What amazing stories can be told by head technology coffee off layout?

Xiaobing walked into the game field. At the end of May, Xiaobing Company, an artificial intelligence technology (hereinafter referred to as AI), announced the establishment of the Icegamer game studio to accelerate the layout of the game field. It is reported that the research and development work of the studio has been launched, and the first open world mobile game works and the IP "Bump World" of Qichuang Club.

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According to Xiaobing, the biggest highlight of this product is that the NPC in the game (a character type in the game) will have a live -action emotional and interactive mechanism, and players can become friends with them.

But it may be difficult to count the good time to enter the game. In April of this year, the game version number was restored, but according to Gamma data, the Chinese game market revenue decreased by 3.4%year -on -year. Although some companies have a good trend in May, the A -share game sector still loses a large market.

Technical companies pick the beams to play games. What is the entrance to the off -season? "Daily Economic News" reporter interviewed relevant persons such as Xiaobing Company, the celebrity representatives of the game industry, and industry experts in early June. During the conversation, a point of view was frequently mentioned: at the end of the era of the page game, the new era is brewing in the late era of the page game, and the opening of it will be a revolutionary new product like a mobile game.

Technical coffee Xiaobing selection game as the new battlefield

Two years after Microsoft's independence, Xiaobing chose the game as the new battlefield.

It is reported that the new NPC in Xiaobing's mouth will be led by AI Being (Xiaobing is supernatural virtual person, hereinafter referred to as virtual human) developed by Xiaobing based on artificial intelligence technology. interactive.

In the game world, NPC is an indispensable role. It often plays the function of promoting the development of game plots or serving players. Traditional NPC is a "tool person", and speaking and actions come from scripts set in advance. Most of the players' interactive experiences stay at the level of "walking".

"According to the conventional way, you want to portray a richly detailed NPC image. The workload of the script is huge, and it is difficult to fully present the effect we want. But AI can better shape the NPC of the people." Icegamer studio Producer Xiao Jiayue talked.

Xiaobing has the technical capabilities of AI framework based on natural language processing. Sun Ting, the product director of Xiaobing, believes that this is "the unique in the market. Combining this ability with the game industry must have great prospects."

What is the value of virtual NPC on the game?

Xiao Jiayue believes that first of all, users have social needs in the game, but most of the traditional social objects are other real players. Compared with the traditional NPC of more tools, virtual NPCs are intelligent enough, and they will be more like "people" in interacting with players, which brings players a new game experience.

"The social interaction of virtual human NPCs can be designed and controllable. When socializing itself becomes a content that can be designed, it can become a new gameplay." Original God "is so popular because it provides a kind of provision The new gameplay experience. "Xiao Jiayue said.

Return to reality, the current AI technology has not reached the level of easily "making people".

Sun Ting told the reporter of "Daily Economic News" that there is currently a bottleneck in natural language processing technology, but he can't do it as openly and logically like a real person.

"We need to find a way to provide a better product experience within the border of technology. We are not to verify a technology to make products, but we want to provide users with a product based on actual user needs and help users. "Sun Ting said.

However, the nodes of Xiaobing's entry into the game are not "perfect". At present, the entire game market generally supports pressure. Gamma data shows that in the first quarter of 2022, the actual sales revenue of the Chinese game market was 79.474 billion yuan, an increase of 3.17%year -on -year, and below the same period in 2021.

Xiao Jiayue, who has experienced changes in the game industry era, feels that the current status quo is very similar to the transformation period of the page game era. The more the period means that there will be a big opportunity in the future. "

The Internet faucet paid tuition fees with real gold and silver

For the market, AI may not be considered a stunning type of story.

As early as 2019, Shangtang Technology (HK00020, HK00020, HK $ 5.43, and a market value of HK $ 181.9 billion) is exploring the collision of AI, AR and game characters and content creation. At the end of 2021, it created the AI ​​training platform of StarCraft 2, and used AI to train AI comparable to professional players. However, the technology has not yet been applied to the consumer end.

Qixinbao showed that Xiaobing had completed two rounds of financing. After completing a round A financing last year, Xiaobing said that the valuation has exceeded $ 1 billion.

On the road of AI, it looks smooth and smooth. What did Xiaobing cross the border? An unnamed game company director told the reporter of "Daily Economic News": "Historical experience has proven countless times that in the Internet's business model, the profit path of the game is very clear."

