GamesBeat recently quoted a report from the South China Morning Post about its intention to cooperate with EA to publish the Chinese version of "Apex Legends". GamesBeat reporters asked the two companies involved for confirmation, and an EA spokesperson said: "We do not comment o

Regarding this investment, Baidu Vice President Shen Dou said that the goal of Baidu’s mobile ecosystem is to create a comprehensive content platform, including search, content, entertainment and other functions, to meet the needs of users from information acquisition to service consumption, and mini games are becoming A very popular way of consuming entertainment among users. At the same time, we look forward to "using Baidu's leading AI capabilities to empower mini-games and provide users with a richer leisure and entertainment experience." Ling Hai, CEO of

Butterfly Interactive, said, "In the future, with the empowerment of AI, the gaming field is expected to achieve a personalized experience of 'thousands of people, thousands of faces'. We look forward to working with Baidu to create a healthier and more personalized light entertainment method for users." .”

▋Google will release game plans next month, or serve Google Live

Game Grape News on February 20, there have been rumors that Google will continue to get involved in the game field outside of Google Play. Now it seems that Google has finally decided to announce detailed plans. According to Gameinformer, Google recently sent out an invitation, stating that the company will release details of the game plan on March 19, and promised that "everything will be in Google's slide show." The plan for

will be announced at the start of the GDC conference in San Francisco. According to predictions, Google will release its own gaming platform this time, most likely the Google live streaming service that has been in beta for several months after its release in October last year.There is no word on whether this gaming platform will come with a dedicated game box or a completely digital version.

Last year, former Xbox and PS general manager Phil Harrison joined Google to work on a then-undisclosed new project. Reports emerged shortly thereafter that Google was designing a hardware device codenamed Yeti, but it was unclear whether the hardware would ever be released. In addition, Google also poached a key PS VR engineer.

▋ "Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Shadow" sold 4.12 million copies. SE will reorganize its business units into four in the next fiscal year.

Game Grape News on February 20. Recently, SE released its Q3 financial report. President Yosuke Matsuda said , "Shadow of the Tomb Raider" got off to a bad start. "Shadow of the Tomb Raider" was released in September last year and sold a total of 4.12 million copies as of December 31.

Matsuda is very confident about the sales of "Shadow of the Tomb Raider" and "Just Cause 4" next quarter, although the sales of the latter after its release in December were not as good as expected. These two games plus "Dragon Quest: Builders 2" failed to allow SE to have a strong financial quarter. In the Q3 financial report, the company's pre-order sales fell by 4.8% year-on-year, and profits fell by 60.1% year-on-year. %.

Regarding the reason for the decline in sales, Matsuda mentioned that neither of these two games "can give players a wonderful enough experience to allow players to choose these two games among many masterpieces."

In addition, SE also plans to reorganize and integrate 11 business departments into 4 departments in the next fiscal year to allocate resources more efficiently, perhaps also to avoid the phenomenon that the sales of its own works are not as good as those of similar competing products next holiday.

▋ Yang Yongxin’s online training center is closed? Linyi Municipal Health Commission:

A reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily called the Linyi Municipal Health Commission, and the staff responded that Yang Yongxin’s online detoxification center had been shut down as early as 2016. “There was an official notification at that time, and many media reported it.” The latest news for netizens Breaking the news, the staff member said that he has paid attention to this public opinion and is currently learning about the relevant situation.

Subsequently, a reporter from Beiqing News once again called the Mental Health Center, the hospital where Yang Yongxin’s online rehabilitation center was previously affiliated. The staff also said that Yang Yongxin’s online rehabilitation center had been closed as early as 2016. As for what netizens said, “Yang Yongxin is still in the hospital from time to time.” The news of "Meeting for Clinic" is not yet clear. After paying attention to this news, we will learn about the situation from the relevant departments later.

▋ Former EA chief designer announced a new work: a multiplayer action game created by Unreal Engine, which will be published by Nexon

In August last year, EA chief designer Patrick Söderlund announced his resignation, and soon formed his own studio Embark. Embark received investment from Nexon when the studio was founded, and the latter became the global publisher of Embark's future games. In three months, Patrick Söderlund hired more than 50 people from thousands of applications and started the construction of the studio's first project since its establishment.

Yesterday, Patrick Söderlund announced the latest progress of the studio on his blog and shared a preview video of the new work. The video shows the initial testing of a large environment model of approximately 256 square kilometers with dynamic weather and lighting systems.

This is a multiplayer cooperative action game built using Unreal Engine. The background is set in the future and the prototype design stage has begun.

In addition, Patrick Söderlund also revealed a longer-term goal of the studio: "We want to blur the boundaries between games and production, and create tools that can help anyone create games." Patrick Söderlund said that Embark is committed to The goal is to develop a tool for making games so that people's creativity is no longer restricted by technology and can more easily output ideas, thereby promoting better development of games.

speculates from the above description that Embark may be contemplating making a more popular game editor or a sandbox game.

