The glory of the king server crashed; Apple Low-key Plus Meta Universe | Game Industry Weekly

Wen San competes for the nucleus.

1. The the glory of the king system collapsed and reached the top of Weibo Hot Search.

On September 4th, a topic "the glory of the king collapsed" rushed to Weibo for hot search. The glory of the king official response, some players in qualifying, the peak race into the abnormal problem, the problem is being dealt with emergency positioning.

Although the official did not explain the specific reasons for the server abnormality, recently, the most stringent "anti-addiction" notice in history has just been issued. The notice requires strict restrictions on the online game time of minors, and can only provide one-hour service to minors from 20: 00 to 21: 00 on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and legal holidays.

And "the glory of the king collapsed" is in the first weekend when major online game companies implement policies.

2. Apple’s first AR/VR chip exposure, low-key plus meta-universe.

On September 3rd, according to the exclusive report of The Information, Apple completed the research and development of chips such as System-on-Chip (SoC) last year, which has no built-in AI acceleration module. Apple chips have better performance than third-party SoC, including better wireless data transmission, compression, decompression and higher energy efficiency.

The report shows that SoC and two other Apple chips have reached what the semiconductor industry calls a milestone. The physical design of the chip has been completed and is ready for trial production. According to people familiar with the matter, TSMC is producing these three chips, and it is at least one year before mass production. This is a key stage in the development of this head display.

According to the previous news, its debut will be released as early as next year, but Apple may further postpone the release time.

3. Premier League Wolves acquired Chongqing QGhappy and entered the professional league in the glory of the king.

On September 5th, Fosun Sports, where the Premier League Wolves are located, officially announced the acquisition of the glory of the king Professional League (hereinafter referred to as KPL) club Chongqing QGhappy.

After the acquisition, Chongqing QGhappy will be renamed as Chongqing Wolves, and will continue to take Chongqing as the home of the team in the new season and fight with a brand-new attitude.

This announced that the Premier League Wolves officially entered KPL, and the Wolves became the first traditional football club to enter the world’s top mobile e-sports professional league.

4. South Korea’s "Partial Amendment to the Telecommunication Business Law" was passed, and Apple’s monopoly on commission has become a thing of the past.

The issue of Apple Store payment has been the focus of the industry in recent years, including the previous Epic vs Apple War.

On August 31, South Korea’s "Partial Amendment to the Telecommunication Business Law" was officially passed, and South Korea became the first country in the world to end the monopoly position of Apple and Google. According to the requirements of the Act, neither Google Play Store nor Apple AppStore can force developers to use the only payment system on the platform in the Korean market.

This means that developers will be able to use third-party payment, and the app store that has lasted for many years will be divided into 3: 7 models and take the lead in ending in the Korean market.

In addition, Japan, India and other countries have also indicated that they will further review the payment problem of Apple Store.

  • 2.1 Game list in domestic market

Chinese mainland market

Domestic market August 30, 2021 — On September 4th, in the best-selling list of iOS games, The Original God topped the list, and The Battle of the Golden Shovel temporarily occupied the third place in tencent games.

On August 31st, on the occasion of the first anniversary of "The Original God", Mihayou released a brand-new 2.1 version of "The Moon is under the sun". Including the new roles of "Thunder General, Coral Palace Heart Sea, and Jiutiao Luo", opening two new areas of "Qinglai Island and Haitang Island" and updating the fiend mission and legendary mission.

In addition, new weapons, fishing systems and new monsters have been put on the shelves.

Aside from the quality of products, The Original God has been successfully pushed out of the glory of the king on September 1st, and reached the top of the best-selling list of App Store games with its stable long-term content output, staged stacking of buff, and the amount of fluid absorbed by the first anniversary activities.

On the other hand, tencent games’s The Battle of the Golden Shovel has become the "third brother" of tencent games since it was launched on August 26th.

Recently, this work has been closely followed by the glory of the king and Peace Elite, and it has been firmly in Top5.

In terms of other products, Sanqi’s mutual entertainment "Douluo Mainland: Soul-to-Soul Match" and Netease’s game "Fantasy Westward Journey" performed steadily.

China Hong Kong market

China and Hongkong Market August 30, 2021 — On September 4th, in the best-selling list of iOS games, Ali’s games "The Three Kingdoms Strategic Edition", "The Original God" and "The Robbery of Heaven and Earth: The Return of the Dark City" topped the list.

