The relationship between film and television and games has always been close, on the one hand, the talent war between the two sides is thirsty for talents; on the other hand, the film and game linkage to jointly build an IP ecology. After pan-entertainment has become the consensus of all film and television and game companies, interactive entertainment has also become the primary choice for "non-traditional" companies to enter the game market in recent years.
When it comes to the works produced by the film and television industry and the game industry, the most representative of which is naturally interactive film and television. Among them, the well-known games include "Until Dawn", "Detroit: Becoming a Human", "Invisible Guardian", in the film and television drama, Netflix's "Black Mirror: Pandasnake", Tencent Video's "Antiques Bureau of the Buddha's Head Origin" and so on also have a good performance. 、
Recently, a live-action interactive video product called "The Judge" appeared on tapTap's appointment list. The game is created by Zoomlion New Film (Beijing) Culture Media Co., Ltd. and Water Thinking Entertainment. The former is a film company, and the latter is mainly engaged in the development of interactive entertainment products from the introduction point of view.
However, the most attractive thing about the whole game is not his production company, but the cast of interactive images, "Judge" starring Gao Yuliang's actor Zhang Zhijian in "The Name of the People", and "professional bed actor" Huang Junpeng, which is undoubtedly the most eye-catching golden sign of the game for many players who like interactive video types.
However, what attracts GameLook's attention more is that the publisher of the game is not any film or game company, but Unicom 5G that many people may be using. Recall that operators do mobile game distribution or in the era of functional machines, Unicom's bet on interactive images will naturally not want to reproduce the glory of that year, when 5G technology begins large-scale commercialization, the reason behind it will inevitably return to the communication industry.
Chainsaw horror plot
Although "The Judge" received a rating of 9.4 on TapTap, the official release of information is extremely limited, but GameLook found that Zoomlion New Film organized the original team of the game in 2017, filming a season of the same name web series has not yet been broadcast, if there is no accident, the plot and game of the web series should have an interchange.
The theme of the game is not anti-corruption, from the introduction of the official "extralegal crime, good and evil retribution", and the combing of the plot of the network drama, it is more about criminal investigation and thinking about online violence.
The story takes place in a city where eerie deaths have occurred in the past few months. There is no connection between the dead, but the suspect in each case soon becomes the protagonist of the next murder. Xing Feng, a genius criminal police officer with superior IQ and zero emotional intelligence, played by Huang Junpeng, began to investigate from a bizarre drowning case, and through meticulous reasoning, finally cracked the murder organ of the first case, but the suspect of the case died in another set of chain reaction killing devices.
New chain reaction killings followed, and organ killings had a chain reaction like dominoes. The case is urgent, and Lei Yuming, a retired veteran criminal police officer played by Zhang Zhijian, joined the investigation team because he also cracked the murder of the organ a year ago. The two worked together, and a suspect who specialized in hunting the perpetrators of online violence gradually surfaced.
Judging from the plot summary, this seems to be a chainsaw horror story with elements of revenge. The brave want to fight the dragon, so they make themselves a more terrible dragon plot design, although it is not much novel, but as long as the logic and emotional development is reasonable, the story is naturally not too bad.
However, GameLook believes that as a game with the theme of online violence, and online violence is a topic that can resonate, if it can be like "Black Mirror: Pandasnake", there is a plot that directly dialogues with players, it is estimated that the depth and sense of substitution of this topic can be raised to a higher level. After all, we were all witnesses, participants, or victims of online violence.
Due to the basis of web dramas, from the perspective of promotional films, the form of "Judge" is more similar to "She Sees Red" or "Black Mirror: Pandasnake", which adopts the form of a plot performance, rather than a PPT performance of static images like "Invisible Guardian".
The theme of adventure suspense is also one of the most common forms of interactive video, after all, the tense atmosphere created by the suspense plot, with the unprecedented immersion of interactive images, and the joining of the old drama bones that distinguish "The Judge" from all other similar games, as long as the storyline is worthy of the level of this lineup, in the case of its own topic, presumably players will also buy it.
Watch the movie in a new pose
Although the entire interactive film and television industry has many classic works and even AAA masterpieces from the perspective of products, it is undeniable that the category of interactive film and television is still in the early stage in China.
