The byte game behind the storm.
The term "de-fattening and thinning" has become a high-frequency word for discussing bytes for business optimization on the pulse.
This is not out of thin air. Some employees broke the news that Byte will lay off employees in the commercial business, and subsequently, Byte said that the layoffs are true and are the company's normal business adjustments. Immediately after, the game, one of byte's most valued businesses, is also in this wave of "fattening and thinning".
In 2020, through the acquisition and formation of the way, Byte set up 4 places 8 major game studios, as well as more than 20 agents, self-developed games in hand, 1000 people team size of the game small giant, as the head of Byte games Yan Zhi said that will continue to recruit 1,000 people, optimistic about the direction of the game, there will be patience to continue to invest.
But today, a year later, Byte Games is facing business contraction and staff cuts. It is reported that the object of this layoff is mainly OHYOO's 2021 fresh graduates, of which there are 3 months of fresh graduates said that the layoffs are very sudden, the compensation is N+1, HR said that it can be transferred internally, but the preparation time is only 1 month, and it is too late to prepare.
An employee of Byte said: "Byte finally found that iaa games (ultra-casual games) are difficult to monetize, the cost of pulling new ones is high, and the release of advertising casual mobile games is a pseudo-proposition, do a good job of traffic platforms, directly screen research and development and products." ”
In addition to the casual game OHYOO, byte Games' medium- and heavy-duty games are light years away and their business is also shrinking. This year, a number of medium and heavy games have been removed or suspended, including the MOBA game "Strike Royale", the chicken eating game "End of the Battlefield" and so on.
It is not difficult to see that this year, Byte Games as a whole has undergone a certain degree of optimization and adjustment. Behind the optimization, it is revealed that byte has changed the game business, which means that the previous rush has pressed the slowdown button.
But at the same time, Byte is also opening up new lines of business in terms of games. Tech Planet exclusively learned that Byte's huge engine recently set up "Liyou Interactive Entertainment" to try medium and heavy games, and will release the first card game "Holy Light and Glory" on October 28.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="10" >01 bytes behind the game layoffs</h1>
From the perspective of the general environment, many of Byte's businesses have carried out layoffs, from August this year, the education business has made major layoffs, in October to October, the commercial business layoffs, and the contraction of the game business. "Vigorous miracles", which used to attract a large number of people and attracted the attention of the industry, seems to slow down the recruitment progress of business talents.
Compared with the education business affected by the "double reduction" policy, the game business of the same first-level department lays off employees without any warning, which will inevitably make the outside world wonder, what has happened to Byte Games for more than a year?
In fact, OHAYOO carried out the restructuring of the overall business before the layoffs: first of all, OHAYOO set up three departments under the game platform, research and development center, and publishing, and reported to Zhao Qi. The original business, marketing, distribution operation, and products were merged into the distribution department and reported to Sun Ding.
As the helmsman of OHYOO, Xu Peixiang suddenly left his job in the middle of this year for "personal reasons". The adjustment of the business structure and the departure of the person in charge mean that the young people who enter the job will face uncertainty.
A game industry person told Tech Planet that a few years ago, the bytes of "buying, buying, buying" and "recruiting" attracted talents by using high salaries and high salaries. However, the introduction of talents has not been able to obtain internal complete system training, and more is to "let it grow", which makes some businesses uneven. And this series of operations, screening out those who will work, others get N+1 compensation for layoffs.
In addition to the casual game business, the progress of Byte's medium and heavy game business in China is not smooth.
A person close to Byte Games revealed that Yan Zhi, the head of Byte Games, is very curious about the game industry, but Byte's connection in the industry is not deep enough, and many times the strategic level goes out to chat, can't get any information, and some are still outdated. The answer to many questions can only be said to be common sense, such as Yan Zhi asking why "Free Fire" is on fire, and the strategy can only give a bland answer similar to seizing the low-end market. The really professional and reliable team related to the game may be the huge engine and Ohayoo.
In addition, there are media reports that Natuo, who is the general head of the heavy game distribution line in byte's Shenzhen studio and the head of the e-sports competition, has left from Sunrise Lightyear. Previously, Yang Dongmai, the head of 101 Studio, left his job because the team's performance did not meet expectations.
According to Tech Planet, at the game business level, Byte has removed a number of medium and heavy games this year, including two moBA games with high attention, "Strike Royale" and the chicken-eating game "End of the Battlefield". The defeat of these two games indirectly accelerated Byte's desire for heavy games.
On March 22 this year, Yuan Jing, CEO of Mu Hitomi Technology, issued a letter to all employees, announcing that Mu Hitomi Technology and ByteDance's game business brand Chaoxi Lightyear reached a strategic acquisition agreement. After the merger, Mu Hitomi Technology will maintain independent operation, Yuan Jing will continue to stay as CEO, and Mu Hitomi's reporting lines will remain unchanged.
Mu Hitomi Technology's "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (Endless Showdown, MLBB)" is a MOBA mobile game independently developed and released by Mu Hitomi, which has exceeded 90 million monthly active users worldwide since its launch, becoming one of the most popular MOBA mobile games in the world (except Chinese mainland). The popularity and gold absorption ability of this game can be called the domestic version of "Glory of kings" overseas. The dream of "Glory of Kings", which is regarded as ByteDance by the outside world, is finally coming true.
Although mergers and acquisitions can ensure byte games' leading position in related game fields to a certain extent, the slow progress of self-research and the adjustment of business personnel are not conducive to byte games to create a stable development environment.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="23" >02 Give up traffic thinking and make games</h1>
In fact, as the "management" of OHYOO, a huge engine, a new line of business has recently been opened.
