What should a 520 for game lovers look like?
Generation Z young people have now become the main force of pan-entertainment consumption, and digital games, as one of the important ways for young people to choose entertainment, include various forms of entertainment such as social interaction, cultural heritage, and competitive struggle. For Gen Z players, choosing a good game or choosing a good game “label” requires them to find the answer through continuous experimentation in today’s fragmented development of the game industry.
On May 20th, the NetEase Game 520 conference was held online, and 30 new games were released, based on the diversified game product matrix blessed by major IP players in the world, combined with NetEase’s years of operating games. The understanding of player needs is bringing a more virtuous cycle of data growth for them.
After watching the entire live broadcast, I found that NetEase Games did not talk about the recent hot concepts such as “meta universe” and “the next Internet age”, but still showed the purest aspect of the game company-better quality The game serves more large-scale players, and better social and gaming experience has spawned more humane works.
The popular IP of NetEase games “Fantasy Westward Journey”
In the era of “diversified + boutique” games, NetEase games have gone out of their own way
In the past year, affected by the global epidemic, digital entertainment began to occupy more people’s leisure time, and the “home economy” began to explode with greater potential.
In 2020, the output value of China’s game market will reach 278.687 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.71%. Data proves that, for the Chinese game market, where the demographic dividend was fading before, this tide of housing economy has also put the industry’s overall revenue back on the track of rapid growth.
Among them, NetEase Games is consolidating its position in the industry, and at the same time, it is showing the more mature and humane side of its brand to the public.
The old and new IPs are all on the battlefield. What is the difference between today’s NetEase games?
In the article “2021 Outlook | Gaming E-sports: Explosive models no longer need to be issued by major manufacturers, new forces are trying to rise”, it was written in the article, “For NetEase, multi-category, high-quality self-research The game’s strategy has been to differentiate it from other game manufacturers.The foregone conclusion of the law. “
A few months later, the changes brought about by NetEase games seem to have confirmed our original judgment.
First of all, let’s start with the 520 conference-the 520 NetEase game conference held for 7 consecutive years has now become a virtual world event that combines product release and “player online party”. NetEase divided the game works into four sections for release, covering updated versions of mature works and upcoming new game products. The four-link content release is more like the four “Game IP Universes” created by NetEase Games combined with its top-level product research and development, IP development and game operation capabilities.
The “Fantasy Linkage” between the mobile game “Tianyu” and the Ultraman series
In fact, NetEase games have always been good at the content and category expansion of a single IP, and the value development of the IP itself is the long-term strategy of NetEase games. But from quantitative change to qualitative change, it seems that we can find out more from this 520 conference.
Take the collection of Oriental-style games that players are most familiar with as an example. Onmyoji IP is in addition to the well-known Onmyoji and Decisive Battle! In addition to games such as Ping An Jing, Onmyoji: Hundred Wen, and Onmyoji: Youkai House, a new RPG adventure “Code Name·World”, casual reasoning game “Onmyoji: Youkai Xiaoban”, and idol development were also announced. The game “Codename: Onmyoji idol project” and other new styles, and the Westward Journey IP of Dahua has also launched a free version and other works. It is also a boutique game developed by NetEase in response to the feedback and needs of different players.
Among the more than 60 products unveiled this time, 30 are new products that have not yet been launched on the domestic market, including many themes and categories that NetEase rarely involved in the past, such as the theme of “Ocean Survival Doomsday” Codename: ATLAS”, “Project IN” with apocalyptic steampunk theme, “Unknown Record”, a stand-alone plot reasoning mobile game featuring cyberpunk style, and “Mission Zero” with a 2v4 sneaking into the confrontational mobile game.
From the expansion of more themes and the enrichment of categories, we can see that NetEase games are determined to bring players a more diversified experience. NetEase games, which have accumulated a lot of development, already have many game sections or single products of their own and different styles today. Enjoying the fun of the game has also become an important reason why players choose this brand.
“Game + Social” spawns a better Gen Z entertainment experience
“Diversified game matrix + high-quality content” can be said to be the core of NetEase games, but NetEase games, which are famous for MMORPG, shooting, card, SLG, sandbox survival and other game categories, have long been more than just what they bring to players High-quality content, and its product features also meet the social needs of game Z players.
Not long ago, the game social platform TT Voice and Mob Research Institute jointly released the “2021 Online Social Behavior Insights Report of the Net Generation Generation”. According to the report, The “Net Generation” (or Generation Z), led by the post-95s and post-00s generations, has taken gaming as one of their important ways of social behavior. For this generation, the Internet is a native culture engraved in their genes, and the Internet generation has a strong individual consciousness. The world shows its true self.
Image source: “2021 Net Generation Online Social Behavior Insight Report”
The data results are not difficult to see that games, as a dual carrier of cultural and spiritual sustenance, have become an important medium for leisure entertainment and making friends in the hearts of Generation Z users.
At this point, games such as “Light·Yu” satisfies the spiritual needs of these players. While experiencing the grand virtual world, you can also become friends with the “stranger player” and travel with him/her in the sky kingdom, exchange gifts, and collaborate to complete tasks. In such a warm game environment, the emotional bondage between players is also different from the experience brought by competitive social games, and the organic integration of excellent independent game works and social interactions is also one of NetEase games’ new games in recent years. Look big.
In my opinion, the social needs of players are not only the focus of the head game development and operation team, but also the natural choice of users after experiencing countless games.the result of.
