At this year's May 20th press conference, NetEase Games advanced steadily while maintaining stability.

Text by: Guofu

Today is not only a day when the air is filled with pink bubbles, but also NetEase's annual 520 Game Conference.

This time, NetEase announced new information about more than 40 products in total. Among them are many products that were highlighted in the financial report, such as Yanyun Sixteen Sounds and Identity V. It also announced 9 new products, including All People's Anthem: Three Kingdoms and The Forgotten Sea.

Some of the new products announced at the 520 Game Conference are as follows:

All People's Anthem: Three Kingdoms

All People's Anthem: Three Kingdoms is a single - player war strategy game independently developed by the League of Lords team at NetEase. After the product was first revealed last year, we had a simple discussion about it. Last month, they also launched the first test, which received a lot of recognition and praise from players.

All People's Anthem: Three Kingdoms

At this 520 Game Conference, they released the latest PV content, showing more detailed core gameplay of the game, and announced that it will participate in the Steam Next Fest and launch a new version of the Demo test.

Considering the current trend of the resurgence of single - player games, NetEase's move is not surprising. However, what All People's Anthem: Three Kingdoms has shown so far is still not the full - fledged content, and there are many things that arouse people's curiosity.

For example, All People's Anthem: Three Kingdoms has a single - player - oriented style in terms of both its temperament and gameplay. Will it be loved by SLG players, or will it need to build a different user base from scratch? In the war - strategy game genre, series like Total War and Mount & Blade focus on close - range multi - unit battles, while Civilization and Romance of the Three Kingdoms are more about strategic sandbox simulations. This game not only has the ambition to "have it all", but also tries to create its own unique style based on these well - developed and mature gameplay models. It's just unclear how they will specifically allocate and manage the overall content volume.

Of course, it's rare for a domestic big - name company to seriously develop single - player games. Players might as well wait and see. In the past, the League of Lords team once created the "League of Lords - like" gameplay in the SLG field. We believe that All People's Anthem: Three Kingdoms will also bring different surprises to players in the single - player game field.

Marvel Mystic Mayhem

Marvel Mystic Mayhem

Marvel Mystic Mayhem is a card - based RPG developed by NetEase based on the Marvel IP, telling a new story in the Marvel universe with nightmares as the theme. Currently, the official website has opened for pre - registration.

In recent years, NetEase has done a lot with the Marvel IP. For example, Marvel: Future Revolution became the biggest dark horse among domestic games at the end of last year. It only took 3 days to attract tens of millions of players after its launch on Steam. Marvel Mystic Mayhem might be their new attempt in a different direction with this IP.

unVEIL the world

unVEIL the world

unVEIL the world is jointly developed by NetEase and Shueisha. It is a "playable shonen manga". The game's illustrations are done by Asuka Deguchi, the illustrator of The Promised Neverland.

At this 520 Game Conference, the official also released a part of the development preview of unVEIL the world, revealing many details of the game.

Top Chase

Top Chase

Top Chase is a top - down battle royale shooting game that emphasizes fast - paced gameplay, combinations of skills and items, and map interaction strategies. The game started its early access overseas in November last year, with a positive review rate of over 90%. The Chinese mainland server is expected to launch a paid closed - beta test on June 6th.

Unclaimed Star Abyss

Unclaimed Star Abyss

Unclaimed Star Abyss is a space - themed treasure - hunting FPS developed by MOONSHOT Studio and distributed by NetEase. Players will form a team with three crew members, enter randomly generated battlefields, explore ruins, fight against unknown disasters, and pilot spaceships to evacuate safely.

The game will participate in the Steam Next Fest in June for the last global open test without any restrictions on the number of players.

Spirit Beast Adventure

Spirit Beast Adventure

Spirit Beast Adventure is a vertical - screen turn - based strategy mobile game centered around capturing pets. Just from this description, you can probably tell what kind of game it is. What's relatively novel is that its art style emphasizes Chinese traditional aesthetics. Maybe the pet designs will be more in line with Chinese historical myths and folk legends.

