Tencent, NetEase decisive battle "eat chicken": what on earth are they fighting for? Who can have the last laugh?

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So far, Tencent has announced seven "chicken eating" games, including "Desert Island Special training", "PUBG", "Glorious Mission", "Ring of Elysium" and so on, taking the road of "PC-end games to strengthen advantages, mobile games to continue to attack". Judging from the current war situation, Tencent only "Glorious Mission" and "Desert Island Special training" were officially launched for a short time, while NetEase's two games started the non-deletion test earlier, which has formed a certain influence in the players, and the two will still fight fiercely.

judging from the current situation, Tencent only officially launched "Glorious Mission" and "Desert Island Special training" for a short time, while NetEase's two games started the non-deletion test earlier, which has formed a certain influence among the players. the two will still fight fiercely.

when the Internet buzzword changed from "Don't overextend, don't wave" to "good luck, eating chicken in the evening", and 100 netizens competed to be the "god of eating chicken", the game manufacturer's "eating chicken" war was also in full swing off the screen.

in the early morning of November 29th, Tencent Timi Studio and Photon Studio launched websites with domain names pubgm.qq.com and pg.qq.com respectively, suggesting that genuine "PUBG" mobile games are coming.

on the afternoon of the same day, Tencent officially launched the first 100-player tactical mobile game "Glorious Mission". In addition to being recommended by Ma Huateng in moments, Tencent also invited 100 anchors such as PDD, Wuwukai, Ruofeng and Miss to conduct simultaneous live broadcasts across platforms to promote it. Coupled with the previous mobile game "CF- desert island special training", Tencent has four "eat chicken" mobile games compete at the same time.

in just 7 days, after announcing that it had won the exclusive agent operation right of the game "Playerunknown&# 39;s Battlegrounds" (that is, "PUBG") in China, Tencent threw a number of grenades one after another, and "chicken eating" was full of determination.

on the other hand, Tencent's strenuous layout of the "chicken eating" matrix, to a certain extent, reflects that the current "chicken eating" market competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Compared with the original Xiaomi, hero entertainment, Longyuan and other dry game manufacturers to fight on the enclosure, now the "chicken-eating" market is rapidly concentrated to the head, and Tencent's biggest rival comes from NetEase.

< strong > the tussle between the two giants < / strong >

has been online for eight months, with sales exceeding 20 million copies and revenue exceeding 2.5 billion yuan. "PUBG", developed by South Korean game company Blue Hole, can be called a PC game legend this year.

"the core game is simple and rough. After being airdropped to a desert island, 100 players fight to the last person with firearms, protective gear, vehicles, and other resources; without missions, plots, and fixed games, each game is new. It's exciting and fun to play." A heavy player told the reporter excitedly.

the theory of "eating chicken" originates from the "good luck, eating chicken at night" displayed on the screen when the player wins the final victory. since then, players have called similar PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS games as "Battle Royale Games". And with the addition of star players such as Wang Sicong, Lin Xinxin and Chen he, "PUBG" is becoming more and more popular on the game live broadcast platform and social network.

in the face of such a phenomenal game that "triggered new exciting points in the market", NetEase first joined the army of "chicken eating" and competed for the first opportunity to win the first wave of "chicken eating" mobile game users.

on November 3, NetEase was the first to appear on the shelves of "Operation Wild" and "Terminator 2: judgment Day", and conducted a wide range of marketing promotion the following weekend, including inviting popular anchors such as Ruofeng, Xiao Cang and Miss to broadcast the game live, and recruiting the anchor of players of "Operation of the Wild". Then, NetEase board chairman Ding Lei personally for his own "chicken eating" mobile game platform, and star Liu Yan formed a team to broadcast "chicken eating" live.

although he has not made it clear, NetEase, who released the "chicken eating" mobile game early, may have seen this "chicken eating" carnival as one of the opportunities to break the current declining income of NetEase's game and surpass Tencent in a bend. Data show that NetEase's game revenue exceeded 10 billion in the first quarter of 2017 and continued to decline in the second and third quarters, of which it fell to 8.112 billion yuan in the third quarter, a decrease of 14 percent. In contrast, Tencent Games, after the income in the first quarter of this year exceeded 20 billion, the revenue of online games in the third quarter was 26.844 billion, an increase of 48 percent over the same period last year.

therefore, at the meeting after the release of the three quarterly reports this year, NetEase focused on "Wild Action," and Ding Lei said bluntly that "the space and potential of 'Wild Operation' is greater than the company originally imagined."

"there are six 'chicken eating' games inside NetEase for internal horse racing, and NetEase still attaches more importance to this." Qiu Mengchen, an analyst at Binyuan Capital, told reporters. He believes that "Operation Wild" and "Terminator 2" are flawed, but they are successful.

under the huge market demand and omni-directional market offensive, "Operation Wild" and "Terminator 2", which occupy the advantage of "time window", attracted nearly 20 million users, and at one time pulled "Arena of Valor" out of the "throne" and squeezed out the top three of the AppStore free list. Prior to this, the top position of the free list has been dominated by "Arena of Valor" for more than a year.

