Shulou(Shulou.com)12/24 Report--

Who do you think is Tencent's boldest studio?

Two days ago, many people turned their attention to MoreFun Studio. I don't know if you remember, it was the same time last year, when their new IP real-life movie "under one person" went viral on bilibili. This year, the product is titled "under Inhumans" and released a new real machine together with the open-world mobile game "Kingdom of Locke".

So far, the two videos have been played more than 5.41 million and 4.63 million respectively, ranking on the site-wide list of bilibili and ranking second and third in the game area, respectively. Be reasonable, nowadays the content of bilibili's game area is almost always dominated by the new PV and preview of Miha Tour products. And these two unonline Tencent Games, this time has reached the same order of magnitude, I am afraid many people did not expect.

Although they are not yet online, the products they come out do not look so "Tencent", or even a little counter-common sense-no matter how to play, art style or means of expression, they do not seem to be the direction that ordinary commercial mobile games will choose. Seeing these, many people may think about a question: Tencent's relative lack of content ability, is it really out for them?

If that's all, it wouldn't be daring. The point is that the tracks and games they have invested in for a long time either seem to have a limited user base or are particularly hard-core. To the outside world, it looks like they are gambling, but they seem to have won the bet-such as the "Naruto" mobile game, which has been at the top of the best-seller list for a long time, and the "dark area" breakthrough of 100 million registered users around the world.

Recently, Mr. Grape chatted with Enzo, president of Tencent Interactive Entertainment MoreFun Studio Group. Although the Rubik's cube has bucked the trend this year, Zhang said it was because they had "bad luck early", while for those seemingly rebellious track choices, the Rubik's cube was really not betting. The key behind this is the transformation of winning probability thinking and odds thinking. He has decided to accept the challenge of this infinite game to see if he can win one game after another by cognition rather than luck.

Zhang Zhijin, president of Rubik's cube.

In addition, he also mentioned the changes of the times, lamenting that the criteria for success have changed somewhat-"whether it is a person or a company, can support themselves, not negative equity, has been very successful." But he says he still pursues success in the secular sense, wants to make the Rubik's cube bigger, and accepts the mainstream definition of success: "if someone looks at it from a secular point of view, you stare back with a secular eye."

The following is a collated transcript of the conversation:

01

Countercyclical Rubik's Cube: "struggled four or five years ago." Mr. Grape: there are many new changes in the industry this year, and many heavyweights enter and exit. By contrast, has the Rubik's Cube slowed down a bit this year?

Zhang Jianjin: we have already lost what we should have, and now we haven't taken a new step, so we have to wait for the situation next year. On the other hand, Rubik's cube's growth this year is actually a bit "counter-cyclical", and even all positions are being recruited. Because we had bad luck early, we struggled four or five years ago-- at that time, I was thinking, the head of the industry is already so big, have we been left behind by the times? Is there any need to do it?

Mr. Grape: it sounds like a deep anxiety.

Zhang Zhijin: yes, but then I got my own answer, and according to this answer, I began to invest and did something that may not be favored by everyone. After a cycle, we will rise by one Level this year.

So I can understand the difficulties encountered by some friends now, and those are real difficulties. Of course, if they can come out, they will also have a new state.

Mr. Grape: what kind of ability do you have to improve or verify after you come out?

Zhang Jiejin: the first is the content ability. We have just released the new promotional video "under the Inhumans" and "the Kingdom of Locke" mobile games, which are both solutions given by the Rubik's cube in terms of content and based on the characteristics of the Rubik's cube.

Mr. Grape: let's talk about "under Inhumans" first. I saw the real machine, and I felt really amazing. What's the difference in its solution?

Zhang Zhijin: the overall structure of "under Inhumans" is very similar to the most familiar "Naruto": around character shaping, there are PVP games, but also PVE plot. But its artistic style differentiation, narrative and performance have been greatly enhanced, because in the next era, you need to give the user a hard reason to download the game, and enhancing such content is a path that has been repeatedly verified.

