Netease smart enterprises enter the market against the trend, and there is a new possibility for game industrialization

The game industry is currently the most discussed topic , No doubt the version number .

2019 Years have 1579 This game has passed the approval of the version number ,2020 The number of annual reviews has been reduced to 1405 paragraph ,2021 The number of years has been halved 755 paragraph ,2022 It's over half a year , The number of approved Games has just exceeded 100 .“ Plate number ” It's like an invisible hand , Firmly grasp the throat of the game industry .

However, in the atmosphere of the game market , Netease smart enterprises are trying to play the role of the reverse , When the outside world vies to escape , Choose to plough silently in the red sea of the game , And launched a full link game solution , It's about operations 、 Security 、 social contact 、 Going to sea and other links .

Want to explain this phenomenon , In addition to different enterprises' different judgments on market prospects , It may also involve the subject of domestic game industrialization .

01 Farewell to an era
Because the edition number is tightened , There are many voices in the industry that sing down the game industry , But few people think about such a problem , That is, why should the board tighten the pocket of game distribution ？

Want to answer this question , It also needs to be traced back to 2021 year 3 month 15 Japanese 《 Game review scoring rules 》, Introduced a new game evaluation system , Will be guided by ideas 、 Original design 、 Production quality 、 Cultural connotation 、 Degree of development, etc 5 Score in four dimensions . The expert group will rate the initial version and the final version of the game , The rating range for each item is 0-5 branch , Any one appears 0 All points will be rejected by one vote , Comprehensive score 3 Score and above can be approved .

The review system doesn't seem complicated , But set a number of hard Standards .

For example, the development progress of the game should reach 70% above , It avoids the behavior of major content changes after some games get the version number ; Another example is that the main consideration of original design is to compare with similar games in the market , If there is a clear “ Skin picking ” Behavior , Will not pass directly .

It seems to be just original design 、 The development progress and other aspects have tightened the Standards , But it got stuck in the neck of many game manufacturers . In the past few years , There are thousands of online games in China every year , But many rely on low-cost advertising marketing to buy 、 Short term harvest consumer skin changing game . First find the successful game products on the market , Apply the game 、 The number 、 Architecture and storyline , And then to the characters 、 scene 、 The picture 、 Copy, etc , And then package it into a new game for promotion .

A typical example is Lilith's right 《 Hero Summoner 》 and 《 Little raccoon hundred generals 》 Litigation of , The hero interface of both 、 How to play 、 The rules are the same as those of Lilith's 《 Sword and expedition 》 be similar . although 《 Hero Summoner 》 Later, he publicly apologized and stopped operation , But it took several months to communicate . Another game is still in normal operation , There is no clear result of the lawsuit between the two sides .

The repeated prohibition of skin changing Games , To some extent, it reflects the false prosperity of the domestic game market ： Game development is a process full of uncertainty ,“ Change the skin game ” Skipped the early market verification in a gray way , It saves a lot of development cost and time cycle , Almost become the path dependence of some game manufacturers . But also left light research and development 、 Re Marketing 、 Industry chaos caused by rough Manufacturing , It has hit the initiative of game developers , It destroys the market atmosphere of fair competition , It also virtually consumes the enthusiasm of domestic game users .

According to the Research Report of Gamma data , Included in the statistics 34 Among the listed game companies ,2022 The proportion of decline in net profit in the first quarter of 2014 exceeded 67%, Some enterprises even saw a decline in revenue and net profit . The tightening of edition numbers is making the domestic game market experience a painful period , It declares that the era of game shoddy production is coming to an end , At the same time, it is also an incentive for Netease smart enterprises and other players to enter the market .

After all, under the situation of tightening copyright , What game manufacturers are most concerned about is how to effectively and cheaply implement their creativity , How to improve the retention rate of users in the distribution process , How to achieve security 、 compliance 、 Long term operation … Only by solving these problems , In order to survive in the era of stock competition .

02 Netease smart enterprise “ prescription ”
Backed by a game giant like Netease , Netease smart enterprises are 2015 Started serving game customers in , It seems no stranger to a series of chaos in the domestic game market .

Just like the insight of Yin Jingcheng, vice chairman of Netease smart Enterprise Technology Committee ： After the brutal growth stage of the domestic game market , Need to return to the game itself , Conduct research on user habits and preferences , Do a good job in the user's innovation 、 Retention and operation , At the same time, find the optimal solution in risk control and cost control . If the previous game market was based on volume , The current market law further turns to high-quality products .

The problem lies in , Netease smart enterprises entering the market against the trend , How to inject new vitality into the game industry ？ Corresponding to the three product systems of Netease smart enterprise ：

The first is Netease e-shield, which mainly plays the security card , Aimed at game cracking 、 Game plug-in 、 Studio excavation 、 Content control and other security scenarios .

