Giant company's danger and opportunity: journey old

Giant Network "journey" dependence will come to an end? Known as Shi Yuzhu "Revered masterpiece" "Xian Xia World" officially began testing the game on April 19. Before long, the above question will have an answer. Giant's total revenue in 2010, 2011 and 2012 was 1.333 billion yuan, 1.792 billion yuan and 2.152 billion yuan, respectively. The Journey series contributed almost all of its revenue in three years. In the outside world, "giant" = "journey". For the first time, ZT Online has been in operation for seven years, and the game product life cycle can not be avoided. At the same time, online users and ARPU (average revenue per user) have entered the bottleneck. The industry believes that it is time to add something else to the right of the equal sign. "Xian Xia World" may be just one of them. The "journey" series contribution "all" revenue "journey" game has been born for 7 years, the original proud mood has long been diluted, replaced by the urgent hope of restructuring. "It (Xian Xia world) came, I will leave." Shi Yuzhu in "Xian Xia World" conference said. April 9, Giant Network released its new game, "Xian Xia World." At the release site, Shi Yuzhu revealed the resignation of the post as CEO news. Why choose at this time? Shi Yuzhu said that after the demo of this product, it really felt like "reassurance to retire." "The retired history," the news detonated the entire conference, the new game, "Xian Xia World" has also become the focus of the center. Giant said the network, this new game will be for the "journey" series completely different groups of players. In other words, the company is working hard to find new players outside of Journey. November 2007, with the "journey" a game, the giant network landing NYSE. Three years later, giants executives were frequently asked about the revenue share of ZT Online games at earnings analysts' conferences. At the Q1 2010 meeting, the then CEO, Liu Wei, replied: "More than 90%." A similar question was raised for Q2 in the next quarter, with the company's CFO answering the question "more than 90%." Today, Giant Networks operates 13 games, including 10 MMORPG games, casual MMO games and strategy web games. According to the 2012 annual report, the "journey" series contributed to the company's "almost all" operating income. "Journey" was born in 2006, a year later, its support Giant Internet market. According to the 2012 giant network earnings report, the ARPU value (average revenue per user) of the Company's gaming products from the first quarter to the fourth quarter was 228 yuan, 233 yuan, 238 yuan and 238 yuan respectively, even stagnating in the fourth quarter. From the various data, "Journey" is facing the test of life cycle, and its ability to "attract gold" is far worse. The birth of ZT Online was a subversive: By the end of December 2005, the "journey" still in closed beta announced "permanent free". At that time, "journey" was commented as a grand free online games model "follower." Early December 2005, the grand CEO Chen Tianqiao will be the three games for free, including two "legendary" products "Legend of Legends" and "legendary world." With the "Legend" down the family, Shanda plans to expand the number of users. When most of the game makers are standing still, as a new game still in closed beta, Journey first jumped out. Shi Yuzhu from the health care products "cross-border" to the game industry soon, the impression of the outside world is still stuck in the "marketing masters" stage, that "permanent free" is just a gimmick and doubt whether it can resume. In the "Legend", "journey" have been announced before the free, online game manufacturers usually in accordance with the game online time to charge players. Can be divided into point charge and monthly fee two. Therefore, there are barriers to the game, because "no money you do not play." Legend created a new model for "props charging mode", that is, players into a game for free, but Daguai pass through the necessary props and equipment must pay to buy Mall, which appears to reduce the game threshold. So a large number of players into the "journey." April 21, 2006, "Journey," the official beta, the highest number of open beta online at the same time the number exceeded 200,000 online. Journey through the free mode, earn more money than the fee game, and led the gaming industry into the "era of profits." According to the giants announced after the listing of the first network earnings, "journey" ARPU value is 305.2 yuan, far more than Sohu and Shanda Games the same indicator. However, players soon discovered that props charging mode is essentially RMB-oriented consumer-oriented design of all functions are around this goal, in fact, a higher threshold. So on the "journey" criticism