Domestic mobile game giants are staging an uncertain battle royale.



“King of Glory” finally gave up its top position, replaced by various game manufacturers online chicken game.

In November, as the first battle Royale game developed by front-line domestic developers, Xiaomi Gunfight, jointly developed by Xiaomi and Xishanju, was officially launched on the App Store within 12 hours, and the download reached the second place on the free list, and once hit the first place.

The original need for two months to release the game, millet interactive entertainment speed up after the advance to enjoy the “good luck, eat chicken tonight” pleasure. Within 11 days of the private test, the game’s DAU exceeded 1 million. Hoping to make a big splash, Xiaomi not only invited Douyu host Chen Zua as its spokesperson on the day of the press conference, but also said at the scene, “Don’t you think we have caught the wind? We will try to make the wind bigger.”

The wind was just beginning to blow.



On November 3, dachang netease also launched two of its “battle royalist” mobile games “wild” and “terminator 2: judgment day”, which soon changed the App Store download rankings, becoming the Top3 “wild” and “terminator 2: judgment day”. “Judgment Day”, “Xiaomi Gunfight” new pattern, sitting in the first place for half a year “King of Glory” immediately to the fourth, it is finally no longer the “king of topics”.

Netease, Xishan in succession to participate in the war, and how little Tencent? On that day, a domain name named “chiji.qq.com” attracted people’s attention, after opening it suddenly saw a game from Tencent “eat chicken” mobile game entered the countdown, and the word “hidden mysterious chicken”, let a person can not help but think of “good luck, eat chicken tonight” terrier. Crossfire, another Tencent mobile game, announced on Nov. 3 that it will launch a new mode called Desert Island in the middle of the month, which means at least two battle Royal-style mobile games are coming soon.



It’s been less than a year since the launch of Battlegrounds: Battle Royston on Steam (March 2017), and as of November, it’s been number one on the Steam sales charts for 34 consecutive weeks. But it’s tempting to wonder who’s going to be king on the mobile battlefield.


Standing in the wind, anyone can fly


When you play all of the top runaways games, the gameplay is almost identical except for the finer details and finer graphics.

In fact, TapTap’s September and October pre-orders lists have more than 10 such games, almost all of them reinvented pubG: Battle Royale. In the early days, there were some games that were not at all like this, but were advertised as “fishing games” that looked like screenshots, and even had a good number of downloads for a short period of time. Players seemed to accept this “skin change”, which is very rare in the development of mobile games over the years.



But the enthusiasm for eating chicken is obvious. The game has become more than just a phenomenon, it has the potential to become an evergreen. Obviously, this type of game on mobile also has a natural user engagement, manufacturers will not miss this opportunity to continue to attract users on mobile platforms, and mobile play, the main features are:

  • The fragmentation time of the phone fits perfectly with the fast pace of Battle Royale, making it easy to play with people or alone at any time;

  • Battle Royale, where you team up with other people, satisfies the social nature of the player;

  • Battle Royale is a savings for players who have poor PC specs or are reluctant to pay a monthly payment for a game they are testing.


However, while these advantages attract many vendors to develop, they also encounter difficulties. On Oct 27, the state Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said that games such as PUBG: Battlegrounds contain bloody and violent content, which does not conform to the core socialist values and the traditional cultural habits and ethics of the Chinese nation. He said it would be difficult to get a publishing license for such games, and that the popular battle Royale game was in trouble. But with all the new “ideas” that manufacturers have brought to the table, it’s easy to admire their ability to improvise:


In Xiaomi Gunfight, the new mode is called “actual combat training”, the words “eat chicken” and “Battle Royale” are not officially advertised, and failure is referred to as “elimination” rather than “kill”, and injuries are replaced with a green mist, turning it into a peaceful exercise.



“Terminator 2: Judgment Day” is set to be a simulated drill with robots in a simulated battlefield, while “Wild” is set to be an alien invasion, with elite human training and virtual warfare, with no casualties.

By toning down the blood and gore in these games, mobile game makers can naturally avoid some of the risks in the future, and naturally, they will have a better chance of passing pre-publication approval.

Clearly, the emergence of Battle Royale mobile games has unleashed the passion of gamers who “played the PC version but wanted to play it on mobile” and gamers who “watched others play it but didn’t have the opportunity to play it themselves”, and the true potential of the game will be further amplified when this group takes their phones to the streets. In a game that is both entertaining and competitive, there is no doubt that more players will follow.

But the question is, who will be the last reaper, now that everyone has changed their clothes?


Are the tribes divided or are the seas the same?


When we talk about who’s going to win, we’re talking about the two parts of Battle Royale, both inside and outside the game, that not only affect what players like and dislike, but also determine how high the game can go.

Before Battle Royale, mobile FPS games had a lot of life. Although there are still differences between battle Royale and FPS games, there is no doubt that the most important thing for mobile gamers to play these games is the sense of control, which is the most important part of the game.


Sense of operation is a quality that can be really felt. For a game that includes shooting, ballistics, aiming, and motion are all part of the feel. In addition, there are a lot of vehicles (cars, motorcycles, etc.) in the “Battle Royale” mobile game, which will also be a very important reference factor in the game. How to make features in these aspects, such as the application of mobile phone gyroscope, gravity sensor and other sensors, will enrich the dimensions of the game experience.


The other core of gaming is social, both in-game and off-game. Within the game, convenient social system can convenient players communicate with each other, and also facilitate friends and play together, and the game, convenient social will be more conducive to the spread of the game, for a competitive game to 100 people at the same time, the more people participate in, the more frequently the interaction, the more able to keep the heat game, the king of glory the reason this is for a long time.


Outside the game, good viewing will attract more players through the online live broadcast of the anchor. For “Xiaomi Gunfight”, Chen Zaishou was invited as the spokesperson. The number of viewers of “Xiaomi Gunfight” in Douyu live broadcast can reach hundreds of thousands.


When a Battle Royale game does all of these things right, both inside and outside, it’s probably only 80 percent successful. Next, the ability to build on top of the computer, such as location-based real-time competition, or more feature development based on mobile platforms, is an important bargaining chip to maintain the advantage.


Of course, off-game influences are also important. Social recognition, whether related review, or public opinion, will have a direct impact on the game. For such a game that has been labeled before it even appears, how to comply with the policy and minimize the discussion of “copying” will be the problem the game will face.


The prelude of “Battle Royale” is already a red sea. Whether it is Xiaomi + Xishanju, netease or Tencent, the battle royale between the giants may just be beginning.


Via Geek Park