Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

Ma Xiao's biggest fear is being surpassed by Xinghuo during his tenure. After all, if that happens, his previously built reputation will be ruined.

Good news, the penguins were not defeated by Spark.

Bad news, Tencent can't even beat Spark's underlings now!!!

Chapter 460 miHoYo, Times Have Changed

"This is utterly tarnishing Tencent's reputation! Is this the kind of high-quality game we've always emphasized? Do you even know what a truly good game is?!"

"When will you guys be able to make a game like Spark?!"

Ma Xiao became increasingly angry as he spoke. He grabbed the documents on the table and slammed them to the ground, scattering the papers everywhere, just like his chaotic and furious mood.

To be honest, Ma Xiao was really furious at this moment.

He had never been this angry before, even after losing to Xinghuo so many times. This time, he was truly furious.

The large group of Tencent Games executives standing around looked like schoolchildren being trained, and not one of them dared to stand up and speak.

However, everyone felt that Ma Xiao was so furious at this moment that he was somewhat out of his mind, which is why he said he would have his team make a game similar to Spark...

This phrase is a taboo word within Tencent...

Fortunately, it was Ma Xiao who said this.

No one dared to say anything.

You've already cursed and thrown away the documents, but time can't be turned back, and what's done is done.

Ma Xiao sat there for half an hour, still feeling depressed, before finally making a decision.

The first strategy is to sacrifice the pawn to save the king.

Tencent first removed all the advertising and promotional materials for "Monkey King: Hero Is Back".

They then transferred all these resources to another WEGAME game, the interactive animation "Tomorrow," and subsequently released an announcement.

They stated that Tencent was merely an agent for "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" and expressed dissatisfaction with the game's developers' actions.

They acted as if they were victims as well.

They're very skilled at this kind of thing.

Immediately, many media outlets published similar news reports.

What? [Tencent sends a lawyer's letter, strongly condemning the fraudulent development of "Monkey King: Hero Is Back"]

Reject fraudulent game development and safeguard the domestic gaming environment.

Look at this, they've managed to shift the blame so easily, even coming up with such a nonsensical term as "fraudulent development."

Despite the continued criticism from Tencent, its online trolls have managed to steer public opinion in the direction of the game developer, despite the ongoing backlash.

Ma Xiao also felt quite fortunate that night.

It's fortunate that this game was invested in by Tencent, rather than developed by Tencent, otherwise it would be hard to say what would have happened.

After initially mitigating the impact caused by "Monkey King: Hero Is Back".

Ma Xiao then adjusted his decision that afternoon.

"Let's get the new project with Li Weixi in Boston launched ahead of schedule. We can't let that hype get us over with Xinghuo's damn domestic special sales..."

For a penguin, losing to Spark is not shameful, but losing to Spark's underlings would be extremely shameful.

The year-end report is coming up soon, and if I lose at this point...