▋ The Steam video area has been overhauled. You will no longer be able to watch "My Little Pony" on Steam in the future.

Game Grape News on February 21, according to GamesIndustry reports, out of consideration for user needs, V Agency plans to remove the Steam video area from the Steam video area. Remove non-game content. This video service on the Steam store has been operating for several years and has released some documentaries, such as " independent game movie ".

In recent years, Steam has begun to introduce some Hollywood blockbusters, such as "John Wick", "The Hunger Games" and the animated film "My Little Pony".

However, Valve said in a recent announcement: "When reviewing what Steam users actually watch, we found that we should focus on providing users with content directly related to games, or games and software sold on Steam. Additional content. "

" As part of this review, we have removed the video menu in the Steam store. We hope that the video content will be obtained through the relevant game or software's store page, search, user tags, recommendations, etc. "

Although previously purchased content will still remain in the library, non-game videos in the store will be removed and purchase services will no longer be available.

▋V may officially acquire "Dota Auto Chess" to attract more users to pay attention to "Dota 2"

According to VP Esports, Valve has always been interested in "Dota Auto Chess" and may purchase it in the future. Acquiring "Dota Auto Chess" will officially make it a owned game and provide it with necessary support and help. This may attract more users to pay attention to the Steam store.

How popular is "Dota Auto Chess" now? Since

was launched in November last year, the number of subscribers to this game has exceeded 4.5 million. The popularity of the game has helped "Dota 2" recover from its decline. In July last year, the highest number of simultaneous online players in a single day in "Dota 2" dropped to 70 Around 10,000, and the average number of simultaneous online players in a single day is less than 450,000. However, after the launch of "Dota Auto Chess", the number of online players in "Dota 2" increased significantly. In February 2019, the highest number of simultaneous online players in a single day exceeded 950,000. , the average number of simultaneous online players in a single day exceeded 540,000, which was the best performance since the 2017 "Dota 2" International Invitational Tournament.

More and more high-end "Dota 2" players and anchors choose to play "Dota Auto Chess" during their breaks. This is especially obvious in the Chinese player community. The popularity of the game has also attracted many new players to download "Dota Auto Chess". Dota 2》.

The popularity of "Dota Auto Chess" has made the previously high-profile release of "Artifact" by Valve a bit embarrassing. This game has been in a state of continuous struggle since its release. In January 2019, the average number of people online at the same time was less than 1,000. Valve has proven before that it is capable of turning things around in other ways and is also very good at changing MODs into standalone games, like "Dota 2".

▋ After 15 years of working for Nintendo , his influence is second only to Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto.

Reggie said: "Nintendo will always have a place in my heart. I am filled with gratitude for the talented colleagues I have, the opportunity to represent the brand, and most importantly, a place where I feel like the most positive person in the world. One of the longest-lasting members of the gaming community because I want to leave my job while I'm still healthy and in good shape, so it's not a 'game over' for me, it's a 'level up' because I'll have more. Spend more time with my wife, children and friends.”

Nintendo President Kuntaro Furukawa said: “I am really grateful for everything Reggie has done for Nintendo, both internally and externally. He is an excellent leader. We are all happy for him that he is retiring in good physical and mental condition."

At the same time, Nintendo also announced that Doug Browser will take over Reggie's position. Doug Browser is his real name (Mario's villain Bowser is named Bowser).

▋ Kuaishou launched a game live broadcast app in a low-key manner, or may try to get involved in game distribution and community

According to Jiemian News, Kuaishou launched a game live broadcast app "Dianmiao Live" in a low-key manner around the Spring Festival. It is currently only available on Android.

The official information of the "Dian Miao Live" app store shows that this application "takes enjoying game time as the core concept and covers diverse content such as game live broadcasts, game videos, game communities, game introductions, game downloads, etc." The developer is Beijing Kuaishou Technology Co., Ltd. company.

According to Putaojun’s download experience, the main interface of this application is divided into four columns: game live broadcast, short video, attention and game.

The "Games" column is divided into two parts: "Daily Recommendations" and "Hot Discussions". Players can click "Go to see" or "Go to discuss" to enter the game details page to rate and download the game.

If users want to participate in game scoring, they need to correctly answer 5 simple test questions related to community rules.

According to 36Kr, Kuaishou launched the Kuaishou live web platform in February last year to lay out the game live broadcast field. Recently, it quietly launched the game live broadcast app "Dianmiao Live", which is in line with its consistent low-key style in the game live broadcast field.

However, judging from the column setting of "Dianmiao Live Broadcast", Kuaishou may not only want to make breakthroughs in the field of game live broadcasts and short videos, but also intends to try to build a distribution platform and player community to expand its layout in the game industry.

