Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 120 A Glimmer of Hope

With the title finalized, Xia Anbo became even more energetic, typing away on the keyboard. His copywriting ideas flowed like a spring. He first objectively stated the background of the two press conferences, and then presented a comparison of the popularity of the two press conferences.

Then, the conversation shifted abruptly, revealing the true estimated number of users behind the scenes. Following this, evidence of Starry Night Games' popularity on overseas platforms and major domestic live-streaming platforms was presented, creating a stark contrast.

Data doesn't lie, and the audience's eyes are discerning.

"In the world of gaming, traffic can be a double-edged sword."

"But just as a lie can never become the truth."

"One day, fun games will take precedence over traffic-driven marketing."

"If Tencent doesn't understand the essence of games, then this vast empire is nothing but a paper tiger."

"One day, when new traffic platforms emerge, and when a new batch of manufacturers focusing on the fun of games appear, how long can this paper tiger remain invincible?"

"This is Bobo's Gaming Musings, I'm Bobo, see you next time!"

The recording ended.

The video editing, background music, and subtitles were all completed in one go.

When he uploaded the final product to Bilibili, it was already 1 a.m.

When Xia Anbo released this video, he never imagined it would generate such unimaginable buzz.

The next morning, Xia Anbo was awakened by a series of "ding-dong" notification sounds on his phone. He groggily picked up his phone and opened the Bilibili backend.

"99+" comments, "99+" bullet comments, "99+" private messages.

Looking at the number of views, it has already surpassed 500,000 and is still rising at a visible speed.

The number of likes, coins, and favorites far exceeded any of his previous videos, and his number of followers also skyrocketed by tens of thousands in just a few hours.

Xia Anbo jolted awake and instantly became clear-headed.

~~~
The following day, Tencent Games.

A conference room.

"Brother Xiong, it seems the higher-ups aren't very satisfied with the results of this press conference."

"I heard that our response strategy was specifically criticized at the executive meeting this morning."

"On the internet, the reviews of this press conference are not very good either."

"The public relations department has received several discussions about related trending topics, including a few videos. The level of attention has reached a point where it must be taken seriously."

"Should we project it?"

Xiong Youning's eyes dimmed for a moment, then quickly returned to calm.

"No need, I've already checked."

In China, criticizing Tencent is like criticizing the national football team—it generates a huge amount of online traffic, just like how every time the national football team has a problem, it becomes a hot topic.

Tencent is the same.

However, just like the Chinese national football team, there has been far too much criticism of Tencent over the past decade or so.

Everyone's tired of criticizing it, tired of seeing it.

Therefore, the traffic on this "track" is actually much lower than before.

But this time is different. Xia Anbo's video seems to be similar to his previous videos criticizing Tencent. However, in the past, he criticized Tencent.

The following are responses from "players".

"Can you kill Tencent by insulting them?"

Such a response is an undeniable reality. After all, no matter how much you criticize, Tencent Games is number one, which is pointless, isn't it? So why did Xia Anbo's video suddenly get so many views?

The reason is actually very simple.

This time, Starry Sky Games truly defeated Tencent.

You could say this was just a publicity stunt for a press conference, or that this victory was meaningless.

Regardless of the final outcome, StarCraft Games certainly had the edge in terms of viewership and influence at this press conference. Ultimately, players want more companies to make good games, not more companies to make money.

Even if the hope is slim, at least there is a glimmer of hope.

This is the reason why Xia Anbo's videos went viral.

~~~
If such a video were released two years later, Tencent wouldn't even bother with it; to even glance at it would be considered a lack of confidence on Tencent's part.

But right now, in 16...
However, the situation is different. In the past two years, Tencent Games has been particularly "empty". With the rapid rise of mobile games, one "dark horse" after another has emerged.

Tencent Games is in a state of panic from top to bottom.

More than two years have passed since the development of mobile games, but Tencent has not shown the same "dominance" as it did in the PC game era. Not only did it fail to capitalize on the "mobile game" market, it also seems to have failed to capitalize on the emergence of "anime-style games".

This deep-seated concern directly led Tencent to spend 600 billion RMB this year to acquire Supercell, the developer of Clash of Clans, in an effort to maintain its dominance in the mobile gaming era.
In 2016, 60 billion was almost exactly six times Bilibili's valuation and three times NetEase's total revenue last year, which was clearly a super premium acquisition.
Aside from marveling at Tencent's financial strength, it's also clear that Tencent was uncertain at this point; otherwise, they wouldn't have resorted to desperate measures.

In its previous life, Tencent was uncertain about its future, but ultimately recovered thanks to games like Honor of Kings, Peacekeeper Elite, and Dungeon Fighter Online Mobile.
But at this juncture, and against this backdrop.

The fact that people were making fun of the press conference elicited a rare quick response from Tencent. The video that went viral yesterday was already featured at the analysis meeting today.

Its significance is certainly not praise.
As the person who initiated the entire event, Xiong Youning was naturally the one who suffered the most impact.

"It's no use saying all this now."

Xiong Youning stood up and glanced at the core team members in the conference room.

"We can't just sit here and wait to die. Now that Xingchen has made his move, we must meet it and fight back!"

"how to spell?"

"The pace of publicity and distribution can be slightly adjusted, but the core principles must not be lost."

Xiong Youning is capable of leading a work group, and he has a good understanding of his studio.

"In terms of quality, we might only achieve 7/10 of Xingchen's level."

"In terms of reputation, we might only achieve a 6 out of 10 in Xingchen."

"However, when it comes to traffic, we can achieve several times the volume of Starry Sky."

Our advantage lies in our traffic.

"And even if we take a step back and say the press conference was a failure, the auto-chess modes in DNF and League of Legends still received a very enthusiastic response."

"So Auto Chess is fine..."

He walked to the whiteboard, picked up a marker, and wrote down a few keywords.

"First, quality. We need to further refine the details of 'Night Spirit' to ensure that it has highlights when it is exhibited at CNJOY, at least in the absence of a paid version."

"Second, community. Increase operational efforts within the core player community. Since the initial wave of traffic didn't work, use paid online commentators to maintain the buzz."

"Third, collaboration. Since Starry Sky uses animation to break out of its niche, we can also make animation."

"Finally, it's about the present. The lack of viewership at yesterday's press conference doesn't mean we can let our guard down today."

With Xiong Youning's gradual planning.

The morale in the conference room seemed to have recovered considerably.

However, they all seem to have forgotten one thing, a very important thing: today is July 20th, and the 1.1 version of *Final Front* isn't coming soon, it's already here.
(End of this chapter)