Single recruitment

In the past few years, no game publisher painted more cakes than Tencent (0700). HK)。

On May 13, Tencent Mei Tian Studio Group announced that it had formally formed a deep strategic partnership with Xbox Game Studio. The latter is a famous game studio of Microsoft, which is committed to creating 3A-level high-quality games on mainframes, PCs and mobile devices. (Note: 3A games usually refer to games with the characteristics of "a lot of money", "a lot of resources" and "a lot of time". In addition, since this year, Tencent Mei Tian Studio and Photonic Studio have successively released game recruitment, all of which are aimed at 3A games. Can't help but attract a lot of speculation. Does Tencent really want to develop 3A games by itself?

From the data point of view, the market sales of stand-alone games (including PC-side games and console-side games) in China will be 640 million in 2020, which is more than four times higher than the previous 65.438+300 million and 65.438+400 million. It is precisely because of this growth that more capital will enter the development of stand-alone games and have the opportunity to see domestic 3A. The market sales of console+electronic games (set-top box games) was 5.36 billion. Although the main force may be the set-top box, it may be the host. So this domestic 3A cake totals 6 billion.

What is the "already cool" page tour market in 2020? 9.75 billion. This is still the data after a continuous decline of 15% in four or five years.

What about the "nobody plays" end-game (PC online game) market? 6 1.69 billion.

What about the "leading world" mobile game market? 1513.7 billion.

Therefore, many people in the industry believe that Tencent's soup in mobile games is bigger than your whole cake. You can cut leeks lying down. Why stand and throw money for 3A?

China's game industry has developed for less than 30 years, and has experienced the rapid iteration of end-tour, page tour and mobile game, and has grown into the largest game market in the world. Behind the remarkable achievements are the increasingly prominent contradictions: skin-changing games and krypton games are popular; Boutique games and indie games are full of thorns. The biggest commercial feature of 3A games, the buyout system, is one of the longest-lasting business models. But in the continuous renovation of the payment revolution, it seems to be the business model with the lowest rate of return. It is a desperate life without a back road, and it is not in line with the consumption pattern of the mass era.

And there are many such changes, such as players.

What are we talking about when we talk about acquisitions?

Tencent games is like a bag of instant noodles in front of you, with a large piece of beef and a whole poached egg painted on the package. Jackson Yi spoke for it. You are so excited, you tear open the package and soak it. You find that the meat is not as big as a fly in the soup, and the egg flower disappears directly after soaking for 5 minutes.

At this time, you notice that there is a tiny line under the packaging bag: the picture is for reference only. PS: Please add money if you need physical objects.

In fact, most of the early games are buyout charging mode, including many games on the current game platform, such as most games on steam, and games on various host platforms such as Xbox and NS platforms, most of which are buyout, that is, after a one-price buyout, the game will no longer be charged. Of course, when the game launches new downloadable updates, it may be charged again, but this does not affect the experience of the game itself.

Built-in charging, also known as props charging, should be a charging mode that started from legend and was carried forward by the journey, and it will also be the main charging mode of online games in China in the next decade. Games that use this charging mode are under the banner of free games and do not set obstacles at the game threshold. However, game manufacturers will definitely not let everyone play games for free. They dug a lot of holes in the content and set up a variety of charging methods, including various nobles, VIPs and props. If you don't want to spend money, the game experience will definitely be poor. If you are willing to spend money, you will find that every time you spend some money, the game experience will get a qualitative leap. Of course, this is also in stages. It is definitely much better for you to spend 8 yuan on the first charge than to experience it at no cost; If you charge a monthly card of 40 yuan, the experience will be much better than that of Party A; If you spend 168 yuan a week, you will find that you can stand in the front of the game power list10%; When you spend 888 yuan a day, you will find that a group of people begin to follow you and call you a local tyrant; If you spend money like water and have no idea at all, you can be the Da Die in tencent games.

In a word, this game charging mode needs content planning to deeply adjust the charging and experience of the game, which can almost be said to be a kind of psychology that understands people's hearts.

In addition, the increasing cost of game development and marketing is also one of the reasons why the in-house purchase model is becoming more and more common.

The problem of game production cost is really a cliche and a fact. Take Star Wars: Frontline 2 as an example, EA decided to cancel the previous season ticket and limited-time sales model, and the follow-up content of the game will be provided completely free of charge. But in this way, it is necessary to transfer the already high development cost to the new charging form. However, this is not just a simple matter of rising costs. The gap between what players actually pay and what publishers want to charge is getting bigger and bigger.

