On December 19th, the long-awaited blockbuster of Zhu Xian fans, titled 'Zhu Xian World' with the slogan of 'pure blood online games, authentic fairy tales,' finally launched.

Various chat groups were flooded with messages, and there were queues all day long, with hundreds of thousands of people in front, unable to enter the game at all.

I heard it's so popular, how many workers are sneaking on their remote home computers, quietly downloading the game?

A network game over 100 gigabytes. Just this scale alone is worth looking forward to.

In a sense, 'Zhu Xian World' carries not only the weight of a game but also a test of whether Perfect World can be 'perfect,' and perhaps it serves as a barometer for whether A-share gaming companies can overcome their awkward situation.

Unfortunately, it has not achieved that.

On the day of the game's release, Perfect World rose by 1.02%, underperforming compared to other companies in the same sector; the next day, it fell by 2.11%.

The response is hard to express in words.

01

Want to become a monk without money?

After work, heading home, full of anticipation to create a character and enter the game...

Following the quest to level 24, suddenly a prompt pops up saying a subscription is needed to continue playing.

What the hell? Haven't experienced anything yet, why do I need to pay?

Just hit ALT+F4.

At least more than half of the players were inexplicably discouraged in less than an hour.

If it's a good game, spending a little for nostalgia is not a big deal.

The real question is, how is the quality of the game Zhu Xian World? Many people have never experienced it.

This operation makes it very hard to understand.

It's unclear whether the planners have peculiar thought processes or genuinely think that Chinese players are fools.

Nostalgia? Indeed, many people are willing to pay for it.

However, everything must be based on reality.

Most of the old players of Zhu Xian are middle-aged now, and new players are not very interested in old IPs; there are plenty of alternatives on the market that are not this game.

In this situation, if the game company is still only focused on making quick profits without showing sincerity, it is equivalent to committing slow suicide.

Of course, if the developer is Perfect World, it doesn't seem that surprising.

There have been many instances where the former Perfect World destroyed good games with inexplicable antics.

Let's mention the one that left the deepest impression.

Players born in the 80s and 90s should still remember that at the end of 2007, Perfect World launched a major historical-themed online game, 'Chibi Online'.

In 2008, the theme song 'Drunk Chibi', endorsed by Lin Junjie, became a national hit, and the universality of its theme attracted countless gaming addicts to experience the clashes of warriors.

As for the quality of the game itself, it was indeed impressive. At least in that era more than a decade ago, it achieved a perfect fusion of theme, storyline, and graphics, with gameplay being among the top on the market.

However, after ten years, they suddenly introduced a hero level system, turning the hard-earned top gear of many players into a ridiculous mockery under the attack of level 1 hero monsters...

Players have experienced a cliff-like decline.

Years later, the song "Drunken Red Cliff" remains a classic, while the game itself has long faded from people's memories...

Source: Official game website.

From shallow to deep, seeing the subtle to know the significant.

Perhaps, the Perfect World that lost ARCHOSAUR GAMES has long been a soulless shell, merely dressed in the skin of a game company.

Yet this essence, once masked by glory, has become increasingly evident today.

From this perspective, everything that has happened in the past and present may not be surprising.

02

Self-destructing skills.

As the largest game market in the world, China has never lacked excellent production teams.

Like TiMi Studios for Tencent, achieving a leading industry position that remains prosperous.

Like Xishanju for KINGSOFT, rising to the occasion in times of crisis, turning the tide.

These are all positive examples.

A typical negative example is the studio ARCHOSAUR GAMES, known as 'Eastern Blizzard', which was put on ice just as they pushed Perfect World to its peak.

……

Perfect World, this old gaming giant, can be said to have reached its peak from the very beginning.

In 1997, four students from Tsinghua University approached Chi Yufeng, who was thriving in the education sector, looking for funding to make games.

In the same year, ARCHOSAUR GAMES was established.

In that era when everything was still chaotic, they chose to venture into an area that no one dared to try—underlying architecture, becoming the only team in the country with an independently developed engine.

After the breakout success of 'Freedom and Glory', in 2001, the studio launched a series of well-known titles such as 'Blood Battle on the Bund', 'Blood Battle in Myanmar', and 'Glory 2'.

