Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

Penguin is targeting the domestic market, while Steam mainly targets its own core North American user base.

Specifically, Ma Xiao and Li Weixi were quite conflicted about the details of the press conference.

Although they were somewhat conflicted, the two of them still had big smiles on their faces. Moreover, they had just attended a celebration banquet for senior executives at Tencent Games and had both drunk some alcohol.

The fact that they are still able to sit here and discuss the upcoming press conference at this point is already "very dedicated".

"I think the focus should still be on handheld consoles. Spark has been hyping this up a lot lately. If we also focus on promoting this, we should be able to ride some of the wave."

Li Weixi gave his advice.

Ma Xiao nodded. He knew that with the hype surrounding Spark and Steam, the handheld console market had become very popular, but at the same time, he was also a little conflicted.

"How's Xue Fei's handheld game team doing? Have you checked out their products?"

It must be said that Tencent is indeed a large and powerful company, because of its size, it can do almost anything.

When Ma Xiao first wanted to poach a handheld game console team from the group, he wondered if anyone at Tencent was working on it. But when he finally did, wow, there was more than one team working on it.

Among them, the project Xue Fei is working on is the one that can be implemented the fastest, because Xue Fei's team is developing a cloud gaming handheld console.

In other words, you don't need to worry about the system, and the hardware just needs to be barely adequate. It's all cloud computing anyway, and because it's cloud-based, playing AAA games isn't a problem either.

In addition, cloud gaming is currently extremely popular.

Alibaba, Amazon, Google, Nintendo—they're all getting into cloud gaming.

Although the concept of cloud gaming has been hyped for several years without taking off and player acceptance is low, it is currently a very good business gimmick.

Compared to this gimmick, the other Penguin Android handheld project is undoubtedly less appealing.

"I've checked Xue Fei's side; they already have a prototype available. We'll embed a server on-site for a streaming demonstration, and the results should be fine."

Lee Wei-hee actually went to the scene this time.

To be honest, the handheld console itself is quite ordinary and nothing new, but its built-in cloud gaming system is quite impressive and can also connect to WEGAME.

"If we focus on handheld consoles, we can introduce them first, and then use them to demonstrate our integration with Steam's game library. That would definitely be a hit with the audience."

Ma Xiao nodded.

"It's definitely going to explode! Let's go, and we'll find a beautiful woman to open a bottle of champagne for us!"

"Alright, boss!!"

Ma Xiao was full of vigor; he had never been so confident in the year or so that he had been fighting against Xinghuo.

However, this confidence does not actually stem from Tencent, but from a willingness to use Steam. In Ma Xiao's view, Xinghuo is like Sun Wukong, no matter how lively it is in China.

