It’s hard to imagine that “CrossFire”, which was introduced to China nearly 10 years ago, is still so popular. In the past 10 years since it was introduced to China in 2008, "CrossFire" has accumulated a total of 560 million registered users and more than 10 billion e-sports watchers. Among them, the number of registered users of CF mobile game (short for the English name of Cross Fire) has exceeded 250 million, and it is only one step away from realizing the gunfight dream of 300 million mobile game players.
It is not far behind in terms of revenue. According to SuperData data, the PC game "Crossfire" attracted US$1.4 billion in 2017, ranking third behind "League of Legends" and "Dungeon Fighter" and ranking third among PC games. .
However, at the end of 2017, the "CrossFire: Desert Island Training" tactical competitive mobile game launched by "CrossFire" almost became a guinea pig for major manufacturers to madly seize the dividends of the tactical competitive category.
Looking back at the battle situation at that time, Xiaomi and NetEase were astute and launched two tactical competitive mobile games, "Xiaomi Battle" and "Wild Action", in mid-October and the end of October 2017 respectively. Before Tencent's self-developed products took shape, it chose to represent Giant Network's "Glorious Mission" with its left hand, and its right hand added tactical competitive gameplay to the "Cross Fire: Gunfight King" mobile game, and launched "Cross Fire: Desert Island Training" Version.
Taking the same batch of chicken-eating products as an analogy, the adventure of "Cross Fire: Desert Island Training" is very worthwhile. Third-party organization iResearch data also testified to this. The data shows that in May 2018, the daily active users of "Mi Shootout" were 30,000, "Glorious Mission" exceeded 100,000, and "Knives Out" only had 1.84 million. "Cross Fire: King of Guns" had 3.77 million daily active users in May.
From the perspective of daily activity, the performance of "CrossFire: Gunfight King" is better than NetEase's "Knives Out", and this is mainly due to the innovation in gameplay. You know, as early as November 17, 2017, "Cross Fire: King of Guns" launched the chicken-fighting version "Cross Fire: Wilderness Training", which was generally only half a month later than Xiaomi and NetEase.
However, it must be admitted that the game influence of "Cross Fire: King of Guns" still needs to be further penetrated. In order to attract more players, the official "Cross Fire" official layout of mobile game events is also very fast. At the end of January 2018, the "Desert Island Training" version of the "CrossFire" mobile game "Desert Island Training" World Championship kicked off. It is also the first international tactical competitive mobile game competition, attracting more than 2 million player registrations.
In terms of polishing the client game experience, "CrossFire" announced that it will soon create a CrossFire High Definition Competitive Zone (referred to as: CFHD). In terms of game quality, CFHD will have significant upgrades in many aspects such as game engine and image quality performance. Secondly, there will be at least 40 types of weapons and equipment, and the weapon values themselves have also been optimized and adjusted to make them more balanced and increase the choices in competition. Finally, CFHD will retain the classic gameplay while adding innovative gameplay.
"Cross Fire will continue to develop on the basis of inheriting the classic blasting mode, such as the ranking mechanism, maps, etc. We don't want to simply upgrade the screen. This can allow the entire "Cross Fire" to have a phased upgrade process. In the new In terms of gameplay attempts, the team is working on the fusion ghost gameplay. In addition, the most popular tactical competitive gameplay will also be tried in the future. However, at this stage, resources are more concentrated on classic content," said the director of Tencent Interactive Entertainment FireWire Cooperation Department. Manager Xu Guang said.
Different from the restraint in mobile games and PC games, the official "Cross Fire" is slightly "radical" in the creation of IP derivatives.
As early as last summer, "CrossFire" launched the first gun girl fan animation "Gun Girl", which has been played 340 million times. It is worth mentioning that "Gun Girl" is a paid anime that can only be watched by VIPs, and non-members cannot watch it for free at intervals. It is not easy to obtain 340 million playback data.
It is understood that the second part of "Gun Girl" is also in intensive preparation and production. It is reported that in order to further capture the two-dimensional fans, in addition to the first season's partners such as Tencent Animation, Penguin Film and Television, Aha Animation, and 35 Interactive Entertainment, the sequel of "Gun Girl" also introduced Bilibili as a new partner. After all, Bilibili is now the community with the highest concentration of A2D fans, with “Generation Z” (Chinese users born between 1990 and 2009) accounting for as high as 82%. Of course, this also proves from the side that the influence of "Gun Girl" has radiated to the core two-dimensional circle.
In addition, CrossFire’s first official 3D animated series “CrossFire: Ghost Project” will be launched in the summer. Different from the C-position heroine of "Gun Girl", this time "Crossfire: Ghost Project" will be performed from the perspective of a male blade.
In terms of online dramas, the first live-action series of "Crossfire", which was created with an investment of 200 million yuan, will be launched in the pilot episode at the end of 2018. According to people familiar with the matter, the well-known screenwriter Chuck Hogan has spent two years polishing the script of the customized movie "Crossfire". The next filming work will be handed over to the producer who has participated in the production of the "Fast and Furious" series and "I Am Legend". "Original Film, a famous Hollywood film production company that has produced high-quality blockbusters. However, it is still unclear the specific release date of the customized movie "Cross Fire".
“The entire brand team has about a dozen people, responsible for the entire marketing, IP matrix, and creative content.” Zhu Zhengrong, general manager of the cooperative marketing department of Tencent Interactive Entertainment, told TMTpost.
He further emphasized that the IP derivative planning of "Crossfire" and the selection of internal and external partners are all fully led by the team. Only by leaving professional matters to professional people can the maximum value of the IP be released.
When it comes to IP-derived income, Zhu Zhengrong said that the long-term value of "Cross Fire" is much greater than the short-term commercial income. At present, the main consideration is the emotional maintenance and recognition of players. First of all, it must be a good work. Good product.