As one of the heavyweight products of Ali Games, The Three Kingdoms Strategic Edition has been at the top of the local App Store game bestseller list since it landed in the Hong Kong market in January this year. In addition, the game was also a T1-level product in the strategy game market at that time.

Thanks to the first anniversary of the launch and version 2.1, the global release of Mihayou "The Original God" has also performed extremely well in the Hong Kong market this week. Temporarily remain in the best-selling list Top2.

In addition, Zi Long Games’ innovative placement of the RPG game "Robbery of Heaven and Earth: The Return of the Ghost Town" also topped the best-selling list of Hong Kong App Store games this week.

In addition to local products, the Marvel Comics IP adaptation MMORPG mobile game "Marvel Comics Future Revolution" launched by South Korea Netstone and Marvel Comics has also performed well in the Hong Kong market since it was launched on August 24. Japanese manufacturers’ products such as Zhilong Lost City, Baokemeng Master EX, Dragon Ball Z, and Football Teenager gathered in the Top10 of the best-selling list of App Store games in Hong Kong.

China Taiwan Province market

China Taiwan Province Market August 30, 2021 — On September 4th, in the best-selling list of iOS games, The Original God and Three Kingdoms Strategic Edition topped the list.

Similar to the Hong Kong market, Ali’s game "The Three Kingdoms Strategic Edition", Mikhail’s game "The Original God" and Zi Long’s game "The Robbery of Heaven and Earth: The Return of the Ghost Town" all performed well in the best-selling list of the App Store in Taiwan Province this week.

Sanqi Mutual Entertainment’s "Douluo Mainland: Soul-to-Soul Duel" is stable in the best-selling list Top5 this week. As far as performance is concerned, this work is a relatively successful mobile game adapted from Douluo Mainland IP on the market at present.

In addition, the company’s "Doomsday" and "Call me a big shopkeeper" two products, which mainly go to sea, also entered the Top10 of the App Store game list this week.

  • 2.2 List of Games in Major Overseas Markets

American market

American market August 30, 2021 — On September 4 th, in the best-selling list of iOS games, "The Original God" dominated the list.

Quality+global theme, coupled with the continuous and stable long-term content output, gives Mihayou the confidence to reach different cultural regions. Since September 1, the game has been on the best-selling list of App Store games in the United States for three consecutive days.

In addition, the only domestic game that entered the Top10 list this week is tencent games’s Call of Duty Mobile Games.

Japanese market

Japanese market August 30, 2021 — On September 4 th, in the best-selling list of iOS games, "Horse Racing Mother" topped the list.

In terms of domestic games going to sea in Japan, Mihayou’s Original God, music element Idol Dream Sacrifice, Netease’s game Wild Action and Fifth Personality entered the Top10 of the best-selling list.

Korean market

Korean market August 30, 2021 — On September 4th, in the best-selling list of iOS games, Odin: The Rise of Varhala still topped the list.

In terms of domestic South Korean games, Mihayou’s "The Original God" and Ali’s game "The History of the Three Kingdoms Strategic Edition" are on the Top2 of the best-selling list.

In addition, tencent games’s PUBG Mobile and Lilith’s Awakening of the Nations entered the Top10 list.

Indian market

Indian market August 30, 2021 — On September 4th, in the best-selling list of iOS games, PUBG MOBILE India Edition, SEA《Free Fire and tencent games’s Call of Duty Mobile Games launched a fierce competition around "India is the first brother to eat chicken mobile games".

Only from this week’s performance, the top two products ranked Top1 in the best-selling list, and basically remained within Top3. In contrast, the advantages of tencent games’s Call of Duty Mobile Games are not obvious. During the period, it ranked Top2 and dropped out of the Top10 list.

In fact, this is quite different from the performance of PUBG MOBILE India Edition. To some extent, in the same category, the products that enter the market first will definitely have the advantages of user base and usage habits.

Even if PUBG MOBILE India Edition has the support of "invisible hand", it is difficult to "cover the sky with one hand".

Data-Eye data shows that casual games occupy all the positions of Top10 in the buying list from August 30th to September 5th.

Compared with last week, although Beijing Zhanxin Power "Paradise 233" is still at the top of the buying list, the amount of materials released this week has dropped by 50% to 31,413 groups, compared with 68,993 groups in the same period last week.