Relative to the rigid social networking brought about by the high-traffic portal, NetEase games seem to be unique on the social path. From “Fantasy Westward Journey”, “World of Warcraft” and other MMORPGs that are relatively inclined to natural social relationships, to the mobile Internet era, more types of social needs have emerged. As user habits change, NetEase is also exploring product design In the process, a good social experience is gradually combined with more diverse content.
For example, the SLG category represented by “The Coast of the Earth” and the new product “Endless Lagrangian”, the game introduces larger-scale team collaboration and confrontation; “Fight!” “Ping An Beijing”, the new product “Marvel Super War” and other MOBA categories, as well as “Fifth Personality”, the new product “Mission Zero” and other asymmetric competition types emphasize real-time communication and cooperation, and players socialize through games in different forms. . It is worth mentioning that there are more new games released this year, such as “Onmyoji: Youkai Xiaoban” and “Egg Boy Party”, which are more like party games aimed at young people with light casualties.
Marvel Super War with strong competitive social attributes
The victory of “content is king”? NetEase has gone out of its own game road
According to the financial report, NetEase’s net income in 2020 was 73.67 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 24.4%, of which NetEase’s game revenue reached 54.61 billion yuan, accounting for 74.1% of NetEase’s overall revenue; the number one in 2021 In the quarter, NetEase’s revenue continued to maintain a year-on-year growth rate of 20.2%, with a net income of 20.5 billion yuan, of which online game net income was 15 billion yuan.
This year’s open beta mobile game “Tianyu”, earlier online games such as “Fantasy Westward Journey” and “After Tomorrow” have also ranked among the top bestsellers of iOS in China; in terms of going overseas, NetEase games are also announced by App Annie in the 2020 global Ranked second in the publisher rankings. It is worth mentioning that this time 520 also opened the English and Japanese editions specifically for overseas markets for the first time, and released 19 games. Affected by the financial report for the first quarter of 2021 and the 520 conference, the Hong Kong-listed NetEase share price (09999 NetEase-S) also rose by nearly 10% in two days.
From the earliest well-known portals in China to today’s influential gaming giants around the world,NetEase has found its own position. But when we brought our perspective back to the game industry, NetEase seemed to be more “humane” than most game companies driven by commercial value, and the style of NetEase games no longer resembled the traditional game giants.
What is a big factory? In most people’s understanding, large companies need top-level development capabilities, distribution capabilities, capital reserves, talent reserves… Of course, most of these characteristics are owned by NetEase, but if you say that NetEase games are unique, It should belong to NetEase’s understanding of “the essence of the game is the content”.
There is no shortage of “cutting leeks” in the mobile game era, and this game design tone has helped countless small and medium-sized manufacturers benefit greatly. With the increasingly fierce fighting in the game industry, it seems that NetEase games have not followed pure business logic and have maintained the concept of “content is king” to this day. In the game industry, it is reflected in the continuous polishing and innovation of gameplay, category, and quality as discussed above.
In the past ten years, Netease game innovations have been carried out on the basis of a solid foundation. After launching “Light·Yu”, “Wild Action”, “My World” (Chinese agent), “Pokémon” While “Adventure” and other new categories of games, NetEase has not stopped producing excellent IP content into new gameplay that various players want to try.
Of course, just looking back at the live broadcast itself, the CG videos of more than 60 products are overwhelming. Perhaps the core game players will pay more attention to the gameplay characteristics behind each work. To a certain extent, the common growth and mutual achievement of players and NetEase games have allowed this company to continuously climb the rankings of the world’s major game giants while still maintaining the original intention of “player-oriented”.
In addition to mobile game products, NetEase is also presenting the cultural, entertainment and competitive concepts carried by the game itself to every game lover in more scenarios and in different forms.
Based on NetEase CC live broadcast and different game works, NetEase is creating a more professional andE-sports events with greater user participation.
On the other hand, NetEase Games previously led the establishment of the “NetEase Shadow Core” VR offline experience machine in 2020. It also announced at the 520 press conference that it had reached a partnership with Planet O, and the two parties are working together to create the next A generation of immersive flagship entertainment center.
Planet One Easy Planet
After a year of preparation, this next-generation leisure and entertainment complex “Planet One”, which integrates VR games, e-sports, catering and new retail, will be held in Shanghai North on June 5th. Magnolia Plaza on the Bund officially met with the players. In addition, Planet O’s main partner NetEase Shadowcore, the operator of the F1 E-sports China Championship, Jiushi Sports, and the DRL UAV Racing Alliance, will disclose more cooperation on the evening of the opening ceremony on June 4 project.
Today, as the game industry is gradually returning to “content first”, the barriers to channel distribution have gradually been weakened, and more and more manufacturers have begun to focus on content innovation. NetEase’s innovative choice in games and interactive entertainment is “multiple parallel”. The result of this choice may be able to gain greater competitive strength for NetEase in the next gaming era.
As a veteran game giant in China, in the past few years, NetEase Games has not chosen to eat the “foundation” of popular games. Instead, it has invested a lot of manpower and funds for different scenarios, different needs, and different product categories. And time cost, to provide players with gaming and entertainment experience.
Such innovation is the most difficult exploration in any industry, but today, the game universe built by NetEase Games has begun to take shape, and its “people-oriented” concept is turning every player into a game. At the same time as a lover, and find his own place in the game world.