Ma Xiao shuddered, temporarily putting the idea aside, and personally entered the decision-making level of the event.

~~~

Ma Xiao wants to reorganize his strategy.

Meanwhile, the people at miHoYo were in agony, considering whether to reshuffle the deck.

With the arrival of the first day of the Spark Manufacturer Special Sale.

New products from various manufacturers are also being launched in droves, all in an attempt to capitalize on the free traffic generated by Spark.

After all, Xinghuo's special sales festival offers really great deals.

Moreover, for anime-style games, offering discounts and perks at launch has become common practice.

For games based on the Spark mode, the revenue on the first day of launch is basically half or even more than half of the revenue for the entire month.

Because of the monthly cards and battle pass purchases, generally after the peak period of server launch, there will be no major fluctuation in player renewals until the following month.

Of course, there are also models where there is no revenue on the first day of the server launch, but as the reputation gets better and better, the revenue gradually increases.

In short, the launch of anime-style games at this time is more like the release of online novels, except that the payment period is once a month.

The percentage of paid subscriptions depends on the provider's resource allocation for both large and small monthly cards.

Some manufacturers, aiming for high sales volume with low profit margins, deliberately increase the resources of the small monthly card and decrease the resources of some large monthly cards, thus creating the impression that you're losing out if you don't purchase the small monthly card.

Some manufacturers, in order to increase the unit price, will increase the resources available for the monthly pass and battle pass.

However, regardless of the circumstances, this alternative monthly card model has gradually become a supplement to the gacha model.

In other words, it's still gacha, but as long as you buy the corresponding monthly card, you're guaranteed to get the character you like, and the competition gets fiercer as the game progresses.

The small monthly pass guarantees 3 draws per day, while the large monthly pass guarantees 8 draws per day. The battle pass offers at least 2+2, which means 2 skins and 2 selectable or limited characters, and this has gradually become the mainstream.

Some smaller vendors are even more aggressive, offering 8 draws with a small monthly card and 16 draws with a large monthly card.

When content creators on major video websites around the world introduce this type of game, they often start by saying...

"This game is a must-buy for both the monthly and small subscriptions, folks. I'm not exaggerating, it's incredibly generous."

"You absolutely have to buy a monthly subscription for this game, otherwise I'm worried it won't survive, you know?"

"Seriously, guys, this battle pass, holy crap, this battle pass gives you two skins! White stockings, black stockings, those long legs, how can you not spend money on this? If you don't, I'll be letting my brothers down..."

Under this model, the monthly subscription model for anime-style games did not collapse as many "industry experts" predicted; instead, it led to the emergence of many good games on the market.

Because the core profit point for manufacturers has shifted from how to get players to buy characters and draw cards to how to retain more players.

After all, the more players who stay, the more players will buy monthly cards next month.

To keep players engaged, developers need to focus their efforts on gameplay and content.

In the past, no manufacturer would do such a thankless and arduous task.

After all, to get players to want to draw cards, you only need to consider the character's strength and art style. But to keep players engaged, there are many more things to consider.

Also.

When the Spark mode was first promoted, many companies felt that since Spark had already captured the majority of the market, it would be difficult for other game companies to succeed by using the Spark mode.

In fact, two years have passed since 18 and 19.

People found that this was not the case.

Just like online novels, it's not that a reader will only read one novel. In fact, as long as a novel is interesting, it's normal to read several.

After finishing one book, they might even actively seek out the next one.

The current anime-style game market is the same. Even players of Spark will look for other games after playing the Girls Frontline event.

As the market changes, many previously niche themes have become more popular.

Chapter 461 Subtle

For example, a while ago, a company released a game called "Anime Zombie Survival and Romance". You can tell that this game is ridiculous. Anime, zombies, survival, romance?

How can these things be kneaded together?

In fact, they not only kneaded it, but they kneaded it very well.

The plot is roughly about the protagonist meeting someone he likes during a post-apocalyptic crisis, but he soon discovers that the person he likes has turned into a zombie.

So the protagonist ties up the hands and feet of the person he likes, who is also the game's heroine, and embarks on a journey, hoping to find a way to restore the zombies' sanity.

Although the premise is ridiculous.

The game's plot is quite good, capturing the delicate, twisted, and somewhat perverse emotions.

Moreover, although the female lead is a zombie, thanks to the male lead's careful maintenance, she retains most of the physical characteristics of a normal human. This is compounded by the fact that the zombies in this world are behavioral mutations, meaning that humans become like animals, rather than the conventional setting where humans become like zombies.

This zombie heroine garnered a large number of comments from players, such as "So cute! I want to try it!"

Finally, the gameplay of this game is quite innovative.

The most ridiculous part is that players have to take care of their zombie wife every day...

Another time is when I feed my wife every day.

This is also what many players find most interesting: the development team created feeding animations for all the food items that can be collected in the game. During these animations, players will discover that zombies aren't entirely devoid of a sense of taste...

When there's something delicious, the wife will even lick the player's hand...

In short, within two months of its release, "My Zombie Wife is So Cute" achieved a revenue of tens of millions thanks to its bizarre setting and decent storyline.

The most ridiculous thing is that this game doesn't even have a character gacha system. The only charge is a monthly card, which gives players some resources and skins for the female lead.

Each of these skins has a corresponding storyline, as well as an animated sequence of the player changing their wife's clothes.

Even though nothing can be seen, many players are still obsessed with it.

Although this game only sold tens of millions of copies, it was quite popular and had very stable revenue. Most players played the game to see the subsequent storyline and enjoy the numerous interactions within the game.

Tens of millions in revenue is not a small sum for a small production team like this.

Many industry leaders use this as an example to express the view that the market is far from saturated. If your game doesn't make money, there's only one reason: your game isn't fun enough.

In such a market environment.

The release of Genshin Impact is quite subtle. You say Genshin Impact is bad?

It doesn't seem to have reached that point yet.

After all, it was influenced by the Spark and the impact of Punishing: Gray Raven on Honkai Impact. miHoYo made a lot of adjustments. Moreover, Genshin Impact was still considered a work by miHoYo's core elites at this time.

The early storyline of Mondstadt revolves around the protagonist, and there are some minor changes, such as the crafting system allowing the creation of five-star weapons.

Although it was rated as a disgrace during the closed beta, the fact that each region can forge a legendary weapon still appeared in the promotional materials for Genshin Impact.

Secondly, although the characters are still mixed male and female, popular characters like Keqing are still very strong in the first version.

The "Butt Sword Technique" was once a popular meme.

The game's graphics are top-notch, and because the resolution isn't as sharp, it's been praised by many for having a more anime-like style.

But when it was finally launched...

Public opinion remains extremely polarized.

This polarization stems, in part, from the globalization of the Spark platform.

Unlike its predecessor, Genshin Impact's initial mainstream promotional channels were still in China, so despite a large amount of negative news related to The Legend of Zelda.

However, the impact of this negative news is limited.

In this timeline, because Spark is a global platform, and a hybrid platform for single-player and online games, Japanese players, especially many Japanese single-player gamers, are also paying close attention to the Spark platform.

Therefore, the negative news about Zelda in Genshin Impact this time is far more intense than in the previous one.

Of course, although there was a lot of noise, it didn't actually have much impact on the game itself.

The users who criticize this are not part of miHoYo's target audience, and the reason miHoYo copied Zelda's large map is even more obvious.

It's designed to attract players who have heard of Zelda but haven't played it.

This is actually not a big problem.

After all, domestic game developers, both in the past and present, tend to directly copy successful single-player game mechanics from abroad and then modify them.

This trend is even more prevalent, especially among second-time tourists.

In many cases, when introducing a game, if it's mentioned which single-player game it copied the gameplay from, all the players will have an "Oh, I see" expression.

Therefore, it was quite normal for Genshin Impact, which was initiated at that time, to imitate Zelda in its open-world gameplay, and frankly, the imitation was quite good.

Unfortunately, as the saying goes, what you imitate can never truly be your own.