Early this morning, Ubisoft held a 2022 preview press conference, bringing information on many new games such as "Black Sails in the Blue Sea", "Malio + Crazy Rabbit", "Rainbow Six M", "Dance Full" and "Assassin's Creed" series in one go.

Speaking of which, the time point of this press conference appeared was a bit special. Earlier this week, Ubisoft confirmed that Tencent had acquired 49.9% of its largest shareholder Guillemot Brothers for 300 million euros, thereby increasing its stake in Ubisoft from 4.5% to 9.99%.

Ubisoft's performance in the game market has been relatively dull in recent years, with almost no hits released. Instead, the radical measures to enter NFT have been questioned a lot. Since the beginning of this year, news has been often reported in the European and American gaming circles that Ubisoft may be sold as a whole.

When another "Vivendi moment" approached, in May this year, there was news that Guillemot Brothers was repurchasing stocks through private equity. Until recently, Tencent invested a stake, completely eliminating the possibility of speculative capital institutions intervening in the middle. Then, Ubisoft's stock price fell sharply again...

In fact, Tencent's terms of increase in holdings accepted are extremely "humble", such as Tencent is not allowed to sell Ubisoft shares within 5 years; within 8 years, Tencent is not allowed to increase its holdings of Ubisoft shares and voting rights by more than 9.99%; Tencent does not have any business veto rights.

At this time, both players and the capital market hope to see Ubisoft come up with a strong enough lineup to prove that it is still the most competitive manufacturer in the traditional game world.

Last night's annual preview meeting did achieve a lot of weight and fullness. Compared with the fragmented information released on E3 last year, this year's press conference focused on Ubisoft's secret IP "Assassin's Creed".

The previously released "Middle East Assassin's Creed" "Assassin's Creed: Fantasy" released its first CG trailer. The game is set in Baghdad in the 9th century AD. The game will be driven by narrative, retaining the upgrade system of the previous work, but paying more attention to the traditional stealth, assassination, and parkour experiences. The game will be released next year and is currently available for pre-order, with the standard version priced at 248 yuan.

In addition, Ubisoft also previewed the planning of the future "Assassin's Creed" flagship game. There is "Assassin's Creed: Codename RED" based on Japanese history, produced by Ubisoft Quebec, and the protagonist is set as a Ninja.

The Holy Roman Emperor in the 16th century witch hunting period"Assassin's Creed: Codename HEXE", which is set in the country, was developed by Ubisoft Montreal and is known as the darkest work in the series of history.

Of course, the most discussed or controversial thing on the domestic Internet is the brand new Chinese background Assassin's Creed game "Assassin's Creed: Codename JADE" produced by Ubisoft. The story is set in the Qin Dynasty in 215 BC. Judging from the brief trailer, the portrayal of the city, market and the Great Wall is quite interesting. But this is a free open world, mobile game.

Hearing this description, you may have reacted the same way as netizens who stayed up late to watch the press conference, with a black question mark on their faces, "What? It's not an orthodox sequel, it's a mobile game?" Once the news came out, major post bars and forums also became a quarrel. Although some people had expectations for mobile games with Chinese backgrounds, most people still expressed regret and even anger.

In fact, the news that Ubisoft is making Assassin's Creed mobile game is not mysterious. In recent years, there have been reports at home and abroad, and joint development with Tencent is also expected.

In 2020, Tianmei Studio released a signboard notice for the 3A mobile game project, which directly used the relevant materials of Assassin's Creed. It can be seen that this plan has been underway for at least two years. All signs indicate that "Assassin's Creed: Codename JADE" is a work led by T1 and supervised and directed by Ubisoft.

However, except for the games made by local teams, there will basically be no historical XX problems, which may not be of any comfort to domestic players.

Objectively speaking, Ubisoft makes the Assassin's Creed game for Chinese players into a mobile game, which is not considered a choice of "the age has changed." As the former owner of Gameloft, Ubisoft produced the masterpieces of "Prince of Persia" and "Assassin's Creed" IPs in the early stages of mobile games development.

