Double - end DAU exceeds 12 million: How does an FPS game break into the red - ocean market with "technology + ecosystem"?
On April 12th, during the preview live broadcast of the new season "Sons of the Night" of "Delta Squad", a new statistic was announced - the daily active users (DAU) across both platforms of the game have now exceeded 12 million.
The DAU of "Delta Squad" has exceeded 12 million
This statistic came suddenly, but it's not entirely unexpected. If you pay attention, you'll notice that the popularity of "Delta Squad" on content platforms has also been rising rapidly. For example, compared to its launch, the game has now ranked among the top three in terms of live - broadcast popularity on Douyin's game section. As of the time of writing, the total views of its related topics have exceeded 40 billion. On Bilibili, many UP owners have also become famous overnight. For instance, Lao Feiyu attracted a lot of new followers with his "Rat Man Operation" series, achieving a rapid breakthrough and growth in his fan base.
Lao Feiyu's recent videos (Source: Bilibili)
According to the data from Shunwang Technology, "Delta Squad" also ranked among the top three in terms of popularity in Internet cafes in February and March this year.
Data source: Shunwang Technology
This series of achievements can be said to be quite remarkable. Don't forget, "Delta Squad" has only been on the market for six and a half months. Compared with similar products, it has the fastest and most stable growth, and is fully capable of competing with those long - running products that have been in operation for many years.
Moreover, the excellent performance of "Delta Squad" can also be seen from the multiple public statements made by Tencent's senior management about the game.
In Tencent's Q3 financial report last year, "Delta Squad" was positioned as a game "with the potential to become a long - lasting hit". A long - lasting hit refers to a product with an annual revenue of over 4 billion yuan and a quarterly DAU of over 5 million (for mobile games) or 2 million (for PC games). At the beginning of the earnings conference call for the same period, the music from "Delta Squad" was used.
In the earnings conference call for the 2024 annual financial report, Tencent stated that the total revenue from both platforms of the game in Q4 last year had exceeded 1 billion yuan, and emphasized that "Delta Squad" would not cannibalize Tencent's existing games.
Source: Earnings conference call content
This idea may sound a bit strange. Nowadays, the number of players is limited, and in a highly competitive market, it's all about competing for the existing user base. With users having limited energy, how can FPS games with similar content not compete with each other?
With this question in mind, after comprehensively reviewing the actions and strategies of "Delta Squad" in the past six months and combining Tencent's internal understanding of it, we've reached a new conclusion: this game aims not for existing - user competition, but to be a "pioneer in the red - ocean market".
To put it simply, "Delta Squad" doesn't focus on how to grab a larger share in the red - ocean market. Instead, it considers how to, based on technological advancements, game design, user needs, and the context of the era, work together with other FPS games to push the genre into the next generation.
This is no easy feat.
Technology - Driven Gameplay: The "Double Helix" of Industrial Pipeline and Tactical Balance
"Cars, guns, and balls" are the three long - standing and popular categories in the gaming industry.
As one of them, FPS games have produced at least one iconic product almost every generation. As early as 2011, the online game "CrossFire" set a record of 2.3 million concurrent online players. In 2023, the fully upgraded CS2 achieved a feat of 1.42 million concurrent online players on the Steam platform. In addition, games like "Apex Legends" and "Valorant" have also sparked rounds of FPS fever at different times.
Although these games have different gameplay details and content focuses, they often share a core common point: they all leverage the technology of their times to create product content that best meets the current needs of the player community.
For example, in the era when 3D graphics cards were not yet popular on PCs, "Doom" introduced designs such as pseudo - 3D and no real physical collisions.
The later "Half - Life" series introduced technologies like polygon modeling, free - view, and jumping, further enhancing the immersive experience of FPS games. The design that combines narrative and gameplay has also inspired many later - comers. For instance, "Call of Duty 4", which pioneered "cinematic narrative" and introduced QTE and non - linear levels.
The classic FPS game "Half - Life"
On the other hand, the "Battlefield" series' multi - player cooperative large - scale battlefield mode has also continuously provided players with a unique gaming experience. They all benefit from the research and development accumulation of technologies such as graphics upgrades, interaction logic, and network data synchronization.
Later, technological breakthroughs reached a certain bottleneck, and the marginal benefits brought to FPS game development began to decline. Thus, gameplay innovation started to offer possibilities. The battle - royale gameplay derived from "DayZ" made "PUBG" a global sensation. The design of introducing skills in "Overwatch" showed everyone a different side of FPS games.
By combining these two aspects, "Apex Legends" emerged. And "Fortnite", which combines battle - royale and building gameplay, remains the top choice for many FPS enthusiasts to this day. These gameplay innovations, in turn, have continued to drive further technological upgrades.
"Fortnite"
It can be seen that these games have all left a significant mark in the history of FPS games with their groundbreaking designs of the times. More importantly, they created gameplay designs that met the expectations and imaginations of players at that time. Or rather, players drove the birth of this content until a game developer brought it to life.
The success that "Delta Squad" pursues may be similar.
