NetEase is firing the first shot in the "price war" of the gaming industry in 2024.
Recently, NetEase's 2024 flagship martial arts open world game "Shooting Sculpture" announced its official launch on March 28th, and announced that all directly sold fashion and accessories on the official store will be permanently priced at 9.9 yuan. After the news was released, it quickly became a hot topic on Weibo and sparked discussions in the gaming market.
Players have been struggling for a long time, and stimulating game spending is the default norm in the gaming industry. However, as the gaming industry enters the era of stock competition, traditional payment and business models are no longer able to meet the long-term needs of game manufacturers.
The "courage" behind the launch of the 9.9 yuan price war in the new generation of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" is an innovative exploration of NetEase Games' traditional payment model. Its new business model of "high quality and low revenue" is not only beneficial for the long-term operation of the game, but also has the potential to reshape the track pattern.
To some extent, the essence behind the price war of NetEase's "Shooting Eagle" is a return to the game itself, seeking a healthier operating model in both product content and business models. Just as "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" has set up a world first server, which is shared by all members on the entire platform, allowing more people to enter the game and willingly pay for what they like, doing long-term business.
Breaking free from stereotypical patterns and redefining the martial arts game market
As NetEase's flagship brand new world martial arts adventure RPG, "Shooting Eagle" is not only raising player expectations time and time again, but also breaking some of the stereotypes of traditional martial arts games in the game market, attempting to redefine the martial arts game market.
In the past six years, from project initiation to expansion to a team of 600 people, with a research and development cost of one billion yuan, and then to the four tests that have been launched one after another, "Shooting Eagle" has abandoned the traditional path and mode of martial arts games. Through a series of innovations such as achieving world one server, native multi port interoperability, and public scene UGC, it has broken the conventional ghost server roll server "money cutting" mode and truly achieved "freedom" in the game.
The announcement of the official store's permanent sale of 9.9 yuan for all directly sold fashion and accessories by "Shooting Sculpture" is precisely a big step towards consumer freedom for gaming products. Throughout the years, the increasingly expensive game skins have caused many players to "love hate intertwine", but in "The Legend of Condor", these entanglements and dislikes of players will no longer exist.
It is reported that in the recently concluded paid test of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", more than half of the players on the list paid under 200 yuan.
Not just consumption. Compared to the upgrade routines used by players in traditional martial arts games, the barriers between different servers when wandering in the martial arts world of "Shooting Eagle" allow for freedom in socializing, progress, and selection. Players do not have to be forced to rush according to settings, nor are they limited to the positioning constraints of a certain identity or profession.
In terms of gameplay, unlike the traditional schedule style progress setting, "Shooting Sculpture" has a large amount of one-time exploration content. The core fun of the game is no longer just numerical competition. Players can play alone or with friends according to their preferences, exploring the lively and free Jinyinjiang Lake; In combat, players can freely change weapons and match martial arts moves, with different combinations corresponding to different combat positioning, truly achieving a thousand people and one face at the martial arts level.
More importantly, the world first server of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" abandons the common roll server model in the market and shares it with all platform members, breaking down regional server barriers at the root, allowing players from all over the world to no longer have barriers, and allowing more people to enter the game.
In the short term, whether it is price wars or the disruption of traditional forms such as roll on/roll off models, it may have a certain impact on the performance of the gaming market; However, in the long run, compared to many homogeneous martial arts online games that are limited by service value and commercial purposes, "Shooting Eagle" refuses to pay for value, and strong content supply has become a necessary means for it to retain players. With a stress free and self created gameplay and content, as well as the powerful empowerment of Jin Yong's "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" IP, we can glimpse the long-term operational planning and long-lasting vitality of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes".
Big R consumption is losing its effectiveness, exploring new models of "high quality and low Krypton"
The 9.9 yuan price war sparked by "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" is not just about seizing a wider market on the surface. Its "high-quality, low spending" model is not only a challenge to the default "stimulating game big R consumption" norm in the gaming industry, but also a revolution in the gaming business model.
Over the past decade, the rapid development of the gaming industry has often been accompanied by changes in the game payment model.
At the beginning, when games were just emerging, single player gamers could only buy them all at once by purchasing genuine games; Later, with the emergence of the point card system, players had corresponding "prices" for every minute in the game.