▲ 's list of free games on November 5th

but soon, NetEase is facing pressure from rival Tencent.

so far, Tencent has announced seven "chicken eating" games one after another, including "Desert Island Special training", "PUBG", "Glorious Mission", "Ring of Elysium" and so on, taking the road of "enhanced advantages of PC games and continuous attack of mobile games". The problem of survival games also appeared in the conference call of Tencent's third quarterly report, with four analysts asking Tencent executives how to seize and conquer the opportunities for the outbreak of survival games this year.

paying so much attention to a certain game category is rare in all previous Tencent financial reporting meetings. When asked about Tencent's attitude towards such games, Tencent President Liu Chiping replied, "Survival games are very popular in the market and are very important to the company."

and in addition to the financial results, Tencent has also paid a lot of attention. According to reports, Tencent has set up a core project "hard attack team" for the "glorious mission", which is actually the treatment of heavyweight head products. Correspondingly, marketing, operations and other departments will quickly solve the problems of "Glorious Mission" before listing with the highest priority.

during this period, Tencent announced a piece of important news that was evaluated by industry insiders as affecting the pattern of "chicken eating" industry: it won the exclusive operation right of "PUBG" national service. This means that Tencent has a first-mover advantage in the "chicken eating" PC game.

in this regard, NetEase quickly launched the PC version of "Wild Action" in an attempt to take advantage of the time gap between Tencent agents and the official launch of the "PUBG" PC game to quickly gain a first-mover advantage in the "chicken eating" PC market. It is worth noting that three days after the release of the PC version of "Wild Action", Tencent announced its own development of the PC game "Ring of Elysium" to add another member to the "PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS" team.

< strong > the long road of "chicken eating" < / strong >

NetEase and Tencent wrestle on the new "chicken eating" track, but in fact, "PUBG" as a PC PC game, its commercial imagination space is limited.

on the one hand, compared with games such as "League of Legends", "Arena of Valor" and "Crossing the Line of Fire", "PUBG" users are highly masculine, resulting in weak social characteristics, making it difficult to capture a large number of users. On the other hand, according to the current buyout price of 99 yuan per copy, "PUBG" is difficult to bring abundant revenue to Tencent and NetEase.

in fact, PUBG has more room for business imagination, laying the user foundation for the next popular game at the national level.

"every three to five years, a phenomenal game should be born in the industry." Roy, an observer of the game industry, said, "before, there was World of Warcraft, and then League of Legends. With the university's four-year cycle, the player group has been updated." it may be one of the reasons for the emergence of the 'PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS' type of games represented by 'PUBG'. "

in this way, Tencent and NetEase not only participate in the "chicken eating" war, but also participate in a future that must be contested. It is not difficult to understand the importance Tencent and NetEase attach to the game of "eating chicken".

"for domestic game companies, the market of MOBA games has almost been carved up. With the popularity of sandboxie such as" H1Z1 "and" PUBG "in the world, many companies have seen the future development opportunities of this kind of games. This is the way the market is. If you don't participate in it at the beginning, there will be no place for you in the future. " An industry source said in an interview with China Economic Weekly.

but the difficulty in the future lies in the unknown, "chicken" is not so easy to eat.

on October 27th, the Game work Committee issued an article entitled "basic attitude towards the business department in charge of the General Administration of Games of" PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS ", which clearly expressed its" no support "for the game of" chicken eating ", and examination and approval became the biggest hurdle of the game of" chicken eating ".

in order to obtain a formal publishing license, manufacturers have to adjust the game theme, elements, copywriting and other content, and make a corresponding statement to the competent authorities. Among them, NetEase's "Wild Operation" has changed from "PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS" to an open world "military exercise" game, using "elimination" instead of "killing".

Tencent, which won the operation right of "PUBG" national service agent, stressed in its official press release that it would assist in the review of the game. "it will follow the relevant guidance of the competent authorities with PUBG to ensure that it conforms to the core socialist values and the traditional cultural habits and ethics of the Chinese nation."

according to 36 Krypton, citing a source familiar with the matter, the "PUBG" game has been basically adjusted, and "review and game adjustment can be done in parallel", but may have to work together with the "glorious mission". There is no way to know exactly how Tencent will solve the sword of Damocles hanging over its head, but problems such as rampant plug-ins, serious homogenization of products and poor game operation experience in the game of "eating chicken" follow.

combining the above factors, the "chicken eating" war between NetEase and Tencent is like a protracted war.

judging from the current war situation, Tencent only "Glorious Mission" and "Desert Island Special training" were officially launched for a short time, while NetEase's two games started the non-deletion test earlier, which has formed a certain influence among the players. the two will still fight fiercely.

in Qiu Mengchen's view, NetEase currently has a first-mover advantage. "the game experience is a sticky thing, and the 20 million users attracted before are easy to precipitate on NetEase, and this part of precipitating users will also bring new precipitated users."

"Tencent's steps are much slower this time, and it lags behind in the development of the chicken-eating game, but it has an advantage in the long run. After polishing products in the future, it will be relatively easy to surpass NetEase by connecting social relationships through Wechat. " Qiu Mengchen added. In the industry consensus, the seamless convergence from games to social networking, which is based on the strong channel distribution ability, is almost the sword of Tencent in the mobile game market.

Edit: mary