Restart life

Chapter 548, page 0536: [Tencent Games' market share surpasses Youke's?]

When Chen Guiliang arrived at his own exhibition area, he saw that someone was holding a sign that read "Boycott Nine Yin Manual" in front of the "Wulin Gaiden" booth.

"What's going on? Age of Wushu hasn't officially launched yet, has it? And why are they boycotting Age of Wushu at Snail Games' booth instead of here?" Chen Guiliang said.

Qu Guohao said, "I don't know either."

Not only Chen Guiliang noticed the anomaly, but the game platform reporters at the scene also noticed it.

A reporter rushed over to interview him: "Why are you boycotting 'Nine Yin Manual'?"

The player said, "The game 'Age of Wushu' has been delayed for several years, and I spent several thousand yuan on beta test invitation codes. This year, it finally launched its open beta, but after playing for a short time, they introduced 99 martial arts techniques. You can buy a technique for 99 yuan. Although this kind of technique doesn't affect the balance, if they dare to sell 99 martial arts techniques today, they'll dare to sell 999 martial arts techniques tomorrow!"

The player was clearly extremely angry, and his voice grew louder and louder: "There's still more than a week until the open beta, and 'Age of Wushu' is already selling costumes, and costumes with attributes at that! What does the London Olympics have to do with us martial arts players? Isn't it ridiculous to release Olympic costumes?"

The reporter said, "But this is the booth for 'My Own Swordsman,' the game company's booth. Why don't you go to Snail Games' booth to boycott them?"

“I’ve boycotted it, but it’s no use,” the player said. “In my opinion, among current martial arts online games, *Age of Wushu* is number one, and *Wulin Gaiden* is number two. I’m here to support *Wulin Gaiden* and wake up the Snail Games team. I want to tell them that players have choices. If they keep selling in-game items, I won’t play *Age of Wushu* anymore, and I’ll bring my friends to play *Wulin Gaiden*!”

reporter:"……"

Many of the players around him laughed, but some immediately retorted.

"What makes you think 'Nine Yin Manual' is the best? 'My Own Swordsman' is the most fun!"

"I didn't say that 'My Own Swordsman' is not fun, but it's definitely not as fun as 'Age of Wushu'."

"You're a complete idiot. Age of Wushu's open beta was delayed for three years. Damn it, those guys at Snail Games are money-hungry. They even sold closed beta invitation codes, and they sold over 6 of them in one go. They dared to hold auctions before the game was even released, and a Dragon Slayer sword sheath sold for 10 yuan. Isn't it normal to sell items these days?"

"But Age of Wushu is just so much fun, its freedom of movement is way better than Wulin Gaiden!"

"Damn it, didn't you come here to boycott it? Why are you praising the Nine Yin Manual now?"

"Boycott it or not, Age of Wushu is just so much fun!"

"..."

The two argued more and more fiercely, and more and more players of the game "Wulin Gaiden" gathered around, with twenty or thirty people joining the argument.

Chen Guiliang said, "Let's resolve this and spread the word while we're at it."

The person in charge of Youke's booth immediately grabbed the microphone and said, "This 'Age of Wushu' player, please drop the sign you're holding, otherwise it might cause a conflict between Youke and Snail Games. Also, 'Legend of Wulin' player, please let him go. Hmm... being betrayed by a game is quite pitiful."

"Hahaha!"

That last sentence made all the players of "Wulin Gaiden" laugh. Suddenly, they felt sorry for the guy and made way for him, no longer bothering to argue with him.

The production cycle of "Nine Yin Manual" was even longer than that of "My Own Swordsman". The boss of Snail Games said several times, "If we delay again, we're not human." As a result, they didn't act like human beings for several years.

This game is becoming increasingly unethical. Even certain in-game activities that allow players to earn official silver (like kidnapping) are clearly defined as free-to-play. However, free players don't earn silver from kidnapping, while paying players do, and the game company issues an announcement claiming it's a bug. They call it a bug but don't fix it; the official team has been playing dead ever since.

By the time Snail Games was preparing for its IPO, this game had become a pay-to-win game, with top-tier skills costing hundreds of thousands of yuan per set.

The owner of Snail Games always claimed he wanted to make high-quality games and wouldn't tolerate players being poisoned by trashy games. He was critical of everything in the industry, constantly swearing and cursing. In the end, he became the very thing he hated most.

……

"Boss, look at this news."

"what?"

“A few hours ago, some of our beta testers went to Youke’s booth to protest against Age of Wushu and even clashed with Wulin Gaiden players. They were kicked out by Youke.”

Shi Hai stared at the game information on his phone for a long time, then turned and left without saying a word.

He had no choice. "Nine Yin Manual" had been in development for five years, and it was a free-to-play game that didn't charge for game time.

Moreover, he's been relatively restrained so far, only releasing two paid skill sets that don't affect game balance. This time, leveraging the London Olympics to sell costumes, the attributes on the costumes are only valid for half a month.

He had already set a very low standard, but he didn't expect the players to react so strongly.

This involves the issue of expectations.

Shi Hai has been criticizing other games for the past few years, and he has gained the support of a large number of players who are disgusted by bad games. These players have tolerated his repeated delays, and even spent money to buy beta test invitation codes, accompanying the game from scratch for several years.

Before its official public beta launch, the game showed signs of requiring players to spend money on in-game purchases twice.

Shi Hai felt it didn't affect the game's balance, but the players felt betrayed!