Later on, with the continuous increase in the number of players and the emergence of free games, there were also more and more forms of game payment. The monthly card system, as well as the charging of props and card draws, became the mainstream mode, and even sparked a wave of mobile game gold rush.
Under the traditional mode, players have been struggling for a long time, and this business model that relies on numerical stimulation and benefits big R players has become the mainstream of martial arts games.
Nowadays, for the gaming industry, which has already entered the era of stock competition, the model that once made many game manufacturers proud is quietly changing. The previous payment model was unable to give game manufacturers an absolute competitive advantage, and the cryptocurrency model is no longer the only way out. The "gameplay" of selling numerical values, props, and skins is being replaced by a wide range of user penetration.
"Nowadays, players are very rational and willing to pay for what they like. They dislike games that maliciously force Krypton, induce consumption, have an unsightly appearance, and make a quick profit before running away. These games are often just a flash in the pan." The head of the War Soul Studio, the R&D team of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", deeply understands this.
Shooting Eagle precisely insight into the new needs of the times and players, leaving the choice of consumption to players. As the person in charge of War Soul Studio mentioned above said, "If a player likes" Shooting Sculpture "and is willing to spend 100 yuan in the game, I would rather that the player closes their eyes and buys ten sets for 9.9 yuan, rather than repeatedly struggling and buying a set for 98 yuan."
After all, in today's world where purchasing costs only increase without decreasing, luxurious skins and cool props may attract users for a while, but to truly retain users, high-quality game content is the core competitiveness. This means that whoever can lower the price first while rolling up the quality of the new product will receive the vast majority of the dividends.
Game manufacturers returning to long-term principles without engaging in a "one shot deal"
After experiencing a highly profitable era in the gaming industry, the $9.9 actually signifies a return of game manufacturers to long-term thinking. As with the vision of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes," making slow and long-term profits is becoming a new goal for gaming companies today.
The essence of the gaming industry is the content industry. No matter how the industry develops and how the forms iterate, the core competitiveness of manufacturers ultimately lies in the game content itself. In order for games to operate in a healthy and long-term manner, it is necessary to make slow money. However, making slow money may have a certain impact on short-term returns, but this does not mean that manufacturers are "losing money and doing business".
As a commodity, the pricing of games is determined by their production capacity and user base. The reason why "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" dares to engage in such a fierce price war, supported by its strong industrial research and development capabilities, continuously aided by AIGC technology, and the wider user potential brought by the large DAU, is its undeniable confidence.
NetEase's latest financial report shows that in 2023, NetEase's annual R&D investment reached a record high of 16.5 billion yuan, leading the industry with 16% R&D intensity; And with the implementation of AI self-developed technology, innovative gameplay and content, its self-developed works have created multiple category milestones, winning championships in the five major game tracks of leisure party, MMO, racing, basketball, and second tier women.
Specifically, in "The Legend of Condor", the game promises to have at least 200 sets within 3 months of its launch, and high-quality Chinese style fashion will be released every week; Meanwhile, based on the original work, "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" has constructed a multi-dimensional and multi perspective storyline, equipped with an intelligent AI system, presenting the daily life trajectory, unique personality, and interests of Jin Yong's heroes.
On the other hand, the diverse gameplay and rich ecological content in turn contribute to the breaking of the circle of "Shooting Eagle". Whether it is martial arts game players, IP fans, or ancient style enthusiasts, all types of players can be satisfied in the long run, further expanding a wider user base, allowing users to willingly pay for what they like and do long-term business.
Now "Shooting Eagle" is about to be officially launched on March 28th. Its gameplay design and business model are doing their best to ensure the gaming needs of various types of players, replacing the previous social driven framework of martial arts RPG with content and gameplay drivers, supplemented by a large amount of game content and gameplay supply, to meet the long-term gaming experience of all players and expand a wider user base.
Looking at the phenomenon level explosive "Evergreen Tree" game in the market, no matter how complex the business model and format are, it ultimately has a huge user base and can make users always like your product. Since last year, many of NetEase's top products in the segmented field have returned to users, attempting to build a UGC content ecosystem with users, exploring user value to a greater extent, exploring the long-term operational value of games, and walking a longer path.