Last night, the news that the game version number was resumed after 8 months made many people sleepless...
The gaming market is heating up again
On the evening of April 11, the State Press and Publication Administration issued the April game version number, and a total of 45 domestic games obtained the version number, including "Dream Voyage" of 37 Mutual Entertainment and "Casting TimeMaker" of Zhongqingbao.
Specifically, according to the latest notice of the State Press and Publication Administration, a total of 45 games have obtained version numbers, including 39 mobile games, 5 client games, and 1 Switch game, including the mobile game "Attack on Rabbit" of Beijing Baidu Duoku Technology Co., Ltd., the "Sword Net 3 Origin" of Chengdu Xishan Jushiyou Technology Co., Ltd., the mobile game "Dream Navigation" of Sanqi Interactive Entertainment (Shanghai) Technology Co., Ltd., and the mobile game "Careful Fire Candle" of Shenzhen Chuangmeng Tiandi Technology Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Zhongqingbao Interactive Network Co., Ltd.'s Switch game "Casting TimeMaker" and so on.
On July 22, 2021, the State Press and Publication Administration announced the list of 87 games that received version numbers on July 2021, but no new version approval information has been released since then. The releases are the first in 2022 and the first to be released since July 2021.
The version number is equivalent to the "pass" for the online operation of game products, and in the game industry, the issue of version number issuance has always attracted much attention. On April 11, the game circle has begun to circulate the news that many games have regained the version number, and after the version number is restored to the news confirmation, the game circle immediately "swipes the screen".
However, the resumption of version number distribution does not mean that the game will flock to it, it is worth noting that the relevant state departments are strict and tight on the trend of game version number issuance. Relevant data show that since 2019, the State Press and Publication Administration has approved a total of 3352 game version numbers, of which 1365 in 2019, 1308 in 2020 and 679 in 2021, respectively, and the number of version numbers continues to shrink.
In 2016 and 2017, the approved game version numbers were 4050 and 9369 respectively. Industry insiders said that after the version number is restored, game companies can accelerate the launch of new products, the lack of new games in the market will gradually ease, and players can also enjoy more high-quality games.
Tencent and NetEase with no grain harvest
The first reaction of many people is that giants such as Tencent and NetEase will become the biggest beneficiaries, but the version number works released in this round are the second echelon of domestic and small and medium-sized game companies, and the two largest game manufacturers in China, Tencent and NetEase, are not in this list. At the policy level, the release of the version number is the signal that the policy has gradually released the regulatory pressure on the Internet industry, which is conducive to the improvement of the industry's regulatory expectations, and with the continuous issuance of the version number, it is believed that tencent and NetEase's new games can also get the version number in the later batch.
Although its new games failed to get the version number in the first batch, Tencent reviewed many games last year, and some of the games operated by Tencent agents by other companies were not fully counted, and the total number of games reviewed by it has reached 10, of which "League of Legends Mobile Game" is the most eye-catching. In terms of NetEase, its 2021 review lineup is also not bad, NetEase self-declared and successfully won the version number of up to 11, and some of the games represented by NetEase after the review by other companies are not fully counted, of which "Diablo: Immortal" took the lead and got the version number in early 2021.
From the perspective of hoarded games and version numbers, as long as they do not continue to get the version number, Tencent and NetEase still do not need to worry about game resources.
Now, the version number is restarted, and in the medium to long term, the valuation repair inflection point of the game industry has arrived. In the long run, the metaverse is expected to become the next generation of media forms beyond the Internet, games will become the key content entrance of the metaverse, and the metacosm will reconstruct the production and valuation system of games, bringing new imagination space to the game industry.
Fall the losers before dawn
After 263 days, the domestic game version number was restarted, and many gamers were excited at the same time, but also the lamentations of many early exiters.
For some small game companies that need to rely on new products to drive revenue, not only can new products not bring revenue to the company as expected, but also the capital reserves are relatively limited, which is bound to affect the stability of the company, so many companies choose to withdraw from the market.