Planet Party Time

Planet Party Time

Planet Party Time, also known as Star - painted Friends' Sunny Days, is an Animal Crossing - like social game developed by NetEase Leihuo. It includes life - simulation gameplay similar to Animal Crossing and a series of party elements for players to play together. The game will start testing within this year.

The Forgotten Sea

The Forgotten Sea

The Forgotten Sea is a new RPG in the ocean - adventure genre launched by NetEase's Joker Studio.

Although they quietly released the game's PV a few days ago, its style is quite mysterious, leaving people a bit confused. In fact, Joker Studio is the development team behind Identity V. As one of the top revenue - generating game teams within the company, the new product they launched is probably not simple.

Of course, it should be noted that these new products are not all of NetEase's offerings. They still have several exposed games that did not participate in the 520 Game Conference but are still worth continuous attention. For example, Infinity, a large - scale second - generation game that has received a lot of attention in the past two years and has now obtained a game license.

After Infinity, the exposure of Otherworld Ring by Perfect World and Silver City by Leyuan has also received a great deal of attention, directly demonstrating the great potential of the large - scale second - generation game market.

Infinity

The same goes for the Animal Crossing - like genre. Although XD Inc. has proven the potential and possibility of this market with XD Town, there is still no dominant Animal Crossing - like product on the market. Many companies such as Tencent, miHoYo, and Lilith are continuously making efforts in this field. In addition to Planet Party Time exposed at the 520 Game Conference, NetEase also has Mythical Journey in Mountains and Seas, which has already been tested and is developed by NetEase Games.

It's not hard to see that the new products announced at this 520 Game Conference still focus on the fields that NetEase is good at and familiar with - continuously incubating new products based on the market environment.

This is closely related to NetEase's own product growth cycle. Looking back at the previous 520 Game Conferences, NetEase always gives people a feeling of "surprising yet reasonable". It seems that things are progressing steadily, but when you look back, you'll be surprised at how many products they have developed.

This year is no exception.

Maybe this is NetEase's high - quality product development approach. Instead of aiming for instant success, they often spend more time actively exploring and trying different possibilities.

Take Yanyun Sixteen Sounds, an open - world game that combines single - player and online features and has received a lot of recent attention, as an example. From the highly anticipated first reveal, to the doubts during several tests and delays, and now with the number of players exceeding 30 million, Yanyun Sixteen Sounds has not had a smooth journey. Due to its unique positioning, it even took many detours before achieving the current results.

Yanyun Sixteen Sounds

But it's worth it. In March this year, Yanyun Sixteen Sounds officially announced that the number of players had exceeded 30 million. It not only broke the dilemma faced by martial - arts MMOs in the market but also has the potential to become NetEase's next long - running hit game.

It's a real underdog story.

NetEase's emphasis on this game is also evident. After the Q1 financial report update this year, Ding Lei mentioned in a conference call that Yanyun Sixteen Sounds is very important to the company. It is an open - world game that NetEase has spent 5 years developing, and more resources will be invested in the future. At this year's conference, it was still the first key game to be presented.

It can be said that most of NetEase's successful products seem to go through such an up - and - down process. Egg Party didn't become a nationwide hit right after its launch, Identity V had a hard time breaking through in the domestic market for a long time, and Ni Shang Yu Jian is also going through a difficult period.

Ni Shang Yu Jian x Rainbow Cat and Blue Rabbit Crossover

During this up - and - down process, NetEase has accumulated a very rich product portfolio.

As shown in the content announced at this 520 Game Conference, they now hold IPs of products such as Marvel - derived games, Onmyoji, Fantasy Westward Journey, Westward Journey Online II, Against the Current, and A Chinese Ghost Story. They also have many games in different forms, such as League of Lords, The Legend of the Condor Heroes, Egg Party, and Outbreak: Contagion. For almost most of the mainstream game categories you can think of, NetEase seems to have a corresponding product.

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