Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

Because NetEase doesn't have a community channel like Tencent, it has to innovate.

Although NetEase's games also appear to be obsessed with making money in terms of operation, and many of NetEase's games eventually collapsed due to unsustainable short-sighted practices.

Many people joke that playing NetEase games is all about the initial launch period. NetEase games within the first six months after launch are considered good, but if you don't spend money on NetEase games within the first year, you're basically just wasting your time.

NetEase games that have been running for more than a year require continuous spending of real money or they'll be stuck in a rut, while NetEase games that have been running for more than two years are basically stuck in a rut regardless of whether you spend money or not.

This statement is somewhat demonizing.

However, it also pointed out the strengths and weaknesses of NetEase games.

The advantage is that players can at least see some new things, but the disadvantage is that it's extremely expensive.

In the past year or two since Spark became a sensation.

NetEase has witnessed the success of Spark with great interest and urgency.

For many years, Xinghuo has harbored an ambition to surpass Penguin, but it has not yet achieved its goal. Instead, Xinghuo has been climbing step by step and it seems to be on the verge of success.

Ding Lei was also anxious.

Whenever the boss gets anxious, a reformist faction will inevitably emerge within the company.

The reformist faction within NetEase right now is Liu Hua, or rather, the group of people surrounding him, and the game they're primarily promoting is "Return to the Bright Moon" under the Spark Mode.

It is no exaggeration to say that the success of "Return to the Moon" will determine the fate of many of NetEase's future games.

It was also a struggle for power within NetEase.

Therefore, NetEase attaches great importance to this manufacturer's special sale event.

Chapter 448 A Worthy Opponent

"Spark is going to hold some kind of special sale for Chinese manufacturers in December!?"

"Penguin is going to hold a gaming festival in December!?"

At the same moment, almost the same question arose in two different offices, one at Tencent and the other at NetEase.

And at the same time, they received almost the same answer.

"Spark isn't participating in the event? Only other domestic manufacturers are participating?"

"Penguin hasn't made any big moves, just some game discounts?"

After receiving almost identical responses, the two offices, though separated by countless buildings, reached a strikingly similar conclusion.

"What's there to be afraid of? There's no need to reschedule. As long as there's no spark, there's nothing to fear."

"Penguins? Spark's defeated foe, that's what we're after."

~~~

Time flies, and it's already the end of November.

The lingering effects of fate's trajectory are still felt, but by the end of the month, the Chinese internet was in complete chaos.

Penguin Games has once again made a strong showing by promoting the Penguin Games Festival. However, this time, in addition to new games, Penguin's promotional focus also heavily emphasized various activities.

This includes the unveiling of 6-yuan skins for three consecutive days in Honor of Kings, the 6-yuan skin lottery chest in League of Legends, the upcoming release of "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" on WEGAEM during the trial festival, and Riot Games' new game "Valorant" undergoing its first open beta test in China.

Several Korean games that were already operating in China are also in promotional activities.

In addition, there is a mysterious masterpiece from the overseas Penguin Studios.

These games, apart from Valorant, don't have a significant global impact, but they are quite influential in China.

Among the many games available, Li Weixi has placed his bets on two titles: "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" and "Tomorrow," an animated interactive game that he himself promoted.

The logic is quite simple: "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" has the added advantage of an existing IP, while "Tomorrow" is his own creation.

Before confirming the main game to be promoted, Tencent Games also internally analyzed the reasons for the failure of the last game expo, and believed that the failure was because the quality of the game was not investigated in advance when confirming the main game to be promoted.

Therefore, they made the wrong judgment, and this time, Tencent Games has learned its lesson.

Ma Xiao asked Li Weixi to personally lead the team to take a look at the game that would be the main focus of promotion next month.

What a coincidence.

Li Weixi was still in the United States at the time, so he handed the matter over to Yan Ping, who was now the deputy director of WEGAME.

Logically speaking, this was a perfectly normal arrangement.

After all, Yan Ping is practically a manager in WEGAME, and she is very capable in backend operations, including coordinating various activities.

Therefore, both Li Weixi and Ma Xiao felt that the decision was correct.

The problem is...

Although Yan Ping has no problem with backend support and is very capable at her daily work, she really doesn't understand games...

This is a common misconception in people's thinking.

I feel that this person is quite reliable in doing this, and he should be just as good at doing other things.

But this is not the case.

Yan Ping personally led about a dozen people to the production team of "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" and organized a trial run.

Yan Ping then reported to Li Weixi that the game was of above-average quality and was a fan-oriented work.

Upon receiving this information, Li Weixi breathed a sigh of relief. In the end, while still in the United States, he finalized the publicity and distribution plan for "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" and approved the publicity and distribution budget.

However, they didn't know.

Just after the Penguin Games trial team left, Yue Zefeng, the producer of "Monkey King: Hero Is Back," breathed a sigh of relief. Ma Xiao was indeed a smart man, but Yue Zefeng was no fool.

In the field of game development.

Many players have a question: do the people who make bad games actually know that their games are bad?

Actually, the answer to this question is...

know.

Most game developers know this, even at the very beginning of game development.

Yue Zefeng was slightly less skilled; he felt completely unable to bring the game to the table with the quality he envisioned halfway through.

Whether it's technology, development funding, or the team.

Neither is supported.

But by this time, the game was already halfway through development, and it also had the support of Sony and the investment of Tencent.

The money they were after wasn't easy to come by. Once they got the money, they had to hand over some things. So, Yue Zefeng had no choice but to grit his teeth and keep developing the business.

In his previous life, Yue Zefeng was constantly urged to push a half-finished product, which was like a thesis defense, to the market, resulting in a complete loss of reputation.

Thanks to Tencent's additional investment, Yue Zefeng was able to survive for two more months on this timeline.

After receiving funding from Tencent, a small portion was used for development, while the majority was embezzled by Yue Zefeng through various means.

After all, he knew very well what the game would be like. Rather than waiting for the game to be released and ruining his reputation, he might as well make some money before he was ruined.

But to his utter surprise, Tencent Games was coming to inspect!

Upon hearing the news, Yue Zefeng was nearly scared out of his wits. He first tried various methods to stall for time, and then tried to bribe the relevant person in charge of Tencent Games.

Ultimately, they successfully shortened Yan Ping's trip from a full day to half a day, and within that half day, they further reduced the trial play time to 20 minutes through various methods.

At this point, anyone who understands games could sense that something was fishy. If they could deduct the time for device setup and loading from the 20 minutes, what kind of game could they possibly be trying out?

Unfortunately, Yan Ping wasn't a professional, and Li Weixi was in the US plotting to stab Xinghuo in the back.

And so, this outrageous trial plan actually got approved.

Besides, Yue Zefeng also knew that although he had managed to fool the higher-ups, the employees at Tencent weren't stupid.

Even if you try to give them red envelopes, they won't dare to accept them if the game is too bad. So after receiving the notice, Yue Zefeng led his team to play for three days and three nights straight.

Then, in the first 20 minutes, a side quest with CG animation was added, and the content of the first 20 minutes was carefully repaired again.

To be honest, this is the first time in all the time since the project started that the entire game development team has had that game development atmosphere, even though the driving force behind this atmosphere was that Yue Zefeng offered triple salary plus an acceptance bonus.

