Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

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David walked in, carrying a cup of coffee.

"Brother Dawei!"

"Never mind me, you guys continue your discussion."

Seeing everyone discussing the matter, David waved with a smile.

David told them to leave him alone.

However, miHoYo at this point was no longer the miHoYo it was when it was first founded.

David is no longer the David he once was.

Even though people still habitually call him Brother Dawei, his high position and power have changed things.

Who would dare to continue the discussion?

They could only offer a few perfunctory and superficial analyses before falling silent.

All that remained was the black box test report for Punishing: Gray Raven on the big screen.

David had obviously seen the report as well.

I stared at it for about ten seconds.

He finally sighed.

After taking a sip of coffee, we got down to business.

"Now that everyone has finished discussing, let's get down to business. First, let's report on the current preparations for the major Honkai Impact 3rd update."

Today's meeting.

The purpose is actually very clear: to discuss how to deal with Punishing: Gray Raven, which will be officially launched on January 20th, and how it will suddenly emerge as a formidable opponent.

Yes, this is a Cheng Yaojin who suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

It's worth noting that Punishing: Gray Raven's first black-box test was in September, and only two months later, in November, after a 7-day black-box test.

A second round of black-box testing was conducted.

Then, at the end of November, a large-scale test was briefly launched.

If we follow the normal procedure...

It won't be officially released until at least April 2019.

However, Kuro reneged on the promise.

In December, they directly announced that they would launch the public beta test on January 25.

This is partly due to the positive results of several rounds of testing for Punishing: Gray Raven, and partly due to the decision to avoid scheduling conflicts.

After all, 19 was no ordinary year.

Putting aside the fact that Spark Entertainment plans to release a series of major titles this year, including "The Wandering Earth: Homeland," "Destiny's Path," "Galaxy Paradise," and "Eastern Fantasy World."

miHoYo's "Genshin Impact" and Seasun Games' "Twin Star Exorcists" are both scheduled for release in 19.

In addition, a whole bunch of "new" games, such as "Starting from Another World" and "Mercury World," which were not released on mobile platforms due to the 18 game license issue, will also be released in 19.

The sheer number of works appearing in 19 has already created the atmosphere of a red ocean market, even before the year has begun.

If the original plan is followed, whether it is in the middle of the year or at the end of the year, it will inevitably mean a conflict of publicity and distribution resources.

That's why Kuro tightened his belt.

The launch was scheduled for February, before the New Year.

Not only can it avoid the peak season, but it can also ride the wave of the Spark New Year Carnival after the server opens.

However, Kuro's actions put miHoYo in a very difficult position.

The reason why I say that.

First, let's review the current situation of miHoYo.

The current state of miHoYo.

There are three games currently in operation.

In chronological order, they are Honkai Impact 2, Honkai Impact 3, and Honkai Impact 2.5.

The bulk of its revenue comes from this.

It's naturally Honkai Impact 3rd.

However, in this timeline, Honkai Impact 3rd is much more difficult than the previous one.

Although the overall revenue is similar to that of the previous generation.

However, its reputation is much worse.

Let's start with reputation.

During the rise of Starfire, it wasn't just Honkai Impact 3rd whose reputation was declining; Onmyoji and a whole host of other games also saw their reputations plummet.

After all, if other games are more conscientious, wouldn't yours just look inferior?

miHoYo and NetEase are unwilling to reduce their revenue.

Then we'll just have to ignore reputation.

So why did revenue remain unchanged despite the decline in reputation?

This is mainly because...

Honkai Impact 3rd or Onmyoji.

So far, there are no direct competitors.

Furthermore, although the poor reputation led to a high attrition rate for this timeline of Honkai Impact 3, the Spark event also helped expand the entire anime and manga market.

The influx of new users made up for this loss.

This is somewhat similar to the situation in the second and third years of Genshin Impact in the previous game.

Although some old players are leaving, there are more new players, so the revenue is not bad.

While maintaining the development of Genshin Impact, we can still make a profit.

Honkai Impact 2.5, which was released later to compete with Arknights, also demonstrated good profitability, although it was different from the consistently strong performance of Arknights.