To what extent do we attach importance to these points? Attach importance to directly letting the art director become a producer. So I put "Inhumans" here and play with all the strongest products in the two-dimensional game, it will have a strong degree of recognition.

Mr. Grape: is the improvement of art really that critical to it?

Zhang Zhijin: many people have asked me a question: animations and cartoons have told this story very well. Why should I watch it if you spend so much money retelling the plot in the game? I can answer this question very well: if I do the same scene with 10 times the price of animation, I will certainly do better and give you a new shock, and it is free of money, why don't you come?

This is the "under Inhumans" model, which is not a 3A product, but logically similar to a 3A product-attracting players with far more screen and quality than gameplay. In order to achieve this model, we are very confident in action and other aspects, and the only thing that needs to be added is art. At this time, the producer of art background is equivalent to a lever.

Mr. Grape: do you want to raise the upper limit of this product through him?

Zhang Lijin: no, the upper limit is infinite and can be increased with the lengthening of the operating time. But in the game industry, the taste of the creator will directly determine the lower limit of the game. It is difficult to have taste, just as it is difficult for a composer to develop a sense of music.

Mr. Grape: in Tencent, it seems that few key projects dare to use art as a producer.

Zhang Zhijin: people used to like producers in the department of operations. Because that year is traffic-driven, who is closer to the user, who can blackmail the user to make the project team. But now it is different, the team is more and more experienced, everyone knows the game very well, and everyone can put themselves into the role of the user.

In fact, this decision is very simple. Our Rubik's cube is very strong, and its engineering ability is second to none, and everything can be knocked out. Since what you want to improve is taste, just let people with good taste do it.

Mr. Grape: how can we keep such a tasteful person from running away?

Zhang Lijin: I really didn't think much about it before. He is trained by us from graduates, we absolutely trust you, give you enough space and resources to play, the return is first-class in the industry, colleagues and you also think highly of each other. Why did you run?

Mr. Grape: is the logic of "Voyage King" similar to that of "under Inhumans"? I think its 3D performance is also very good.

Zhang Jianjin: it is true that the structure comes down in the same line, but because it is horizontal, it and Inhumans will be different from the direction of fighting. There are many subdivisions of fighting, and we hope to exhaust all solutions in this field so that several products can push the category forward together.

The static standard of 3D is not difficult, but it becomes difficult after the fight. When we did the page game "Robot Tornado", we had a very rigorous framework for frame-by-frame analysis of movements, and since then we have been developing our own "kung fu" engine. It can support horizontal version, lens tracking perspective, 2D and 3D-this is the core of the Rubik's cube.

Mr. Grape: what kind of solution does the other new product, the Kingdom of Locke, give?

Zhang Zhijin: the mobile game of "Kingdom of Locke" is a big world based on collection and cultivation, and its way of playing is the same as that of the original "Kingdom of Locke". In terms of content, the whole world in the game is driven by elves, and the plot will revolve around the emergence of elves and the causes and consequences of the formation of the world.

This idea was very clear when I was doing the "Kingdom of Locke" page tour. There is an outrageous setting in the movie Man in Black: the truth of all modern technology is that aliens are providing energy for you. It interprets a very nonsense thing in reverse with some examples in your life, thus making this setting credible. At that time, we thought, what we need to do is a world supported by the abilities of elves.

This is the first time the Rubik's cube has challenged the big world of large-scale PCG content, and it's not really fast. We are expected to test it next year, and I am anxiously waiting for a complete cycle that can experience a longer period of time, waiting for its first cry.

Mr. Grape: it sounds like this project is really expensive.

Zhang Zhijin: this is our strategy. None of the competitors in the page game era would have invested as much time and effort as we did in remaking such an IP.

Mr. Grape: how hard is it to make such a so-called big world?

Zhang Zhijin: in principle, it is not very difficult. Last year we talked about a topic: modern industrialization is "using machines to produce machines", so PCG industrialization is "using programs to produce programs". The difficulty of the first section is that while we are engaged in production, we are still building machines, which is bound to be slow.