This is also the direct pain point faced by game manufacturers , Game cracking 、 There is no need to talk about the impact of game plug-ins , There is also content risk that cannot be underestimated , Illegal avatar or nickname 、 The false advertisement 、 Comments involving pornography and violence, etc , It has irreversible harm to user experience and game ecology . The answer of Netease Yidun is , Through intelligent anti plug 、 Human machine identification and other operation tools , as well as “ Machine identification + The security policy + Manual review ” Digital content risk control system , Ensure the safe and compliant operation of the game .

The second is Netease cloud business aiming at the operation scenario , It involves game development 、 Game marketing 、 Game operation and other services throughout the life cycle .

For example, in the game development stage , Game manufacturers can use the questionnaire survey of cloud merchants 、 Consumer insight and other products and services , Investigate the differences between user habits and competitive products ; By building a private domain traffic pool , Improve the retention and activity of users ; In the process of operation with AI Outbound robots touch and recall users , Respond effectively to the needs of Omni channel players through intelligent customer service …… Compared with the crude growth in the past , Netease cloud business provides a new paradigm of refined operation .

Then there is Netease Yunxin, which improves user stickiness , Try to help game manufacturers connect with users inside and outside the domain through audio and video technology .

For a long time , The contact between users and games is mainly in the game , The touch outside the game is almost blank . Netease Yunxin proposed a new solution ： While passing through the chat room 、 Range voice 、 Space sound effects, etc. optimize users' interactive experience in the game , While helping game manufacturers build community platforms 、 Immersive games, social networking and other ways to establish new contacts with users outside the game , Further, while improving user stickiness, we can have more accurate insight into user portraits .

In order to solve the thorny problems faced by the game industry , Netease intelligent enterprises have also carried out targeted optimization ： For example, the game intelligent anti plug-in system of Yidun has evolved to the fifth generation , in the light of FPS、SLG And other games of different styles provide targeted anti plug-in solutions ; Cloud business AI Outbound robots can choose different outbound devices for different players , Include NPC、BOSS、 spokesman 、 Planning greatly, etc ; Voice message of Yunxin 、 Real time voice 、 Space sound effect and other functions , It can fit all kinds of interactive scenes in the game .

Have reason to believe , Netease smart enterprise products 、 Service and methodology have been fully verified in Netease . But compared with the decline in revenue and profits “ emergency case ”, The prescription of Netease smart enterprise is still a chronic medicine , Whether such a prescription can suit the case , We also need to consider the trend of the whole game industry .

03 The industry has entered a new cycle
When the game market fell into unprecedented “ Darkest hour ”, What has changed is not only the market pattern , It will also reconstruct the underlying logic of the upstream and downstream industries .

Just like the scene mentioned above ,“ Change the skin game ” Among the reasons for popularity , An important factor is cost considerations , It saves the cost of game development and trial and error , Then continue to increase investment in marketing . The tightening of edition number indicates that the inherent logic has become unworkable , Especially in terms of the originality of the game 、 To complete the degree 、 After the red line is drawn for the production quality , It is bound to completely rewrite the original market rules .

A direct change is the allocation of R & D investment .

“ Change the skin game ” After the route of is cut off , Game manufacturers must spend their energy on research and development , To be exact, it is planning 、 The fine arts 、 Procedures and other core links , While in operation 、 Customer service 、 Marketing, etc , We need to further control costs on the basis of improving efficiency .

Take the indispensable customer service team as an example , Even medium-sized game makers , It often needs a customer service department with hundreds of people , Make user complaints 、 User recall and other work . But intelligent customer service can already handle 85% At present, the above workload , A purely manual customer service team is no longer an ideal choice , Besides, the cost of a manual customer service may be 15 Ten thousand yuan , The one-year service charge of intelligent customer service is only 2 Ten thousand yuan or so .

Another indirect change is the shift of marketing strategy .

After the domestic game version number is tightened , Many manufacturers choose to go to sea to look for opportunities . However AppsFlyer stay 《2022 China application globalization trend insight report 》 According to the data disclosed in , In the past year , The cost of getting customers for China's overseas applications has increased year-on-year 12% about .

Whether at home or abroad , In the context of higher traffic costs , It is constantly compressing the profit space of game manufacturers , The marketing strategy of advertising buying is losing its appeal . It seems that there are not many choices left for game manufacturers , Or improve the retention rate of new users , Or constantly activate the activity of stock users , No matter which choice, we should increase the investment in marketing services , From the past flow thinking to operation thinking .

Then look at Netease smart enterprise “ prescription ”, The entry point of Yidun and Yunxin is to help game manufacturers reduce R & D costs , Focus on the core link of game research and development ; What cloud merchants see is market research 、 Private domain operation 、 Smart customer service and other marketing and service needs . These products and services may not be able to save those enterprises struggling in the traditional logic , But it points out the direction for enterprises that actively seek change .