Before Xiaobing, there were indeed many players who played games. In 2013, Alibaba (BABA, a stock price of US $ 109.84, a market value of US $ 295.6 billion) cut into the game track with channel distribution and game joint transportation, trying to drive the core business such as e -commerce with game traffic. But until 2019, the self -developed spontaneous game "Three Kingdoms · Strategic Edition" became popular, and its game business was really open. In the same year when Alibaba entered the game, Tencent Holdings (HK00700, a stock price of HK $ 396.4, and a market value of HK $ 3.81 trillion) began to move business resources and business focus from end -game to mobile games. With a leisure, through the MOBA mobile game, using its advantages in social channels, Tencent quickly circled a large number of early mobile games users to take the lead. In 2019, in 2019, where Alibaba finally came up with his masterpieces, Tencent alone in the field of mobile games, he sat in the field of "Glory of the King" and "Peace Elite" two "gold beasts". The game giant continued to be beautiful.

It is difficult to say that Alibaba's "game serving the e -commerce service" strategy is completely successful. Cross -border is not easy. Alibaba pays tuition fees with real gold and silver, and experience can be accumulated, but once the opportunity of mobile games is missed, it is difficult to catch up.

In the May 2022 mobile game revenue rankings released by Sensor Tower, "Three Kingdoms · Strategic Edition" ranked fourth. But at the revenue end, the importance of the game to Alibaba is not significant.

According to financial reports, Alibaba's 2022 fiscal year digital media and entertainment business revenue was US $ 32.272 billion, accounting for 4%of the total revenue. In addition to games and entertainment business, in addition to games, it also includes Youku and Ali Films.

Byte -beating in 2015, he started to enter the game field. With the help of the "buy, buy and buy" strategy of funding advantages, it already owns nearly 30 game companies. Based on the huge traffic advantage, it has launched too many games with over 100 million flowing water. Similar to Tencent's flags in the game market, the byte beating is bold.

According to GameLook, the byte beating in 2021 invests nearly 30 billion yuan in the game field, close to one -tenth of its total revenue in 2021.

Cross -border players in the game industry have more content genes or user accumulation. "Like the byte itself, it is a product that is made of content. It has also experienced the transformation from graphic to video. It is difficult to say that it has a change from today's headline to Douyin, which is smaller than the steps from video cross -border to games. "Director of the above game company said.

In his opinion, cross -border games of Internet companies are a good way, because the profit model is clear. He uses Twitter (TWTR, a stock price of $ 38.98, and a market value of US $ 29.788 billion). It compares with game companies. The former has a large number of users and a large market share. The business is still elsewhere, and the stock price will never go up.

As a non -subject player, the layout of Alibaba and byte beating on the game track has been considered remarkable. However, tens of billions of yuan of funds have not shaken the traditional pattern of the game market.

"Market changes are driven by technology, just like the outbreak of the mobile game brings a large number of user groups to the game market, and it also meets the needs of mobile game users. Welcome to the" new era "of the game industry, but it is not passively waiting." Gamma Teng Hua, general manager of data, told a reporter from "Daily Economic News".

Companies that grow in market segments lead the new market

If the vision is widened, it is not only new players, but the game veterans are also "stressful."

Choice data shows that in 2021, 11 of 30 A -share game companies have suffered losses, and the number of companies with overall losses increased from the previous year. In terms of revenue, 12 companies revenue declined year -on -year.

In 2021, the Century Huatong (SZ002602, the stock price of 4.79 yuan, a market value of 35.2 billion yuan), which was the leader of the industry, achieved revenue of 13.929 billion yuan, a year -on -year decrease of 7.03%, and the net profit attributable to the mother was about 2.327 billion yuan, a year -on -year decrease of 21.03%. Perfect World (SZ002624, the stock price of 13.82 yuan, a market value of 26.8 billion yuan) revenue of 8.518 billion yuan, a year -on -year decrease of 16.69%, and the net profit attributable to mothers was 369 million yuan, a year -on -year decrease of 76.16%. Perfect World stated that due to the connection of new and old games, increased R & D investment, and decline in the operating profit of the invested enterprise, the transition period was stressful.

Data show that the growth rate of the Chinese gaming market in 2021 has slowed significantly. Behind the scale of user scale and penetration, traffic dividends have subsided, the cost of buying rises, and the gaming industry is generally under pressure.

