On September 11, Daewoo Information announced that it decided to sell the overseas region of the IP of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" and the global copyright of the IP of "Xuanyuan Sword".
This is not the first time Daewoo has sold "Baby", as early as 2021, Daewoo sold the mainland IP copyright of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" to CMGE Group at a price of 530 million yuan.
Now that the overseas areas of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" and the global copyright of "Xuanyuan Sword" are further sold, then these two IPs will no longer be owned by Daewoo.
I believe that many players will hear this news, and their hearts must be mixed, as the enlightenment game of countless players, the domestic double sword has indeed brought everyone to touch. In a trance, the domestic double sword has become history.
So, how did the once glorious Daewoo go into decline step by step.
Create a double sword
If you go back in time, Xuanyuan Sword, one of the two swords, was born more than 30 years ago, when it was influenced by classic Japanese RPGs, and the DOMO team led by Daewoo's producer Cai Minghong launched "Xuanyuan Sword One" in 1990.
The quality of "Xuanyuan Jianyi" is not high, the story is incomplete, and it has not made a big impact on the market. But it has a deeper meaning: "Xuanyuan Jianyi" has opened up a new category for domestic games.
After 4 years, the DOMO team launched "Xuanyuan Sword II". "Xuanyuan Sword II" has made a lot of progress compared to its predecessor, improving the storyline of the previous work, and it has also made great progress in the perspective performance, the game adopts the art style of ink rendering, which is full of ancient charm.
When the time came to 1995, it was very commemorative for Daewoo.
On the one hand, Daewoo continued to launch "Xuanyuan Sword Gaiden: Kaede Dance", which is the first biography of the "Xuanyuan Sword" series, and it is also the beginning of the "Xuanyuan Sword" series.
"Maple Dance" follows the art style and gameplay design of its predecessor, combining fictional fantasy stories with real historical backgrounds, and the game is full of pure Chinese elements and historical atmosphere, which has been well received by the market.
On the other hand, Daewoo producer Yao Zhuangxian was also influenced by Japanese RPG and Xuanyuan Kenji, combining the two, leading the team to develop for more than 2 years, and launched "The Legend of Sword and Fairy I" in 1995.
The game exploded immediately after its release, achieving a double harvest of sales and word-of-mouth. The touching story between Li Xiaoyao and Ling'er has influenced people of an era.
Go to the top
Although in the crucial year of 1995, Daewoo Twin Swords showed their edge, they did not rush to launch a sequel, but quietly sharpened their swords for four years.
In 1999, Daewoo released a new work "Xuanyuan Sword III".
The game background of "Xuanyuan Sword III" is very grand, inheriting and absorbing the advantages of the previous works, the story also spans the entire Eurasian continent, involving multiple civilizations, such a large amount of money was rare at the time, players have been attracted by its shocking narrative ability, and it is from this work that the "Xuanyuan Sword" series began to move towards its own peak.
A year later, the DOMO team launched Xuanyuan Sword Gaiden: Traces of the Sky non-stop.
The story of "Traces of Heaven" takes place before "Xuanyuan Sword III", and it is still the same creative direction that combines story and history, and players can see many familiar historical figures in the late Sui and early Tang dynasties in the game. Playing this game is also like tasting a piece of history, and the reputation of the game is still very positive.
It is worth mentioning that this is the last work of Xuanyuan Sword IP in the 2D era.
In 2001, the "Sword and Fairy" series also began to have new actions, but it only launched a remake based on "The Legend of Sword and Fairy", which did not have much impact on the market.
On the other hand, Xuanyuan Sword is a sequel.
In 2002, Daewoo officially launched "Xuanyuan Sword IV: Black Dragon Dance and Flying Clouds", which is the first 3D work in the "Xuanyuan Sword" series.
The embarrassing thing is that in order to pursue the "trend", Daewoo launched a 3D work that exposes its technical flaws, whether it is rough character modeling or scene design, revealing the effect of five cents everywhere, which is frantically complained by players.
In addition to this, Xuanyuan Sword IV still continues the excellent quality of the past dynasties, and adds the heavenly book system, mechanism techniques and other content, which is still very popular with players in terms of gameplay.
In the early days, it was basically the sequel of Xuanyuan Sword, and the Legend of Sword and Fairy was a little transparent.
