Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 510 The fox is sad when the rabbit dies
It was January 2018.

A tense yet eerie atmosphere permeated the Chinese gaming market.

On one hand, it's the unstoppable momentum of "Peace Elite".

Within half a month of its release, this mobile game has become a phenomenon and a hot topic of social discussion.

Whether in the subway, restaurants, schools, or offices, you can see young people everywhere engrossed in playing video games.

Its global user base has easily surpassed 100 million at a rate that has astonished all analysts.

It was almost a certainty that Starry Sky Games would surpass Honor of Kings within a few months. With just this one product, Starry Sky Games became the number one shooting mobile game.

This peculiar phenomenon has baffled the entire industry.

It's important to understand that Peacekeeper Elite is not like Honor of Kings. At least in terms of the skill ceiling, Peacekeeper Elite is far more difficult to master than Honor of Kings.

Equally incomprehensible as the explosive popularity of "Peacekeeper Elite" is the announcement by Starry Games Peripherals of Starry Mobile's auxiliary shoulder buttons, boasting full coverage across three tiers.

With its excellent quality, it sold over five million units globally in just half a month.

The revenue from this "PUBG Mobile" gadget alone exceeded 2 million yen. This is partly due to the higher prices in the Japanese and European markets. For example, the most basic version is priced at 290 yen in Japan and $5.99 in the United States.

But the reason for this revenue is more importantly because this thing is the kind of hardware that, once you use it, you can never go back to the old hardware.

It is hardware that can completely change the gaming experience.

Of course, for "laymen" who know nothing about this game, all they see is another victory for Starry Night Games, another blockbuster.

This is just the merchandise! If the merchandise alone sells for 200 million, the game itself must be making a killing!
~~~
In this situation of extreme contrasts, the most distressed are undoubtedly NetEase and Tencent.

They were like two well-prepared boxers about to take the stage.

As soon as he stepped onto the stage, he found that the audience was talking about the idol star in the next arena who had not yet debuted, while his opponent had become Tyson.

To fight or not to fight?

this is a problem.

After several sleepless nights of emergency meetings, they finally chose a path—to bite the bullet and go for it.

The reason is simple: they have no way out.

The huge upfront R&D and marketing costs were like a knife to their throats, forcing them to push the product to market, even if it was just to recoup some of the costs.

So, a week after the launch of "Peacekeeper Elite", NetEase's "Knives Out" took the lead over Tencent and launched its open beta test.

However, the market's reaction was worse than they had anticipated, even worse than the worst-case scenario.

~~~
The NetEase Building was brightly lit.

Thunderfire Working Group.

Hu Peng's office was filled with smoke.

On the desk in front of him lay a freshly printed operational data report, its curves plummeting like a precipice.

Within 72 hours of its launch, the curve of new users for "Knives Out" briefly climbed before quickly turning downwards.

User retention rates are even more appalling. Day 2 retention is less than 20%, and analysts pessimistically predict that seven-day retention may not even reach 5%.

Logically, he should have laughed upon seeing this report.

After all, everyone within NetEase knows that Thunderfire Studio and Interactive Entertainment Group are brothers in name only, but rivals in reality.

Since two years ago, when Interactive Entertainment suddenly became incredibly popular with the game "Onmyoji", their Lei Huo team has never been able to stand up straight at the company's annual meeting.

During meetings, Boss Ding always talks about the innovation and breakthroughs of Interactive Entertainment; when allocating resources, good projects are always prioritized for Interactive Entertainment. Lei Huo, on the other hand, is treated like an unwanted stepchild, restricted in everything they do.

Now, things are changing.

Interactive Entertainment fought tooth and nail to produce "Knives Out," only to be slapped so hard by StarCraft's "Peacekeeper Elite."

Shouldn't we laugh?
Hu Peng's lips twitched twice, but he ultimately couldn't manage a smile.