The rapid growth of the ARCHOSAUR GAMES team caught Chi Yufeng's attention.

Inspired by Chen Tianqiao and Ding Lei, he realized that there might really be unexpected opportunities.

In 2004, Chi Yufeng switched careers and founded Perfect World Network Technology Co., Ltd. as CEO; ARCHOSAUR GAMES joined as an independent studio under it, with Li Qing as CDO.

With a strong team, an untapped market, and the company's strong support for the studio, the beginning was as perfect as the company's name.

In November of the following year, the development of "Perfect World" with an investment of 30 million yuan officially entered open beta.

"Perfect World"'s emergence symbolized the first peak period for online games in China, marking its own pinnacle.

What was the market situation at that time? Many may still remember.

At that time, the highly gameable "World of Warcraft" was sweeping the globe, and Chinese games naturally faced fierce competition.

Meanwhile, internet cafes across the country were filled with kawaii-style side-scrolling 2D games, such as the classic "MapleStory." However, first, these games were not developed in-house, as domestic manufacturers were simply agents; second, the graphics were too outdated, and gameplay improvements were difficult, failing to attract an audience with increasingly high demands for game quality.

At this moment, the Chinese gaming market continued to stabilize with its own major masterpiece.

Perfect World is indeed on a mission like this, benchmarking against World of Warcraft, with similarly exquisite modeling, seamless large maps, dungeon modes, and point card charging, along with localized and unique designs: a mount system, and aerial combat modes that players have never encountered before.

I have what you have, and I have what you don’t have, so why shouldn’t I be popular?

Perfect World, developed by Chinese people, naturally became popular and entered the Japanese market in 2006.

Source: Official game website.

Over the years, we often talk about how vast the market for games going overseas is. In reality, as early as over a decade ago, Perfect World, with ARCHOSAUR GAMES, had already done this.

From 2006 to 2011, Perfect World ranked first in overseas exports for five consecutive years, with over ten games covering more than one hundred countries and regions worldwide.

In April 2007, Zhu Xian went live.

As the most popular online novel of its time, the adaptation of 'Zhu Xian' into an online game can be considered quite successful.

However, this success led competitors to follow suit, sparking a trend of adaptations from online novels.

On July 26, 2007, following the footsteps of Shanda and The9 three years earlier, Perfect World went public on Nasdaq, becoming the first game company to be listed that year.

As the brightest star of that era, everyone expected it to truly take up the banner of China's gaming industry and compete with overseas giants like Blizzard with its hard power, instead of relying solely on代理, making money, skin swaps, and hyping up.

Unfortunately, everyone was disappointed.

After going public, the biggest contributor, ARCHOSAUR GAMES, gradually became marginalized, the priority of demand lines was lowered, core employees kept leaving, and the products dwindled.

Meanwhile, Perfect World, akin to self-destructing its own capabilities, began to frequently release low-quality works, damaging its own reputation.

In 2008, it copied 'Audition' to release 'Hot Dance Party', and copied 'The Smiling, Proud Wanderer' to launch 'Meteor OL'; in 2009, it plagiarized 'Fantasy Westward Journey' to publish 'Dream Zhu Xian'; in 2010, it re-skinned 'Perfect World' to issue 'Divine Demon Continent'...

Once devoted to making great games and carrying the banner for China's gaming industry, Perfect World has vanished in just a few years.

On October 28, 2014, Perfect World announced the division of its development team into five subsidiaries: ARCHOSAUR, Le Dao, Hot Spot, Jing Zhe, and Xian Yao You.

ARCHOSAUR Studio was officially renamed ARCHOSAUR GAMES, with Li Qing as CEO.

This was supposed to be a chance for rebirth, but after so many years of turmoil, or perhaps the enjoyment brought by interest, no one is willing to stir things up again.

In 2020, ARCHOSAUR GAMES officially listed on the Hong Kong stock market and ventured into mobile gaming, seemingly wanting to create glory once more.

As for Perfect World, even until now, the profits from games still mainly rely on the old IPs of Perfect World and Zhu Xian.

Continuously re-skinning and consuming users' nostalgia.

