Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 560 Changes in Situation
Most importantly, every time Chen Rui lost a game, it was compared to Xingchen. People were already talking about it back when it was "Puella Magi Madoka Magica".

"If this project were given to Xingchen, President Chen definitely wouldn't have done it this way."

If the person saying this were just an ordinary employee, that would be one thing, but with Bilibili's repeated failures in the gaming industry, some shareholders have already started discussing this topic.
These ideas are certainly not mainstream, but Bilibili is also a joint-stock company.

If "everyone" thinks this way, then when Chu Chen raises his arms and calls for help, Chen Rui really isn't confident he can withstand the pressure.

In order to find a second growth point as soon as possible, so as not to let Chu Chen be crowned emperor.

In the past year, Chen Rui has spearheaded the completion of three acquisitions.

They acquired Qianlong Xincheng, the team that later developed the blockbuster IP "Slud".

They acquired Xinyuan Interactive, the development team behind "Chrysalis: Abyss Angels", and also Huaren Art Electronics, the team behind "Kamiyo: Dream of the Gods".

Chen Rui's reason for acquiring Flashwing was based on the same logic.

At this moment, Chen Rui was like a student who was always living in the shadow of "other people's children". No matter how hard he tried or how many points he got, the first thing others would say was always: "Look at Xiao Ming next door, he's number one in the grade again."

Although Chen Rui had been rejecting the idea.

However, Xu Menglu's reason for rejecting Bilibili is that the other party is considering whether to join the Star Project in order to obtain more technical support.

This reason seems plausible.

The problem is that on one side of the scale is Bilibili's 80 million yuan in cash, while on the other side, the maximum investment limit of the Star Project is less than 10 million yuan.
In other words, Xu Menglu believes that the technical support for the Star Project is far more important than Bilibili's money.

This is undoubtedly a great compliment to the Star Project, but for Chen Rui and Bilibili as a whole, it is nothing short of a resounding slap in the face.

Chu Chen didn't even get involved personally; it was merely a "Starry Sky Project."
This demonstrates just how dominant it is in the domestic ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) gaming industry.

Chen Rui rubbed his throbbing temples.

Chen Rui used to think that Bilibili was only slightly behind Xingchen in terms of ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) channels, but now...
"Meeting adjourned," Chen Rui waved his hand. "Let me think about it."

The crowd, as if granted a pardon, filed out.

In the empty conference room, only Chen Rui and the demo presentation slides of "Mobile Suit Girl" remained.

I don’t know how long it took.

Chen Rui sighed, grabbed his coat draped over the back of the chair, snatched the car keys from the table, and strode out.

Seeing that he was in a hurry, an assistant subconsciously asked a question.

"Mr. Chen, where are you going?"

Chen Rui didn't stop walking, didn't turn his head, and only left a sentence.

"Three visits to the thatched cottage".

~~~
While Chen Rui was working hard to find new growth points for Bilibili.

The atmosphere inside the Mihayu building was not exactly relaxed either.

With the Spring Festival over and March approaching, the changes in the entire Chinese gaming industry have been so rapid that they are almost overwhelming.

The collaboration between Wanmei World and Steam began its promotional campaign with unbelievable efficiency after the start of the year; the efficiency was almost unbelievable for Wanmei.

On March 5th, Steam China Edition was officially launched, with only CS:GO and DOTA2 as the first batch of featured games.

This seemed like a gimmick that made a lot of noise but had little effect, but the real killer move was the announcement that followed Wanmei's announcement about account interoperability.

As long as you have a Wanmei account, you can log in directly to Steam China. According to Steam's announcement, Steam China's accounts are cross-platform compatible with the main Steam account. In other words, domestic players no longer need to go to the Steam website to register for Steam; they can log in directly with just a Wanmei account.

Following the official announcement of the collaboration, an even more powerful series of moves followed.

Overnight, almost every gaming media and technology section's front page was flooded with headlines about Wanmei's "steam gaming platform".

Wanmei has put in a lot of effort to promote Steam. The content of these articles is similar, with only one core idea: to educate domestic players about Steam's enormous and overwhelming game library.

Tens of thousands of games to choose from – the ultimate destination for PC gamers!

Besides CS:GO and DOTA2, what else can you play on Steam?

No more worries about games! One article will show you why Gabe Newell (GabeN) smiles!

If this was just a warm-up in the media, then the remarks made by a vice president of Perfect Magnesium World in an interview completely exposed their ambitions.

"In addition to distributing Steam China, we have also secured the distribution rights for Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. In the future, we will dedicate ourselves to bringing more and better localized content and services to a wider Chinese-speaking player community."

This is actually the core purpose of the magnesium alloy.

Chu Chen's "workaround" has also brought opportunities to Steam and Wanmei. In the past, Wanmei could only act as the agent for the Chinese version, so it naturally had little motivation. But this time, Wanmei can get a share of the Chinese version from Steam.

The motivation and the resources invested are naturally completely different.

It is no coincidence.

While Steam was heavily promoting the game, the EPIC Games Store across the ocean had finally completed all its preliminary preparations.

They launched their own publicity campaign and immediately unleashed their trump card.

"A 10% cut?"

"This is even lower than the Starry Sky Games platform."

"They also give away free games every week."

"Once you receive it, it's permanently stored in the database. This isn't about doing business; it's about turning the tables."

If the collaboration between Magnesium and Steam was merely a bombshell in the PC single-player game market, then Epic's entry into the market has stirred up a massive wave across the entire game distribution channel.

Unlike Steam, which requires a "Chinese version" as a buffer.

The EPIC Games Store was launched globally simultaneously from the very beginning, and Tencent, as the major shareholder holding nearly 40% of EPIC, plays an undeniable role in this.

Despite numerous internal opinions within Tencent, the company's XGAME platform has been steadily losing ground to the Starry Sky Games platform and has been unable to gain a foothold.

However, the decision to help EPIC and support an "outsider" to disrupt the market was unanimously approved within Tencent.

So, the day after EPIC's global announcement, domestic media coverage flooded in like a tidal wave.

Unlike Perfect World's promotional efforts, which focus on game media, Tencent's resources are stronger than Perfect World's, even if this is just a "trial run".

It covers everything from push notifications from mainstream news apps to trending topics on major social media platforms.

Is the game distribution channel facing its end? Epic Games Store's 10% commission shocks the industry!

"Freebies every week, permanent access! Is this company running a charity?"

From 30% to 15%, and then to 10%! How far are we from "free purchase" games?

(End of this chapter)