In addition, from the perspective of product types, most products in the Top10 list are "leisure+online earning" types.

Since the State Press and Publication Administration released the game version number on July 22nd, no new version number information has been published recently.

According to competitive statistics, as of September 5, 2021, a total of 755 game version numbers were issued. Among them, there are 679 domestic game versions and 76 imported game versions.

Specifically, Tencent, Netease, ByteDance and Aauto Quicker were issued with version numbers in 2021, which were 13, 11, 2 and 3 respectively.

It is worth mentioning that on September 3, the State Council issued a notice on several measures to promote the reform and innovation of trade and investment facilitation in the Pilot Free Trade Zone, in which Article 16, "Piloting the territorial management of online games", pointed out that the Central Propaganda Department will be responsible for promoting the online game audit pilot work in the location of the eligible Pilot Free Trade Zone.

In fact, the idea of "launching a pilot project of territorial management of online games" has been put forward many times this year. For example, on April 8, the Ministry of Commerce of the National Development and Reform Commission issued the Opinions on Several Special Measures to Support the Construction of Hainan Free Trade Port and Relax Market Access, and on April 21, the Ministry of Commerce issued the Overall Plan for the Comprehensive Pilot of Expanding and Opening up the Service Industry in Hainan Province, all of which advocated Hainan to deepen the pilot work of reviewing the content of local online games.

In addition, on April 21st, in the notice of the Ministry of Commerce on printing and distributing the "Overall Plan for the Comprehensive Pilot Project of Expanding and Opening up the Service Industry in Chongqing", it also mentioned "supporting Chongqing to actively create conditions to apply for the pilot project of reviewing the content of local online games".

Since 2018, the version number policy has been tightened in an all-round way, and the version number has been extremely strict. Hainan and Chongqing are expected to become new network audit pilots, and may be improved.

It must be pointed out that considering the recent "uninsured" incidents, Jinghe believes that the increase in pilot projects does not mean that the approval will be relaxed, or even stricter. For example, no new version number was issued in August 2021, which also explained some problems. 

Unresured correlation:

August 30th: The three-day and three-hour insurance policy was issued.
The State Press and Publication Administration issued the Notice on Further Strict Management to Effectively Prevent Minors from Indulging in Online Games. The contents of the notice are roughly divided into three parts: for game companies, the requirements for real-name registration and login of online game user accounts are strictly implemented; Strictly control the duration of providing game services to minors (only on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays at 20: 20:00— 21:00)。

August 31st: Children’s game community should also be limited to 3 hours.

A number of official accounts of Baiao Family Interactive, the developer of Olastar and Obi Island mobile games and page games, announced that the anti-addiction system of mobile games and page games will be adjusted on September 1, and will only provide one-hour game service to minors from 20: 00 to 21: 00 on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, and will not provide game service to users who are not registered and logged in by their real names in any form.

September 1st: Some e-sports events announced restrictions on the age of contestants.

The State Press and Publication Administration recently issued the Notice on Further Strict Management to Effectively Prevent Minors from Indulging in Online Games. Subsequently, some e-sports officials announced that they had begun to limit the age of the contestants. Among them, the PEL Peace Elite Professional League announced that it will carry out compliance work on the age of the contestants; KPL the glory of the king Professional League has made it clear that KPL and K-A players must be at least 18 years old before they can participate.

September 2nd: Hearthstone prohibits underage certified professional players.

Recently, the State Press and Publication Administration issued the Notice on Further Strict Management to Effectively Prevent Minors from Indulging in Online Games to solve the problem of minors’ overuse or even indulging in online games. Subsequently, major manufacturers have expressed their views, and now Netease has decided to prohibit minors from being certified as professional e-sports players of Hearthstone Legend.

September 4th: "the glory of the king" collapsed, ranking first in the hot search.

"the glory of the king collapsed" topped the hot search list in Weibo. Although the official did not explain the specific reasons for the server abnormality, recently, the most stringent "anti-addiction" notice in history has just been issued, demanding that the online game time of minors be strictly limited, and only one hour service can be provided to minors from 20: 00 to 21: 00 on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays. This is the first weekend for major online game companies to implement policies.

Industry trends: 

August 30th: The producer of "Rulong" is expected to join Netease.