▋ Giant Network appoints Wang Weizheng as vice president of overseas gaming business to accelerate overseas expansion.

data, Wang Weizheng entered the gaming industry in Boston in 2005. He joined Perfect World in early 2007 and became the vice president in charge of overseas business. He successively opened up the Russian and Southeast Asian markets. In early 2008, he was assigned to San Francisco Bay Area and participated in the establishment of Perfect North America Branch. Joined 360 in early 2017 as President of Overseas Games, responsible for overseas investment, acquisitions, agency and distribution business. Wang Weizheng has senior experience in overseas game business.

▋ Alibaba Games has been adjusted into the Interactive Entertainment Division

According to "Finance" on February 22: Alibaba Games has been adjusted into the Interactive Entertainment Division, headed by Alibaba Entertainment CFO and Alibaba Literature CEO Li Zhiqian (Yu Qian) concurrently. Under the Interactive Entertainment Division, Zhan Zhonghui is responsible for original game research and development, and Shi Cangjian is responsible for game distribution and open platform business.

The following is the original text of the "Caijing" report:

"The name change of Alibaba Games also means the adjustment of its strategy." An Alibaba entertainment person told the Caijing reporter that although the interactive entertainment division is mainly focused on the game business, it will be more strategic in the future. Most of them are developing lightweight games like "Travel Frog". Another more important change in

is that the future direction of the Interactive Entertainment Division will be to cooperate with other businesses of the entire Alibaba Group and help them "gamify" their business. The most typical example is Alipay’s “Ant Forest”, which is essentially a mini-game.

"can be understood as using a relatively low-cost method to increase the activity of businesses such as Taobao and Alipay." said the above-mentioned big entertainment person.

To put it simply, the renamed Alibaba Games will develop more lightweight games in the future, help gamify other businesses of Alibaba Group, and increase the active value of other businesses at a lower cost.

Last year, Alibaba quietly launched its own mini-game platform on mobile Taobao to test the waters in the mini-game field. In early August, Zhang Nannan, general manager of Alibaba Jiuyou, explained the original intention of launching mini-games on the platform at the Alibaba Game Ecology Gala:

In the past, users punched in to receive gold coins in this scene, and the process experience was not interesting enough.So we embedded the "instant game", an H5 light game platform we made, into this Taobao "gold coin" scene. Users can win gold coins through real-time game battles and game levels.

▋ After sending invitations to laid-off employees at Activision Blizzard, EA's studios will also lay off employees

Game Grape News on February 22, following Activision Blizzard's layoffs, EA's Firemonkeys studio (Firemonkeys) There will also be a wave of layoffs.

According to Kotaku, according to a detailed investigation by the director of SMG Studio, Fire Monkey Studio has nearly 200 employees. Earlier, the Australian chapter of Game Workers Unite estimated that 80-100 people would face a layoff crisis, but later revised this number to 40-50. EA's response did not specify the number of layoffs, but only stated that the studio will focus on online services in the future.

Firemonkeys was formed in 2012 by the merger of Firemint and IronMonkey, the two former EA studios. After the merger, Melbourne-based Fire Monkey has become one of the largest studios in Australia, focusing on the development of mobile games.

▋ Nintendo sent a questionnaire to some players for "Breath of the Wild", or to prepare for the sequel.

Reddit posted that he had received the questionnaire and thought that some of the questions in this survey were very in-depth, such as "What do you think of the characters of Zelda and Link?" and some other questions about DLC, character design, scene and battle design. question.

Some netizens also said that they have not received any emails from Nintendo. Reddit netizens speculated that the questionnaire may be sent randomly, and some speculated that players who purchased physical games would not receive the questionnaire. Another player said he received a survey link, but not for The Legend of Zelda, but for Super Mario Party and another game (the player said he couldn't remember the name). After

, netizens’ discussion gradually transitioned from Link’s character to the setting of the game mechanics of “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild”. Many netizens believe that Link's character takes everything seriously, and they also complained that the English translation of the game was not done well and failed to reflect Link's character.

Some netizens also said that he hopes that the architectural design can be done more in-depth, especially in Yishi Village. He wrote that he thought it would be cool to be able to build a house in the game (and he actually built it), but that when he finally built the house he felt something was missing, and Tarry Town filled his expectations. However, because he felt that Tarry Town was somewhat different from his imagination, he hoped to strengthen the design of the building. In addition, he also hopes that the gems unearthed in the game will have more uses.

Players also praised the design of dungeons in the old game and were deeply impressed by the process of traveling through dungeons - finding key props - using key props to find the boss - and using key props to defeat the boss. But this player also mentioned that although he likes the Shikar Slate in the game, he hopes that more traditional props will appear in the game.