Mobile gameplay has always been an important strategy for Ubisoft. At the press conference in the early morning, mobile game content also occupied a considerable amount of space, including "Rainbow Six M", which is highly anticipated, and three new mobile games jointly developed with Netflix's game department, including the new work of "Brave Heart" and the new work of "Assassin's Creed".

What really makes domestic players feel dissatisfied is more about the focus of publicity strategy. For example, "Assassin's Creed: Codename JADE" has been given the long title of "AAA RPG action-adventure" (3A action adventure RPG game). The 3A mobile game statement cannot change the impression of a single console player, nor can it touch the core mobile game.Circle; at the same press conference, Japan's background was an orthodox flagship work, while China's background became a 3A mobile game, which inevitably made people feel a contrasting mind, and felt a sigh of "only worthy of playing mobile games".

In fact, most players can understand that the mobile gameization of China Assassin's Creed must have commercialization and adaptability to the market.

As a free game, "Assassin's Creed: Codename JADE" will inevitably have some krypton gold content, and the jokes about "the first draw of 6 yuan for Jing Ke" on the Internet may not be true - these have nothing to do with the public opinion before the release. Since its launch, "Dark Immortal" has been criticized for being criticized, it has not prevented it from reaching the top of the best-selling list at home and abroad, and has become the most successful new commercial work of Blizzard and even NetEase in the past year. As long as "Assassin's Creed: Codename JADE" is not messed up and retains the classic experience of the series, the quality will be basically guaranteed, and maybe it will be really good.

But for the fans of Assassin's Creed, it will take a long time to wait for the next orthodox work with Chinese background.

NEWS

Industry Observation

2022/9/5-9/11

Big companies

CDP released its first half of 2022 financial report. CD Projekt, the parent company of the well-known game studio CDPR, released its financial report for the first half of this year. The group's total revenue was 377.9 million Polish zlotys, a year-on-year decrease of 20%, but CDPR's net profit in the first half of the year reached 113.7 million Polish zlotys, an increase of 8% year-on-year, higher than expected. According to the charts given in the financial report, the resources of the CDPR development team have been updated from the version of "Cyberpunk 2077" to the development of the new expansion pack "Shadow of the Past" and the new work of "The Witcher" 3A. At the financial report meeting, CDP executives confirmed that more than one new work in the "Witcher" series, and the next-generation version of "Witcher 3" will still be released at the end of this year. In the financial report, CDP also specifically mentioned the expansion of its number of fans in China.

B Station released its Q2 financial report, with monthly active users exceeding 300 million. On the 8th, Bilibili released its Q2 financial report for 2022, with revenue of RMB 4.91 billion in the entire second quarter, an increase of only 9% year-on-year.It has declined for two consecutive quarters, and the net loss reached 2.01 billion yuan, an increase of nearly 80% year-on-year. However, spending money on operations has brought about a steady growth in user data. In the second quarter, Bilibili's average monthly active users reached 306 million, exceeding the 300 million mark for the first time. In terms of revenue composition, the game business revenue was 1.05 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 15%. The growth rate of advertising business, which had a good rise in the previous quarters, slowed down to 1.16 billion yuan, mainly affected by the sluggish advertising budget. At the financial report meeting, Chairman Chen Rui said that he would control costs, increase gross profit margins, and narrow losses while accelerating commercialization. He is still confident that he will achieve the goal of 400 million daily active users in 2023.

Pico set up a first-party game studio. In June this year, it was rumored online that ByteDance dissolved the 101 Game Studio in Shanghai, and its gaming business, Daxi Guangnian, laid off hundreds of employees. Recently, according to Jinghuo, some teams of the former 101 Studio were merged into the Pico team and a new first-party game studio was established. Pico is an important XR business under ByteDance. The VR headset Pico Neo3 won the first domestic sales in VR category. On the 5th of this month, Pico also carried out a high-profile brand upgrade, using a new logo and slogan "Explore infinite possibilities".

