Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

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This left the event organizers and Activision Blizzard in an awkward position.

After all, if it were just some spectator messing around like that, they could just call security to push him out, but the audience clearly treated that player as a hero.

They even strongly support his views.

This is...

It's quite subtle.

Ultimately, Activision Blizzard executives had to change the subject.

What made matters worse was that the video was uploaded to the internet, further fueling public opinion.

Bobby is never afraid of public opinion.

However, this time, the capital market followed public opinion, with Wall Street directly lowering Activision Blizzard's rating on the grounds that it was losing player support.

Activision Blizzard's stock subsequently declined.

This drove Bobby crazy. He could yell at me, but he couldn't touch my money!

As a Jew, Bobby Kotick simply couldn't accept that his enormous gaming empire would be plunged into crisis because of a remake.

In fact, even at this point, Bobby still didn't understand the source of the crisis.

But it doesn't matter anymore.

Importantly, Bobby, who wasn't originally interested in VR, is now genuinely interested.

Especially in the report.

"For companies that join the VR Alliance, their first game will receive no less than 15% of the project cost from Tencent and no less than 10% from Steam."

"Tencent has pledged to collaborate with the Meta Quest series to promote VR devices in China, aiming to increase the number of VR device users to no less than 23 million by 5000."

"Steam promises to continue updating SteamVR and open-source VR game development technology to help the VR Alliance quickly get started with large-scale VR game development."

And one point in the report that was utterly absurd.

"Currently, Spark has not made any plans for VR games; Spark is not in this market."

This statement appearing in a commercialization report is truly absurd, since Starfire hasn't actually posed any real threat to Rockstar, EA, or Activision Blizzard.

However, that's how it is.

Bobby inexplicably agreed with this when he saw it.

In addition, Bobby also saw the strength that Steam, a giant, had shown in the midst of difficulties, coupled with Tencent's presence in the Chinese market, and Mate was indeed bringing VR device prices into the sweet spot.

"Could it be that the VR era has truly arrived?"

"But how many resources would we need to invest if we joined?"

After considering his options and speaking with the CEOs of EA and Rockstar, Bobby decided to join the VR Alliance.

Of course, Bobby is joining, but he doesn't plan to invest too much money. Instead, he intends to continue his experience from Warcraft 3.

They resorted to the same trick again, selecting a title from Call of Duty for a VR remake.

Anyway.

In summary, by the end of March, Steam was able to resume its presentations and announced the list of SteamVR game developers.

Among the first batch of partners were Blizzard, EA, Rockstar, and Tencent, which was just there to make up the numbers.

If we only look at market capitalization and revenue, then this alliance is currently the strongest gaming alliance in the world.

"This is just the beginning."

In the news announcing the formation of this alliance, Gabe Newell, also known as GabeN, gave another rare interview and stated that...

"The technology is now mature, and VR technology will completely change the way we play games and even the way we interact with the world."

Then, on the day of the press conference.

Activision Blizzard announced the official launch of the Call of Duty: VR Origins project, and EA also announced the Dead Space: VR project.

With the immense popularity of Half-Life: Alyx, these news stories have effectively stolen the spotlight from the Spark Reset Game Festival.

With the addition of Tencent, the world's largest tech giant, Steam, the world's largest gaming platform, and a host of other top-tier game developers, the company has become a major player in the gaming industry.

The VR era, which started gaining traction in 12, seems to have finally arrived.

Even in Spark's traditional stronghold, the Japanese gaming industry, media outlets have reported on it.

Will we be able to play Sword Art Online next year?

"The Year of VR Games: New Technologies Led by Valve."

Such a title.

Chapter 562 Taunt

Initially, Xinghuo did not respond to this situation.

Lin Li was well aware that VR existed, even though every year was said to be the year of VR's inception.

However, in its previous life, even 24 years after Quest's cumulative sales exceeded 20 million, the VR market was still a niche market.

The most advanced VR glasses are still priced above 3000 yuan, and the effect is only mediocre.

The VR gaming industry as a whole has been in a state of semi-deadness.

The reason for this situation is quite simple: the scale is too small to support the development costs of a blockbuster game.

Half-Life: Alyx is undoubtedly a top-tier title, but after four years, its total sales have only reached 2 million, including some that were given away with the purchase of VR devices.

The actual sales volume is only around one million.

For such a major title, such sales figures are clearly unattractive.

It's no exaggeration to say that if Half-Life: Alyx weren't a VR game, with the same development scale, it would easily sell for at least 5 million, if not 10 million.

If you were a developer, what would you choose?

Based on this historical understanding, Lin Li had never considered investing any resources in the VR market before.

He never even imagined that Steam would play VR as a key card.

In Lin Li's opinion, the other party's move was somewhat... somewhat like a cornered dog resorting to desperate measures.

So initially, Lin Li completely ignored the matter.

His current focus is on the delivery of the StarCore handheld console, the adaptation of StarCore handheld games, and the sales of StarCore bundled graphics card docks.

For Spark, in the next few years, the StarCore handheld console, or StarCore game console, will be a relatively important marketing direction for Spark.