everywhere, the leader of this game Shi Yuzhu has also been questioned. In the meantime, the business data related to "Journey" also showed varying degrees of decline. The third quarter of 2007, "journey" the number of simultaneous on-line at the same time, the maximum concurrent online population decreased by 6.6% and 17.2%; By the third quarter of 2008, the giant eventually delivered a bad earnings report, the quarterly net profit A year-on-year decrease of 53.8%. "Green journey" has not become a new growth point As "green journey" positioning for low paid player groups, it did not give the giants how many bright color performance. Shi Yuzhu quickly said that he would accept the accusation that "journey" was too "burn money" and make amendments, not only in his attitude but also in his actions. In the second half of 2009, ZT Online canceled the charging function such as "opening a treasure chest." In October of the same year, the "green journey" of non-paying players was more likely to be launched. The game is known as the first "do not sell materials, do not sell equipment, do not sell the chest, drop the goods are not bound to trade" and other initiatives so that interests tend to non-RMB players. In the five months after the IC packaging and testing, "green journey" the highest number of simultaneous online nearly 40 million. However, net profit slipped 31.86% and 20.1% respectively in two successive quarters (Q4 2009 and Q1 2010) after the launch of the game. The industry believes that "green journey" is more like the "journey" of the "emergency relief version" is not a giant new growth point. Until September 16, 2011, the new flagship game "Journey 2" officially beta, glorious era of the network before the resurgence. In the "journey 2" R & D period, the spread of Shi Yuzhu and the game producer Ji Xuefeng "wrath iPhone 4" segment. "Journey 2" has always been Shi Yuzhu "big disciple" Ji Xuefeng surgeon, later Shi Yuzhu joined in, Shi Yuzhu found that the game's design elements and their personally-led old "journey" big difference, that is too risky. The two sides had a dispute in the office. Facts have proved that "journey 2" to assume the giants mission of transformation masterpiece. The first quarter of 2012, net profit of nearly 300 million yuan, an increase of 11.5%. Due to the new pay mode of ZT Online 2, the ARPU of players who upgraded in the game moderated from the previous quarter and both increased year on year. "Through the" journey 2 "Shi Yuzhu I am aware of the changes should be more profound." Senior players, online game portals 17,173 chief editor Zou Jifei said, "Ji Xuefeng" Journey 2 "peak 541,000 online breakthrough peak, today is still stable At some two or three hundred thousand, it has, to some extent, gone beyond the "journey" dominated by the old history. "In his opinion, perhaps since then, Shi Yuzhu has firmly determined to give the game back to young people. The future of the new game is not yet known. Xian Xia World is on the same level as ZT Online 2 in the "Gemini" program. However, it is yet to be seen whether this can be achieved. Although the name also carries the words "journey", "journey 2" has been trying to get rid of the shadow of Shi Yuzhu and the old "journey". Zou Jifei feel, Ji Xuefeng through the "journey 2" brought out their own style. "Journey 2" and "Journey" are actually two games that play very different ways. The use of 'Journey' in their names may be more for marketing purposes. "" Journey 2 "The highest simultaneous online user in the second quarter of last year After the number exceeded 500,000, this figure has remained at around 400,000, the growth of active users into a bottleneck. Analysys International analyst Xue Yongfeng analysis that the number of players in the "journey 2" has reached a certain level, the main strategy needs to be to enhance the single user ARPU value. "The journey series games have been online for seven years, will face the product life cycle, and in the future how to continue to explore the brand's revenue potential, or find a great game, is the giant need to solve the problem." Xue Yongfeng said. Since the "Journey 2" was officially launched, the giant network is planning for this matter. In June 2012, Shi Yuzhu announced the "Gemini" program, the development of online games, "Xian Xia World" and "Journey 2" tied for the same height. It is reported that the "Xian Xia world" rate of the team is to follow Shi Yuzhu second venture to do online games veteran Ding Guoqiang, Ding is the giant started the game "journey" one of the early core, the industry nicknamed the "knife." "Xian Xia World: I am not a journey!" 