He stubbed out his cigarette; the ashtray was overflowing with cigarette butts. The acrid smell in the office couldn't suppress the growing chill in his heart.

There's no reason to laugh. The disastrous failure of "Knives Out" is not just a failure for Interactive Entertainment, but also a failure for NetEase.

Since Onmyoji became a hit two years ago, NetEase has not produced any blockbuster games in two years. Knives Out originally had the potential to become the new blockbuster.

Among all domestically produced battle royale mobile games, they are the fastest and have received a lot of positive reviews during the closed beta.

The problem is, the stars are faster than them.

Despite the official version and the high reputation of the game, "Knives Out" couldn't even last a single round.

The rabbit dies and the fox grieves; creatures grieve for their own kind.

Lei Huo has also had a tough two years. Everyone's hard work and hopes are pinned on "Justice Online," which is scheduled to launch next year.

But unfortunately, Xingchen's "Floating Dream Song" is like a ghost, always hovering over the martial arts MMO genre.

The success of the first test of "Floating Dreams" and the art style and technical capabilities it demonstrated have forced the development team of "Justice Online" to overturn several plans and make more than one internal modification.

With costs rising steadily and the launch date being repeatedly delayed, the project team was under immense pressure.

Besides, many people know that NetEase has a game called "Knives Out," but they don't know that Lei Huo's working group also has a battle royale game called "Terminator," or "Terminator Battlegrounds."

This is also a battle royale game.

Originally, Lei Huo planned to make a regular PVE shooting mobile game after acquiring the Terminator movie IP. However, the battle royale mode became popular last year, so the project was changed halfway through and turned into a battle royale mode.

The game is almost finished now.

Looking at the less than 20% day-two retention rate of "Knives Out", Hu Peng felt a chill run down his spine.

~~~
Hu Peng wasn't the only one who felt a chill down his back; Leng Zefeng did too.

Regarding the tragic situation of the internet users.

Tencent saw it all clearly.

The atmosphere in the conference room at Tencent's headquarters was even more oppressive than at NetEase.

If Wang Yi is like someone who has already taken a heavy punch and is lying on the ground groaning, then Tencent is like a boxer who watches helplessly as his teammate is knocked down while he himself is still standing in the ring.

是 的
At least when facing PUBG, Tencent definitely considered Knives Out as a partner.
Although Tencent would probably puncture the tires of his teammate if he were driving a Land Rover, seeing him get killed instantly in "Knives Out" gives a different feeling.

"Our product is better than 'Knives Out,' but compared to 'StarCraft,' it's still inferior."

The person giving the report didn't finish speaking, but the meaning was already very clear.

At this moment, Leng Zefeng and his team had two cards to play.

Yaoguang's "PUBG Mobile" and Meitian's "PUBG Mobile: Army Attack".

They consider themselves to be at the top level in China in terms of both investment and quality, but whether this "top level" can compete with Xingchen is anyone's guess.

“We have the traffic,” a vice president in charge of channels couldn’t help but say. “With QQ and WeChat as the two entry points, we can bring tens of millions of new users to the game in a single day. I don’t believe we can’t overwhelm them!”

This is Tencent's invincible tactic in the past—simple, direct, and extremely effective.

Use absolute traffic advantage to crush all competitors.

"and then?"

Unfortunately, these words failed to persuade Leng Zefeng.

"Then, these tens of millions of users enter the game, try it out, find it's not as good as StarCraft, then uninstall it while cursing and complaining, and go back to 'PUBG'?"

Leng Zefeng's voice was not loud, but it was extremely imposing.

If you analyze this statement carefully, it sounds a bit cowardly, because Leng Zefeng has basically admitted that his game is no match for Xingchen in terms of product strength.

However, what's interesting is...

After Leng Zefeng said that, no one in the conference room objected. So, strictly speaking, it's not that Leng Zefeng was cowardly, but rather that the entire Tencent Games was cowardly.

(End of this chapter)