Hello everyone, this is Zhengjing Game, I am your Zhengjing little brother.
There is a very magical phenomenon in the domestic game circle, that is, the earliest group of old game manufacturers in China that were already powerful in the stand-alone market or online games when they first emerged, and they all had to sing the wave of the times. No matter how many IPs they have or how big their reputations are, they would eventually have to sing.
Many old manufacturers that claim to be "China Blizzard" or "compared with EA" even failed to maintain their insurance in the late summer and went bankrupt, and even the company was cancelled. What kind of twists and turns have these game companies experienced? How many well-known IPs are among them that make people feel sorry for? Today, I will have a good chat with you!
Hantang International—China's Blizzard finally failed?
The first company wants to talk about is that it was known as the leader in China 20 years ago, and its war chess game was 0 negative reviews, leading an era, comparable to " Blizzard ".
When domestic war chess games were popular at that time, no one could shake Lao Ren's " Fire Emblem ", Hantang International launched the "Flame Dragon Knights", a game with higher balance than "Fire Pattern", richer hidden elements, and more diverse gameplay, changing the overall situation of the War Chess game circle, allowing domestic players to see the strength of the game company from Baodao.
At the same time, the 0 bad reviews of "The Dragon Knights" have been like the overlord for a long time, leading the development trend of domestic war chess games until 20 years later, players who have played the first or second generation games are still looking for their sequels or substitutes. After
, Hantang International has successively launched the "Heaven and Earth Tribulation" trilogy, including the main story " The Supreme Legend of Gods and Demons ", the preface " The Fantasy Sword Record HTML ", and the extra story " The Universe God Knot ". These three works won numerous awards that year, and their influence exceeded that of classic works such as "Legend of Sword and Fairy".
However, Hantang International, which has made so many excellent works, also suffered from piracy games. It was not prepared for the computer operating system to switch from DOS to Windows around 1995. After the overall market has changed, it still launched the DOS version of "The Knights of the Dragon: The Emblem of the Wind" in 1998. The series of slow pace, perfectionism and rash transformation after
followed by
made Hantang International decline step by step, and was eventually acquired by Zhiguan and renamed "Zhiletang". Since then, there is no "Hantang International" in the domestic stand-alone market, but an ordinary company that relies on old IP to change mobile games, which makes people sigh.
Hantang International Current Situation: After 2002, it was officially announced that it would no longer develop games. The company's main body was almost bankrupt and no longer existed. It became a marginal work for outsourcing art and other games. In 2018, it sold the "Tiandijie" IP to make a sentimental mobile game.
Alien technology - the boss becomes a deadbeat now eats his old money
In the 1990s when FC was booming, alien technology made a lot of money by relying on "Chinese" classic FC games.
However, the so-called "Chineseization" at that time was actually pirated. When genuine foreign games could not enter the country, alien technology used its strong "development" and "Chineseization" capabilities to localize many classic FC games. Many FC games that players have heard of, seen and played, such as "Mario", "Contra", "Pokemon", etc., were basically made by alien technology, which is also a huge blessing to domestic players.
However, due to the text level at that time, many games have a literal sense of reading after literal translation during the "Chineseization", which is what players call "machine translation", but the original flavor of the game did not have much impact on this small problem.After
After Alien Technology saw the drama market of FC games and started the road of "independent development (patch together)". It pieced together the materials of various different games, and combined the modification of text and images to form a brand new game, but a discerning person can see at once what elements of the game are mixed.
Although Alien Technology, which has been moving forward on the road of "independent research and development", has spent millions to develop a completely independent domestic PC game "The Legend of Chivalrous and Promising: Smoking Storm", it did not cause much response. As expected, they are still more suitable for "Chineseization". After
After that, the Alien Technology took the path to rely on the old PC games that started with it, and tied to the famous game console manufacturer " Xiaobawang ", and went one way to the end. Unfortunately, everyone knew the ending of "Little Bawang" and even alien technology suffered. After the two companies combined, they could not go further and further towards the "Nintendo of China".
The current status of alien technology: Due to the elimination of the times and huge debt problems, the company's boss has also become a deadbeat, and now he continues to reap its surplus value through FC games.
Target software - glorious for a while now is the most miserable game company in the game industry, then the target software established in 1995 can definitely be ranked among the top three, because it staged a realistic version of "Sure Zhongyong", which was once known as "China Blizzard", but eventually fell into a difficult life by selling feelings.
The start of the target software can be said to be like a dream, and it will be a king. The sales myth " Iron Armor Storm " launched in 1998 attracted nearly 1/4 of the stand-alone players to pay for it at that time. "The Three Kingdoms" launched in 2001 after
After
became the first domestic RTS to enter the E3 exhibition in China. It was very popular for a while because this was just a bombshell that the target software was thrown out just 6 years ago, and it has received countless exclusive reports and high praise from domestic and foreign media.
After a year, the target software has produced its third axe since its establishment - " Qin Shang ". This domestic ARPG, which is comparable to " Diablo ", once again pushed the target to the forefront, because it became the second Chinese game under the target to be selected for the E3 game exhibition!
The company has just been established for 7 years and has launched 3 works. Two of them were selected for the E3 exhibition in the highest specifications of the gaming industry at that time. Another game also left a strong mark in the gaming industry. This move is indeed a king!