By the time Legend of Sword and Fairy reappeared in the player's perspective, it had come to 2003.
But the bizarre thing is that Daewoo actually launched "The Legend of Sword and Fairy II" and "The Legend of Sword and Fairy III" within a year. The reason for such a "peculiar" phenomenon is that the content is separated.
Daewoo set up softstar technology branches in Beijing and Shanghai, and the development of "Legend of Sword and Fairy II" was supposed to be handled by Shanghai Softstar (later named "Legend of Sword and Fairy III"), but Daewoo agreed to the proposal of "Legend of Sword and Fairy II" by producer Xie Chonghui in Taiwan.
As a result, both sides developed "The Legend of Sword and Fairy II".
It's just that embarrassing things happened again, Xie Chonghui's "The Legend of Sword and Fairy II" was not finished, and he and a wave of developers resigned from Daewoo, causing the game progress to run aground, leaving Yao Zhuangxian to clean up the mess.
As a result, after eight years (1995-2003), the belated "The Legend of Sword and Fairy II" has become a half-finished product, with a chaotic story structure, thin characters, and average market response.
Half a year after the release of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy II", Daewoo launched "The Legend of Sword and Fairy III" produced by Shanghai Softstar to save the scene.
"The Legend of Sword and Fairy III" is the first 3D in the series, and introduces a new storyline and world view setting, and finally "The Legend of Sword and Fairy III" relies on excellent game quality to achieve a double harvest of sales and word of mouth, and finally helps "The Legend of Sword and Fairy II" wipe its ass.
In 2004, Shuangjian launched its own sequels, "Xuanyuan Sword Gaiden: Cangzhitao" and "The Legend of Sword and Fairy Three Gaiden · Romance".
The plot design of "Cangzhitao" maintains the excellent tradition and introduces the concept of parallel time and space, which is of high quality and has won numerous awards that year. And "Asking for Love" is not much different from the previous work, it is more like a DLC, relying on the reputation of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy III", and the sales results are quite good.
At this point, "Cangzhitao" is already the last glory of the "Xuanyuan Sword" series, and it has begun to decline since then.
In 2007, Daewoo launched "The Legend of Sword and Fairy IV" can be said to have left deep memories in the hearts of many players, the plot, music, and even the weakest picture quality have also made up for the shortcomings, and the game sales have a bumper harvest, which can be said to be the best in the series.
The inevitable decay cannot keep up with the trend of the times
Once you've reached the top, you've naturally started to descend.
From 2006 to 2010, in the past four years, the "Xuanyuan Sword" series has launched a total of "Xuanyuan Sword Five Trilogy", which are "Xuanyuan Sword Five", "Xuanyuan Sword Gaiden: Han Zhiyun", and "Xuanyuan Jian Gaiden: Cloud Distance".
Miraculously, the stories of the trilogy are strung together, but the release order and story timeline are reversed, resulting in a very fragmented experience for players, and compared with the previous game, there is no improvement in terms of graphic expression or narrative, and players are beginning to get tired of aesthetics. It is difficult to recover the decline in the reputation of the series.
The same is true for the Sword and Fairy series, between 2011 and 2013, Beijing Softstar launched two "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" works: "The Legend of Sword and Fairy V" and "The Legend of Sword and Fairy V Prequel".
"The Legend of Sword and Fairy V" follows the turn-based battle, and there is almost no progress in terms of gameplay and graphics, and the producer made a strange decision to pull the protagonist of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy I" "Li Xiaoyao" out of the platform again, so "The Legend of Sword and Fairy V" was deducted as a big hat of selling feelings, and there was a lot of scolding.
"The Legend of Sword and Fairy V Prequel" is more like wiping the ass of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy V", the game has changed the player's spray point in "The Legend of Sword and Fairy V", and is still trying to return to the plot pit buried in the previous work. It's just that once the reputation is lost, it is not easy to make up for it. The downhill road problem faced by the Fairy Sword series is unavoidable.
For a long time, Shuangjian has always adopted the strategy of emphasizing the plot and ignoring the gameplay, and if players want to love it as always, the story must be told well. However, it turned out that this was not easy.
