Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 257 Can't Learn

In fact, under normal circumstances, it is not common for observable "avoidance" effects to occur between games.

Unless it's a game of the same type or a game with a highly overlapping player base.

For example, the later anime-style games have a very obvious avoidance effect. Several leading anime-style game companies, even if they are not from the same company, will deliberately avoid overlapping the release times of major versions.

However, it is actually very difficult for different types of games to produce an avoidance effect.

In particular, Tencent's "three pillars" have almost no "connection" to "Final Front," however, no matter how you analyze it subjectively.

Objectively speaking, this result did indeed occur.

Therefore, Tencent naturally also needed to conduct an "analysis".

Their analysis concluded that "Final Battlefront" has gone mainstream, and when a game starts to go mainstream, it means that its influence will become very wide.

Take the Japanese market for example, with Fate/Grand Order (FGO). Whenever StarCraft launches a major FGO update event, for about two weeks, no other mobile game in Japan dares to hold any events.
This has nothing to do with what type of mobile game you play; even Pachinko games won't work.

Anyone who dares to challenge FGO's popularity in Japan will almost always end up with nothing more than lower-than-expected revenue.

That's how domineering it is, that's how obvious it is.

Even Chu Chen himself didn't know why he was being so domineering. Putting aside everything else, even the revenue from the Pachinko game was declining, which was quite unexpected.
Later, Chu Chen learned that there were indeed people in Japan using the drop rates of FGO as pachinko, some "helping to pull" and others "betting".

There's also the option of simply buying an account.

Then spend money to try your luck with the gacha pulls. After you've pulled everything, depending on the drop rate, sometimes you can make a profit by selling the items.

Since Japan doesn't have a real-name registration system and account trading is easy, and there are many FGO players in Japan, it's possible to make money by gacha pulls if you have a high success rate.

There are even cases where people buy pre-made lottery numbers, draw them all, and then resell them.

When more and more people started doing this, a strange market formed.

The consequence is that when FGO holds an event in Japan, even pachinko games can't compete. Isn't that amazing?
Chu Chen could only sigh and say, "He's really amazing, there's nothing I can do about it."

If this were in China, he might be able to find a solution, but in Japan, he really could only let them have their way.
Because FGO made money so easily in Japan, Shiokawa even said something ridiculous during an internal report, like that Japanese players would buy whatever he did.

Of course, this happened after Shiokawa said those words.

Chu Chen was furious.

If it weren't for the fact that Yan Chuan was a senior executive at Xingchen and he had to consider Yan Chuan's feelings, he would have liked to issue a direct reprimand. However, even though he didn't show it in front of outsiders, Yan Chuan was still scolded severely when he reported the incident. Chu Chen told Yan Chuan directly.

If any data in the Japanese FGO market declines by the end of this year, he will be dismissed.

Unfortunately, although Shiokawa's statement was most likely just a "momentary reflection," as the person directly in charge of "FGO," it's inevitable that this attitude will be passed down.

It won't take more than a few levels before it becomes a big problem.

However, this incident can also serve as evidence that this version of FGO, remastered by StarCraft, is even more dominant in Japan than the already dominant FGO of its predecessor.

Of course, this is based on the large number of players in China.

Even Tencent would find it difficult to incubate a game like this. Even with "Honor of Kings," the only advantage it has is that it has a large enough audience to achieve economies of scale.

However, the IP depth is insufficient. At least many hardcore gamers don't have much affection for this IP, to the point that, apart from "Honor of Kings" itself, they don't like it.

When Tencent expands its IP overseas, it faces considerable difficulties, whether copying "Naraka: Bladepoint" or "Genshin Impact." Nevertheless, Tencent remains a giant in the Chinese gaming industry, holding a large number of "national-level" games. It is precisely because Tencent possesses so many "national-level" games that it enjoys such a strong position.

Therefore, Tencent can also sense when phenomenal games like "FGO", "Final Battlefront", and "Onmyoji" appear on the market.

However, Tencent is not afraid of netizens' opinions.

Because Tencent is an old rival of NetEase, they know very well what kind of thing it is.

However, Tencent really doesn't quite understand StarCraft. In the past, Final Frontline had some impact on Tencent's games, but that was because of the auto chess gameplay. After several of Tencent's mainstream games launched grid-based auto chess modes, the impact has become very low.

However, following the three-pronged attack last October, followed by StarTap, then "Final Survival" crushing IGN, and then "PUBG" on the StarTap gaming platform...
And now, the "old IP" "Final Battlefront" has actually made a comeback, sparking heated discussions around the world.

Tencent's feelings at this moment.

It's like a major villain seeing a protagonist with exceptional talent grow rapidly.

You know he can't kill you right now, but you still feel inexplicably panicked.

"In addition, our public relations and marketing departments have already reviewed the marketing gimmick of 'selling games at a loss'."

Another marketing director took over the conversation.

The conclusion is that it cannot be replicated.

His tone was a little awkward, especially when he said it couldn't be copied.

"The essence of this kind of marketing is to use benefits and word-of-mouth to create a sense of banter. Currently, our brand image is relatively stable, so it's difficult to create this kind of marketing."

The words were phrased very tactfully.

In reality, it all boils down to Tencent "doing all sorts of bad things".

If Tencent were to actually hold such an event, players would probably immediately think, "What new tricks has Tencent come up with to fleece its users?" That's the difference in brand image.

Although no one spoke, everyone present nodded in agreement.

This is one of the reasons why they were "panicked," because Xingchen was clearly taking a path they had never taken before.

"So we don't need to worry about marketing gimmicks; the key is still the model itself."

"Can we use a high-quality, low-priced single-player content as a 'paid preview' and 'character shaper' for major version updates, and finally monetize it by bringing players back to the main game through in-game benefits?"

The question was raised, and a discussion immediately began in the meeting room.

"It's hard."

An executive in charge of the "Honor of Kings" project shook his head.

“The storytelling of our core products’ IPs is weak, or rather, it’s very scattered.”

"We can't possibly make a single-player game that lasts for several hours just to sell a skin for Zhao Yun or Daji. Players won't buy into that, and it's completely unnecessary."

"What about DNF? Can it attract new players using this method?"

(End of this chapter)