Unfortunately, just like Cheng Yaojin, after throwing these three tricks, the goal began to go downhill.
was first affected by the popularity of domestic stand-alone game piracy and then turned to the path of online games. Then, the development of " Proud Three Kingdoms 2" was blocked, and then the hope of "Tianjiao OL" after online games was transformed was lukewarm, which made the target software consume a lot of funds accumulated in the early stage.
Although the target software also wanted to save itself, it was on the wrong path of capital operation. In the popular version in China, they bet on with foreign capital , which eventually put the company in a desperate situation and never recovered. The current status of the target software: completely becoming a vassal of big capital. With the 3.6 yuan "Qin Shang" on Steam, which sells feelings, all the seed players in the online game market have almost fallen and no longer do anything.
Creative Eagle Xiang-The price of losing creativity is to decline
Creative Eagle Xiang This company may not be deeply impressed by many players, but the three games "Between Life and Death" series, "Lonely Break the World" and "Bixue Love Tian " were a well-known name in the late 1990s.
Among these three games, "Between Life and Death" is a science fiction real-time strategy game, and its modular construction setting is amazing. In that era when RTS was very popular, domestic stand-alone games that could compete with foreign game strategy masterpieces, except for the two masterpieces of the target software, there is only Creative Yingxiang's "Between Life and Death".
and "Single to the World" is the vanguard of action adventure games, combining "Fallout" and " Allied Suicides ". The gameplay is unique, making people sigh that the creative Eagle Xiang lives up to its reputation, and it is indeed "creative".
Of course, the most famous game is "Bi Xue Qing Tian", because it is a martial arts RPG that is comparable to " Swordsman Love ", and its operation method that conforms to the times, that is, the gameplay, also allows it to seamlessly transform towards MMORPG in the future.
"Bixue Love Sky" was originally a game that is very easy to transform, but Creative Yingxiang did not seize this good opportunity. Whether it was the online game when it was first launched, or the "Bixue Love Sky" and "Bixue Love Sky" developed with the themes of "Bixue Love Sky" and "Three Kingdoms" as templates when the wave of web games came, it seems that it has been following hot topics, but it has always been half a beat slow and missed the best competitive opportunity.
At the same time, just by simply eating old money, the "creative" of creative Yingxiang is no longer valuable. The online game-oriented "Bixue Love Tian OL" has not even entered for 5 years, making old players look up and look down in the game, and are embarrassed to fight and kill the famous hot name.
In the end, the creative Yingxiang, who was crazy about his old capital, made no achievements except launching the old game "Story of the World" to Steam and launching the mobile game version of "Bi Snow Love Sky" in 2017.
Creative Eagle Xiang Current Situation: It is determined that the domestic stand-alone market no longer exists, and can only rely on the "Bixue" IP to make mobile games, and make a living by selling some feelings.
Shanghai Softstar Technology—What is the experience of the company’s resurrection from the dead?
In that era of crazy expansion of the stand-alone market, Shanghai Softstar Technology has developed " Immortal Sword Three ", "Immortal Sword Three Lessons - Questioning Love" and "Immortal Sword Four", and two less famous "A Cat and Dog" and "Han Dynasty and Rome".
With its strong strength, Shanghai Soft Star not only achieved excellent results in "Sword Immortal Three" and "Sword III" and "Sword III" in 2006, but also won dozens of awards. "Sword IV" also achieved an impressive record of 300,000 sets less than one month after its launch.
But what is strange is that less than two months after the launch of "Sword IV of Fairy", Shanghai Softstar was disbanded due to the policy adjustments of Daewoo Corporation. It is obviously a subsidiary with strong development capabilities and has received such high honors. It was abandoned like a "die of a donkey", which made many players feel unbelievable.
It can be said that Shanghai Ruanxing did not have a lot of messy things like other game development companies, nor did it make strange works that make players sneer. The games developed at hand are of good quality and have a good reputation, but they encountered this "endup". It was rumored that Shanghai Ruanxing was suppressed by Daewoo and finally pulled out funds before going bankrupt.
However, what happened to Shanghai Softstar next is even more unsightly, because in 2015, Shanghai Softstar was re-established under the arrangement of Dayu! This kind of ups and downs is really the most exciting news in the domestic gaming circle.
Unfortunately, although Shanghai Soft Star has been re-established, it has never regained its glory to this day, as if it has lost its original soul after its disbandment in 2007.
State status of Shanghai Soft Star: In April 2021, together with Beijing Soft Star, it was packaged with 49% equity , plus the IP of "Sword and Fairy" and was sold at a low price by Daewoo for RMB 505 million.
I told you:
After talking about this, I can't help but feel extremely sorry for these once glorious game manufacturers in China. Although they did not go bankrupt like other foreign game companies, they were in shape and could no longer reproduce their heroic postures. They could not develop a good game that would make players admire them again. Instead, they lived hard under the torrent of the times. It has to be said that it was a kind of sadness.
My favorite of these companies' classic works is limited to memories. After all, it is really difficult for old players to be interested again if they cannot keep up with the pictures and gameplay of the times. Perhaps these companies will slowly disappear into the torrent of history.
A shocking question:
Do you know which game companies that were very popular but eventually became popular?
