Is the SLG market ushering in player zero? The originator of 4X strategy 'Civilization' mobile game comes to break the situation

Thunder in March

Anyone who is familiar with the Chinese game market knows that March and April after the first month of every year are the stages when game manufacturers, large and small, are ready to go and show their fangs. This year is no exception. Some high-profile games that are highly anticipated and have great influence on the industry have basically been unveiled after multiple tests, and are only one step away from being launched; many games have newly obtained version numbers and have disclosed information to the public for the first time. It has aroused heated discussions in the player community and made constant associations in the industry.

The news of the first official announcement of the "Civilization" IP orthodox mobile game "World Qiyuan", authorized by 2K, developed by Tencent, and jointly published by Beijing Ruyi Jingxiu and Xiaoming Taiji, is like a thunderbolt. March got off to a good start.

There wasn’t much news in advance, and the emergence of “Civilization Mobile Game” really caught the industry off guard. This is also because of an IP as big as “Civilization” To produce a sequel, keeping information confidential is also a means of commercial competition. The greatness of the Civilization series goes without saying. As the originator of 4X games, the benchmark of strategy games and an evergreen tree in the industry, it is not only the enlightenment of many people on strategy games and a carrier for reliving the history of human development, but also a design guide for many game developers. To this day, even though the Civilization series has a history of more than 30 years and 6 official sequels with rising reputation, the 2016 main series "Civilization 6" still maintains a stable online number of 40,000 to 50,000 on Steam. Recently, The praise is also as high as 90%. The activeness of civilized players from all over the world keeps the game alive.

So, it makes sense that as soon as the first CG of "World Kaiyuan" was announced, it ignited the emotions of major domestic player communities - everyone recalled Those nights that were "dominated" by "Civilization". Various “Civilization” memes appeared in the video barrages and comments: “Finally, I can conduct nuclear peace diplomacy on my mobile phone,” “It’s time to press the next round again,” and “Netizens shared the nuclear fusion technology with you.” , "I wonder if my horse racing skills are rusty"... It seems that there is nothing wrong with saying that a heavyweight "nuclear bomb" was dropped on the domestic gaming market at the beginning of the year.

“Civilization” blood

As a major game company with many first-line international game products, 2K Games has always maintained a deep relationship with Tencent in the domestic market. partnership. The "NBA 2K online" series jointly developed by both parties and operated by Tencent has a history of more than ten years. This time "World Kaiyuan" is also another in-depth cooperation between 2K and Tencent. Tencent is responsible for research and development, and 2K not only provides licensing, but also provides considerable support in publicity and distribution, and is also responsible for supervising the game development process to ensure the overall direction of research and development. After all, the "Civilization" IP has been 2K's first-line treasure IP since it was acquired by 2K in 2005. 2K naturally knows how to cherish feathers.

This point directly invited Sid Meier, the creator of the "Civilization" series and the legendary designer in the video game industry, from 2K to record for "World Origin" You can also get a glimpse of it in the blessing video and the game announcement platform. You must know that Sid Meier, who is now nearly 70 years old, has rarely advocated for products in recent years. Even in the promotion of Firaxis Games' own games, he is rarely invited. I think this is first of all because 2K attaches great importance to the promotion and release of "World Kaiyuan". At the same time, "World Kaiyuan" is the first official bloodline of the "Civilization" series to log onto the mobile platform, expanding the user base and bringing the fun of "Civilization" to more players. , which also has special meaning for Sid Meier, the creator of the "Civilization" IP.

Compared to 2K Games and Tencent, the name of Beijing Ruyi Jingxiu, the publisher of "World Qiyuan", will be unfamiliar to many players. This subsidiary of China Ruyi, a listed film and television streaming media company, has established a long-term cooperative relationship with Tencent starting in 2022. Tencent is responsible for providing game resources, and Ruyi Jingxiu is responsible for distribution and operation. At the end of February 2023, the two parties signed a further in-depth cooperation agreement. At that time, many in the industry speculated that the two parties were planning in advance to operate larger game projects, and China Ruyi's stock price also rose sharply in response.

Now the official announcement of "World Qiyuan" can be regarded as a perfect response to everyone's original speculation. Ruyi, Tencent, and 2K, the three companies behind "World Kaiyuan" are deeply bound and have good cooperation experience. From research and development, promotion to operation, the resources and background of the "Civilization" mobile game are worthy of its place in the history of video games.