But now Tencent has brought in Wuzhishan (a powerful martial arts technique), and with Steam's library and Tencent's traffic, they should be able to keep this monkey in check this time.

~~~

"Only the weak unite. Back then, the six states rebelled against Qin, but they were eventually swept away and unified. Old Xu, you're being too tense."

1 month 15 day.

spark.

Lin Li was planning to prepare a new game in his office as usual, but before he even entered the office, Xu Dengke stopped him and dragged him to the conference room.

They said they wanted to watch the Tencent and Steam press conferences together.

"I won't watch the press conference, especially Tencent's. It's all just empty talk and platitudes anyway. But you should prepare and write down the key points of their press conference. After the press conference, we can go over the things we need to modify tomorrow."

Xu Dengke only let Lin Li go after hearing that Lin Li was willing to hold a meeting with them after the two press conferences.

Back to the office.

Lin Li discovered that there are quite a few people who care about Tencent and Steam as well.

In the past two days, his Weibo, Twitter, and many media friends have been asking him about his views on Steam and how to deal with Steam's backdoor listing and Tencent's combined strategy.

to be frank.

At first, Lin Li was a little surprised. He didn't expect that the penguin could come up with such a trick, which was really unexpected.

However, in the end, he didn't pay too much attention to it.

Because Tencent, and even Steam, have never realized why Spark was able to beat them and dominate the market.

While Spark's various marketing activities, massive spending, and development of derivative works on the platform certainly contribute to this, its true competitive advantage lies in its first-party games.

Just like Nintendo.

Nintendo's competitive advantage lies in its ability to consistently produce excellent first-party titles.

Why was Sony able to surpass Microsoft in the PS3 era, and why did it gradually become less dominant in the PS4 and PS5 eras?

It's still because the game products are subpar.

Sony's first-party titles have lost their dominance; by 24, they were even able to produce something like Star Trek. So it's not that the PS5 hardware is any better, but rather that Sony's games are gradually becoming boring.

Chapter 506 The Next 3A

To put it bluntly, if Spark were to launch a console now, and all future games were to be released exclusively on that console, as long as Spark could consistently produce high-quality games...

Players will definitely buy while complaining.

Of course, Lin Li would never do that. After all, now and in the future, we are in an era of great integration. What devices players use is not important; what matters is that players play your game.

Microsoft understood this, which is why it allowed its first-party games to be released on Sony's platform.

Lin Li naturally understood what he wanted even better.

Therefore, his way of dealing with the penguin challenge is very simple: prepare new games. Making games is like a never-ending game of meat pigeon.

The initiation of each new game project is a challenge for Lin Li, not to mention that as more and more of Xinghuo's works become popular, players' expectations for Xinghuo are also getting higher and higher.

This forced Lin Li to rack his brains to come up with products that could continuously satisfy players.

For example, after the release of three major IP works, namely "Destiny's Path", "Galaxy Paradise" and "Eastern Fantasy World", many reviewers and industry insiders believe that Xinghuo may have to gradually slow down its pace.

But in reality, Lin Li did not feel that the pace should be slowed down.

On the contrary, Spark's investment in games is increasing. After the success of three games, Spark's surplus manpower was concentrated on a series of games such as Gundam Battlefield, Dimension Battlefield, Adventure World, Girls' Frontline: Siege, Future Defense, Ark Project, and The Song of the Saintess.

However, most of these games are still online games.

For Spark at present, apart from the remastered game, the entire industry, including the company as a whole, actually has the idea of ​​making a AAA game to attack the overseas market.

However, Lin Li had been thinking that Black Myth could help Starfire open up a new situation, and since he didn't have much time before Starfire was reorganized, the matter was put on hold.

On the contrary, it's only now.

The framework of the thirteen working groups gradually began to be established, and Lin Li gradually had more free time to seriously consider the core game of Spark in the next stage.

"3A games, what are 3A games?"

Lin Li once raised this question during an internal meeting.

This is actually a very interesting question. It seems that everyone knows what a AAA game is, but when asked what a AAA game is, they are all a bit vague.

Hai Mao said something quite interesting at the time.

"It probably refers to a game that could bankrupt the entire game company."

This remark elicited laughter in the meeting room.

But in fact, there is some truth to this statement, after all, Lin Li has truly experienced 24 years of consecutive AAA games.

However, if we interpret it literally, the so-called 3A mainly means large investment, wide marketing, and a lot of detailed game content.