As mentioned before, every player who buys a StarCore game console will gradually become bound to the Starfire platform. Apple's success has proven that hardware + ecosystem + software can attract and retain users.

As for VR, Lin Li's idea is to wait until the hardware and supply chain are more mature, and until Spark can develop a usable and widely applicable VR device, before considering ecosystem development.

However, Lin Li ignored the outside world.

The "outside world" had no intention of letting Lin Li go.

Especially penguins.

For Penguin, after all these years, they have finally won a victory in the public opinion arena against Spark.

Although! Although Half-Life Alyx actually has absolutely nothing to do with Penguin, Penguin Games has been involved with Steam ever since.

in the country, it presents itself as a Steam distributor.

They were even more excited about promoting Half-Life: Alyx than Steam, and even created a dedicated VR section on WEGAME.

They also made a high-profile announcement that they had invested in a VR game being developed by Activision Blizzard and EA, and that they had also become the agent for the Chinese server operation of Meta's Quest.

This series of actions can be said to have taken the "riding the wave" tactic to the extreme.

What supported them in doing so, besides the positive reviews of Half-Life Alyx, was the surge in Penguin's stock price.

In particular, Tencent announced that it will not only work with Steam, but also with MetaQuest to build a VR ecosystem on hardware.

They even plan to establish a Tencent VR brand and conduct independent research and development of VR devices.

At the same time, classic domestic IPs will be adapted into VR games in succession. Screenshots of VR games such as CrossFire, QQ Dance, Honor of Kings, QQ Speed, Dungeon Fighter Online, and League of Legends were also showcased.

The reason these screenshots are in quotes is because they are all "concept art".

However, regardless of whether it's a concept image or not, Tencent Games' stock price has indeed hit the daily limit for several consecutive days.

After all, this time they really came on strong.

Moreover, this time, the leading companies are genuine top-tier game developers.

Even though players have already been "re-educated" by these manufacturers, the market is still optimistic about this year's VR元年 (first year of VR).

In a sense, this is the greatest allure of the capital market.

Tencent hasn't done anything yet, hasn't even spent any money, and its stock price has already surged based solely on some conceptual plans and the release of cooperation intentions.

The capital market's expectations for VR games, this "new blue ocean," have been completely maximized.

"The year 'VR's Year One' has finally arrived after so many years!!"

Major investment institutions have released research reports.

They began to discuss the impact of Steam's AAA VR games on the market, while also expressing their approval of the involvement of EA, Rockstar, and Blizzard.

Moreover, among this large number of news reports, Penguin Games stands out as the vanguard of the entire alliance in expanding the domestic market.

Its future development prospects are depicted as extremely bright.

It seems that the domestic VR game market has already become Tencent's possession.

And as a result, the stock prices of Penguin, Blizzard, and EA really started to rise.

Microsoft and Sony have also stepped up again to capitalize on the hype, especially Sony, which directly announced the development of the PSVR2.

As more and more companies capitalize on the trend, even more funds flow in.

The media further fueled the fire, extensively reporting on Tencent's layout and ambitions in the VR field, regarding it as a leader in the transformation of the gaming industry.

For a time, the penguin was the talk of the town.

Spark, on the other hand, seems out of step with current trends because it is marketing its StarCore handheld game console.

During the interview, Li Weixi made sarcastic remarks about the upcoming StarCore handheld console.

"Starcore handheld console? A threat to Penguin? To be honest, I don't think they pose any threat to us."

"The current gaming market is quite clear: VR devices now cost seven or eight thousand yuan, so they can't be popularized."

"But what if one day a VR device only costs one or two thousand?"

"Without a doubt, VR games are the future of gaming. In the current situation, I'm quite curious about what makes Spark's handheld console so special. Can it play VR games?"

"When gamers are all immersed in the world of virtual reality, who will still play this handheld console?"

Lee Wei-hee's interview immediately attracted widespread media attention.

Many media outlets reprinted the report, with exaggerated headlines such as...

Headlines like "Penguin executives mock Spark handheld game console, saying it has been abandoned by the times" are everywhere.

To be honest, these comments were very difficult to get approved by Tencent's internal public relations department before they were finally released.

Moreover, when it was released, Tencent's public relations department was fully prepared for a major operation.

As the saying goes, if you're trying to fool your brothers, don't end up fooling yourself.

While VR is currently generating a lot of buzz, it ultimately relies on the huge success of Half-Life: Alyx and the numerous VR projects launched by major international companies.

When Half-Life Alyx was first released in its previous life, it also caused the stock prices of some VR companies to rise.

However, the stock prices quickly fell back down.

Because after Half-Life Alyx, there was no more Half-Life Alyx.

Even now, with Steam and Tencent both spending heavily on marketing and forming alliances, many companies are still taking a wait-and-see approach to the VR market.

Therefore, Lee Wei-hee's statement was, in a sense, no different from publicly opening champagne at halftime.

However, you don't care whether he opens champagne at halftime.

These remarks indeed made Lee Wei-hee famous, not only domestically but also internationally, with media outlets reprinting his comments.