The weakness of the game products is still prominent. In the May 2022 mobile game revenue list mentioned earlier, most of the top products have been launched for more than 5 years. The recent IP -level mobile game "Original God" has also been publicized for nearly two years.

For new players, the attack market may be a shortcut for overtaking.

The above -mentioned game game director believes that "Shanghai Four Little Dragons" can emerge quickly because their games have caught the niche. Compared with large platforms, they grow up in market segments and understand new directions, new aesthetics, and new users. "It will never be another Tencent who defeats Tencent. Based on this, I think high -quality new game companies have the possibility of future challenges, because they represent a new product direction, a new idea. Just like two two. Dimensional game, it represents the aesthetics of the younger generation. "Xiao Jiayue believes that only when a category is bored by players, new products can appear and succeed. "I can make different products like Mihayou and Eagle Horn. I think it is a confirmation of new products in the industry bottleneck. I also know that many colleagues have made some products with advanced ideas, but their grades are all Not very good. It is difficult to succeed when making innovation at the peak of large categories and large types, and popular players are still playing. "

Teng Hua told the reporter of the Daily Economic News that there will be a reshuffle at each stage, which is generally gradually carried out. If it is eliminated at the stage of the stage, many game companies that simply rely on traffic operations have been eliminated, but this stage lasted for several years. "Although the emergence of the new carrier will bring some new gameplay, even in the outbreak of the mobile game, the gameplay framework of the game's game has not been separated from the end gameplay."

"There are many new themes now, such as the two -dimensional, virtual human, and Yuan universe, but there may not be huge product iterations, because the current changes are mainly concentrated on content themes. The obvious change has not yet appeared. "Ai Media Consulting CEO Zhang Yi said.

"High -precision" illusion is not small in the capital market

Will the transformed signal be AI technology?

Sun Ting said that in the game, Xiaobing has to do it anyway. "It is not just a project for Xiaobing, so if there is no unsuccessful, we will not make such logic. As long as Xiaobing is still there, it will continue."

Xiaobing's determination of technical value to the game is not lonely. Because of the outbreak of digital technologies such as AI, VR, blockchain, cloud computing and the rise of the concept of Yuan universe, technology has become the mainstream choice for many game companies to find growth.

Taking Sanqi Interactive Entertainment (SZ002555, the stock price is 21.87 yuan, and the market value is 48.5 billion yuan) as an example, while exploring the AI ​​algorithm and digital collections, it also deploy the element universe through foreign investment. As of April 2022, Sanqi Mutual Entertainment has completed nine investment or acquisition of the relevant enterprises of the Yuan universe. According to the incomplete statistics of the "Daily Economic News" reporter, at least 15 companies in the A -share game industry mentioned the concept of the Yuan universe in the 2021 report.

In the technology garden, some people have seeds waiting for the results, and some people think of weaving beautiful coats. The disorderly flowers are fascinating, and the power of high -precision illusion in the capital market is not small.

When the blockchain first rose in 2018, Qingqingbao (SZ300052, a stock price of 17.93 yuan, and a market value of 4.698 billion yuan) put a "blockchain outer coat" without the relevant business. In 2021, after Zhongqingbao WeChat public account revealed that it was developing a Yuan universe game "Master of Brewery", its stock price soared. The Securities and Futures Commission has issued a letter of question many times, and from the public game H5 page, the product is far from the so -called "beautiful new world" Yuan universe.

"Excellent" is a must -mention word in the annual report of game companies. It is about technology and content quality.

Xiao Jiayue believes: "If we pay too much attention to the concept, we will ignore the role of the content. A new technology can only become an application direction and does not mean that it can be a product that it is loved by users." Teng Hua also said that regardless of the game form, regardless of the game format What changes occur, game products will always develop around user needs.

"Original God" is a frequent case of being mentioned. Different interviewees said that the new experience of the open world experience on the technical end of the technical end is the key to success. , Music, art and other content spent a lot of effort.

From the perspective of the above -mentioned game company, as long as it is a good technology, once it can break into the game's vision, there will naturally be a good rider to know how to tame.

Like 60 years ago, Polish writer and philosopher Stanislav Lim wrote in "Technical Collection": The problem is not to condemn or praise technology, but to examine how much we can trust its development, How much can it interfere in its direction.

"All technologies are just means, not the purpose, the game itself is the purpose. A good game expert, knowing how to use technology to complete content expression, just like a musician knowing how to use technology and music theory to perform music in front of steel spring." Director of the above game company said.

Daily Economic News

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