Not long ago, the Game Working Committee (GPC) of the China Music and Digital Association and the China Game Industry Research Institute released the "2021 China Game Industry Report". In 2021, the actual sales revenue of China's game market reached 296.512 billion yuan, still in a growth trend, but the growth rate shrank by 15% year-on-year, mainly due to: the stimulation effect of the home economy under the new crown epidemic gradually weakened last year; the number of annual explosive models decreased year-on-year; and the cost of game research and development and operating and distribution continued to increase.
In fact, although the stimulating effect of the home economy has weakened, the 2021 game market that has gradually precipitated can be described by four words in full swing. You know, in the domestic market where the demographic dividend has long been close to the ceiling and the epidemic effect has weakened, the report card handed over this year has squeezed out more water from the sponge of the stock market, especially the client game market has ushered in the first growth in three years.
In the overall growth trend, the fierceness of the fight in this Red Sea has only increased, this year there are many new swims, the secondary market is very hot, the niche themes that have been excavated have also begun to pile up products, and everyone is trying to increase by all means. But in fact, on the other side of the hot market there are more products struggling on the line of life and death, this year's suspension of the removal of the game, only the listed company's products are nearly a hundred, and caused discussion, or media reports, there have been achievements in the suspension of about 13 online games, more games are quietly disappeared, even a little splash has not left in the market. According to the current trend of the game market, there will only be more such a situation next year.
The old game of seeking rebirth
First of all, it needs to be stated that whether it is an old game or a new game that has not been in operation for a long time, most of their suspension is lamentable, but it is not necessarily a bad thing for the market and its operating companies, or even for themselves.
Among the 13 online games that have been reported this year, there are actually many classic games that have died, such as the "QQ Hall" that the mobile game matrix has recently reported, the "Call of Duty Online" won by Tencent in a big way, the "Hope Online" that has experienced 16 years of long-distance running, the big IP online games "Need for Speed Online" and "FIFAOnline3" that are also agents of Tencent, and the domestic music game "Rhythm Master", which is well known to the public and popular.
Among them, "Rhythm Master" announced the suspension of operations in February this year rather than the suspension of operations, but there has been no news for 10 months, and many players have tacitly acknowledged that it has been suspended. Most of the other games also announced their suspension after a long period of time after stopping active updates, for these games, they have been operating for at least 5 years, the longest operating time is 17 years, it is grown under the tide of the times to the present, or the contract expires, or the end of life, which is not unexpected. And this part of the game due to its own influence over the years, the existing IP of its IP influence continues to enlarge, the original game has also formed its own IP, so many games have also been through the IP way to continue or rebirth, elongating its vitality.
For example, the "Call of Duty" IP has launched its own "Call of Duty Mobile Game", which is also operated by Tencent, and the overseas and domestic results are very good. And "QQ Tang" has also considered porting this IP to the mobile phone, in 2016, it opened a small range of "QQ Tang" mobile game test, but for various reasons, after a small range of tests, "QQ Tang" mobile game has no follow-up, and has not yet passed out the news, but ushered in the announcement of the end of the tour suspension.
In addition, although "FIFA Online3" has been discontinued, "FIFA Online4" is continuing, and the IP of "FIFA" has also been moved to mobile phones, and related mobile games are in operation.
The suspension of classic games is not a terrible thing, especially for the terminal game, the market is declining, while the picture quality and game quality of many years ago have gradually failed to keep up with the increasing demand of contemporary players, the game suspension is inevitable, but it does not necessarily represent the death of the game, they still exist in the form of IP, and at the right time to seek or renew or continue the opportunity.
From popularity to cooling, these games are also out of service
If most of the games in the previous part are dead, then the fate of the games that will be stopped next is much more bumpy.
The first is the "Phantom Book Revelation Record", which opened the public beta on December 17, 2020, but issued a suspension announcement in less than a year of operation, which is a book anthropomorphic RPG mobile game developed by NetEase.
It is worth noting that this game has performed very well when it was first launched, the highest has been the free list and the best-seller list Top7 results, although the subsequent operation of the ranking continues to decline, but there are still many discussion posts in Weibo, TapTap and other communities, and its national service 9, 10, November monthly revenue estimate is still in the range of 1.5 million -2 million, in the same type of mobile games is low, but does not belong to the bottom ranks, and did not reach the level of players' regular cognition of the need to stop.