On the other hand, if we spend three and a half years building machines in these four years, and then go into production after they are finished, the speed may not be as fast as that of hand-only K. But you can't reuse it by hand-just because I spin and weave fabric by hand at home doesn't mean I have a textile factory. It is also weaving, the two are not the same concept at all.

Mr. Grape: will something go wrong if you push it this way? For example, missed opportunities because of slowness.

Zhang Zhijin: no, because this market will always be there. And as long as the "machine" is there, even if the test feedback is not good, we will change it very quickly, so we are not afraid of slowness or failure.

In today's game industry, how can anyone in a really strong company force himself to a dead end? Now there are very few cases in which "if a product doesn't sell well, the company will be gone". This is an unlimited game, there is no success once and for all, and there is no failure that can not turn over once and for all, the so-called victory will only keep the game going.

Mr. Grape: if you want to talk about the biggest problem or challenge of Rubik's cube right now, what do you think it will be?

Zhang Zhijin: we are in a process of rapid growth, and we try very hard to keep our faces distinct, but we still have to fight against the desalination of temperament.

When a concept is talked about enough, you will find that everything can be added to it, then the connotation of the concept itself will be watered down. Just like the second dimension is a very small circle at the beginning, everyone probably knows what the second dimension is, but when the second tour was the most popular in the last two years, people didn't know what it was, and they couldn't fix it for themselves.

Rubik's cube will also have such a problem: we can rely on the characteristics to play our own cards, but will inevitably return to the mainstream. Today's Rubik's cube may still be bright, but if we are lucky and we are getting bigger and bigger, will it become blurred? This requires a good balance: neither make yourself look weird, nor do you let yourself be lost in others.

02

It is not difficult to improve the ability of content, but evolution is cruel: how does the Rubik's cube understand content in essence? What do you think is the so-called content to the game?

Zhang Jianjin: from the point of view of the second tour manufacturers, there is a high probability that they will position the content to the game as the second tour, and then talk about how to play, so as long as they do not sift people.

But our starting point is different-our content solution serves the audience of some kind of play. For example, you can like my content, but if you are not a fighting player, you may feel too tired under Inhumans. This solution may be more like a platform game with the demand for forced play.

If you use the perspective of two-dimensional game circle to evaluate, you will feel that these products are not so "pure" content to the product. But this is our characteristic-walking between the content and the way of playing, not deliberately choosing one of the two.

Just as the main body of "Inhumans" is fighting, while "Kingdom of Locke" mobile games are collected and cultivated, they are not Gacha characters similar to the draft model in the traditional second tour: telling stories and wrapping people around PVE, so that players can cheer on their favorite characters. We can also understand this model, but it does not necessarily show our characteristics.

Mr. Grape: when did you start to realize this?

Zhang Jianjin: we are constantly coming up with solutions. When we did "Naruto" mobile games at that time, our content games were not very formed, but compared with the head second Tour products launched in the same year at that time, it achieved better results for a long time, and now it is even getting better and better. It's just that at that time, people were more inclined to say that you were Tencent Games, and we didn't think it was a content-oriented game.

This year, "Naruto" mobile games directly reached the highest level in history. The reason is that in the past two years, it has seized the opportunity of content to the game-- people have started to tell stories. Of course, "Naruto" mobile games can not draw cards exactly like the second tour, but you can also tell character stories and increase the investment on the content packaging side, so that many players who are familiar with the content in other games can see that you also have content to chase.

Based on this evolution, we think that "Naruto" mobile games have tried a solution. And products such as "under Inhumans" can also go at this pace and be tested by the market to see if we can form a methodology. This kind of solution is not designed by me to pat the head, but is naturally grown when we come into contact with users every day.

Mr. Grape: now the industry is emphasizing content, but the ability of content should not be so easy to improve, right?

Zhang Zhijin: from the perspective of content, it is not difficult to improve the ability, because there are plenty of screenwriters in China.

