“The Chinese version number has finally opened. Tears are running with joy.” As CEO Huang Yimeng said on twitter, the spring of the game circle is coming.
After waiting for eight months, 263 days later, on April 11, the official website of the State Press and publication administration finally announced the “approval information of domestic online games in April 2022”, which showed that a total of 45 games obtained version numbers.
Among the 45 games approved this time, there are 37 mobile games, 5 client games, 2 leisure and puzzle mobile games and 1 switch game. The well-known game manufacturers that have obtained the version number include thunder network, heart network, Yoozoo Interactive Co.Ltd(002174) , Kingnet Network Co.Ltd(002517) , dream world, Lilith, 4399, Jinshan software and Baidu duoku under G-Bits Network Technology(Xiamen)Co.Ltd(603444) .
The version number must be obtained when the game is online. It can be said that the version number is the “food” of the game industry. Liao Xuhua, senior analyst of Analysys cultural consumption industry, told China first finance that the version number is the basis of development, and the restart of distribution undoubtedly boosted the industry confidence of investors and practitioners.
Affected by the news of the version number, the online game index rose by 3.22% on April 12, and the opening limit of Shenzhen Bingchuan Network Co.Ltd(300533) , Yoozoo Interactive Co.Ltd(002174) and others rose by more than 12%, Tencent rose by 3.62%, Netease rose by 4.21%. In addition, the live game platforms tiger teeth and Betta rose by more than 2%.
game manufacturer’s spring
After the release of the version number, some people in the game industry told first finance that the release of the version number is a very good signal for the industry, “which means that the industry returns again and it will develop and promote in a more favorable direction.”
The key game manufacturers and products that won the edition number this time include the star of the party, the annals of the Three Kingdoms: Pocket battle, Lilith’s Party of life, the dream world, beware of fire and candle, the legend of dragon, 4399, the top of all things: awakening, Baidu’s attacking rabbit, etcp align=”center” style=”text-align:center;”> All version number information approved in April 2022
Among these game editions, the online fighting mobile game “flash party” has been launched in the Japanese market and topped the Japanese IOS free list. According to data According to AI’s data, this game ranked fifth in the Japanese game market in March 2022, showing good potential.
In terms of PC client games, Xishanju’s “sword net 3 origin” and G-Bits Network Technology(Xiamen)Co.Ltd(603444) ‘s thunder network’s “tower Hunter” also got the version numbers.
It is worth mentioning that the version number issued this time is not the version number of Tencent and NetEase. Zhang Yi, CEO of AI media consulting, said that the two game giants Tencent and Netease did not get the version number this time and released at least two messages. One is that the market needs more participants to give this backward small and medium-sized enterprise more opportunities; Second, the content products provided by the two enterprises may not meet the content orientation that needs to be reviewed at this stage.
As half of China’s game industry, Tencent and Netease still hold about 60% of the market share in the game sales revenue in 2021. In 2021, Tencent’s “glory of the king”, “peace elite” and Netease’s “dream journey to the west” will still firmly occupy the top three of China’s mobile games.
It is an indisputable fact that the overall development of the game industry will slow down in 2021, except for the big head factories. Since the release of a version number on July 22, there is no new version number in the game industry in 2021. Statistics show that only 768 game version numbers have been reviewed in 2021, equivalent to about half of that in 2020.
Without the blessing of new games, the growth rate of the industry has slowed down significantly. According to the 2021 mobile Internet industry white paper released by Qimai data, by the end of 2021, the number of online game apps in China’s app stores had reached 687000, a decrease of 20.8% over the same period last year.
Gamma data show that in 2021, the actual sales revenue of China’s game market was 296513 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.4%, and the growth rate was nearly 15% lower than that of last year.
Specifically for enterprises, during the blank period of edition number for more than half a year, many game manufacturers are also facing storms such as project cuts, layoffs and cost reduction, stock price bottoming, revenue decline and so on. According to the annual report that has been released so far, in 2021, in addition to the revenue or profit growth of some enterprises such as Tencent, Netease and G-Bits Network Technology(Xiamen)Co.Ltd(603444) etc., nearly half of the enterprises fell into the dilemma of net profit decline or even loss.
In addition, according to the data provided by tianyancha, between July 2021 and February 2022, about 2000 game related enterprises were cancelled, of which enterprises with a registered capital of less than 1 million accounted for 3.16%.
