Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 412, could it be that every single one of them will be a smash hit?
"Azur Lane confirmed its open beta launch date yesterday, which is now set for October 18th."

Leng Zefeng's voice wasn't loud, but it instantly drew everyone's attention.

"The question now is, should we follow suit? Should we compete with 'Night Spirit' and 'Gun Girl' for this release window?"

Actually, if this had happened two years ago...
No, even a year ago, Tencent, as the world's largest game developer, would rarely pay attention to other game companies when releasing games.

In China, it's usually others who have to cater to Tencent's wishes and avoid Tencent's promotional schedules; it's not like Tencent has to cater to others' wishes.

However, at this moment, after Leng Zefeng finished saying this...

The atmosphere in the meeting room, however, was one of taking it all for granted.

Thinking about it carefully, this is actually quite terrifying. Just like Tencent's Weishi department, which no longer talks about surpassing Titok, this kind of subtle influence is actually the most frightening.

"President Leng, I think it's still worth a shot. Xingchen is riding high right now, and everyone's eyes are on them."

"Although Azur Lane is not a game by StarCraft, it is precisely because they are not StarCraft's games that our chances of success with this competitive marketing approach are much greater."

The so-called competitive promotion is actually about competing for simultaneous online release.

It's the same principle as when WEGAEM and Xingchen Games platform held promotional events against each other in August.

Although WEAGEM ended in a "tie" last time, Tencent has indeed realized that the buzz generated by head-to-head marketing is far more intense than that of conventional promotion.

Especially when colliding with stars.

"Isn't this too hasty? If we're going to compete on advertising, it means we have to start the advertising process tomorrow."

Some people want to play the competitive card, while others don't.

For a typical Tencent game, the process from promotion to launch is relatively long. In addition to actual promotional needs, another reason is Tencent's performance evaluation criteria.

If a project is launched or tested, and the data doesn't meet the standards, it's basically either canceled outright or the testing continues until the data meets the standards.

Therefore, for Tencent, setting a timeframe today and launching it ten days later is feasible, even if it is technically feasible.

When it comes to actually carrying it out, you'll subconsciously feel that it's inappropriate.

"I don't think there's any rush or not."

"Have you noticed a phenomenon? Starting with FGO, Starry Night Games' marketing and promotion model has become completely different from our traditional approach."

"Their promotional cycle is extremely short, but their energy is extremely concentrated. Like a blitzkrieg, they don't engage in any probing attacks, but directly gather their main force. Judging from the current situation, Azur Lane is also following this approach."

Not all of Tencent Games' executives are fools.

During the two years of StarCraft's rapid development, they have also noticed that the marketing cycle for modern games is shortening and the efforts are becoming more concentrated.

Especially since 17, the pace of promotion and release of new games in China has been accelerating.

A large part of the reason for this is because of the stars.

As a "benchmark" enterprise in China, Xingchen usually announces new games or new versions a week in advance.

At first, many domestic manufacturers thought that Xingchen's move was too stupid, as a week was not enough time to make a splash. But they soon realized that...

The stars are not the fools.

As the internet becomes more and more developed, players' patience is getting shorter and shorter. The era when you could make a fortune by releasing a promotional video, holding a closed beta test, and selling activation codes is completely over.

For modern gamers, if the marketing period exceeds one month, then the game is essentially considered to have had no marketing at all, unless your promotional video is exceptionally impressive.

Otherwise, the best promotional approach is to announce a specific time when players can play the game immediately after the promotional video has captivated them, thus getting them hooked.

For example, Battlefield 6 in its previous life was a very positive example. Its large-scale promotion officially started on July 24, followed by a week later.

By early August, it had launched a full public beta test and pre-sale.

Players who are interested in the promotional materials can immediately try the game, which naturally increases the conversion rate.

There are also negative examples. For instance, during the first public test of Unlimited, the peak concurrent online users on Steam alone exceeded 300,000, but during the second public test, the number plummeted to 100,000.

Subsequently, its reputation collapsed, and before its public beta even began, the game was on the verge of death.

In summary, from a broader perspective, for many companies, the returns from a one-time, full-scale pre-launch marketing campaign are increasing, while the cost of repeated marketing campaigns is higher and the returns are decreasing.

As a person from the future, Chu Chen initially had no money and could only do rapid publicity.

For example, "Final Front" basically used this approach from the beginning. Later, when they had more money, Starry Sky's channels were also very special, whether it was Starry Sky Wallpaper, Starry Sky Tap, or later Starry Sky Game Platform, Bilibili, and Titok.

These channels are essentially the same as Tencent's; they are all one-time coverage channels, and each deployment incurs high channel costs.

Therefore, it has been "passed down" ever since.

Ultimately, this did indeed create the impression among players that as long as StarCraft was heavily promoted, it would be available to them immediately.

Over time, with the praise of a large number of "experts," this "Starry Sky-style publicity" was gradually mythologized along with Starry Sky's success.

Although Tencent's top management doesn't say it out loud, they have actually held "seminars" and "study sessions" internally to analyze this kind of publicity and distribution method.

"So, Mr. Xiong means we have to fight?"

"of course."

As a staunch advocate of war from the very beginning of the meeting

Xiong Youning was still quite confident at this time.

In the previous small-scale closed beta test, "Night Spirit" performed reasonably well in terms of data. Although the churn rate was a bit high, the overall reviews were positive.

Whether it's a melee weapon-wielding cute girl fighting zombies, or a matchlock gun, vampires, or werewolves, you don't need to worry about how it feels to play; the novelty is definitely there.

So when he spoke, Xiong Youning talked a lot about why this competitive marketing campaign was necessary.

It contains many long and complex sentences.

For example, "Previously, we competed with Xingchen in marketing, but due to the uncontrollable impact of product quality, we were indeed unable to maximize the effect of traffic."

But there are also very simple languages, for example.

"This time, the competitor isn't StarCraft's game, but Azur Lane."

His viewpoint can be summarized in one sentence.

If I can't beat the stars, can't I at least beat the games that are part of the stars?

Starry Sky Games can mass-produce hit games, does that mean all of Starry Sky Alliance's games will be hits?
(End of this chapter)