"However, these are not problems for us. The biggest problem is the choice of subject matter."

After sitting down in the office.

Lin Li poured himself a glass of water and started chatting with Su Shanshan. The two had been discussing the development of a new game project recently, so Su Shanshan immediately understood what Lin Li was talking about.

This is quite amazing to outsiders.

Because they can't see Lin Li and Su Shanshan's behavior at home, they can only see what Lin Li says. Even if others don't understand what he's saying, Su Shanshan can react immediately.

"Didn't you say you wanted to make a AAA game with an anime/manga theme?"

Before today, Lin Li had actually considered the selection of themes for the next stage of Spark. The first one was Chinese style, but Lin Li had already given up on this because of the existence of Black Myth.

Unless you're into fantasy novels.

Making a 3A game based on the fantasy genre is feasible. Putting aside everything else, as long as the settings of cultivation novels accumulated over the years are roughly restored, there will definitely be no shortage of buyers.

Lin Li wasn't particularly fond of the Xianxia genre, and considering that this first AAA game also had to shoulder the responsibility of overseas expansion, the Xianxia theme had an even higher barrier to entry for overseas players than Black Myth.

So Lin Li quickly came up with the idea of ​​using anime and manga themes.

Mastering one's original profession might be a good path, but the world of anime and manga is more about style than subject matter.

So even if this style is decided, the specific choice is still a problem.

"I do have this idea, but I haven't figured out the specifics of how to do it yet..."

For any game to be fun, its core gameplay must be engaging. Without this core gameplay, even if you forcibly add more resources, the final result may not be good.

Like Ubisoft's mass-produced canned goods.

It was quite fun at first, but after playing it a lot, you start to find these canned games really boring, so boring that you can even guess what they're about just by seeing the name of a new Ubisoft game.

"Wasn't it supposed to be a 2D GTA?"

Su Shanshan didn't quite understand Lin Li's doubts, because when the two chatted last night, Lin Li seemed to have already come up with ideas for the project.

Why am I hesitating again after just one night?

Lin Li smiled in response to Su Shanshan's question.

"GTA also comes in many genres. I've thought about it carefully, and no matter the theme, do you know what the biggest advantage of AAA games is?"

Su Shanshan shook her head.

"The biggest advantage of AAA games is that they can create a world by spending money and resources to satisfy players' alternative life fantasies. This is actually the advantage of AAA games."

What is the biggest advantage of AAA games?

It's actually quite simple: by piling up countless details, you can ultimately immerse the player completely in a world. This kind of piling up of details is something that ordinary games cannot achieve.

Taking Black Myth: Wukong as an example, a large number of scene details were completed using real-world scanning. Without real-world scanning, the sheer amount of scene engineering involved in Black Myth would have been enough to bankrupt Game Science.

Why is GTA considered the best AAA game by many players?

It's because Rockstar Games created a near-complete world, a world just like the player's reality, where players can do whatever they want.

Even in later generations, the plethora of anime-style GTA games released over the past 24 years were essentially the optimal choice for capital.

This is also why Lin Li had the idea of ​​making a two-dimensional GTA. However, a two-dimensional GTA is still a GTA. What era's GTA should it be? What kind of GTA should it be? These are all questions.

After all, GTA isn't just about one city that makes it fun.

Ultimately, it's still a stage; once the stage is set, the key is what content to fill it with.

Chapter 507 Dual-Line 3A?

How to make a 2D GTA game?

Three games in later generations attempted to answer this question: *Alien: Resurrection*, *Infinite*, and the Frankenstein's monster *Mochizuki*.

However, in Lin Li's opinion, these three games are still quite far from being a so-called anime-style GTA, or even a real GTA.

This difference isn't about the size of the cities in these games, whether you can steal a car, or whether you can fire a gun.

It refers to the plot.

In other words, what makes GTA GTA is what many people only see – murder, arson, and car theft – but in reality, those who have actually played GTA know the truth.

If you only do these kinds of things, you'll get bored of them very quickly.

The reason why the GTA series is so popular is ultimately because Rockstar Games used a near-realistic city as a stage to show players the interesting, exciting, and addictive stories that take place on that stage.

Lin Li's idea of ​​a two-dimensional GTA game got stuck at this point.

For Xinghuo at present, the goal is to create a city with a two-dimensional style, or even a modern city with a purely realistic style, if not two-dimensional.

It's not a very difficult thing.

Even in the new chapter of Destiny's Path that is currently being developed, returning to Fuyuki City, there is already a similar scene. However, a magnificent performance is not about how magnificent the stage is, but about how magnificent the actors are on the stage.