Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

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Liang Yan was somewhat speechless. What kind of help could he possibly offer?

My projects have already been cancelled, so what help can I offer?

However, Liang Yan could understand why Ma Xiao would ask that question.

The lineup for this year's Penguin Games Festival was really bad. All those big promises from last year, like Fortnite and PUBG, didn't get any game licenses.

This year, Tencent Games promoted seven games in the first half of the year: Perfect World, LEGO Worlds, Raziel, Ace Force, Dragon Raja, Let's Catch Monsters Together, and Peacekeeper Elite.

Including some scattered games, Tencent has far more new games than Spark, but apart from Peacekeeper Elite, none of the other games have met expectations.

In contrast, Spark Entertainment releases products that become instant hits.

During the most crucial "promotional phase" of the game festival, Tencent failed to produce any compelling titles; all the games were rather unremarkable at first glance.

Without Spark, these games, taken individually, are still competitive.

Currently, Tencent Games has more than 30 new games planned for promotion, among which "Dynasty Warriors Overlords", "Street Fighter: Duel" and "Metal Slug: Code J" are all considered to be world-class IPs.

There are also domestic IPs like "Joy of Life," but the promotional videos for these games are truly unbearable to watch. Not to mention players, even Ma Xiao himself shook his head after seeing them.

It's fair to say that these games would be better off just releasing their names rather than releasing promotional videos.

Last year, at least there were a few major overseas titles to support the market, but this year there are fewer.

It's not that Tencent is unwilling to pay, but as time went on to 19, overseas manufacturers became more familiar with the Chinese market and thus became more willing to cooperate with Spark.

Before the emergence of the Spark platform, overseas manufacturers, especially those operating single-player games, could only enter the Chinese market by contacting Tencent.

After all, Tencent has a lot of influence, can reliably obtain game licenses, and has a wide reach in domestic marketing and distribution.

However, since the Spark platform gradually grew up.

Overseas manufacturers have become clever, and many Chinese players have been able to bypass domestic regulations for single-player games by using acceleration methods.

Overseas manufacturers only need to obtain an overseas distribution license from the China Publishing Administration to launch their products on the Xinghuo platform.

Compared to domestic game licenses in China, obtaining overseas game licenses is virtually effortless.

As long as it's not something too overpowered, you can pass.

Moreover, even if you want to launch a large-scale promotional campaign in China, it seems that the chances of getting a license through Xinghuo are higher. More importantly, Xinghuo's agency fees are also relatively low.

Just like Steam, there is no such thing as separate negotiations.

If you hand over the Chinese server to Xinghuo, that's only a 20% cut. If the developer operates the Chinese server themselves and builds their own servers, the cut will be even lower.

Under these circumstances, many overseas manufacturers may be undecided about whether to log in to Steam, Spark, or both.

It can be found in China.

When it comes to choosing between Spark Platform and WEGAME, there's almost no hesitation.

Especially after suffering a major setback with Anthem at the beginning of this year, Tencent has become more cautious about seeking overseas AAA titles.

The final result was due to the fermentation of various factors.

Penguins fall behind at every step they take.

Chapter 445 What's so special about TGA?

So much so that by October, when Ma Xiao finished reading the revenue report, he realized that the fire had spread far and wide and he was trying to put it out.

In Tencent's hands, there are games that haven't been released yet.

Surprisingly, the most popular game is "Monkey King: Hero Is Back," a game that was originally scheduled for release in October of this year but was postponed to the present due to various reasons.

It's truly moving.

However, it wouldn't be accurate to say that Tencent has absolutely no game reserves. At least Riot Games' Valorant and the previously acquired Call of Duty Mobile can still help Tencent.

In its previous life, Penguin didn't actually pay much attention to Valorant.

The main reason is the licensing requirement; these kinds of online games must obtain a license to operate.

Even if you put it in the domestic market now, you can't monetize it.

However, in this timeline, although obtaining a game license remains a major hurdle, Valorant clearly needs to be used to save face, along with Call of Duty Mobile.

But the problem is...

For Liang Yan, he was the head of the Boston studio.

These games have absolutely nothing to do with him.

"Hey, I think we should..."

When the big boss called on him, Liang Yan still had to speak, but he couldn't come up with anything substantial.

Fortunately, Ma Xiao didn't expect Liang Yan to come up with any specific ideas, so after Liang Yan said a few nonsense words, he waved his hand.

"How about this, your Boston studio, during this time, make a PV for Starfire's Galaxy Paradise, whether it's CG or some other method."

“Call a few more people back from the Boston studio. You guys will be the headliners at this year’s game show.”

"Huh? Us? The finale??"

Liang Yan was dumbfounded.

What is all this about? I'm just here to observe.

Liang Yan was about to decline, but seeing Ma Xiao's expression, which didn't seem like he was joking, he chickened out.

Ma Xiao's decision was reasonable.

In his view, there are two things to do at this year's Penguin Games Festival, one of which is naturally promotion.

The goal is to boost penguin revenue again in a short period of time through a large-scale promotional campaign.

