Discourse on Chinese games. What bribes and what repels their projects?
We are all well acquainted with the western and eastern sides of the gaming industry. And speaking of the east, first of all, I mean Japanese game companies. However, recently, a lot of gaming news has come not only from the land of the rising sun, but also from the Middle Kingdom. The Chinese igrodely have already conquered the world with their hit Genshin Impact. But apart from this game, we were also shown several promising projects for the future. Let’s think if Chinese games can show their best side. Or will it turn out that Diablo Immortal is far from the worst game in the world?
chinese attraction
Speaking of the positive aspects, the first thing that attracts the projects of the Chinese igrodelov is certainly the visual. Many of his games (I won’t speak for everything) are very beautiful in one way or another. It could be a great style, like in Naraka: Bladepoint. Or a mind-blowing technical performance, like in Black Myth: Wukong. And sometimes all this (stylistic and technical part) goes well together. Also, China guys are not limited by Western agenda and censorship, which is just a plus for them. Even in the aforementioned Diablo Immortal, as bad as it is, the visuals are amazing.
Difference in approaches
The second thing that captivates Chinese developers all of a sudden is their approach to business. Now I will explain my idea. We have been laughing (in tears) at Western companies for several years. For them, in general, it’s normal to talk at some kind of game presentation, show a couple of CGI videos for 30 seconds and voila, forget about the project (in terms of marketing) for 3-4 years. Only after that will they show us the gameplay and then they will probably disappear again for years. The best thing that can illustrate my point is the story of the second Hellblade. In 2019, it was announced with a very cool trailer, and only last year we were shown an incomprehensible part of the game (many did not even understand what exactly the game was). And that’s it, nothing more. No release date or any other information. How ready is the project? Does he even exist? And every second announced game goes this way.
So what about the Chinese? Just yesterday (June 27, 2022), as part of their annual conference, Tencent introduced us to their new project – AAA action Code: To Jin Yong. And immediately presented with a two-minute demo of the game. And although there is still no information on the release date or on the announced platforms, the mere fact of the presence of the gameplay already means a lot. We can already understand what this project is and if it will be of our interest. In principle, we understand that developers already have something, and not just promises and videos that are drawn to order. With the aforementioned Black Myth: Wukong, if my memory serves me, it was more or less the same. Of course, I don’t want to generalize to all companies and rake them under one brush. But in general, it is.
main concern
Against all this, Chinese game companies have a strong argument against it. In recent years, the halo of donation dumps has become firmly entrenched in the Chinese video game industry. It even came to the direct intervention of the Chinese authorities, trying to curb the immense appetites of igrodelov. The icing on the greed cake from him is, again, Diablo Immortal. Although this project belongs to Blizzard, it was NetEase who worked on it. And the curious thing is that the project, which was developed for the most part by a Chinese company, has not yet been released in China. So much so that they went overboard with monetization that they even had to postpone the release in their own country to adjust the game to local legislation.
But all this, first of all, concerns mobile projects. No matter how bad it is (I talked about this in a separate post), but we are used to cliches peculiar to mobile game development. However, I have previously talked about great AAA projects designed for major gaming platforms. what will happen to them? Western industry has long accustomed us to microtransactions not only in shareware multiplayer projects, but also in premium single-player games. Whether the Chinese will follow this path is an open question.
an interesting example
If we talk about how I see Chinese game development, I remember an example. A couple of years ago, as part of another sale on Steam, I came across a curious Chinese game. It’s called a blood spell. Of course, this is far from being a AAA project, but this game in particular seems to me to be the main reflection of everything I talked about above. Despite its cost (I took it for 150 rubles at one sale), it looks very good. Especially for a small project. The gameplay is just as good. But the most interesting thing is that the game is a full-fledged action roguelike, where all parts of all levels, as I understand it, were worked by hand. And of course, there’s no SJW smell here, which makes her that much more appealing. Although not for everyone. And now, when the launch took place (I was playing alpha), the game has probably gotten even better.
If we talk about monetization, then there are no direct microtransactions in the game. Instead, there are a bunch of different DLCs with skins for the main character (or hero). Also, many skins can be opened in the game. As a result, we got a compromise. In the game itself, nothing suggests the possibility of buying something additional (hello Ubisoft), but there is such an opportunity. And if you don’t want to donate, you can get a lot in the game. The scheme, of course, is not new (this time I send a warm greeting to Bethesda and all Todd Howard’s horses), but in modern realities, this is the best option.
conclusion
In any case, the Chinese Games are already arriving little by little. And I wouldn’t call them bad. At least when it comes to projects for large platforms. They have their flaws and not everyone will like them. However, we can safely say that the Chinese are ready to launch high-quality projects and become an important and valuable part of the gaming industry. I hope that they can withstand the high quality bar in their projects and do not slide into full-fledged donation dumps, thus turning the AAA segment into a copy of a mobile one. Otherwise, I will always be happy with cool and interesting projects with an oriental flavor.
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Source: IXBT