When I talked to my colleague the other day, he surprised me by telling me how large the registered writers on China Literature's platform were-which shows that the threshold for creation is actually very low, as long as you have a story in mind. And we have a large number of film and television, animation industry people as a transmission, I do not think there will be any problems. You see, we had Chinese Paladin in the 1990s. How well it was written.

After all these years, why do we have to rebuild content to the game now? It is not that our content ability is weak, nor is it that the Chinese people's writing ability is weak, but because the problem of making money has not been solved before. Now we can package the role and realize it in the way of Gacha, but are we worried that no one will do it? This is bound to be a positive cycle.

Mr. Grape: you sound very simple, but why do people always feel that this matter is very difficult, very complicated, or complain about our unsound ecology in the past two years?

Zhang Zhijin: there will always be people complaining because they haven't really made up their mind to do it yet. And some of the complaining manufacturers or authors may not be fit to do it in the first place-he is forcibly turning himself into an emotional person. It is difficult for people to label themselves in order to acquire characteristics they do not have.

Mr. Grape: you mean the Rubik's cube at least has such a gene? After all, you wrote the story of the "Kingdom of Locke" page game.

Zhang Lijin: it's not that I write very well. I was just trying to hurry up and don't quarrel. I wrote 80,000 words on the seventh day of the Spring Festival and came back to work on the project for half a year. But at least I've written a script, and I know what it's going to do.

In fact, genes are a good problem, but genes are not cultivated, they are dead. The word evolution sounds a lot like "progress", as if the higher will surely replace the lower, but evolution is inexplicably barbaric growth-some creatures die and the rest are evolution. "the world is a grass-roots team." it's up to you to survive.

Perhaps the same is true for companies and industries: the next era is not necessarily better than the previous one. But even if you are really in a difficult environment, people's endurance will be stronger than you think, and eventually you will accept it and live a good life.

That's why we make ultra-long-term investments, such as spending eight years and two generations of dead products to enter the shooting market, because I think this is the hard thing. If the times are bound to slow down, then I have to pile up the potential energy high enough before it Cool Down.

03

Odds game and odds game: it's not a bet on grapes at all: speaking of which, "Dark area Breakthrough" continues to grow this year. Looking back, how much does this product mean to you?

Zhang Zhijin: it is really important to us, not in terms of revenue, but because it proves our cognitive ability.

When you choose a niche market to place a big bet, the only thing that can sustain you is cognition. And our solution has got some recognition in the market, indicating that at least at this stage, our understanding of the essence has its rationality. It's nice to come to such a conclusion in the face of open propositions-it's a bit like being a "prophet". Even once, it will make you more confident.

Mr. Grape: what impact will such success have on your future project selection or decision-making perception?

Zhang Zhijin: we will undoubtedly be more willing to gamble. And in our opinion, a lot of things are not gambling. Just because of the poor line of sight under the cognitive gap, others may think you are crazy, but we feel sure, there is no risk. If it is based on information asymmetry, there is nothing to talk about.

Mr. Grape: it sounds a bit like success in stocks.

Zhang Zhijin: stock speculation success is not necessarily because of your cognition, but stock speculation will deceive you to a considerable extent and make you think that success comes from your cognition. That's why investing in the stock market is more fulfilling than winning the lottery. No one thinks that winning the lottery is because of their own knowledge, do they?

Mr. Grape: so how do you tell whether this success comes more from your cognition or luck?

Zhang Lijin: good question. In fact, these two things are inseparable. You can feel very knowledgeable about one or two things, but you may also be lucky to be pulled to the ground one day. In other words, the good thing about buying a lottery ticket is that everyone has a common understanding of it-it depends on luck. So we can only welcome unlimited games and win them one at a time.

On the other hand, sometimes this is a question of "winning rate" and "odds": simply pursuing the winning rate, then moving bricks every day is the most stable; and if you want to do something with high odds, it must be based on either luck or knowledge. Once you start playing high odds, you have to accept that your account goes down all the year round, and suddenly one day it goes up, and then it may start to silence again.