According to Bloomberg News, Netease is in the final negotiations to poach the names of the producers of "Like a Dragon" series from Sega. According to people familiar with the matter, after Ming Yue changed jobs to Netease, he will set up his own team and develop new games. The two sides have not yet signed a final contract, and his responsibilities have not yet been finalized. Nobuyoshi Kuniyama is a famous game producer in the Japanese game industry, and the total sales volume of his series of "Rulong" games has exceeded 14 million.

August 31st: South Korea legislates to end Apple’s channel monopoly.

In the plenary vote of the National Assembly of Korea, the Partial Amendment to the Telecommunication Business Law was passed with 180 votes in favor, 0 votes against and 8 abstentions. Korea became the first country in the world to end the monopoly position of Apple and Google.

According to the requirements of the Act, neither Google Play Store nor Apple AppStore can force developers to use the only payment system on the platform in the Korean market. This means that developers will be able to use third-party payment, and the app store that has lasted for many years will be divided into 3: 7 models and take the lead in ending in the Korean market.

August 31: Netstone establishes Yuan Universe Company.

Netmarble F&C, a subsidiary of South Korean mobile game giant Netmarble, said on the 31st that its wholly-owned subsidiary "Metaverse Entertainment" was formally established. According to reports, "Metauniverse Entertainment" will devote itself to developing a virtual reality platform and operating virtual idols. The masterpieces of mobile games launched by Netstone in recent two years mainly include Seven Sins: The Battle of Light and Darkness and Sword Spirit Revolution.

August 31st: Robles invested 90 million dollars to expand.

The developer of Robles is planning to expand the company. In the latest quarterly financial report of Robles, the company plans to expand its headquarters in san mateo, California, with an expansion area of 123,000 square feet. The expansion project will cost about $90 million and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2022.

August 31st: iQiyi launches VR All-in-One Adventure 3.

Iqiyi Adventure VR held an online new product release show with the theme of "Good Games, Free Play", and officially released its fun and beautiful new generation flagship VR masterpiece — — Adventure 3. The first 30 high-quality games are all open to the first owner for free, and the total value of the games exceeds 1700 yuan.

September 1st: The father of PUBG set up an independent game studio.

Brendan Greene, the creator of "Survival of the Jedi", announced that he has left Krafton, the parent company of Blue Hole. As the founder of Survival of the Jedi, PlayerUnknown in the full name of this book (Player Unknown’s Battle Grounds Player Unknown) is his screen name.

September 2: Lilith card new tour exposure.

Lilith officially announced that "Shenjue" has already made reservations on platforms such as bilibili and TapTap, and expressed the hope to present a brand-new popular fantasy IP for players through "Shenjue". "Shenjue" is an RPG mobile game developed by Lilith with the theme of urban mythology. In addition to combining urban and mythical themes, the game also incorporates the elements of trend and electronic sound, which is unique in terms of picture and music.

September 2nd: Hatsune Miku Mobile Games will be released in the morning and evening.

Hatsune Miku genuine authorized mobile game "World Plan Colorful Stage! Specially invited: Hatsune Miku (hereinafter referred to as "World Plan") officially announced that Lightyear, a subsidiary of ByteDance, will be responsible for the distribution in Asia except Japan.

September 2: Apple opens third-party payment for audio and video applications.

According to reports, Apple will allow third-party developers to connect their software to external websites, so that users can buy their paid services, which has solved the long-standing controversy surrounding the Apple App Store. These include audio and video, reading and other applications, and game applications are not among them for the time being.

September 3: Apple’s first AR/VR chip is exposed.

According to the exclusive report of The Information, Apple completed the research and development of chips such as System on Chip (SoC) last year, which has no built-in AI acceleration module. Apple chips have better performance than third-party SoC, including better wireless data transmission, compression, decompression and higher energy efficiency.

September 3: India or review Apple Store payment issues.

After South Korea, India’s antitrust authorities are also eyeing App Store’s in-app payment problem, that is, forcing developers to use their in-app purchase system. The Indian Competition Commission will review the case in the next few weeks and may order a wider investigation or deal with it in general.

September 3rd: JD.COM banned 87 console games.

JD.COM’s announcement of banning the sale of games has been widely circulated. There are as many as 87 games in the announcement, most of which are console games, among which there are many famous masterpieces such as Call of Duty series and Collection! Animal Forest Friends Association, FIFA19, etc.