After eight long months of cold winter, the game circle finally ushered in spring in this April. The release of edition numbers has largely alleviated the anxiety of the industry and restored the confidence of the industry and investors Guoyuan Securities Company Limited(000728) pointed out that the restoration of version number also showed that the new regulations on juvenile addiction prevention had achieved phased results, and the game industry was gradually developing towards benign and standardized development.
Anxin Securities pointed out that after the release of version numbers is resumed, the online rhythm of new products of game companies will be accelerated, and the game industry is expected to usher in a new round of performance driving. At present, the valuation of the game sector is at the low level in the past 2-3 years. After the substantive suspension of the game edition in August 2021, it has been in the state of valuation repression. After the resumption of the edition, it is expected to start the first round of rebound and gradually repair the valuation level of the sector.
high quality and going to sea are still the key
It is worth noting that the number of edition numbers issued in April this time is 45, which is nearly half lower than the number of edition numbers last time. The industry generally believes that with the stricter audit of the game industry in the future, edition numbers will be more and more scarce, and high-quality products and going to sea are still the focus.
From 2018 to 2021, the national press and Publication Administration issued 2064, 1507, 1405 and 768 game edition numbers respectively, and the number of edition numbers issued showed a downward trend year by year. On this basis, cherishing the opportunity of edition number and focusing on high-quality research and development of core projects will become the greatest competitiveness of game enterprises. At the same time, it will become more and more important for game products to go to sea and operate a long-life game.
A person in the industry told China first finance and economics that the focus of the edition brake in 2018 or 2021 is to rectify the chaos of the game industry. “The game has been growing savagely for a long time. At that time, as long as you don’t step on the red line of laws and regulations, you can play games with too many low-quality games, which will bring the danger of collapse to the industry in the long run.”
The above-mentioned people said that as a cultural and entertainment product, games can be a cultural medium. From the perspective of cultural inheritance, it is very necessary to make them high-quality.
Citic Securities Company Limited(600030) Yan pointed out that in the future, the game industry will prefer high-quality content to games, and head game companies with strong R & D ability are expected to maintain competitiveness. Therefore, in the future, the game market may further concentrate on the head. With the advantages of talents and resources, the number and ability of the head manufacturers to get the version number are much greater than those of small manufacturers.
In parallel with high-quality products, going to sea has become a top priority for many game manufacturers when the flow dividend has peaked and the version number has shrunk.
Gamma data shows that the increment of overseas market has exceeded that of Chinese market in 2021, and the focus of revenue growth of Chinese game industry has shifted outward. In 2021, the actual sales revenue of China’s independently developed games in the overseas market reached US $18.013 billion (about 114.7 billion yuan), which is close to half of the Chinese market share.
Netease CEO Ding Lei said at a conference call after the 2021 annual report that overseas market development and producer investment are Netease’s very firm strategic policy. He said, “I hope we can achieve great success in overseas market development in two or three years.”
Going to sea has also become a new growth point for the performance of large head factories. Tencent announced the annual revenue of games in the international market for the first time in its 2021 financial report: the revenue in 2021 reached 45.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 31%. Meanwhile, Tencent China’s game revenue in 2021 was 128.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6%.
In addition to Tencent, Chinese game manufacturers such as Netease, mihayou, funplus, Lilith and IgG also have long-term experience in going to sea and good R & D strength, and have achieved good results in overseas markets.
According to the data of sensor tower, in 2021, the revenue of 42 Chinese mobile games in the overseas market exceeded US $100 million, and the total revenue of the top 30 mobile games in the app store and Google play reached US $11.5 billion.
In the top 30 list of overseas revenue of Chinese Mobile Tourism in 2021, MIHA tour’s “original God” ranked first and became the biggest winner of going to sea. Tencent’s “pubg mobile” ranked second. In addition, funplus’s “state of survival” and Lilith’s “awakening of nations” also ranked in the top four.
Despite the contraction of edition numbers, this round of edition number restart still releases a good signal. With the standardized development of the industry, as one of the youngest industries, the game industry still has great potential.
At the beginning of 2022, Microsoft’s huge acquisition of Activision Blizzard was actually a wind vane, an insider told China first finance, “Large enterprises such as Microsoft must have done a lot of research before investing and considered capital security. Therefore, large international mergers and acquisitions and investments give you a clear point that this industry can develop, and with the advent of the era such as metauniverse, it may be the most profitable place in the future.”
