Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

As a mech strategy game, Steel Storm is like this: players need to draw pilots and mechs at the same time, and in addition to drawing the whole mech, they also need to disassemble the parts.

Chapter 542 The WW2 of the gaming world

It also has a mecha synthesis system.

Pilots can also have their characters drawn repeatedly to gain enhancements.

It's not fair to say it's greedy, but this character development system is definitely a heavy-spending system.

Logically speaking, Lin Li could have designed "Sky Girl" in the same way, but the price of such a design was that many originally fun systems were completely turned into pay-to-win systems.

This is completely inconsistent with the design philosophy of Xinghuo and Linli.

Therefore, in the current design version of "Sky Girl", only the character gacha system is retained as a pay-to-win feature.

In addition to character draws.

The aircraft system is meticulously crafted as an important part of the game's progression system, allowing players to acquire various parts and modifications of different rarity during gameplay.

There are also many areas on the aircraft that can be modified.

Players can modify it so much that even its mother wouldn't recognize it, thus creating their own unique aircraft.

All of these will greatly enhance the game's stickiness.

~~~

Early September

Bilibili has started working on Slude.

However, this spring, the media's attention was not focused on Bilibili's return to Slud, nor on the new game leaked by Spark's insider network.

Humans have always had many preferences for spring, summer, autumn and winter.

I like to associate events with seasons, such as "a turbulent autumn".

But in the spring of 20, the media preferred to call it the "Spring of Remakes".

The reason for this awkward name is that there have been a lot of remakes of games this spring.

Since Spark began to announce its remake plans in 2018, remake plans have sprung up all over the world in the past two years. Especially after the Heroes of Might and Magic III remake demo was well received, this remake trend swept through the gaming industry.

And the seeds were planted at that time.

After a period of development lasting almost two years.

The first batch of remastered games has already been served.

The term "remastering spring" used by the media is not limited to one company, but rather refers to the fact that many major companies have announced their release plans.

Blizzard Entertainment, while planning to release the renowned Warcraft III Remastered in March, also announced plans for Diablo II: Reforged.

Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto: The Ultimate Trilogy is also scheduled for release in March.

EA's Command & Conquer Remastered Collection and Dead Space Remastered.

Microsoft's *Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition*, and Valve's *Half-Life: Remastered Collection*.

Capcom's *Resident Evil 3 Remake*, 2K Games' *Mafia: Definitive Edition*, Level-5's *Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Remake*, and SEGA's *Yakuza Kiwami*.

These games are all scheduled for release in March.

There are also some games that, although not scheduled for March, have joined in the fun. For example, Capcom released trailers for the remasters of three games, including the Resident Evil 4 remaster.

Square Enix has also released a trailer for the latest PV trailer for its Final Fantasy VII Remake.

At this point, some astute readers might ask: why are these major game companies choosing to release their remastered games in March?

The reason is certainly not a coincidence.

Instead, Spark, which went on a global buying spree of remasters and ported IPs back then, is finally set to release its first explosive release of remastered games this March.

So, starting from the end of the Spring Festival in February.

Spark started its promotional campaign, saying it would be holding a remastered game carnival in March.

Let's go back in time and revisit the classics.

This remastering carnival isn't just happening this year; it's going to be an annual event every March to announce the remasters that Spark has completed and is ready for release, as well as the progress of remasters that are still in development.

It stands to reason.

This was a highly targeted promotional campaign organized by the Spark platform itself, and it had nothing to do with other manufacturers.

However, this happened right after Spark announced the event.

Steam and Tencent Games have joined forces.

First, Steam announced that its Half-Life remake would be coming soon, and then Blizzard, Microsoft, Rockstar, and EA followed suit by announcing their own remakes.

And it's very interesting.

This large group of manufacturers was clearly divided into two factions.

On the Japanese side, let's not even talk about Capcom. Both the upcoming Resident Evil 3 Remake and the officially announced Resident Evil 4 Remake are exclusive to the Spark platform.

Level-5's Ni no Kuni and SEGA's Yakuza are both PC exclusives on the Starfire platform, and were also released on PS4.

Microsoft's remastered game will be released on its own PC platform, and will be available on the Spark platform six months after its initial release.

This large group of manufacturers can be considered, at best, manufacturers that are inclined towards Spark.

Besides these publishers, Blizzard's two games are available on both Battle.net and Steam, but there is no indication that they will be available on the Starfire platform.

Rockstar Games, EA, and 2K Games have all opted to release their remastered games exclusively on Steam.

In addition, Square Enix has surprisingly joined the Steam lineup.

Furthermore, due to the merger of WEGAME and Steam at the beginning of the year, to some extent, these games are exclusively available on WEGAME in China.

Um..

Anyway, that's how Tencent Games calculates it.

Given the star-studded lineup, it would be a real shame if the media didn't fan the flames and generate this massive amount of buzz.

For example, IGN's editor-in-chief directly titled this clash between the two largest gaming platforms on Earth as "WW2 of the gaming world."

Perhaps the IGN editors were just exaggerating, just trying to attract attention.

But their headline did attract more attention.

World War II in the gaming world has gradually become a meme.

More importantly, several game companies discovered almost simultaneously that this meme could help with their game promotion.

So soon.

Sony China reposted Capcom's poster, while Tencent Games' official Weibo account created a nine-grid promotional image using the Undead Overture from Warcraft III: Reforged.

Steam launched a special section called "Timeless Classics" overnight.

It brings together a bunch of remastered games that are about to be released on Steam.

You know, it's quite amazing that Steam, a company that hardly does any marketing, has been forced into this state. And what's even more amazing is...

Penguin Games updated its "Classic Zone" on WEGAME around the same time, and its page is almost identical to that on Steam.

Now, many players have solved the case.

Damn it, it turns out Tencent corrupted Steam.

The media keeps hyping up the so-called game remake of World War II in order to get traffic, but because this thing does have some interesting elements, many players are actually talking about it seriously.

There is such a post on the NGA forum in the country.

"Everyone talks about World War II, but who were the allies and who were the Axis powers?"

Chapter 543 Play Along with Them to the End

Is Spark an Axis or an ally?

This topic became inexplicably popular, even to the point that it became a topic of discussion for almost everyone.

However, the popularity of this topic is less a serious discussion about the landscape of the gaming industry and more a "cultural carnival" with the participation of the entire population.

For many Chinese players, whether Xinghuo is the Axis or the Alliance is actually not important.

What truly excited them was that Spark was finally being regarded by foreign media as an undeniable force in the gaming industry, even being compared to historical "great powers."

This feeling is like an unknown nobody suddenly being pushed onto the international stage and becoming the focus of the spotlight.

It's also similar to how Chinese netizens make memes under some news articles.

"The great powers are actually myself!?"

This shift from "observer" to "participant" has made many people feel both novel and proud.

Besides the heated discussions among gamers, some clever peripheral manufacturers have even renamed two colors of their keyboards: one is called the "Spark Special Edition," and the other is called the "Steam Faith Edition."

He just blindly jumped on the bandwagon, and surprisingly, he actually succeeded.

As players and onlookers fueled the fire, this "publicity war" truly intensified.

The following day, Steam and WeGame jointly released a promotional poster for "Classic Returns".

The poster features Gordon Freeman's gas mask from Half-Life and Arthas' Frostmourne from Warcraft, with a scarlet countdown in the lower right corner resembling a dripping blood blade.

Before Spark could even respond, Capcom stepped in and released a poster for Resident Evil 3.

In the poster, Jill Valentine, the female lead of Resident Evil, is standing on something that looks like a steam valve.

These manufacturers' spontaneous efforts to capitalize on the trend and generate traffic have, in turn, intensified the remastered game competition between the two platforms in March.