9-page full-page ads appear in the print media. April 19, this game is open closed beta, is not yet on the line. "I've probably seen it, and for a while, this is a very popular theme, especially after 90." Zou Ji-Fei said. He has played every one of the "journey" games, from "journey", "journey time version", "journey nostalgia version", "green journey" to "journey 2". Giant launch "Xian Xia World", he is also the first to play. "First of all, the game technology team reliable, program and code and other ground-floor design and the journey of the same strain, so that" Xian Xia World "architecture, system stability is more secure.Secondly, Xian Xia class theme selected, according to the whole The market demand to go. "Zou Jifei said. "I think this game (while online) exceeded 100000 is no problem." Launched other online games take the "journey" defeat Giants have launched the "Giant", "Wizard of Wrath", but are difficult to carry Tripod "journey" series. In the history of the giant network, several attempts have been made to launch other online games to share the financial burden of the journey. In 2008, the military theme game "The Giant" was launched. This piece of work, which has high expectations from its name, did not meet expectations. Another example is the third quarter of 2012, the giant launched an agent from Russia's international game masterpiece "witch anger", but its market feedback unsatisfactory. In the "Xian Xia World" open beta, the reporter repeatedly logged in 17173.com home page found that it always ranked "New Tour expectations list" in the top 25, but did not enter the top 10. The "new tour expectations list", "Top Games Ranking" in the front of the online games, mostly competitive. "Now the competitive class is a trend, and at least a decade on fire," said Zou Ji-fei. This will become "Xian Xia world" with the risk of the giant network it? "The online game market is subdivided into lots of blocks, each of which has its market value, and game makers are based on their respective strengths in finding business value." Zou quarter Philippine stressed. After the "journey" series of accumulation, it is clear that MMO (massively multiplayer online) is the strength of today's giants. Shi Yuzhu a social game in the early years, "look out of your eyes", but also directly led to the recent giants reported an awkward earnings results. February 26 this year, the giant network released in 2012 fourth quarter earnings report, net profit attributable to shareholders of 82.7 million yuan, a substantial decrease of 73.5% over the previous quarter. According to the report, the company has made 2407 million yuan of impairment provision for 51.com website invested in 2008. This means that Shi Yuzhu had 51 million U.S. dollars invested in 51.com in the past four and a half years has shrunk by nearly 80%. In 2008, social networking site (SNS) thriving, Shi Yuzhu repeatedly expressed his personal "online community ideal." However, with the Weibo and WeChat impact on SNS in recent years, the idea of ​​sticking the game by SNS users shatters. Mobile Games: "New Strategic Priority 2013" Mobile games, as the clearer growth point for the mobile Internet profit model, are rapidly growing and erupting. IResearch earlier this year's report shows that in 2012 China's mobile game users pay 5.21 billion yuan scale, up 140.9% growth rate, and is expected to accelerate this year; the same time, the client game market share in the last 5 years has dropped 11.4 percentage points . Against the background of this industry, giants defined hand-travel as a "new strategic focus for 2013". At the fourth quarterly earnings conference in 2012, Liu Wei, then president of the company, said: "This year (2013) focuses on the establishment of a research and development team and development of products. It will set up 2-3 mobile games research and development teams with a total scale of 100 People around "," At the same time through the merger and acquisitions to maximize the development of hand travel business. " Wang Jinxing, the general manager of i-free China, which once released the well-known hand-cut "cut the rope" to the domestic market, told the Beijing News reporter that she often got news that some company had entered into a tour of mobile games Until the first quarter of this year have not felt any pressure from large companies. "Mobile Games seems to be very low barriers to entry, but the development of ideas with the traditional game is very different, not just translation of the terminal just fine," she said. Giant non-layout hand tour not? "If you just want to be alive, is enough, unless the giants have more far-reaching pursuit." Zou Jifei said. At least from Shi Yuzhu choose "leave" move to judge, indeed. Shi Yuzhu said, "The Internet is not the uncle play", in order to giants, he had to go. This time, the old history hopes to bring his old journey to retreat behind the scenes and give the future to young people. (Liu Xia)