September 3rd: Layabox wholly acquired FairyGUI, the largest third-party editor.
Recently, Layabox, the company owned by LayaAir engine, has completed the wholly-owned acquisition of Huagu Software. In the future, FairyGUI will still maintain independent operation and version maintenance. Gu Zhu (Xiao Yingtang), the founder of Huagu Software, joined Layabox and became the head of Layabox Guangzhou Branch, mainly responsible for the design and development of LayaAir engine 3.0 IDE. LayaAir engine, owned by the acquirer Layabox, accounts for 90% of the 3D engine of small game platform with its mature and leading 3D technology advantages.

Financial report dynamics:

August 30th: The revenue of Sanqi Entertainment H1 is 7.5 billion yuan.

Sanqi Entertainment released its financial report for the first half of 2021. The financial report shows that H1 Sanqi Entertainment achieved revenue of 7.539 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5.63%; The total profit was 1.006 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 49.51%; The net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 854 million yuan, down 49.77% from the same period of last year. Among them, the company’s mobile game business revenue was 7.067 billion yuan, down 4.65% year-on-year.

August 30th: Google App Store earned $11.2 billion in 2019.

South Korea may ban Google and Apple from charging software developers commissions for in-app purchases, the first such containment measure in a major economy, which may damage the lucrative revenue sources of technology giants, Reuters reported. According to the report, the Legislative and Judicial Committee of South Korea’s Parliament is expected to approve an amendment to the Telecommunication Business Law known as the "Anti-Google Law" on Tuesday, prohibiting application store operators with dominant market positions from using certain payment systems.

August 30th: century huatong H1 game revenue is 6.2 billion yuan.

Century huatong released its financial report for the first half of 2021. The financial report shows that H1 century huatong achieved revenue of 7.31 billion yuan, down 5.9% year-on-year; The net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 2.45 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 52.88%. Among them, the proportion of Internet game revenue has reached 85.15%. During the reporting period, the company’s game business achieved operating income of 6.228 billion yuan, with a compound growth rate of 35.51% in three years.

August 31st: Netease game H1 revenue of 14.5 billion.

Netease announced its financial report for the second quarter of 2021. According to the financial report data, Netease Q2′ s total revenue was 20.52 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.9%. The net profit attributable to shareholders of the company was 3.54 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 21.9%; Under non-GAAP, the net profit attributable to shareholders of the company was 4.23 billion yuan. In terms of game business, Netease’s total game revenue in this quarter increased by 5% year-on-year to 14.53 billion yuan.

E-sports dynamics:

September 2nd: EDG won the LPL Summer Championship.

The 2021 LPL Summer Finals was held in Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center. EDG defeated FPX by 3:1 to win the Summer Finals, and finally successfully won the Silver Dragon Cup, and will compete in the 2021 League of Legends Global Finals S11 as the No.1 seed of LPL.

September 3rd: RNG Zero Letter WE entered S11.

In the first round of qualifiers in LPL Division of League of Legends Global Finals in 2021, RNG team defeated rival WE with a score of 3-0 and obtained the third seed qualification leading to the global finals.

September 5th: Premier League Wolves acquire Chongqing QGhappy.

Fosun Sports, where the Premier League Wolves are located, officially announced the acquisition of the glory of the king Professional League (hereinafter referred to as KPL) club Chongqing QGhappy. After the acquisition, Chongqing QGhappy will be renamed as Chongqing Wolves, and will continue to take Chongqing as the home of the team in the new season and fight with a brand-new attitude. This announced that the Premier League Wolves officially entered KPL, and the Wolves became the first traditional football club to enter the world’s top mobile e-sports professional league.

Start a new tour next week (9.6-9.12):

According to the statistics of hot money network, the only big factory game to be launched next week is Netease game Harry Potter: Magic Awakening.

This work is an RPG mobile game authorized by the original Harry Potter, developed and distributed by Netease Games.

In the game, the player plays a freshman in the School of Wizardry, enters Hogwarts College to study, and starts a mysterious adventure with other partners. Although the picture of the game is 3D, through the combination of filters, rendering and light and shadow, the whole picture has a retro picture book effect, which is very compatible with the magical theme of Harry Potter.

At present, Harry Potter: The Magic Awakens has more than 10 million reservations in official website, and the TapTap score is 7.1.