Zhang Shule is a columnist for People's Daily Online and People's Post and Telegraph

Tencent, NetEase,

Heavy troops are being assembled!

This summer, the gaming world is not destined to be peaceful.

At 20:00 on the evening of the 10th, "Black Myth: Wukong" officially opened the full pre-sale on the Jingdong platform.

Impressively, all products were sold out within five minutes of the pre-sale opening, demonstrating the huge enthusiasm for this highly anticipated game.

According to the store page, the number of pre-orders for the physical collector's edition of "Black Myth: Wukong" reached 699,000, while the pre-order for the physical deluxe edition reached 354,000.

This astonishing pre-order data fully demonstrates the super popularity of "Black Myth: Wukong".

This is just the beginning, a hot and hot summer file war.

01 Tencent, NetEase, heavy troops are being assembled!

At the SPARK2024 Tencent Game Conference at the end of May, Tencent brought the latest developments of 34 products in one go.

Prior to this, NetEase also disclosed the new trends of more than 40 of its products.

Among them, the martial arts open-world game "Sixteen Voices of Yanyun" is scheduled for July 26.

The summer fever has already opened and directly entered the white-hot stage.

At the end of May, "Dungeons & Warriors: Origins" (hereinafter referred to as "DNF" mobile game) "Rising Tide" was launched one after another, which once ignited the enthusiasm of players.

At the beginning of the launch of the "DNF" mobile game, the server crashed several times.

At the same time, many new games such as "Three Kingdoms: Plotting the World" released by Bilibili, miHoYo's new work "Jeopardy Zero", and domestic masterpiece "Black Myth: Wukong" are expected to be tested or launched in the summer file in June ~ August.

It can be seen that the summer vacation has not yet begun, and game manufacturers have begun to take action to occupy the market through evergreen products and new games.

The normalization of the distribution of edition numbers provides sufficient "ammunition" for the "fierce battle" of game companies.

02 In the era of 3A masterpieces, China is coming!

On May 20, the National Press and Publication Administration announced the approval information of domestic online games in May 2024, and a total of 96 new games were approved.

This includes 6 mobile--client games, with the remaining 90 being mobile games.

So far, 570 games have been approved this year (including 46 imported games).

Is this year's game summer file advanced?

For game manufacturers, how can the summer file break out of the encirclement?

In this regard, Li Zhe, a reporter from China Business Daily, and Hu Lei, a financial network, respectively had an exchange with Shule.

This summer file may mark a milestone for domestic games to enter a new stage.

The era of China's 3A masterpieces is coming!

Of course, it is still necessary to say that the summer file is just an imagination, after all, potential gamers have jobs, and there is no summer vacation.

Therefore, the crash of the new game mode is just "accidental".

However, domestic game companies will launch new games in batches during the summer, especially around ChinaJoy, forming a high-intensity competition situation, which has also repeatedly appeared in the past years.

Especially in the context of the large number of edition numbers, it is normal for new games with approved version numbers to be launched intensively.

At present, it seems that the current games in the summer file, except for the casual puzzle class, are scattered in multiple vertical categories, forming a focus effect, which may not be involuted, but has the possibility of expanding the game's incremental users.

I have to say that the reason why this year's summer file is hot and hot is that the normalization of the edition number is the key.

03 In the future, fierce fighting will become a home-cooked meal!

Especially stimulated by the scale of the 100 number distribution this year, game companies can have enough time to complete the preparation for the release of approved games in the summer, which has also caused a situation of competition among hundreds of people.

In the future, as long as the distribution of edition numbers remains of the same magnitude, such competition will also be normalized.

At the same time, it stimulates domestic games to compete for users with innovative gameplay and experience in the competition of competitors, and then promotes the further quality of games.

In addition, if evergreen products such as "League of Legends" and "Genshin Impact" want to maintain their competitive advantage, they also need to constantly upgrade their versions, increase the map and gameplay experience, and gradually follow the example of "Egg Boy Party" and add the possibility of UGC (user-generated content), which will further extend its life cycle and even become more popular.

Some media have also observed that except for giant companies such as NetEase and Tencent, other listed companies do not seem to be fully engaged in the competition for summer files.

Is it just that the giants are hot?

Are there fewer opportunities for small and medium-sized manufacturers?

Foolish thought:

Due to their own volume, research and operation capabilities, and the number of approved version numbers, first-line game companies will show that small and medium-sized game companies will attack the summer file more violently.

In fact, small and medium-sized game companies also have new games launched, but they seem to be alone, and if they don't become hits, it will be difficult to attract the attention of the industry.

However, small and medium-sized game companies have also begun to enter the vertical track earlier.

In particular, two-dimensional, otome and heavy boutique games may be the most eye-catching existence this summer, and they will also be the most likely areas to become new game trends and super hits that will rise in the summer file.

In addition, there are UGC games, which may also become a key track for small and medium-sized game companies to overtake in corners.

And this summer file, there may be a chance to go down in history, namely:

"Black Myth: Wukong", which will be launched in August, will grab many topic points.

Although from the perspective of its revenue model, even if it hits 5 million sets, it will not make much money.

On the whole, the most eye-catching game in this year's summer file may not be the most profitable, but it may be the force that best represents the current determination of Chinese games to attack the 3A masterpieces.

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