specific to "Ace Warrior 2", it is easy for you to understand the confidence of the Rubik's Cube: if the product quality is sufficient, the stylization is enough, and you dare to throw it directly into the market to meet users, just like "Apex Legends" and "HIFI RUSH" back then.
And after the successful case of "Dark Zone Breakout", the future road of "Ace Warrior 2" may be easier to walk - "Dark Zone Breakout" has been online for two years, the operation is stable, the data has not fallen, and it has repeatedly hit new highs, winning a place overseas. In other words, whether it is R&D technology or operation strategy, "Ace Warrior 2" can be regarded as standing on the shoulders of brothers.
"Ace Warrior 2" is the sequel to "Ace Warrior" after five years, and you can certainly understand it as Rubik's Cube has the ambition to be an IP. But in the midst of this ambition, I think there may be a team that wants to make up for the reluctance of the regrets of the year.