Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 413 Who Will Be the Vanguard?

Xiong Youning's argument that Azur Lane is not a threat has gained some support, but not everyone agrees with this statement.

Even during Xiong Youning's speech, some people kept emphasizing that they should "be more conservative and there's no need to get angry with the stars."

"It is said that Chu Chen's name is also among the co-producers of Azur Lane."

"Don't underestimate it. I think we should still give it some respect. After all, Azur Lane is the first game of the Star Alliance."

"It's better to play it safe."

While these words may seem to "boost the morale of the stars while diminishing one's own prestige," this viewpoint is not necessarily wrong, and the reasoning is quite simple.

Tencent's distribution channels are large enough that even without competitive advertising, there's no need to worry about a lack of traffic.

In the past two years, Starry Night has been very popular.

However, Tencent has also had its share of hit games. While still exploring new avenues, several casual games launched on WEGAEM with "free first month" offers, such as "Crazy Snake" and "Happy Ball Eat Ball," achieved good results thanks to their massive user traffic.

Although these games have been criticized for "copying gameplay," some games that were accused of being "free to claim" actually have paid content inside.

Ultimately, Tencent believes its distribution channels still exist.

Secondly, "Honor of Kings" also benefited from the explosive popularity of Starry Sky Games and gradually became a national game through Tencent's own channels.

Moreover, it progressed very smoothly. Unlike FGO, which needed to constantly rely on external gameplay, Honor of Kings grew naturally like a snowball rolling downhill.

Finally, even in the most unsuccessful field of anime-style games.

Tencent still has "Naruto" as its sole remaining title, but like "Onmyoji" and "Honkai Impact 3", it experienced a decline after its initial surge due to the impact of Starry Sky Games.

Furthermore, Naruto's distribution channels are limited to Tencent, unlike other anime-style games such as Onmyoji and Honkai Impact 3, which can benefit from StarCraft's global user growth.

This also highlights Tencent's weakness in distribution channels: while Tencent can reach a massive number of users at once, those who don't join the first time are unlikely to join again.

Anyway, whatever.

Tencent currently has considerable confidence in its own distribution channels.

So if you don't touch Starry Sky's games, don't engage in competitive marketing, and don't try to steal traffic from the other side, you can at least guarantee that your own game gets a score of 60.

However, if they compete with Starry Sky in promotion and marketing, their scores will fluctuate between 40 and 80 points.

Add to that competitive marketing; if you win, great, but if you lose, who's going to take the blame?
It can be said that it is precisely because no one dares to take the blame that a group of big shots ended up discussing this topic during team building activities.

As the discussion grew louder, more and more people joined in.

Sitting in the main seat, Leng Zefeng's mind was racing.

Tencent definitely needs a victory, especially in the ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) field, a field constantly being swept by the stars, to achieve a landmark victory.

Especially now that morale in FGO is soaring.

This victory not only boosted the morale of the gaming division, but also gave a strong boost to the "Spotlight" plan that he, as the vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Group, was pushing for.

For domestic game developers, the choice between joining Tencent's "Spotlight Project" or Xingchen's "Starry Sky Project" depends on the distribution channels of these two major companies.

But we also need to see how things develop.

At least for now, from September to the present, not a single anime/manga/game (ACG) company has applied for the "Spotlight Project," and this is especially true for China's largest company. The fact that the number of applications for the "Spotlight Project" is far less than that for the "Starry Night Project" speaks volumes.

The most important thing for a leader is prestige.

The only question is whether to take a gamble now and bet that Night Spirit can beat Azur Lane. Leng Zefeng is still hesitant about this.

However, while he was hesitating, Xiong Youning added fuel to the fire.

"The ship girl genre has passed its golden age; this is when StarCraft is at its weakest! If we don't act now, when will we?"

The argument that ship girl themes are "outdated" is surprisingly popular right now.

Several years have passed since the release of "Kantai Collection" in 13. While many have followed suit, no one has managed to create a significant impact.

Faced with the emergence of "new second-generation games" led by "Final Battlefront", both Kantai Collection (KanColle) and Kantai Collection R are experiencing a large-scale reduction in their user base.

Tencent's internal data model also supports this view.

All user metrics for ship girl games have shown a clear downward trend, with Tencent's own "Azure Wars" experiencing data that has been halved.

Even after acquiring A2 Studio, the studio behind "Azure Wars," StarCraft did not choose to develop its own ship girl game, but instead let its subsidiary take the lead.

This move is incredibly significant.

Leng Zefeng didn't understand why Chu Chen wanted to "spend a fortune to buy a horse's bones," nor was he aware of the success that Azur Lane had achieved in another world line.

In his view, the only reasonable explanation for Chu Chen's decision not to create ship girls himself, but instead to find a subordinate to develop them, is that even Chu Chen himself felt that the "ship girl" theme was unreliable.

Thinking of this, Leng Zefeng took a deep breath and asked a question.

"Who's going then?"

The moment those words were spoken, the atmosphere in the conference room completely changed.

It's clear that Leng Zefeng has already decided that this time they will engage in competitive marketing. As the de facto second-in-command at Tencent Games and the actual executor of the strategy, Leng Zefeng said this.

There's no need to discuss the previous "controversy" anymore; the topic naturally shifts to the next one: who will be the pioneer?
Night Spirit or Gun Girl Auto Chess?
All eyes turned to Xiong Youning of the mill and Zhuang Zhihong of Yaoguang.

"Old Zhuang, what's the situation on your end?"

Leng Zefeng looked at Zhuang Zhihong.

"Mr. Leng, we might be a bit overwhelmed on our end."

Zhuang Zhihong did not give a direct reply, which was essentially a rejection.

However, Leng Zefeng did not frown, because he also knew that Yaoguang Studio's top priority at the moment was not anime games, but a battle royale mobile game codenamed "Battlefield".

After the success of "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" in its previous life, Tencent quickly leveraged its relationship with Korean game developers to acquire the mobile game rights and the Chinese server distribution rights.

But in this timeline, the stars have already occupied this position.

Given the current state of Bluehole's collaboration with StarCraft, Tencent naturally cannot obtain the copyright. However, not obtaining the copyright does not mean they will not do it. In fact, it is precisely because they have not obtained the copyright that Tencent is working so hard to do it.

(End of this chapter)