Source: Assassin's Creed: JADE official website.
On the morning of December 25, the General Administration of Press and Publication of the People's Republic of China announced the approval information of domestic online games in December, and a total of 105 domestic games obtained version numbers. The number of single approvals exceeded 100 for the first time, and the positive signal was very obvious.
Titanium **APP observed that among the 105 games approved this time, there are a total of 59 mobile games, 8 mobile + client double-end games, 3 client games and 35 mobile-casual puzzle games, among which Tencent's "Counter War: Future" and NetEase's "Firefly Assault" are listed.
According to the statistics of the National Press and Publication Administration, 672 domestic game versions will be issued in 2021, 468 in 2022, and 977 in 2023. This year's overall number increased by 108 compared to the same period last year76%, the recovery momentum is quite significant.
The issuance of this edition number is involved in major game manufacturers, listed game concept stocks and waist game companies. Among the top game manufacturers, Tencent has been approved for three games, namely the PC mobile dual-terminal game "Counter War: Future" and "Grace World" and the mobile game "Assassin's Creed: Heroes".
As a spiritual sequel to the IP of "Counter War", "Counter War: Future" has been silent in development since the concept trailer of "Counter War" was announced at the 10th anniversary celebration. In October this year, "Counter War: Future" appeared at the 2023 Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention and won the Science Fiction Cultural and Creative Award.
According to Chen Peng, the producer of "Counter War: Future", "Counter War: Future" is a first-person shooter game based on PVE and PVP gameplay. The world view of "Counter War: Future" is jointly derived from experts and scholars in the field of science fiction and foreign science fiction game narrative experts, and implemented into the specific gameplay and art design.
Screenshot of the promotional CG of "Counter War Mobile Game", the source of the official website of "Counter War Mobile Game".
It is worth noting that this new work has been made public under the name of "Counter War Mobile Game" before. At the same time as the name change, the PC side has also been added to the declaration category, perhaps "Counter War: Future" will not only be a side work of the "Counter War" IP, but will become its flagship work in the new decade.
Grace World is an MMORPG game in the style of American**, the game focuses on double-end communication, according to the season to advance the game plot content, claiming to never sell attribute items. The game has now been unveiled at Gamescom this year and has received a large number of attention from overseas players.
Assassin's Creed: Hidden is a collaboration between Tencent and Ubisoft and is known as a triple-A mobile game. The game has been closed overseas in August this year, and judging from the game information released so far, "Assassin's Creed: Heroes" is set in the Qin Dynasty, and players will play as a Chinese assassin in the game.
NetEase Games' "Poetry of the Four Sides City" has not been released to the public, and "Firefly Assault" is a Tarkov-like tactical competitive mobile game. Although the game's official blog has stopped updating since September 2022, since the game has been launched overseas on Google Play and Steam, domestic players may meet it before next summer after the version number is approved.
Source: "Firefly Assault" official blog.
In addition to Tencent and NetEase, a number of leading listed game companies have also obtained version numbers. For example, Kaiying Network's double-ended game "Three Kingdoms: The World Returns to the Heart" and the mobile game "Legend of Kings 2", XD's simulation mobile game "Heartbeat Town", Glacier Network's "Super Awakening" and so on.
It is worth noting that Light Claw Network's "Full-Time Master: Back to the Top" is quite popular. As one of the top IPs of China Literature, the online ** "Full-time Master" has been adapted into TV series, movies and anime many times. On the 2023 Hurun Original Literature IP Value List, "Full-time Master" ranks fourth.
Being able to get this level of IP authorization is greatly related to Dang Yong, the founder of Lightclaw Network. According to the official website of Light Claw Network, Dang Yong, as one of the founding members of Tencent's game publishing business, was the head of Tencent's game action and RPG products, and participated in the publishing and operation of "Dungeons and Warriors".
At present, although there is no information about the work to the outside world, but they are quite related to each other, the author of "Full-time Master" Butterfly Blue once admitted in the introduction of the work that the work has referred to "Dungeons and Warriors" in terms of occupation and skill settings, and Dang Yong was the project director of "Dungeons and Warriors", this relationship is definitely enough to make "Full-time Master: Return to the Peak" to a higher level of expectation.
From the above works, it can be seen that the approved version works are still led by large-scale works of "big IP + high investment", which is very suitable for the game industry's demand for the improvement of scientific and technological innovation capabilities and cross-border empowerment effects, and also reflects the attitude of the competent authorities to support the healthy and orderly development of the game industry.
This edition was released before the opening of the market, and the secondary market reacted coldly at the beginning of the period, and began to stop falling and pick up in the afternoon. As of **, Sanqi Mutual Entertainment fell 787%, Kaiying Network fell 996%, Yao Ji Technology 763%, and the electric soul network fell 647%, Gigabit fell 372%。
The stock price is still falling, to a certain extent, due to the fact that the scope of some provisions in the Measures is too broad. Among them, Article 17 is aimed at most SLG products on the market, and part of Article 18 fully covers all products that adopt the Gaas model in China, and the changes in traditional inducement mechanisms such as daily login and first charge rewards will have an almost subversive impact on the game's player retention and daily activity.
However, although the proposal of the "Measures" has affected the market's expectations for the game industry, the basic momentum of the game industry itself has not changed. At this year's annual meeting of the game industry, Yang Fang, deputy director of the Publishing Bureau of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, said: "Since the beginning of this year, the scale of the game industry has stabilized and rebounded, the quality of content has been significantly improved, scientific and technological innovation has been accelerated, and overseas markets have continued to develop, which has made positive contributions to optimizing cultural supply, promoting scientific and technological innovation and application, empowering economic and social development and overseas dissemination of Chinese culture." ”
In addition, according to the "2023 China Game Industry Report" released by the Game Working Committee of the China Audio and Digital Association, the actual sales revenue of China's domestic game market this year reached 30296.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1395%, the data exceeded the 300 billion mark for the first time. At the same time, the scale of game users in China reached 66.8 billion people, a year-on-year increase of 061%, a new all-time high.
The above data shows that with the dissipation of negative factors such as the epidemic and the "normalization + intensity" approval rhythm of game version numbers, the user's spending power has recovered, and many high-quality works have emerged in the market, and the dual recovery of supply and demand is promoting the further development of the game industry.
It can be seen from the fact that the game stock price continues to be ** today, whether the operation concept of the domestic online game market with Gaas as the core will be reshaped by the "Measures" is the main reason why investors tend to be bearish on the game industry. Whether there will be a change in investors' attitudes after this remains to be further disclosed by the relevant authorities.
This article was first published by Wu Yixiao and edited by Li Chengcheng).