The logic is , Games belong to the cultural and creative industry , Enterprises need to know the world view of games 、 How to play 、 Whether art style is loved by players , And social games are also a part of weightlifting . Therefore, smart enterprise solutions cover User Research 、 data mining 、 Cloud game demo 、 Experience innovation 、 Community construction and other core links . Especially in the context of game industrialization , Enterprises need to re control R & D costs and efficiency , Make rational use of the upstream and downstream services of the industrial chain , Avoid missing the best time window , It is already a compulsory course for all game developers .

Examples that can be found are , A game manufacturer created user research with the help of Netease intelligent enterprise 、 Data analysis 、 Fine operation 、 Private domain operation 、 Closed loop operation services including intelligent customer service , The customer unit price in the whole operation cycle is higher than that in the past 322%,LTV Promoted 18%; Netease smart enterprise service haggle game , At the same time, Yunxin is introduced 、 One stop service including Yidun and cloud commerce , User stickiness 、 Content security 、 Operational efficiency has been significantly improved .

in other words , When the era of rough and shoddy games comes to an end , Upstream and downstream enterprises are also constantly looking for new ways , The industry is entering a new cycle .

04 Towards game industrialization
In fact, a few years ago , Someone began to discuss the proposition of game industrialization , And stabilize the production of game manufacturers “ necessities ”, As a symbol of game industrialization .

Even in the “ Change the skin game ” When it was in vogue , There is no shortage in China “ necessities ” The best . Netease produced 《 Yin Yang teacher 》、《 Fifth personality 》、《 Harry Potter magic Awakening 》, And Tencent's 《 Glory of Kings 》、《 Game for Peace 》 wait , Can be included in “ necessities ” The category of . Even in PC End 、 The host side still lags behind foreign countries , The domestic mobile game market has already gained a firm foothold .

If Netease 、 Tencent's case is still lack of representativeness , After all, small and medium-sized game enterprises cannot spend tens of billions on research and development every year , but 《 Protogod 》 Popular all over the world , And the industrialization process that MIHA tour is proud of , Undoubtedly confirmed the correctness of game industrialization .

Unlike a few years ago, there were only a few “ Sentimental manufacturers ” The phenomenon of promoting the industrialization of games , The game industry after entering the new cycle , There are also two external forces ：

First, the pressure of regulators .

2021 Year of ChinaJoy On , Yang Fang, deputy director of the Publishing Bureau of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, said in her speech ：“ Online games are acousto-optic 、 The combination of literary theory , It integrates various artistic elements such as music, art and Literature , Many people call online games the ninth art , This is our encouragement and affirmation , It also reflects a quality expectation .” From this view , The tightening of edition numbers is by no means a means to suppress the game industry , Instead, they are forcing game manufacturers to change their past production and business mechanisms , Out of the “ Rotten ” The mire of , The road to game industrialization .

The second is the thrust of the market .

According to Yin Jingcheng's understanding of game industrialization , The purpose of game industrialization is to deliver high-quality game products on a large scale and stably , Including art assets 、 Level design 、 Game copywriting and so on , We need to promote the standardization of the process 、 Specialization of division of labor , Improve production efficiency through organizational innovation , At the same time, we should use technology to avoid unnecessary duplication of labor , For example, program reuse 、 Motion capture 、 Scenario procedural generation, etc . Netease intelligent enterprise based on the first link of the game industrialization industrial chain , With the help of solutions covering the game development cycle, we are promoting the industrialization process .

It is probably also the reason why Netease intelligent enterprises put forward the full link solution . Netease Yunxin provides real-time interactive game voice social networking solutions 、 Netease Yidun provides security solutions for the whole life cycle of the game 、 Netease cloud providers provide integrated service marketing solutions , In fact, it has covered every link of the game development cycle , While improving our competitiveness , It is also using a subtle way to lead game customers to the road of industrialization .

It can be concluded that , After a wave of high-quality Games “ Baptism ” after , The aesthetic and taste of players will also continue to rise , Those short-sighted 、 pursue material gain 、 Rough games are no longer recognized , Game makers want to survive in the market , There is only one way to become a boutique .

What's more, Netease intelligent enterprises have also started the layout of overseas markets , Will gradually move from Southeast Asia 、 Japan, South Korea and other Asia Pacific regions have penetrated into the global market , It means the safety verified in the domestic market 、 social contact 、 Operations and other services can also be accessed overseas . Overseas markets are not “ Change the skin game ” Safe haven , It's a new battlefield for high-quality Games .

The winter of the domestic game industry will continue for some time , But hidden behind the cold winter wind , It is destined to be a warm spring full of vitality .