Compared with the 1990s, the development cost of 3A works is now five to ten times. With the development of technology, the development cost becomes higher and the team becomes bigger. The salaries of new employees and long-term employees are higher than in the past. But the price of the game has not changed much compared with the past-especially in this era full of discounts and promotions.

The price of Wizard 3 on steam is 1.27 yuan, which is discounted in 78 yuan all the year round, and the lowest price in history is 38 yuan. Rounding up is nothing, but it can bring you 200 hours of medieval demon hunting adventure and epic love triangle experience. 78 yuan on Tencent is at best an initial charge, and you can't even hear a ring if you round it off.

It is true that times have changed, and at the same time, getting through the cross-platform masterpiece of host -PC- cloud-mobile game-new terminal must be one of the mainstream forms of future game explosions. Ma Xiaoyi, senior vice president of Tencent and head of tencent games, once said: "Our plan for the future is not limited to mobile games." Therefore, it is imperative for Tencent to join hands with Microsoft to broaden the game map. If it is not a pure stand-alone 3A in the traditional sense, it may be more similar to the PlayStation version of Genshin Impact or the NS version of the glory of the king, and it is different from the buyout mode of the traditional 3A, and it is still paid internally. Although such a "3A" standard may not be recognized by traditional 3A players, it is indeed the general trend of commercial homemade games. Earn money, not poor.

If it weren't for the national costume of Monster Hunter: The World, which only survived for less than 72 hours in the second half of 20 18, many people didn't even know that "the suspension of the sale of the edition number" was a major event that led to the continuous decline of the share price of the game company.

This incident has greatly raised the risk expectations of domestic and foreign wait-and-see manufacturers and capital on the stand-alone market in China. The potential impact may continue to ferment for many years, and the loss cannot be estimated by numbers, so that people in the industry are bereaved. Many media described 8 18 as "the darkest day in China's game history".

Many young players of the new generation have caught up with the good season when Steam is blooming everywhere in China, and they wander around the dazzling game sales channels from all over the world every day. For them, the concepts such as document number and version number of domestic games are a lot of complex and distant concepts.

On July 8th, 2065438, Tencent officially announced the introduction of Monster Hunter: The World, and started the 0 yuan booking activity. The price of the game is 299 yuan for the regular version and 358 yuan for the deluxe version. If you count all kinds of coupons and discounts, the minimum is actually 192 yuan. After the booking was opened, the players responded enthusiastically and shouted that Tencent had done something practical for China players. In less than ten days, the number of appointments has exceeded one million. However, in retrospect, Monster Hunter: The world was full of uncertainty from the beginning. Players and the media are too optimistic about the introduction process of overseas masterpieces. In fact, Tencent itself has long anticipated the risks and did not report good news to the outside world.

On August 7th, the original launch date of Monster Hunter: The World finally arrived. Many players even take time off to stay at home, but wait until the evening, and there is no movement on the WeGame platform. Until 2 am the next day, Tencent deleted the original announcement and re-announced that the game would be launched at 8 15:00. Fortunately, Tencent didn't skip the ticket this time, and the game finally came out.

The launch of Monster Hunter: The World is of great significance to the game market in China. This is the first time that the 3A masterpiece has launched the PC version in China. After the game went online, it quickly exploded social media and praised Tencent for doing a real good thing for China players. It is no exaggeration to say that August 8, 20 18 is the best day for tencent games since it was founded 23 years ago.

If the story ends here, everything is perfect, but there are always countless "buts" and "afters" in life.

On August 13, Tencent announced that Monster Hunters: The World had to be taken off the shelves, and players who had already bought it could get a full refund-only 1 15 hours before the game was put on the shelves.

This is the current situation of 3A games in China, and it is also the spark that this anxious market collides with the sharpest side of the sharp division of China players.

Those players who haven't experienced Netease's "World of Warcraft" national service reopening storm can hardly understand the importance of game approval in China. In the heyday of World of Warcraft, because of the approval issue, it was unilaterally declared that its operation was illegal, and the two approval departments of the Ministry of Culture and the Bureau personally shelled each other, which was also a rare "spectacle" for many years. The whole storm didn't basically melt until half a year later, but fortunately, World of Warcraft also ran smoothly.

Unconsciously, it has been almost ten years since the last approval storm of World of Warcraft.

During this decade, the rotation speed of stand-alone games is amazing. Playing 3A games on computers has become a symbol of China's middle and high threshold players. After experiencing the popularity explosion, mobile games have entered the giant era in a crazy shuffle. Finally, under the baptism of hot money, the whole industry of domestic games has become more in line with the painting style of capital operation from the ivory tower of idealistic young people in those days.