New Trends

"Undetermined Event Book" implements AI dubbing. Last week, Mihayou's otome "Undetermined Event Book" issued an announcement that since the dubbing actor of the character "Mo Yi" cannot participate in the voice collection work, the character's voice will be produced in the subsequent use of inverse entropy AI technology. On the 6th, with the launch of the new event, Mo Yi's AI dubbing was officially launched, and the online reviews were quite high, and players also said that "there is no difference at all." However, due to the limited content of character voice in the promotional video and event content, it still needs to be observed whether the advantages of live actors in "acting skills" will be replaced. With the increase in the number of "house collapses" and disputes in recent years, technologies such as AI face change and AI voice change may appear more frequently in our vision.

Microsoft considers using AI to test game stability. At the PAX West 2022 Q&A meeting, Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studio, mentioned the possibility of replacing humans with AI for games. He said that as game production becomes more and more complex, traditional QA tests can no longer keep up with the speed of production content. Even if there are several months of testing, it often happens that the game will be launched on Tuesday.I was working overtime to change the bug on a weekend. He has asked Microsoft researchers to make AI that can replace humans when testing games. If AI deployment is implemented, it only takes one night to run it, and the next morning the developer will receive a complete test report.

Others

The publisher of "Star Dew Valley" has increased significantly. Haha Fish Studio, a publisher of games such as "Star Dew Valley" and "Adventure in the Rain", announced a £4,000 increase in salary for all employees to cope with recent inflation in the UK. Last year, Hahayu implemented a four-day working day system, and in April this year, it also raised all employees by 10%. Company manager Alexis Trust said this incentive system is useful, making the entire team full of passion and talent.

Nintendo will remove the unboxing mechanism of the "Carriage" mobile game. Malio Racing Tour officially announced that it will cancel the unboxing mechanism in the next October update, instead it will launch the Spotlight store, where players can use rubies to directly purchase characters, vehicles, gliders and other products. However, although the unboxing mechanism is about to be removed, the in-game pass is still available for purchase. Since its launch in 2019, Mario Racing Tour has brought about $293 million in revenue to Nintendo.

"Road to Survive 2" may launch a mobile game. Some foreign media discovered that the mobile version of "The Road to Survival 2" was suspected to have obtained the General (can be played by ordinary people) rating certification in Australia on September 2. Information on the website shows that this game was published by Blizzard Entertainment's game publisher "CB&AKG Games" in Indonesia and the Philippines, and is not VS or "Road to Survive" developer Turtle Rock. So it is not possible to determine whether the game is the familiar "Road to Survive 2".

"Overwatch Return" is available for appointments on the national server. Appointment officially started on the 9th, with the reservation rewards being 1 mysterious spray paint and 1 brand new weapon paradise. "Overwatch Return" will be officially launched on October 15, providing free play. Players can purchase a 198 yuan monitoring station gift package to get early virtual currency and props rewards. The game is remade based on the original "Overwatch".Heroes, maps, new modes, and short-term plans for the first two seasons have also been announced, including "Sojan" and "Sauger Queen" in the first season, as well as a support hero that has not yet been announced, adding PvE plot content from 2023.

Lastly, there are some new games worth paying attention to this week

"Spra 3", developed and released by Nintendo, will be released on September 9.

Nintendo's "Spra" is officially translated as "Spra's Escape", and is nicknamed "Japan CF" by the people, which shows how popular it is. Unlike conventional shooting games, in "Spra's Escape", players operate "Squid Girl", spraying out ink instead of bullets, and using the size of the ground as the criterion for the victory or defeat. But because the game map is small and the pace is fast, it is extremely important to try to knock down your opponent.

"Spra 3" has not changed much in its core gameplay. The main stage has shifted from the metropolis to the "Mandu Town" in the deserted desert area, and some new weapons, including bows and arrows, as well as a higher-quality single-player campaign mode (hero mode). But there is a super strengthening for Chinese players. Because this game supports Chinese, you finally don’t have to chew in English with the accent of the squid girls’ "Ancient God".