Statistics show that from July 2021 to February 2022, about 2,000 game-related enterprises were cancelled, of which 3.16% were registered with a registered capital of less than 1 million. According to the relevant data of the Game Working Committee (GPC) of the China Music and Digital Association and the China Game Industry Research Institute, the actual sales revenue of the Chinese game market in 2021 increased by 6.4% year-on-year, and the growth rate was nearly 15% smaller than that of last year.
Another set of data is also very intuitive, on July 22, 2021, when the State Press and Publication Administration last issued the version number, the Huaxia CSI Animation Game ETF fell by 10.47% in 5 trading days. In late February 2022, after the news of "no new game version number in 2022" came out, the stock prices of game giants such as Tencent and NetEase fell during this period. Correspondingly, after the release of a new batch of game version numbers on April 11, 2022, NetEase's stock price rose after the opening of the US stock market on the same day, and as of the Beijing Business Daily reporter, the stock price rose by 8.7% from the previous day's closing price. However, NetEase and Tencent related people did not disclose the application for their own game version number.
The resumption of approval by the relevant departments is undoubtedly good news for the game industry. In addition, during this period, the state strictly controlled the game time of minors, which promoted the high-quality game products, the survival of the fittest in the industry, and the development of standardization.
In the days when the version number was discontinued, in addition to the game companies that finally chose to quit, other companies chose different development paths, among which it is indispensable to take the lead in overseas distribution of game products.
However, this layout allows them to expect davis double-clicks.
Embrace Davis double-click the seafarer
With the significant reduction in the number of editions, domestic games have embarked on the road of improving quality and reducing quantity in recent years. In overseas markets, the competitiveness of domestic games has also been continuously strengthened. According to the data, in 2021, the actual sales revenue of China's self-developed games in overseas markets reached 18.013 billion US dollars, an increase of 16.59% year-on-year, an increase of significantly higher than the actual sales revenue of the domestic game market of 6.4%.
According to Sensor Tower data, in 2021, a total of 42 Chinese mobile games in overseas market revenue of more than 100 million US dollars, an increase of 5 year-on-year, overseas revenue list of the top 30 including Tencent, NetEase, 37 Interactive Entertainment and other manufacturers of the game, of which 37 Interactive Entertainment "Puzzles & Survival" with a unique "match-3 + SLG" gameplay, became one of the few new games to enter the list.
In addition, Perfect World's "Magic Tower", Gigabit's "A Thought runaway", Heartbeat Company's "Flash Party", "T3" and other products are all preparing or have been launched overseas, and the process of mobile games going to sea is accelerating. We believe that domestic game manufacturers have the leading edge of mobile game research and development capabilities and experience, and the commercialization of Tiktok is expected to further drive the overseas market share of Chinese mobile games and contribute considerable performance increments to related companies.
Open world games or for the prototype of meta-universe products, to further open the growth space of the game industry Open world games have become the head category in the field of PC and host after continuous development and evolution, and gradually expand from the host and PC side to the mobile phone side, or become the main trend of mobile games in the future.
According to Data.ai data, the mobile open world game "Original God" still won the first place in the 2022Q1 global mobile game rankings after being online for more than a year. With the changes in the game market and the development of technology, other domestic game manufacturers have also launched or laid out open-world games, such as the open-world MMO game "Magic Tower" launched by Perfect World.
Achieving a turnover of 500 million yuan in the first month, Tencent set up an open world mobile game based on the Glory of Kings IP, "Glory of kings: the world". With the continuous improvement of game engine technology and design capabilities, the form of game content may usher in continuous changes, providing an important source of digital content and technical foundation for the metaverse. In addition, the open world gameplay is highly integrated, which can undertake the needs of multiple users, or effectively improve the scale of game users and the life cycle of games, release greater commercial value, and further open up the growth space of the game industry.
With the release of the version number, this part of the game has every opportunity to further open up space in both internal and external markets, thus becoming the biggest beneficiary.
Editor| Zhang Yi
Audit | Wu Xin