In the rumor, the suspension of the "Magic Book" may be due to the company's internal structure, plus the adjustment of the operating strategy.
Another discontinued online game that has had more brilliant results in the mobile game market is "Dragon Valley Mobile Game", which is adapted from the well-known terminal game IP and independently replaced by Tencent. It once collected 1 billion yuan in the first month of its launch in 2017, and it is one of the blockbuster mobile games in 2017. Before the launch of its sequel "Dragon Valley 2" in July 2020, it was basically stable in the top 200 of the best-seller list, and it could also rush back to the top 50 of the best-seller list when the event was opened.
However, after the launch of "Dragon Valley 2", the transfer of a large number of players has brought a lot of impact to it, and when the suspension was announced, its best-seller list ranking has been ranked outside the 300th for a long time. To a certain extent, "Dragon Valley Mobile Game" as a mobile game, its 4 years of operation time has not been short, just look at the number of years can also be called "end of life", but its end of life is more artificial, such as "Dragon Valley Mobile Game" and "Dragon Valley 2" two products with the same IP are online at the same time.
In addition to these two mobile games, in the games that were discontinued this year, there are products such as "Xiaomi Super God", "End of the Battlefield" and VR games "Homeland". Among them, "Homeland" as a VR game, launched steam in 2019, although it has been listed at the Cologne Game Show, attracting the attention of many people and has a good game quality. However, due to the lack of popularity of VR games and the cooling down of the entire VR game concept, the shutdown is almost inevitable, which is a victim of the false prosperity of the VR game concept in that year.
In addition, it should be noted that in the more well-known online games that were suspended this year, there are two special existences, one is because the version number is not reviewed for a long time, and the game style and gameplay are not satisfied with the domestic water and soil, and the "Fortnite" national costume that chooses to stop testing after three years of testing, one is used by many players as a substitute for the "Dungeons and Warriors" mobile game, and it is rumored that the "Wrath of Arad" was suspended due to copyright disputes.
More decommissioned games are still on the way
In addition to the above reported suspension of games, there are many games that have been discontinued in 2021, especially I don't know whether it is affected by the policy or other reasons, there are many well-received functional games or stand-alone games that purely earn word-of-mouth, and the same or announced the suspension or the removal of the game, such as NetEase's "E-truth Miaobi Qianshan" announced the suspension, Tencent's "See", "Long Sky Shadow" also disappeared in the game store.
The operation and maintenance of online games that require more manpower and material resources have disappeared more this year. Among the reasons for the shrinking growth rate mentioned in the 2021 game industry report is that "game development and operating costs continue to increase". In recent years, there have been very few new products in the declining end game market, and the only thing that can be called a terminal game explosion this year is the buyout action end game "Forever Doomed", and its game development and publicity costs are also hundreds of millions.
At the same time, the field of mobile games has become more and more volumeted in recent years, whether it is research and development, buying, art or operation, the cost of all aspects is increasing. Especially after "Original God" set off the open world RPG game fever, many manufacturers regarded it as the next category, and the development cost required for this theme is undoubtedly huge.
It can be said that in the version of the policy adjustment, the market dividend ceiling gradually in the past few years, the game industry has been constantly changing, of which the trend of boutique is the most obvious, especially in the current dominant mobile game industry, the requirements of player users are constantly getting higher, while various types of games have also been shown in the market fists and feet, and now to stand out in the fierce Red Sea market, only with the actual use of product quality and strong publicity to hard.
And such a trend also determines that the current attitude of the game product elimination speed will only be faster and faster, on the one hand, the proportion of boutique games increases, games without their own highlights and characteristics are difficult to attract the attention of players, player retention rate is low, it is difficult to attract new players, income falls into a vicious circle; on the other hand, the trend of boutique products and the continuous increase in game development and operating costs determine that to develop a product that has the opportunity to highlight the siege, the model of blossoming everywhere and scattering the network has not worked, manufacturers need to be more centralized, refined, High-quality investment in R&D and operation, to put it bluntly, is to cut off projects that are not so profitable and have no prospects, and invest more energy into boutique projects.
Under the leadership of such a trend, before the industry has not completed the transformation of the boutique model and entered the next stage, whether it is the number of past projects or the number of games that have been discontinued, in the next 2022, it will only be more, not less.