~~~

"Do you think we should continue working with the publicity team?"

Penguin Office.

Ma Xiao and Li Weixi are calculating the costs for the next round of publicity and promotion.

Just now at the conference, everyone discussed the current situation.

Overall, the current public opinion is roughly split between Spark and Steam, with some favoring Spark's remake of the game festival and others believing that Steam has a stronger lineup.

Under normal circumstances, it would be essential for Tencent, which has already integrated with the Steam library, to help Steam win this marketing battle in China.

But now, there is a problem that remains unresolved.

That is, Spark has not announced its lineup for the Remastered Game Festival.

They haven't said anything about what games they'll release or what grand plans they'll make.

Although insiders are very certain that a Heroes of Might and Magic III remake will definitely be released, no other information has been provided.

Therefore, the decision to allocate an additional budget for publicity and promotion has become a very difficult one.

If the marketing budget is increased, and Xinghuo (the company) hides its true intentions, then the effectiveness of these additional marketing efforts becomes questionable.

Do you think Xinghuozang's game can compete with Warcraft 3?

Ma Xiao gently tapped the table.

The biggest difference between remastering a game and creating a new game is that the IP already has a fan base.

Even with the best marketing for a new game, whether players will actually buy into it after its release is an unknown.

But resetting a game is different.

For example, the remastered version of Warcraft 3 generated a massive amount of traffic in China just from the name, without even needing Tencent to promote it.

Furthermore, there's another ridiculous fact about Warcraft 3.

That is, the domestic agent for Warcraft 3 Remastered at that time should strictly be NetEase, since NetEase manages Blizzard's Battle.net in China, but Blizzard also partnered with Steam.

Steam has partnered with Tencent again.

Therefore, you can also buy Warcraft 3 Remastered on WEGAME.

In addition to the Warcraft III remake, the remaining titles such as the GTA trilogy, Dead Space, Half-Life, and Command & Conquer: The Remastered Collection will also be available on WEGAME.

From an IP perspective, each of these remastered versions has a significant background.