Recently, CMGE announced that its first open-world game, "Sword of Immortal World," will officially launch after the New Year on February 19. Considering the many game products being released around the Spring Festival, "Sword of Immortal World," as the first domestic open-world game themed on national style and immortality, has adjusted its launch time from before the Spring Festival to after, postponing it by 40 days to gain more exposure opportunities at launch.

During the postponement period, the official team has the opportunity to refine the game content and quality further. At the same time, to make up for the inconvenience caused by the adjustment of the launch time for players, the team has prepared a series of compensation items, including a rare mount, the Azure Dragon, additional exclusive limited edition outfits, and 30 free draws for the Fanyuan package.

From the development trends in the game industry, open-world games have become an ideal choice for many players because they provide a vast exploration space and high degrees of freedom. In these games, players can freely explore virtual worlds, experience exciting stories, and interact with the environment, with the immersive experience and thrilling adventure appealing to numerous gaming enthusiasts. As players' demand for exploration freedom and interactive experiences continues to grow, the market prospects for open-world games are vast.

Starting in the second half of 2024, several open-world games such as "Ming Tide," "Infinite Warmth," and "Sixteen Sounds of Yanyun" will be successively launched, widely covering subfields like martial arts and female-oriented genres, demonstrating the diversity and innovative potential of open-world games.

In addition, among the list of games recently approved for release in December, various types of open-world game projects such as "Infinite Great," "Honor of Kings: World," and "Monster Hunter: Travelers" appeared. The approval and upcoming launch of these games further confirm the strong development momentum of open-world games in the Chinese market. They not only meet the diverse gaming experience demands of players but also promote the industry towards deeper interactions and broader explorations.

As the launch date of "Sword of Immortal World" approaches, player anticipation is rising. Reportedly, the total number of reservations across all platforms has exceeded 7.5 million and is expected to reach 10 million before the launch.

1. The first national style and immortality themed open-world RPG, fully optimized and well-received.

After multiple rounds of testing, every detail of 'Sword and Fairy World', from innovative spirit battle to the freedom of plot choice, has been meticulously designed and adjusted numerous times, aimed at providing players with a richer gaming experience and greater gaming freedom.

In terms of gameplay, 'Sword and Fairy World' has enhanced and specialized the spirit system in various dimensions. For example, the contribution and participation of spirits in battles have increased; various categories of spirits have been introduced, providing richer options and combinations; the spirit system is deeply integrated with the plot, combat, and exploration systems, allowing players to build unique combat systems; a new assist function has been added to lower the operational threshold.

Additionally, each spirit race has multiple stages and forms. The initial version will launch nearly a hundred types of spirits, with plans to rapidly expand to over 200 types, and the types of spirit battles are diverse, with different skills for each type.

In terms of plot experience, 'Sword and Fairy World' has adjusted the early plot, adding epic Boss battles to enhance the player's flow experience. At the same time, the main plot has been adjusted to a watchlist plot card mode, separating the plot from the exploration of the vast world, increasing freedom. The novice village plot has also been further optimized, with the addition of the classic character 'Huayang' as a novice guide, and the introduction of character chronicles, spirit chronicles, and habitat designs for spirits to enhance immersion and the richness of the Sword and Fairy IP.

In terms of scenes and visuals, 'Sword and Fairy World' continues to optimize performance and visual presentation on mobile and PC platforms. Mobile device requirements have been lowered, and targeted optimizations have been made for different model devices to enhance visual quality. The PC side further optimizes lighting and textures, supports 4K high-definition quality, and improves character modeling quality, providing players with an outstanding visual experience.

According to some market experts, 'Sword and Fairy World', with its unique xianxia theme, rich spirit system, and deep plot experience, forms a clear differentiation from other open-world games in the market, attracting players seeking unique gaming experiences and rich story content.

2. Palu gameplay + National IP, the first "Xianxia Palu Open World".

At the beginning of 2024, the survival construction game "Monster Palu" has dropped a "heavy bomb" on the gaming industry, triggering a "Palu craze".

In less than two weeks since its launch, the player count of "Monster Palu" has exceeded 19 million. Within a month, manufacturers have begun to take action. Tencent Lilith is recruiting for a SOC Palu-like project, and there are reports that NetEase has similar games in reserve. If evaluated based on peak concurrent users (CCU), among all Steam new games released in 2024, "Black Myth: Wukong" (CCU peak over 2.4 million) and "Monster Palu" (2.1 million) rank first and second respectively, holding a significant lead.