Currently, "Delta Squad" is Tencent's first game based on the "Four - in - One" concept, which means it is available on all platforms, fully self - developed, with full control over the IP, and covers the global market. It is a comprehensive product that maximizes the development and operation advantages of a large - scale company.
Of course, the investment and difficulty involved are also quite significant. The difficulty of developing a game for both platforms is several orders of magnitude higher than that of developing for a single platform. Users on different platforms have different operating habits and requirements. How to match the same content to the operating habits of users on different hardware devices is a great test for the development team.
Just looking at the technological requirements of "Delta Squad", we can understand this. For example, how to achieve shared interaction logic between the PC and mobile versions to ensure a relatively consistent gaming experience across both platforms. During the R & D process, Linlang Tianxia needs to build a cross - platform integrated production and rendering pipeline, establish a unified security solution for cross - platform experience, and ensure that technologies such as the action system, character motion capture, and spatial audio can rival those of the world's top - level PC FPS games. When launching in overseas markets, the development team also needs to solve the server architecture problem for global multi - platform co - servers.
In addition to cross - platform rendering, the technologies used in art, levels, and combat gameplay are also worthy of attention. For example, under the constraints of hardware technology, the development team has iterated multiple times on the vegetation, water bodies, terrain details, and the dynamic changes of these elements in the game map. In terms of gaming experience, when PC players play the "Fire Zone" mode, they can comprehensively judge the enemy's position based on the reflection of window glass, the swaying of vegetation, and sounds through real - time ray tracing, global illumination, and the dynamic changes of map elements.
There are many similar cases. These technological breakthroughs in the product ensure that the game has a high - quality performance and can run smoothly on mainstream multi - platform devices.
It's worth mentioning that the development of the large - scale story - driven DLC "Black Hawk Down" has involved an astonishing amount of technological investment. It is developed using the UE5 engine, with a self - developed pipeline specifically built. The development team also recruited an art director in Vancouver and formed a dedicated performance team to polish the story presentation. To be honest, creating this content may not be very beneficial for the game's continuous monetization. But in the words of the producer, Shadow, it is a "value investment".
Source: "Delta Squad"
Specifically in terms of design, "Delta Squad" incorporates a variety of core FPS gameplay elements that represent the mainstream of the era, reducing players' game - screening costs and making dynamic balance innovations on this basis.
For example, the "Fire Zone" mode in the game is based on the "Search, Fight, Withdraw" gameplay of "Escape from Tarkov". To enrich the original tactical content and motivate players to outwit each other, "Delta Squad" has introduced a new item, the Mandel Brick. Matches where the Mandel Brick appears offer more diverse possibilities, and players can often make dynamic choices based on their own and their team's situations.
In the map design of the "Search, Fight, Withdraw" gameplay, "Delta Squad" has also considered how to create a semi - open - world map. The trend in FPS games in recent years has been to have larger maps, but larger maps require more effort and higher - level design.
In response to this, Zero, the lead level designer, shared the map design concept of "Delta Squad" at last month's Game Developers Conference. They chose a map size that lies between the urban - combat and battle - royale gameplay styles and tried their best to integrate the two, ensuring that both the fun of close - range shooting in urban combat and the space for players to make open - ended decisions are retained.
Source: "Delta Squad"
In addition, we can also see the influence of other well - known IPs in the FPS genre in "Delta Squad".
For example, it adopts the large - scale map multi - player battle gameplay of the "Battlefield" series and enhances designs such as infantry - tank coordination and scene destruction. Some classic urban - combat and beach - landing scenarios are also replicated. In terms of the operating feel, players can somewhat find the feeling of the "Call of Duty" series.
Of course, character and skill design cannot be ignored either. It can enrich players' tactical gameplay and operating space. In the past, games like "Overwatch", "Apex Legends", and "Valorant" have successively demonstrated the potential of skill design in FPS games with different gameplay styles, and in recent years, FPS games have shown a continuous trend of evolving in this direction.
In response to this, "Delta Squad" has long emphasized that it is a "tactical shooting game featuring the next - generation special - operations agents", and agents are one of the key elements. In the game, they introduced the concept of "tactical equipment" and character images, allowing each agent to have different specialties and possibilities, providing different tactical support, and enabling players to have an operating experience similar to using skills.
Source: "Delta Squad"
These elements are integrated into the game but can also cooperate with each other without contradiction. As players jokingly put it, it's like "everything is stitched together, but in the right way".
This design that integrates technology and gameplay is their answer to the current situation of the FPS genre market, and an attempt to explore the possibilities of the next generation. It is thanks to this ambition, the past technological accumulation of Linlang Tianxia, and the support of predecessors that "Delta Squad" has gradually achieved its current success.
The Value of GaaS Games: Serving Players is Paramount
In addition, the breakthroughs of "Delta Squad" beyond gameplay content cannot be ignored. For example, it positions itself in line with the recently emerging concept of GaaS games.
GaaS games, or Game as a Service, aim to emphasize long - term operational services, offer free gaming experiences, and rely on revenue models such as subscriptions and passes to achieve continuous profitability. In simple terms, it allows players to experience the game at a lower unit - time cost, and the final amount of payment depends entirely on personal choice.
The most important thing for GaaS games is how to continuously and long - term provide players with high - quality