Tech Planet exclusively learned that the giant engine hopes to use its powerful traffic channels to explore the possibility of medium and heavy games, and recently established "Liyou Interactive Entertainment", which will release the first card game "Holy Light and Glory" on October 28.
Note: Byte domestic game business architecture
The establishment of Liyou Interactive Entertainment indicates that medium and heavy games are still the main head of money, and the release of advertising casual mobile games is a pseudo-proposition.
In terms of medium and heavy games, Byte has formed two business lines at home and abroad, and the domestic game business relies on various studios to push IP and female games, of which there are three female games, namely "The Legend of the Spirit Cat", "The Moon of the Heart of The Flower Yishan" and "Fan HuaLu" of Bi shang Fangcao.
The domestic heavy game is promoted by the relatively independent Mu Hitomi Technology, which will launch the MOBA game "Decisive Peak" in China, vowing to compete with "Glory of the King".
Overseas games are responsible for WOLVEES, and distribution brands such as PIXMAIN and PIXWUDONG will expose the traffic of "All-Star Fight" and "Legend of Wonderland RO". According to SensorTowe data, thanks to the significant increase in the revenue of its medium and heavy mobile games, the annual revenue of the current period increased by 23% month-on-month. Among them, mobile game revenue from China's iOS accounted for 38%, and overseas mobile game revenue accounted for as much as 62%.
The absorption of overseas games has accelerated byte's expansion of overseas game business. Tech Planet learned that Byte's overseas games will be in Southeast Asia, Japan, will also be in South Korea business expansion, recently launched a placement of the mobile game "심포니 오브 에픽", online 3 months, the comments have exceeded 12,000, the rating in the Google App Store is close to full score.
In addition, Tech Planet exclusively learned that Byte Games will try a new business model, and its OHAYOO plans to launch a game short video App, tentatively named "Duck Fish Short Video", and the video content may be based on game evaluation.
With the rise of the concept of metaverse in recent times, the "code Qiankun" as a byte investment has recently officially launched the metaverse game "Restart World", which is similar to the metaverse game "Robles" represented by Tencent.
Interactive fiction related to the metaverse has also become a hot field. Byte has always been very low-key in terms of interactive novels, and Tech Planet exclusively learned that after more than a year of development, the development of Byte's immersive interactive novel app , "Qianli Interactive" has been on track.
At present, Qianli Interactive has formed three major functions such as players, creative platforms, and communities, and is no weaker in configuration than its own game platforms such as OHAYOO.
On the whole, there are decreases and increases in the business, indicating that there are certain challenges in Byte Games itself, but as Zhang Yiming said internally, "Now, we also have some products that are not good enough, and we welcome positive suggestions, but don't give up hope so easily." I think it's very snobbish to say "cool" at every turn. "As a business that is still perfect, it is not easy to achieve a breakthrough in the short term, or even surpass the industry's leading enterprises, AndByte Games still needs to try new directions." 、
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="37" >03byte games can still work wonders? </h1>
Layoffs aside, in recent years, Byte has been very rapid in the field of games.
In 2020, like dumplings, Byte frantically launched the women's mobile games "Spirit Cat Legend", "Flower Yishan Heart Moon", SLG mobile games "Thunder Expedition", "Dart Man" and so on.
Subsequently, he tried to adapt through IP and entered the release of IP games, such as Byte's first attempt to link up with big IP such as One Piece and Naruto this year, and launched the new mobile game "Sailor King: Blood Route", "Naruto: Peak Showdown" and so on.
With the rise of tomato novels, only this year, 178 original works have produced audiobooks, and some works have also been adapted into micro-short dramas, with a total of more than 1.8 billion plays on the whole network, expanding the influence of works.
Tomato novel is creating a diversified development product matrix of online literature, thanks to the rapid accumulation of its own IP, byte game side of the "Thousand Pears Interactive" has also benefited, and relevant sources revealed that Byte internally seeks to adapt the game of the high-quality IP in the tomato novel, it can be seen that Byte is strengthening the IP linkage through pan-entertainment to create a new game development path.
In addition, in terms of cloud gaming, Byte has also made related adjustments. Previously, Tech Planet had an exclusive report that Byte launched an App called "Mili Cloud Game", but this game as a test of water, did not get much attention, follow-up, Byte began to test cloud games on the Douyin App, the first batch of tested games included "Snake", the second batch of open "Spirit Cat Legend" and other medium and heavy mobile games. At present, cloud games have a separate window in the Douyin Game Center, which can be seen that Byte Cloud Games hopes to use the huge traffic of Douyin as an important battlefield.
Compared with domestic games, overseas games are progressing more smoothly, and byte's independent game distribution platform "PIXMAIN" has released a number of games such as "Iglia Wars" and "Labyrinth Detective", which are mainly sold domestically and abroad on the Steam platform, and Byte will also explore the ability to sell on STEAM and strengthen the business sales capabilities of overseas games through PIXMAIN.
However, ByteDance has not yet moved on the end game and page game. The quality of the page game is not as fine as the mobile game terminal game, but relying on simple and easy operation, and "recharge can become powerful", this direct user cool point of the profit model, is still a kind of gold-sucking mode, perhaps the page game will become the next direction of byte.
With the decline of the PC era, the end game began to decline, many end games rely on the way of competitive competition to regain attention, there are rumors that Byte will invest in the RNG team, although byte to deny, but in terms of e-sports, there can still be reverie, currently like B station, Beijing Suning have their own e-sports team, for the brand publicity has a good.
Finally, to borrow Zhang Yiming's words, "We must absorb the really valuable spit, in the important things, in the right direction, we must have strong enthusiasm, bold imagination, perseverance, steadfast to try, vigorously produce miracles." ”
At a time when the game "revolution has not yet succeeded", bytes still need to work.
Author: Chen Qiaohui