Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 288 The Method of Capital

Just like Monster Hunter: World

StarCraft had originally discussed cooperation, but recently Capcom suddenly "apologized" to StarCraft, saying that Tencent had bought out their global Chinese distribution rights for a price that they "could not refuse".

On Steam and StarCraft, you can only play in other languages.

In addition to this "apology," there was also a "threat," in which they stated that if StarCraft continued to release Monster Hunter versions in other languages, they would...

We hope that StarCraft can provide some "promotional expenses" and a reduction in the platform's commission to offset the "negative impact" of Capcom's multi-platform launch.

Chu Chen laughed out loud after hearing that.

This was the first time he'd ever heard of logging in on multiple platforms having a negative impact on the game! ??
It's important to know that StarCraft Games' PC platform takes a 15% cut, only half that of Steam. This means that for every game Capcom sells on the StarCraft Games platform, they earn an extra 15%.
Under such circumstances, Capcom actually "threatened" StarCraft.

So much so that Chu Chen couldn't help but complain after hearing it.

"How much money did Tencent actually pay?! Capcom is treating us like idiots, they're insane! Hey!!!"

Although Chu Chen felt this was going against the natural order, he instead called the other company president.

People at Capcom probably realized that StarCraft is not Tencent, and that StarCraft has a certain influence in Japan because of FGO.

Ultimately, they gave up the possibility of charging extra, only expressing their hope that Xingchen could provide additional publicity at that time.

This was just a little incident.

Then you'll know how outrageous Tencent is.

This was the first time Chu Chen had ever encountered a platform that actually paid out money to the game developers; it was truly a reversal of the natural order.

But there's nothing we can do about it; it's a seller's market. Just like in recent years, when domestic companies rushed to grab the copyrights of Japanese animation, they overcharged each other, spending money that wasted.

Starry Sky currently has a very strong cash flow.

If you're talking about competing with Tencent, then there's still a bit of a gap.

To put it bluntly, this is Tencent's open conspiracy.

Tencent is aggressively buying Chinese distribution rights globally and even offering commission subsidies. This strategy will likely have a real impact on StarCraft in the short term.

The reason is simple: both are "overseas platforms," ​​but the products sold on Starry Sky don't have Chinese language support, while those on Tencent do. This can certainly be solved with a Chinese language patch.

People who play the official version just want timely updates and official Chinese localization, right?

Therefore, Tencent's move can be described as "striking the snake at its vital point." If it were an ordinary person, they would panic at this moment.

However, Chu Chen repeated the same statement.

Competition is a long-term process.

Tencent can spend money to buy the "Chinese publishing rights" of a lot of games this year, but the problem is that the life cycle of single-player games is not like that of online games, but more like that of movies.

If you want to maintain this competitive pressure, you have to spend money to buy it every year.

Can Tencent do that?

Perhaps Tencent might actually continue operating even without Chu Chen.

After all, although the returns from this snowballing approach are lower, the snowball can still be rolled.

Especially starting this year, the PC single-player game market will continue to grow significantly. Don't be fooled by the fact that in 2017, the overall market share of single-player games in China was less than 1%.
However, that's the "legal" revenue data for domestically produced games on domestic platforms. In reality, by 2025, this "legal" revenue hadn't changed much, still accounting for less than 4% of the overall market share in China.
However, excluding EPIC and other platforms, Steam alone saw the release of over 1600 domestically produced games in 2024, with estimated spending by Chinese players reaching 200 billion yuan.

While the "black swan" phenomenon certainly played a role, the overall market is still incredibly volatile. This figure means that Steam takes 60 billion RMB in revenue from China every year.

Note! This commission is essentially net income, not cash flow.
This profit would place it in the top 5 in China.

Moreover, it's obvious that as Black Myth unfolds, this number will only increase in the future.

Under this division level.

If Tencent can truly "stay connected," even if it's just by continuously buying Chinese versions, this snowball effect can still grow.

but
Breaking the deadlock is incredibly simple. Chu Chen just needs to ensure that he controls every wildly popular game that breaks out of the market each year. In less than two years, Tencent will be unable to continue operating on its own.

This method is so "simple" that it's estimated only Chu Chen in the entire world could use it.

It can easily break Tencent's "capital law".

So for now, if Tencent is willing to spend money to buy it, let them spend money to buy it.

A donkey pulling a millstone also needs to be tied with a carrot.

To get Tencent involved, they naturally had to be given some incentives.

As long as Steam doesn't dominate the Chinese market and doesn't snowball, and as long as more domestic players develop spending habits, Chu Chen is willing to accept it.

Tencent's market share in the domestic single-player game market is real and substantial.

Therefore, in Chu Chen's plan, he even welcomes Tencent to increase its efforts.

What could be more satisfying than using Fujiko's money and influence to do your own thing?
Of course there are.

That's because of Fujiko's actions, Chu Chen was able to withdraw his funds to do more important things.

~~~
Octover 6st

Yufeng Industrial Park, second floor of Xingchen Games.

Star Engine Explanation Conference
Although it is called a "conference", this "conference" is somewhat incompetent.

There wasn't even a red banner with yellow lettering.

There were very few representatives from game companies participating, only four in total.

The studios behind *Bloody Spell* include Longyi Studio, the studio behind *Black Myth*, Youke Studio, the studio behind *The Legend of Sword and Fairy*, and TipsWork Studio, the studio behind *Pascal's Wager*.

If we trace back from the results of the previous life, these games, except for "Black Myth", are all...

The others are all "junior" games, and many people may not even have heard of them, but considering the current situation...

Excuse me..
These studios, which have been around for 17 years, are among the few in China that have managed to avoid failure and are now showing some success as "legitimate" studios.
It's safe to say that the dark age of domestically produced single-player games was no joke.

And these few only children are now living in increasingly dire straits.

Let's not talk about them.

Even now, the two flagship Chinese single-player games, "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" and "Gu Jian," are in dire straits, with development costs of only around 5000 million yuan.
The reason this number is fixed here is because...

The reason is that any higher would require sales exceeding one million to break even. Due to cost constraints, the entire studio for Legend of Sword and Fairy 7, apart from the core creative team, consists entirely of completely newcomers.
If this is the case with "The Legend of Sword and Fairy," then these "brothers in misfortune" are even more so.
(End of this chapter)