Tencent has never done a large-scale promotional event like Singles' Day before, but it also didn't have a monster like Spark before.

Although I've never organized a similar event before.

But Ma Xiao wasn't too worried about it. If other things weren't good enough, then tricking people into spending money was Tencent's forte. Tencent Games had a lot of promotional activities that could be used for this.

The 6-yuan skins for Honor of Kings have been prepared in advance for the game festival. During the three-day festival, one 6-yuan skin will be sold each day.

In addition, there are a large number of skin updates and re-releases.

There are also League of Legends, DNF, and so on; Ma Xiao has no worries about that at all.

On the other hand, Ma Xiao was very worried about the influence of the game festival. He felt that neither "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" nor "Valorant" was enough to carry the show.

But he couldn't think of a good solution for the time being, and finally found inspiration from his old rival, Xinghuo.

It's just empty promises, right? I'll just make one too.

In Ma Xiao's view, making empty promises is a very simple thing.

After all, with the explosive popularity of Destiny Track, the fact that Spark made a Destiny Track demo in just one month back then was also exposed as an interesting anecdote.

When the first version of the Spark Destiny Trail demo was released, it was announced that it would be launched in October, just one month after the PV was released.

However, the actual timeline of fate did not go live until three years later.

Therefore, the meme that "one month of Spark is equivalent to three years" spread all over the internet and became a well-known joke.

If Spark can produce a demo in a month, is it really that difficult for the Boston studio to produce a PV in just over 20 days?

Liang Yan really wanted to say something.

difficult.

It's really difficult. They don't have a monster like Lin Li who can figure out the core of a game in a few tens of minutes. Technically speaking, it's entirely possible to make a decent PV in 20 days as long as you're willing to spend money.

The prerequisite for creating this PV is having something in your mind.

He really wanted to bring up this issue, but the atmosphere in the meeting room made him afraid to say it out loud.

Do you have any better suggestions?

After Ma Xiao finished asking his question, the room fell silent.

The group of heroes from Tencent, all prominent figures who were known for their achievements, were now bowing their heads, flipping through files.

Clearly, no one could think of any other way to suppress the sparks.

Looking at the silent conference room, Ma Xiao felt a heavy weight in her heart.

From the high spirits when I took over last year to going with the flow this year.

His ambitions had almost completely dissipated in less than a year. At this point, he no longer wanted to extinguish the spark; he only wanted to maintain the penguin's current status.

At least don't end up like Tencent Video, completely overwhelmed by Douyin.

Ma Xiao sighed and waved his hand.

"Alright, meeting adjourned..."

~~~

After the meeting ended.

Ma Xiao had only walked a few steps outside when Li Weixi, who had been silent in the office, suddenly appeared.

"Mr. Xiao, if we want to curb Xinghuo's arrogance, I actually have another good method."

Upon hearing this, Ma Xiao's eyes lit up.

"what?"

Li Weixi smiled slightly; this was exactly the effect he wanted.

"Mr. Xiao, besides our hot-selling event, there's another big hot topic coming up in December."

What's the hottest topic?

Ma Xiao thought about it carefully, but couldn't think of any big events in December.

"TGA..."

"TGA? What's so special about TGA?"

Ma Xiao subconsciously asked a question in return.

While The Game Awards (TGA) is indeed arguably the most influential game awards ceremony globally, many describe it as the Oscars of gaming.

However, in 19, TGA's influence in China was not very high. This is not to say that there were few Chinese players who paid attention to TGA, but rather that it was relatively low compared to the entire Chinese market.

TGA is only somewhat known within certain Chinese single-player game circles and does not have a significant influence.

So when Lee Wei-hee uttered the term TGA.

Ma Xiao's first reaction was disappointment.

I thought this guy had something important to report to me privately, but he started talking about TGA? What does this foreign awards ceremony have to do with penguins?

Seeing Ma Xiao's reaction, Li Weixi knew that his superior was not familiar with TGA.

So he followed Ma Xiao all the way to his office.

"Although TGA has little influence in China, it has a great influence worldwide."

"Moreover, this year is quite special. Spark has a total of 5 games nominated at TGA, and it is very likely to become the first Chinese company to win an official award at TGA..."

After Li Weixi finished speaking, Ma Xiao finally stopped.

"Is Xinghuo that powerful?"

Chapter 446 Spark's Manufacturer Special Sale

Historically, the first Chinese game to win an official award at the TGA was Tencent's "Call of Duty Mobile." Although the IP is foreign, the game can indeed be considered domestic to some extent.

However, on this timeline, no Chinese game company had won any awards before 19.

The forms, however, are completely different.

In 17, TGA nominated Battlefront Girls for Best Ongoing Game, and in 18, it nominated FGO for Best Mobile Game, but in the last two years, it was just a nomination.

Xinghuo didn't win the award because he didn't bribe anyone.

The reason Lin Li didn't bribe anyone was simply because it was unnecessary. After all, TGA's influence mainly covers PC games, so even if you win the TGA Best Mobile Game award, it won't matter.

It won't affect the flow of water too much.