But if someone plays well, he can convert the two through a variety of tools, the so-called leverage, buy the track, is to buy the odds game into a winning game. From this point of view, "dark area breakthrough" must be more in line with the odds thinking, but the more the team does, the more I think the odds are getting higher and higher.

Mr. Grape: my biggest feeling this year is that there are more people in the industry who focus on winning thinking, while fewer and fewer people focus on odds thinking.

Zhang Jianjin: under conditional conditions, there is no reason not to pursue the winning rate. What's wrong with stable happiness? We also gradually shift from winning probability thinking to odds thinking, because the former can only ensure that we do not die, while the latter determines the future.

Mr. Grape: in the past two years, because of the success of some head products, everyone will think that odds thinking is the essence of making a good game. But now people tend to find that this is not the case, or that not every company can do it.

Zhang Zhijin: from the outside, it may be so, but in the eyes of those successful companies themselves, it may not be an odds game, but in their familiar model, a lot of resources to increase the size of the expansion of investment reproduction. People are really in the winning rate business, and they can win more and more.

This is a typical event of the industrial age-when I make such products, keep expanding reproduction, and expand to other factories to compete with me, my factory is bigger and more efficient than you, and I can crush it. We've been looking for something like this.

Mr. Grape: will the prerequisites be harsh to do such a thing?

Zhang Zhijin: the prerequisite is that you don't die. All the accumulation is meaningless when you die. The second is to be optimistic and believe that the market will get better and better.

The only thing left is to do a good job day by day towards a roughly correct goal. No one can guarantee that the goal is absolutely right, but as long as you walk firmly enough, long enough, and with a little bit of luck, you can't be wrong.

My view of the future of the industry is the same, there will be smart people to invent new fun things, and even the platform will be further relocated, bringing more extension and migration of experience, this is the opportunity for us practitioners.

Grape King: but people always expect a so-called, less "Tencent" success story, and the dark zone is such an example.

Zhang Zhijin: in fact, there are often misunderstandings in the outside world. We respect the law of value most, and we don't want to dress up to be different from others. If the Rubik's cube looks different now, it's because in the process of growing up, there are different tricks in the face of different situations, not because I just want to counterattack.

The way we make a product is no different from everyone else. We think it's worth doing, so we don't think about the portfolio. In the Rubik's cube product line, there is no project responsible for stability, which project is responsible for radical. Because we don't think we're gambling, we're just doing our craftsmanship.

Mr. Grape: how do you understand the position of "dark area breakthrough"? In the case of the head product is relatively strong, will there be a distinction between the so-called primary and secondary games?

Zhang Zhijin: we talked about this topic more than ten years ago. At that time, there were not many games, and players finally got a fun one and would play it every day. But now that players are well-informed and there are more and more ways of entertainment, you put the strongest games and short videos together. Who is the main game and who is the second game?

When the supply is sufficient, it is normal to be selected by users, so be sure to lighten the burden on the game. If there is a restaurant that asks you to come to my house for seven days in a row, I will give you a 20% discount. Do you like to go to this kind of restaurant? The same is true of games. I don't even play this game anymore. Do you still want your prize? We hope to phase out this sign-in activity.

And the "dark area breakthrough" is not very afraid of loss, our data show that many users may not play for two or three months, but will continue to play for a long time after returning. So it should deserve a bigger market share than it is now, or more people like it.

04

Self-consistent, secular and successful grape monarch: over the past year, there has been a general mentality in the industry-the feeling that "people are middle-aged." many people feel that the dividend has disappeared and their abilities have come here, so they simply choose to be bearish.

Zhang Zhijin: this is indeed the mainstream mentality, and it is also the boundary that everyone really encounters and touches. Even if I have come out of it, I cannot deny that the difficulties I had a few years ago did not exist.

Mr. Grape: how did you get out?