As for whether "World Kaiyuan" can restore the experience of the PC game "Civilization", not only players, but also many industry peers are the focus of attention. After all, the "Civilization" series has gone through many years of changes, with rich systems, a large amount of system information and complex design logic forming the core fun of the game. If you want to reproduce this massive information on a mobile phone screen of a few inches, you must also show the magnificent historical civilization of mankind. , the difficulty increases geometrically. How to adjust the UI layout, how to design the art style, how to streamline the system without losing the core content of the series, how to optimize and adapt to various mobile phone models, etc. are challenges to the development team and are also the reasons why "Civilization" games are difficult to copy. .

Fortunately, Tencent attaches great importance to the IP of "Civilization" this time, and directly invited 2K as a strategic partner for in-depth cooperation, providing strong resource support for game research and development. I believe that the development team will show its strength and unique insights on how to restore or even break through the previous works of "Civilization".

And judging from the first CG and promotional pictures, the design direction of "World Kaiyuan" is to try to restore the classic elements of "Civilization". Although the CG is only 2 minutes long, the epic sense of human civilization that shows several major civilizations crossing the long river of time is the spiritual core of the "Civilization" series. It can also be seen from the few actual game images officially revealed that the overall art style of "World Kaiyuan" is closer to the relaxed cartoon style of "Civilization 6". The familiar hexagonal grids on the big map are full of Full of 4X flavor, familiar features such as terrain, vegetation effects, architectural styles, etc. are also available. The technology of different civilizations and the design of cross-era arms are also the focus of official promotion.

Although not much information is given, we can feel that as a 4X game, "World Kaiyuan" is exploring, expanding, The four core elements of development and conquest are in pursuit of completely restoring the core experience of "Civilization". The number of civilizations, characteristics of arms, war modes and other designs that are more likely to have variables may be what distinguishes the game from previous works. "The core remains unchanged, but each generation must have its own characteristics." This is also the long-standing tradition of the "Civilization" series, and it is also the everlasting rule of the series.

The "World Qiyuan", which is orthodox in blood and strives to restore the "Civilization" experience of previous generations, naturally makes players excited and eagerly await it, and it also has a considerable impact on the entire domestic strategy game market.

breaker

As we all know, the domestic strategy game market is now almost considered a large-scale "Three Kingdoms". Strategy games with the theme of the Three Kingdoms account for a considerable proportion, and the head is also dominated by some veteran works for a long time. This makes it easy for players to suffer from aesthetic fatigue in terms of themes and gameplay. In recent years, there have been no new hits that can impress the market in terms of themes.

And "World Qiyuan" is likely to break this situation. As the orthodox bloodline of "Civilization", it also has inherent advantages in gameplay and background: "Civilization" can show the performance of human civilization at different times and geographical latitudes. The producer of "World Qiyuan" once mentioned the concept of "ONE SLG" in an interview: From primitive tribes to future space wars, from cold weapons to hot weapons, from the Three Kingdoms to medieval knights, they are all civilized themes a part of. "World Qiyuan" may provide themes and backgrounds that strategy players are interested in, and can make differences in gameplay content. For the current domestic strategy game market with fixed themes and gameplay, this feels like a dimensionality reduction attack.

And for players, the influence of the "Civilization" IP in the country is also at the level of "everyone knows it", not to mention being addicted to the unique strategies of "Civilization" Charming players, even non-Civilization players, have definitely heard of this originating evergreen IP. On the premise of ensuring quality, "World Qiyuan", the game-breaker, has a strength that cannot be underestimated.

Therefore, how "World Origin" can stir up the strategy game market will definitely be a highlight of the game industry in 2024.

end

Carrying one of the most famous IPs in the history of video games, "World Kai Yuan" shocked both the industry and players at the beginning of March. After all, the "Civilization" series, the originator of strategy games, has not had a new game for eight years. Players have long been looking forward to the next "Civilization" game that they can forget about time after opening it. After the announcement of "World Kaiyuan", many players in major communities said that it would be great to be able to play "Civilization" anytime and anywhere on mobile devices in the future, but their "civilization addiction" at the moment has been hooked, and they have After downloading "Civilization 6", I plan to have a lot of fun tonight and not sleep.

For the industry, "World Qiyuan" is backed by strong IP influence, abundant development and operation resources, and is fully confident to compete in the fiercely competitive market environment. Break out of the siege and make meritorious deeds. Reservations for "World Qiyuan" have also been opened, and the first wave of testing is about to begin. Therefore, we will wait and see what changes "World Qiyuan" will bring to the domestic game market in 2024.

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