After its initial peak, Honkai Impact 2.5 entered a period of decline, partly because miHoYo did not pay much attention to the project.

In order to stabilize revenue, the overall model has started to resemble the pay-to-win model of Honkai Impact 3.

This leaning caused the water level to drop further.

After all, Honkai Impact 2.5 is a secondary game for players, a secondary game for enjoying the story. But miHoYo has been cramming it with grind-heavy content since its launch.

A decline in revenue is quite normal.

But anyway.

Overall, both Honkai Impact 3rd and Onmyoji are considered top-tier IPs in the industry, though their reputations are only average.

Therefore, miHoYo has never been worried.

Having money gives you confidence.

until.

Punishing: Gray Raven has been scheduled for release.

miHoYo is genuinely starting to panic.

In this timeline of Punishing: Gray Raven, although the name is the same as the previous one, the game content is not significantly different.

However, the pressure on miHoYo was worlds apart.

First, the first point.

Punishing: Gray Raven is a member of Project Spark.

That makes a big difference.

It's worth noting that the previous game from the Spark Project was Azur Lane, and the marketing and promotion for Azur Lane were basically the same as those for Spark's own games.

Although the Spark Program had gradually faded from the spotlight by this time, much of the support had been integrated into the Spark Developer Alliance.

But who can guarantee that?

Will Xinghuo not conduct large-scale publicity for it?

Second.

Punishing: Gray Raven underwent a complete engine overhaul in June of last year, receiving support from the Starfire engine department and assistance from Starfire programmers.

Putting aside the fact that Spark helped Kuro integrate resources, the integration of the engine greatly accelerated the development progress of Punishing: Gray Raven.

Just talking about the visuals.

With the support of Spark, Punishing: Gray Raven already boasts graphics comparable to top-tier anime-style games.

Then, add the artwork from Punishing: Gray Raven itself.

Both the PV and the characters have a very special aesthetic appeal.

Honkai Impact 3rd is, after all, a game from 16.

Even by today's standards, the visuals are still top-notch, not much worse than Punishing: Gray Raven.

But players are fickle and easily bored.

Chapter 149 Such Competition

Punishing: Gray Raven is currently backed by the Starfire Platform and is coming on strong.

Although there wasn't much money for marketing and promotion, Punishing: Gray Raven managed to improve after several rounds of guidance from Lin Li and the replacement of the Starfire engine.

The feedback from several tests has been quite positive.

More importantly, time.

Punishing: Gray Raven was released at the end of 2019, at which time miHoYo's Genshin Impact was already mostly complete.

Furthermore, Kuro is a small company, so its impact on miHoYo is not that significant.

But this time is different.

On the one hand, miHoYo is currently in dire need of funds, as Genshin Impact is about to be released and the marketing campaign for its counter-promotion against Starfire requires a large amount of money.

Secondly, while Kuro is a small studio, Spark is not.

Games like The Scroll of Taiwu, Re:Zero -Starting from Another World, and Mercury World have proven that as long as your game quality is reliable, it can succeed even without marketing.

They can achieve good results by relying on the self-generated traffic of the Xinghuo platform.

Not to mention that Kuro is a member of Project Spark, and within the platform, Spark will definitely provide strong support.

In addition, there is one more thing.

That is due to the cooperation between miHoYo and Spark in recent years.

Many miHoYo players also play through the Spark platform.

Xinghuo is also handling miHoYo's overseas distribution.

This also means.

On the Spark platform, there are a large number of Honkai Impact 3 players, who are very likely to be attracted by Punishing: Gray Raven, a direct competitor of Honkai Impact 3.

At this moment, Dawei had no time to think about how, if it weren't for the expansion of the Spark platform and the continuous traffic it brought to Honkai Impact 3, it would have been impossible to maintain the current revenue given Honkai Impact 3's current aggressive monetization tactics.

But that's just human nature.

Success is all yours, failure is all someone else's fault.

Human nature.

David was filled with regret.

Therefore, after Punishing: Gray Raven's release date was announced, Dawei had already prepared for this battle as a tough one.

His proposed solution was a major version update.