So many years have passed, and overseas masterpieces have long been farther and farther away in the field of stand-alone machines, whether it is smooth combat, and the exquisite picture quality has thrown off the double sword for several streets.
"Xuanyuan Sword Six", which was released in the same year as "The Legend of Sword and Fairy Five Prequels", is the best proof of this.
"Xuanyuan Sword VI" is also seeking change, the biggest change is in the combat system, it finally abandoned the 10,000-year-old turn-based system, and adopted ATB semi-real-time combat similar to "Final Fantasy".
But the player is no longer the player before, and under the influence of countless overseas masterpieces, the change of "Xuanyuan Sword Six" is still very backward in the eyes of everyone, and it is not interesting at all.
Therefore, the "Xuanyuan Sword Gaiden: The Gate of the Firmament", which was released in 2015, is also embarrassing, the story is not good, the battle is not cool, the food is tasteless, and the "Xuanyuan Sword" series has basically come to an end.
The problems faced by Xuanyuan Sword cannot be avoided by the Legend of Sword and Fairy.
"The Legend of Sword and Fairy VI", which was also released in 2015, also tells a bad story, and its technical ability cannot keep up with the times, and it has been labeled as a seller of feelings and ridiculed in various ways.
As a single-player game, we can't deny that Daewoo once brought us many surprises in the era of barren games. But Daewoo's changes, in the torrent of the times, are a little too slow, and it can even be said that they are wrapped forward, and they are helpless and full of desolation.
The defeat of the two swords in their respective six generations also made Daewoo tired, and they tried their best to find change, and another five years later, in 2020, Daewoo launched "Xuanyuan Sword VII".
The game is powered by the Unreal Engine 4 and transforms the series' turn-based combat system to real-time.
It's just from the initial announcement.,It seems that it's a game that has evolved into a game that meets the aesthetics of today's players and keeps up with the trend.。
It's just that when the game really appears, it completely shatters the last bit of Daewoo's pride.
The game characters have stiff facial expressions, rough modeling, and don't even do a good job of basic skills, not to mention the core combat system, and the quality of "Xuanyuan Sword VII" is difficult to describe in the end.
The following year, "The Legend of Sword and Fairy VII" was released, wanting to save a little face, and similarly, "The Legend of Sword and Fairy VII" also abandoned turn-based combat and turned to real-time combat. In terms of graphics, "The Legend of Sword and Fairy VII" has also made full progress, but the gameplay and plot have been criticized by players, and the combat is not outstanding, and now even the plot is nothing worth watching.
While the residual temperature is still there, it can only be "sold".
The game sells well, and there is a lot of money invested in the development of the sequel, and if the game doesn't sell well, you can only reduce the budget, and the quality of the game is also worrying.
Moreover, with the progress of the times, the development of online games and mobile games has further squeezed the living space of stand-alone games. From Daewoo's financial report, it can be seen that the proportion of "Double Sword" IP revenue in China is gradually decreasing.
In fact, when Daewoo was popular in the era of online games, it also hoped that the Fairy Sword IP could shine in another track, based on this, they also launched the online game "Fairy Sword Online" in 2009, which was launched in the mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
It's just that the quality of this game is insufficient, and it also makes a riotous operation to buy an activation code to play for free a month after the start of the service, and the player's reputation has plummeted, resulting in the game has never really been popular, and now it has long been discontinued. Until the day the game disappears, I believe many players have never heard of this game, which is really a bit bleak.
From this point of view, the "Double Sword" IP is no longer a project worth investing in for Daewoo.
Daewoo is no longer the Daewoo of the past, and although he is still making games, he is more inclined to create new IPs and make small and medium-sized games, such as "Female Ghost Bridge".
It's not profitable to make a stand-alone machine, but you can't do online games, and after the glorious period of the stand-alone era, Daewoo is really no longer able to play in the game field. After experiencing frequent authorization of Shuangjian IP, Daewoo is no longer satisfied with the "slow money" of earning authorization from Shuangjian.
Perhaps, for Daewoo, for a company that pursues profit maximization, instead of continuing to invest heavily to win a small future, it is better to sell what can be sold while the residual heat is still there.
It's just that this time it's a pain that completely sells the "pro-son", and in terms of the player's emotions, it's a little sad to see it......
A shocking question: Which one do you like to play the most in the Double Sword IP?