……

That evening, Chen Guiliang sent an internal letter to Youke employees, discussing what he had seen that day and commenting: "We must learn from this and resolutely prevent such phenomena from happening again. Whatever we promise, we must do, even if it means losing money. If we can't do it, we shouldn't have made the promise in the first place..."

Even before the CJ exhibition ended, some employees posted Chen Guiliang's internal letter online.

Many people believe it's just hype. However, a large number of fans of the "Nine Yin Manual" are forwarding Chen Guiliang's internal letter to @Shi Hai's Weibo account.

Shi Hai could only pretend to be dead and continue doing what he was doing.

Anyway, the fashion attribute is only valid for half a month, and after that half month, no one will mention it anymore.

really?
Some players of the game "Age of Wushu" started teaming up to play "Legend of Martial Arts". Their motto was: "Stop selling costumes immediately before we come back."

Shi Hai, known for his fiery temper and tendency to lash out without hesitation, finally couldn't hold back any longer and posted on Weibo: "Some big game companies only resort to these kinds of underhanded tactics. They even write internal letters and send online trolls to my game to incite players... Do they really think they're the godfather of the Chinese game industry?"

Chen Guiliang did not respond; responding would be beneath him.

Qu Guohao, of course, had to fight back for his boss, posting a sharp rebuttal on Weibo: "I suggest that a certain game switch to a prepaid card model. A daily VIP fee of 1 yuan is about the same as a 60 yuan monthly card. Why have to have it all? Want fame, want paid content, want free content, and want to sell in-game items. If 'Wulin Gaiden' just honestly sold prepaid cards, wouldn't it be just as successful?"

Shi Hai retorted, "That side-scrolling fighting online game that plagiarized a Korean game is now one of the top pay-to-win games in China. How many elementary school students' lunch money has it swindled out of?"

Qu Guohao retorted, "We did not have a double standard."

Chen Guiliang was attending a sub-forum when he suddenly received a call from Kou Xiaowei: "President Chen, give me some face, let's all compromise."

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "Let him delete the Weibo post first."

“Okay, I’ll tell him,” Kou Xiaowei said.

When Kou Xiaowei was still the director, Snail was practically the darling of the State Press and Publication Administration. He even personally promoted "Nine Yin Manual" in his capacity as deputy director of the Administration.

After a while, Chen Guiliang went back to check Shi Hai's Weibo and found that the man had indeed deleted his previous posts.

But soon after, Shi Hai posted a new Weibo post: "To give my friend face, I deleted my previous Weibo post. This doesn't mean I'm afraid of anyone. At worst, I'll just go back and open a karaoke bar!"

The first KTV song selection software in China was created by programmers hired by Shi Hai.

Shi Yuzhu said to Chen Guiliang in the venue: "You guys really know how to do things. The hype has gone up in an instant. I also need to create some buzz for 'Wizard's Wrath'."

“Your game is outdated,” Chen Guiliang said.

Shih Yu-chu said, "We have to take a gamble."

This year, Youke's strategy was to develop web games, mobile games, and PC games for short bursts of play. However, when they arrived at the ChinaJoy exhibition, they discovered that the competition in large-scale MMO games was fierce.

All the major companies are launching big new games, with Tencent releasing several at once (some of which haven't even started operating yet).

Any one of these new games would have been a masterpiece a few years ago.

But times have changed, and players' tastes have changed, so it was destined to be all talk and no action.

Shi Yuzhu said, "In the first half of this year, Tencent Games overtook Youke and became number one in market share."

"If Tencent is number one, then so be it." Chen Guiliang didn't explain further.

Those are all third-party statistics. Youke has never released financial reports, especially its overseas revenue, which is difficult to estimate.

People have no idea how much money Youke's overseas subsidiaries make from web games, mobile games, PC games, and mini-games.

Tencent Games' market share to the top is largely due to its sheer volume of games.

Tencent already operates a large number of games, and in the past two years it has taken over many old games from Shanda, and it is also constantly developing and introducing new games.

Shi Yuzhu asked, "I heard that Youke's browser games are very popular in Japan?"

"You won't make much money," Chen Guiliang said.

Tao Chenggang walked over: "Anyway, I don't believe it."

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "If you don't believe me, then forget it."

Chen Guiliang kept quiet and refused to admit it, even disdaining to compete for the top spot in China's game industry, simply because he didn't want to attract the attention of his competitors.

Take Youke's Japanese subsidiary as an example. Having already tasted the success of gacha-style web games, it is now about to launch its third reskinned web game.

Our Japanese counterparts are freaking slow! Two of Yuko's browser games have already become hits, and they haven't seen a single copycat game yet. If this were China, they would have been flooded with copycats by now!
Chen Guiliang couldn't understand this phenomenon. Why wouldn't they make money when they had a good life?

This incredibly sluggish market response allowed Youke to make a fortune in Japan, but it also made it difficult for Youke to promote new products in Japan.

For example, mobile games are becoming increasingly popular in China, while the average Japanese person is still largely using traditional feature phones. How can Youke promote its mobile games in Japan?
Chen Guiliang walked towards the interview area of ​​17173, where he was going to conduct a special interview for the 10th anniversary of the CJ exhibition.

The reporter immediately asked, "The newly released first-half report on the online gaming industry shows Tencent Games at the top, causing Tencent's stock price to surge in the past few days. Mr. Chen, do you think the data is reasonable?"

Chen Guiliang smiled and said, "I don't know."

(End of this chapter)