~~~

Yan Ping was unaware of this, because due to her schedule, she only played for less than 20 minutes, and the loading screen and opening CG took up about half of the time.

When she saw the opening cinematic, she instinctively felt that the game should be pretty good.

After all, the opening animation was quite well done, even feeling almost as good as the quality of a movie.

As I just mentioned, she's not a professional.

Chapter 449 Everything is ready, only the east wind is lacking

Although she works at WEGAME, Yan Ping rarely plays games. In fact, it took her several minutes just to familiarize herself with the controls during the initial gameplay.

Judging solely from the opening cinematic and the gameplay in the first few minutes, this is indeed a decent game for fans.

Therefore, based on my own diligence.

After considering the feedback from her employees, Yan Ping ultimately gave "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" a slightly above-average rating. Before leaving, she encouraged Yue Zefeng to keep up the good work.

We will provide him with resources, and it will be launched at the Penguin Games Festival, where it is sure to be a bestseller.

Yue Zefeng had just breathed a sigh of relief.

Hearing this sent a chill down my spine. That very night, I started preparing to buy plane tickets, a passport, and money. I had to get everything I needed before the game festival started.

However, Yan Ping was unaware of these matters, as was Li Weixi.

Besides "Monkey King: Hero Is Back"

Another bet by Li Weixi is on "Tomorrow," a self-developed 2D animated interactive game by Tencent, which is a collaboration between Tencent Animation and Tencent Games.

The first chapter has been completed. Since Spark released a trial version of their interactive animated game after only completing the first chapter, they plan to do the same this time and release a trial version as well.

"Everything is ready, everything is prepared, only the east wind is lacking."

At this time, Li Weixi was still in the United States.

Logically speaking, with war about to break out, it's somewhat strange that the general is abroad.

However, Ma Xiao did not let Li Weixi go back, because this year's Penguin Games Festival, compared with last year, focused more on marketing, that is, the promotion of the event.

These promotional activities are often handled by the game development team themselves.

Even this year, Tencent didn't spend much on promotion and marketing for WEGAME.

Despite the fact that Tencent is still claiming it will continue to develop WEGAEM and provide Chinese manufacturers with external sales channels, it's not as simple as it seems.

But as time went on, it was 19.

The fact that WEGAME can't beat Spark is like how Tencent's short videos can't compete with TikTok; it's something everyone within Tencent knows, but no one dares to say.

Therefore, WEGAME was able to take the lead in funding approvals last year.

This year, however, can only be described as mediocre.

Ma Xiao and Li Weixi were both aware of this matter, so they were actually quite anxious, but there was no use in being anxious about it.

Just like the head of short videos at Tencent, he is very anxious every day, and there are even rumors that he cried because of the pressure.

What's the use of crying? Will crying kill TikTok?

~~~

"Mr. Li, there's really no need to worry. Although you're not here, we don't have Spark on the other side of the field this time; they're all defeated opponents. You can still gain some credit..."

Li Weixi nodded slightly upon hearing this.

The reason he was able to come to the United States with peace of mind was precisely because Spark Entertainment didn't do anything in December; their biggest move was a special sale for Chinese game manufacturers.

This is hardly a big challenge for penguins.

Thinking of this, Li Weixi stubbed out his cigarette.

Turning his head, he glanced at the villa with its lights on.

"That being said, we must not let our guard down. How are your preparations for the second phase of the plan coming along?"

Although the Penguin Games Festival had not yet started at this time.