But it has to be admitted that interactive film for the film and television industry, may be the direction of innovation, as a comprehensive art, it has changed the way people accept video stories for a hundred years, through the addition of interaction and choice, to create a more immersive world for the audience, and a good story, a stronger sense of substitution, the importance of both players and audiences is self-evident.
Because of this, many large, medium, and small teams with film and television dreams or game dreams have joined the creation of interactive images, and many products have achieved very good results. "Invisible Guardian" naturally needless to say, sales exceeded one million, and now you can see the figure of this game in the comment area of major interactive movies, compared to the "Detroit: Change" such a 3A masterpiece, "Invisible Guardian" can be said to have better cultivated a group of players who are willing to pay for this type of game in China.
After that, domestic interactive movies have also attracted the attention of major manufacturers, such as the aforementioned Tencent Video's "Origin of the Buddha's Head in the Antique Bureau"; Station B is also continuing to play its PUGC advantages, using various incentive activities to encourage users to create various interactive videos; iQIYI has released the world's first interactive video guideline (REFERRed to as IVG), and the first domestic interactive film and television work "His Smile".
In terms of games, there are also excellent works such as "Memory Reconstruction" developed by Bain Interactive Entertainment, "Memory Reconstruction" released by Aurora Project, "Dancing Knife Shadow Development", and "Deep Sea" released by INDIECN.
5G "Oversupply"
Although the future of interactive video now seems to have unlimited possibilities, this time Unicom undertook the release of "Judge", and in GameLook's view, it is more for the 5G network that is still gradually rolling out.
Recently, some media reported that at the theme forum of "Gigabit Optical Network Helps New Growth of Digital Economy" hosted by the Academy of Information and Communications Technology, some experts said that the current utilization rate of 5G networks is less than 3%. In a communication forum, an operator employee posted that an operator in a southern province requires employees to use a 5G network to brush 10G traffic every day, less than 10G does not meet the standard, and the company with a low compliance rate also notifies the whole company of criticism.
Although it is not known whether the situation reported by the employees later is true, a large part of the reason why the 5G network has only 3% utilization is that there is no use case that necessarily requires the 5G network. For ordinary consumers, in addition to the download of large files, the speed of the 4G network can basically meet the needs of the existing stage, whether it is a game or a high-definition video, coupled with the basic company, shop, residential, and even public transportation in the full coverage of Wi-Fi, consumer demand for mobile networks has been further reduced.
This is also one of the reasons why the application prospects of 5G networks in the 2B field at this stage are much higher than those of 2C.
As a fragmented entertainment method, mobile games can just meet the scenes where users will use 5G networks in commuting to work or going out, while film and television dramas belong to daily entertainment, a form of greater network demand, and interactive film and television games are not so strict for occasional delays and catons. These points are also a positive solution for 5G networks that lack strong dependence on applications at this stage.
For the game, from the official map, "Judge" will also support VR in the future, plus high-definition video performances, if the game will be completely stored in the file locally, as a mobile game, "Judge" in order to control the size of the game, it can only reduce the game's story flow, destroy the integrity of the story.
However, if the performance part of the game adopts the mode of online playback, combined with the high speed and low latency of the 5G network, it can achieve a game flow of up to hours or even tens of hours with a multi-megabit client without harming the player's interactive experience.
It can be said that the interactive movie mobile game and 5G is a mutually complete relationship, in the 4K video is still not popular, cloud games and other entertainment methods that have very strict network requirements have not yet become a trend, want to improve consumer demand for 5G, starting from mobile games, starting from film and television now seems to be a good attempt.
Technology drives growth
Interactive video as a kind of story and immersion have strong requirements for the category, it for the game narrative, actor performance, and post-production have extremely high requirements, not to mention the domestic interactive video at the beginning of the most widely known work is "Invisible Guardian" such a fine work, the latecomers take this as a starting point, not to say better, want to be qualified is a thing with higher requirements.
In addition to the high requirements for interactive image stories and production, the popularity of 5G will inevitably promote interactive images to turn to the mobile end, the plot will become more and more abundant, the alternative branches and paths will no longer have the capacity of the limit, will be more free, before the next 5G killer comes out, interactive images may be able to take advantage of the technology hitchhiker, rapid growth and growth.