This time's "Zhuxian World", while it claims to be a major work, is essentially the same.

03

Dignity is something you give to yourself.

Time returns to the present.

The decline of Perfect World reflects issues that are not limited to this company alone.

Along with it is the entire A-share game sector.

At this moment, among the top thirty best-selling iOS games, only 4 are from A-share listed companies; the Android rankings are not much better, with products from A-share listed companies accounting for basically less than 20% in any mainstream store like Xiaomi, Vivo, OPPO, or Huawei.

Apart from G-bits Network Technology and Perfect World, along with 37 Interactive Entertainment Network Technology Group, Yoozoo Interactive, and Zhejiang Century Huatong Group, these are currently the most competitive game companies in the A-share market, fiercely defending the industry's presence.

Referred to as the "Five Heroes of Wolf Tooth Mountain."

However, the presence is not very strong, such as Perfect World, which mostly receives criticism from players.

In other words, the game sector in the A-shares has already been marginalized by the gaming Industry.

Why?

Creating games requires high investment and long cycles, but it is undoubtedly a highly profitable business.

Since it can make money, why do the listed companies in A-shares keep getting worse? Is it because they don't love money?

The premise is that your product has to be strong enough.

Strength can be divided into two aspects.

Either like "Black Myth: Wukong", quality can hit.

From the release on August 20 to the end of November, the revenue in just over three months exceeded 1.1 billion dollars.

Of course, there is an element of hype. But if the game itself is a terrible product, no matter how much it is praised before release, its true nature will soon be revealed.

The world of "Zhu Xian" is a typical counterexample, and actually, there is nothing much to argue about.

A lesser example would be mobile dungeon games, where old games become new games with too many old players.

How many post-90s individuals, like myself, were attracted back by nostalgia, spent several thousand yuan, and became bored and abandoned the game in less than two months?

From what I know, there are simply too many.

To be honest, although the game itself may not be that good, the players are.

Launched on May 21, it achieved a record high revenue of 0.2441 billion USD on the iOS platform in June.

As of December 1, the total payments made by DNF mobile game players in the App Store of mainland China have already exceeded 1 billion USD.

Ultimately, over the years, the players have changed repeatedly, but the essence of gaming has never changed: content + channel.

The former is the foundation of everything, which is the game development and production. The latter is distribution, which is the entry point for gamers.

To master one of these, like NetEase or the Perfect World of over a decade ago; to master both, like today's Tencent or early Nintendo.

In other words, you either build a platform or you must really have R&D capabilities.

Even Tencent, which has relied on agency games to support half of its business, has focused on in-house development rather than agency since 2018.

However, even among the agency products:

Battle of Golden Shovel and League of Legends Mobile, developed by a subsidiary of Riot Games;
Dreamland Newland and Under the Hongtu, developed by ARCHOSAUR GAMES;
FIFA Soccer World, developed by EA (listed on Nasdaq);
Tianlong Babu Mobile, developed by Changyou (listed on Nasdaq);
Jian Wang 3 and New Jian Xia Qi Yuan, developed by KINGSOFT (listed on Hong Kong Stock Exchange);
Call of Duty Mobile, co-developed with Activision;
Street Fighter: Duel, developed by TopJoy...

Did you see that? It basically has nothing to do with the game companies in the A-share market.

If even the head of the company doesn't trust his own team, what else is there to say?

As the leader, Tencent's transformation can be considered an essential change in the game industry.

As the smaller players, how are those companies still struggling in the A-share market doing?

The historical speculation phase for gaming stocks was from 2013 to 2015, when the entire Internet field was racing forward.

Subsequently, the flow bonus has disappeared completely and the bubble has burst, causing the market to return to intense commercial competition, where the business logic of consumer Internet service companies relies on reputation and product for success or failure.

However, the current situation is that several leading A-share gaming companies, including Perfect World, seem to refuse to change with the times, abandoning 99% of users and still relying on nostalgia, reskins, and massive publicity to attract 1% of hardcore spenders.

Under the current mechanism, they can rely on old IPs to constantly repackage, hype during the publicity period, and achieve good stock performance.

However, there must be a question mark over the long-term growth value.

Because they are going against the times. (End of text)