It just hasn't changed much. This is recognition. After nearly ten years, the national costume of Monster Hunters: The World still falls into the examination and approval process. This is a farce without winners: the goodwill and economic losses caused to Tencent are self-evident; For players, even if they can get a refund, it is the loss of time and the disappointment of expectations; For the whole game market in China, if Tencent can't introduce 3A masterpieces, it's basically equivalent to no one in China can do it.

1 15 hours is not only the survival length of the national costume of Monster Hunter: The World, but also the length of the lifeline of the genuine 3A masterpiece. However, its ending is even worse than World of Warcraft, and it is "never seen again".

20 18 is undoubtedly an unforgettable year. This year, the domestic game industry has experienced a nine-month "empty window period" for the release of the version number. China Game Company, which had been running at a high speed before, either passively or actively slowed down and thought about the future.

"How far is the domestic 3A from us?" "Why is there no 3A game in China?" Waiting for the question of the soul has been tormenting everyone in the industry.

According to the latest statistics, a total of 13 16 was released in 2020, which was 16.2% lower than that of 1570 released in 20 19.

As we all know, a large part of the reason why the development of the domestic game industry is slightly abnormal is because of the audit system, slow game approval and strict audit standards, which led to the closure of many small and medium-sized game companies before the game version number came down. When the version number of 20 18 was stopped, nearly 20,000 game companies were killed, which was euphemistically called forcing the industry to be refined.

Spreading out Tencent's last financial report in 2020, the revenue in the fourth quarter reached 654.38+03.37 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26%. The net profit was 33.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30%.

Among them, online game revenue is 47 billion yuan. In the fourth quarter, the mobile game business revenue was 36.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 465,438+0%; In the fourth quarter, the revenue of end-game business was 654.38+003 billion yuan, down 654.38+0% year-on-year. In the fourth quarter of last year, the overall growth rate of the domestic mobile game market was 35%, and the performance of Tencent mobile games far exceeded the industry.

In fact, more than four years ago, Tencent set up a new game studio-Next in China. This is a tencent games studio with a special mission-"playing pure good games", such as "no money" stand-alone games.

However, in the past four years, in addition to launching some stand-alone games with good reputation on platforms such as Steam and Switch, NExT Studio only announced a 2A game being produced the year before last-Blade of Rebirth.

It should be noted that these new "quasi-3A" or "3A" games that Tencent has launched or is developing are not the traditional 3A game masterpieces imagined by players.

According to the person in charge of tencent games's business, "Tencent's road now will not be the traditional 3A game with huge narrative content. On the one hand, the market size is limited and it is difficult to help Tencent gather users. On the other hand, it must be based on Tencent's own good factors, and its core gameplay must be based on the large-scale multiplayer experience of stand-alone games. "

With the official release of Sony PS5 and Microsoft Xbox Series X, starting from 202 1, the global game market will also usher in a new round of console "hardware" and "game" growth period. Therefore, the discussion about whether Chinese people can play 3A games, whether it is social platforms or media reports, has intensified with the launch of fistful of dollars and God of War since last year. Some players even criticized China game makers for not playing 3A games. This is a matter of mentality, not money or technology.

But financial mowgli believes that in the final analysis, it is actually a question of money and technology. One is the market and the other is the level.

First of all, PC and console games have not occupied the mainstream of domestic players and users' markets. If you want to make money in the PC and mainframe market, you must look globally and make products with global vision and level.

Secondly, and most importantly, have domestic developers reached the level of 3A game development? As far as the development level is concerned, even if the same development engine, the same development team size, even higher scale and more budget are used, the domestic development team is still inferior to Europe, America, Japan and South Korea. This is not a lie. The game market in China has only been mature for more than ten years. If you want to catch up with the production level of 3A games in Europe, America and Japan, you have to work harder and accumulate more.

In fact, whether it is the ability of the team or the input of resources, NExT Studios is not enough to support the development of 3A works. Judging from the video materials of real machine demonstration and the team's attempt in developing technology, Blade of Rebirth seems to be quite close to the quality of 3A works. In fact, neither 2A nor 3A can be achieved overnight. On the other hand, any foreign team that makes 3A products has not accumulated more than ten years of technology and experience.

At present, although the domestic industry environment is obviously optimized, it is possible for China people to develop "authentic" 3A games by countless PCs and console games. However, these pioneers who are developing 3A games in China, their teams, their works and their experiences will all be witnesses to the historical process of China's games, and they are trying to move forward slowly. Sharp tools make good work. I believe that in the near future, maybe one day, they can achieve themselves and become China players.