Zhang Jianjin: rely on the front line to make things. There is a topic: what should you do when you are so anxious that you are restless? Some people say that it is OK to wipe the floor or wash clothes at this time. Be sure to keep yourself busy and do something challenging. If there is one thing that makes you want to invest, do it hand in hand and find resources.

Mr. Grape: but now, the problem for many people is that they can't find their way.

Zhang Zhijin: even if there is no direction for the time being, there can still be some things to do, such as strengthening engineering capacity.

Ability is linear, and opportunities are often dotted. If you save resources only when you see an opportunity, then this opportunity probably doesn't belong to you. Even if everyone sees it at the same time, why can you run faster than others? If you spend a lot of resources to pay your tuition every time, you will be physically and mentally exhausted if you pay twice.

Grape King: so this is a very normal state of mind, it takes some time and experience to get rid of it?

Zhang Jianjin: you don't need to get rid of it. People's state of mind can not be absolutely balanced, and they can only compromise with themselves after several peaks and troughs, accept their imperfections and find ways to achieve self-consistency.

Of course, it is very rare that some people can always motivate themselves and stand on the bandwagon bravely. I envy people in this state. Maybe at this time, we should go back and appreciate who we were passionate about a few years ago.

Mr. Grape: how do you understand self-consistency?

Zhang Zhijin: I didn't dare to Say No before. I would feel that I should not miss any opportunity and catch up with the tuyere. But now I will insist on Say No and only do what I take for granted.

However, I will not avoid a lot of pressure from the outside world, such as the demand for income. If someone looks at it with a secular eye, you stare back with a secular eye.

Mr. Grape: you have talked about great success and small success before.

(note: the topic here refers to the relevant speech made by Zhang Xiejin at the Tencent Interactive Entertainment staff meeting at the beginning of 2023: "how much success is a success? can small successes be recognized and respected in time? more space and time should be given to allow the team to do some innovative projects based on their own characteristics, not to be evaluated by big, but to be responsible for their own profits and losses from the beginning.")

Zhang Jianjin: I don't necessarily say this for myself. I think I always think that the era of picking peaches may be over-this is the time to plant trees. Such being the case, success, big or small, may be needed.

Mr. Grape: have you changed your definition of success now?

Zhang Zhijin: it is very simple. No matter it is a person or a company, it is already very successful if it is able to support itself, not negative equity.

Of course, there will always be young people dreaming, and there will always be people who are never satisfied and want to make The Next Big Thing. But we can't ask everyone to be like this, and we can't blame others for not having a dream-maybe they've already done a good job.

It's good for you to start a small company, even if a few brothers make up a pancake stand and spread pancakes to support themselves. One step at a time, don't come up and read a big story.

Mr. Grape: but the cruel thing about this industry a few years ago is that we always see some big stories.

Zhang Jianjin: yes, and the more we look at it, the more we find it less and less enjoyable, and we have to continue to step up our efforts.

When we were in school, the most typical success was what Wang Dahe said-becoming general manager, becoming CEO, marrying Bai Fumei, and reaching the pinnacle of life. But what do you think it is to be CEO now? You have to have a big dream, and you have to make an Open AI.

But the world is a big funnel, and the number of people who can go up and down a step will always decrease exponentially. How many people can there be in the world like Musk?

Mr. Grape: so you're not going to pursue any big dreams, either?

Zhang Zhijin: no, I actually pursue success in the secular sense. Our problem is that we are not big enough and we are not successful enough. But I don't believe that others can do it. We can't do it.

Mr. Grape: is that really reasonable? In the past two years, people may be very confident about this, but this year, many people will choose to let themselves go.

Zhang Zhijin: it's reasonable, and we've done it before. At least I have a question mark to solve. I still want to be a prophet and pursue The Next Big Thing constantly.

Mr. Grape: will you be an insatiable person? Zhang Zhijin: I am not very satisfied so far. I am still Stay Hungry. But not insatiable? I have no idea. I can only say that I have not experienced greater success.

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