Currently, the open-world games on the market are mostly in the "2D" and "martial arts" categories, and the monotonous themes fail to satisfy the diverse gaming demands of the market and players. The emergence of the first domestic Xianxia Palu open world, "Sword and Fairy World," fills the market gap for open-world products with Xianxia experiences, helping the open-world category break free from a single category and repetitive gaming experiences.

"Sword and Fairy World" distinguishes itself from other open-world products with one of its core differentiators being the popular "Palu-like" gameplay.

The "Spirit Subduing" system in "Sword and Fairy World" allows players to capture all kinds of beings, with gameplay similar to "Palu," enabling players to capture the monsters encountered on their journey, designating them as adventure companions and productive assistants, making the spirit subduing gameplay quite impressive.

The "Palu-like" gameplay of calling on monsters to work not only presents comprehensive scene representations but also achieves different directions of effort in the "Everything has spirit" gameplay: the monsters in the world have clear systemic hierarchical divisions, and monsters of the same species with different cultivation levels have distinct appearances; new types of monsters have been added, enriching the diverse species in the "Everything has spirit" worldview of "Sword and Fairy World," providing players with a fresh and interesting Eastern romantic fantasy experience; from the perspectives of spirit subduing, spirit transformation, production, and team combat, it expands the playability and depth of the game content.

In such a large environment, "Sword of the Immortal World" attracts players' attention with its "everything has spirit" gameplay, finding a breakthrough in the "Palou-like" point of the open world genre, and creating highly competitive differentiated content based on its own Sword of the Immortal theme product characteristics. From this perspective, this product may stop the decline of the open world genre.

3. The global copyright "buff" enhancement of the Sword of the Immortal IP is ready for value growth.

Of course, the launch of "Sword of the Immortal World" is not only a milestone in the development of the Sword of the Immortal IP, but also a reflection of its value potential.

It is reported that in September this year, Daewoo Information announced the sale of the overseas copyright of "The Legend of the Sword and Fairy" outside mainland China to CMGE, thus CMGE successfully acquired the complete global copyright of the Sword of the Immortal IP.

Prior to this, CMGE achieved significant copyright benefits by acquiring all rights of the Sword of the Immortal IP in mainland China. The earnings report shows that in the first half of 2024, CMGE's IP licensing revenue reached 0.107 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 79%, fully proving the commercial value and market potential of the Sword of the Immortal IP.

It is worth mentioning that recently, the new concept of "millet economy" has rapidly risen in the capital markets, making the core value of IP once again valued by investors. In this context, after CMGE acquired the complete copyright of the Sword of the Immortal IP in the global market, its development prospects are even more promising.

Since 2018, the total number of SKUs launched by CMGE in the self-operated and crowdfunding derivative products of the Sword of the Immortal IP has reached as high as 1,224, with sales channels covering online two-dimensional peripheral platforms and offline trendy toys and millet stores, accumulating rich sales experience. Among them, SKUs related to the millet economy account for 66%, and crowdfunding, model toys, and collectible peripherals have rapidly developed in recent years. Xiao Jian stated that in the future, the company will focus on character operation and derivative innovation to further explore the commercial potential of the Sword of the Immortal IP.

Additionally, after the successful launch of "Sword of the Immortal World" in China, it will leverage CMGE's accumulated global distribution resources to continuously expand into overseas markets in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia, further increasing the influence of the Sword of the Immortal IP. The company will also actively cooperate with professional partners in different countries and regions to carry out in-depth localized cooperation of the Sword of the Immortal IP in film and television, games, and peripheral products, further expanding the influence of the Sword of the Immortal IP in the global market and bringing more diversified revenue channels. It is reported that the animation series of the Sword of the Immortal is already in planning, with a scheduled release after 2025.

Overall, driven by the wave of the 'Millet Economy' and CMGE's strategic layout after obtaining the complete copyright of the Xianjian IP, there is reason to believe that the value of the Xianjian IP will be more fully explored and realized, and the company's performance may improve accordingly. This is not only a reassessment of the value of the Xianjian IP but also a strong impetus for CMGE's future development.