The entire game industry has been advancing by leaps and bounds in the past ten years, making it a popular industry. Especially since the outbreak of the new crown virus, the country has unfortunately played games and made a fortune. It is worthy of in-depth discussion. The first three articles focused on game development companies. In fact, in the entire game industry, in addition to development companies, there are many other links in the industry chain.
The entire game industry can be roughly divided into four links:
1. Upstream game development (various production companies and game studios, as described in the first three articles)
2. Game publishing (responsible for game promotion, marketing, channel docking, game operations, customer service, etc. Players are basically giants, such as EA, Activision Blizzard, Capcom, Konami, Tencent, NetEase, Perfect, etc. , Most of them are big producers. Of course there are also some independent publishers, such as Devolver Digital)
3. Game distribution/channel (can be understood as the place to download games, such as Steam and Wegame on the PC platform, the three major host platforms, Apple Store, various Android application stores [generally divided by SDK joint venture], Taptap)
4. Auxiliary services, including:
- Game engine (UE, Unity)
- Advertisers (Tencent Guangdiantong, Google, Facebook, Bytedance, Kuaishou, Baidu)
- Event hosting (CPL, WCG, ESWW)
- Game live broadcast (Betta fish, Huya, Penguin e-sports, YY)
- Play with games (Bixin, Moondog, Blade, Pippi)
- Information company (MAX+, 17173)
- Game community (Discord, PlayPlus, each developer’s own community)
- Game item trading (VPGame, 5173)
- Game Guild (Nine Tour Guild)
- Game peripherals (IP authorized various peripheral products and activities)
- Internet cafes (such as net fish Internet cafes)
- Game accelerator (UU, Xunyou, etc.)
- Game cracking and piracy (if this is also an industry...)
- Of course, these links are not clear-cut for a long time.
For example, a giant player like Tencent, from production to distribution to channels to support the entire chain takes all, the entire industry will tremble when it sees it.
The three major host companies (Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft) are basically the same in development, distribution, and channels.
Big development companies will get involved in game publishing. Large publishing companies will work closely with production companies during the development phase (for example, Sekiro, Activision has been involved in the development of From software during the development phase).
Strong production and distribution companies, such as Blizzard, will bypass distribution companies and build their own channels.
Advertisers, such as ByteDance, can't hold back anymore, and they end up doing game production, distribution and channels by themselves.
Penguin E-sports, Douyu, and Huya, which do game live broadcasts, have merged and penetrated into the companion game industry.
Net fish and Internet cafes, which are Internet cafes, have also incubated the companion app, Comparing Heart.
The following will introduce each link one by one.
In addition to China, Japan, South Korea, the United States, France, and Germany, Britain, Finland, and Israel are also sub-level gaming powers. In the United States, Japan and Europe, in addition to a few giants, there are also many small production companies and independent game studios. Among the more well-known companies are the following companies: FROM Software (Japan Kadokawa Group), Kojima Productions (Japan), Gearbox (USA, 2K partner), That game (USA), Imangi Studios (USA), Studio Wildcard (USA), Klei Entertainment (Canada), Codemasters (UK), Ndemic Creations (UK), USTWO (UK), Remedy (Finland), Playdead Studios (Denmark), D-Pad Studio (Norway), Yacht Club Games (Spain), Bohemia Interactive (Czech), Battlestate (Russia) The
above information source: Veteran Village Page Tour www.laoshoucun.com web game
In addition, in the Chinese game industry, Taiwan is also a force that cannot be ignored.
1. Heluo Studio , in recent years, the RPG "The Legend of the Knight" and "The Legend of Jin Yong" have all made great achievements.
2. Daewoo . Lian Po is old, and I don't know if he can still eat. "The Legend of Sword and Fairy", "Xuanyuan Sword" and "Monopoly" are all legends of an era.
3. Yuquan International , the developer of RPG "Meteor Butterfly Sword". The subsidiary in mainland China has been acquired by Perfect World. I wonder if there are any new plans for the Taiwan headquarters.
4. Hongyu Technology , the developer of RPG "Fantasy". There seems to be no sound now.
5. Yujun Aoting , a merger of Yujun and Aoting. Yu Jun is the developer of the RPG "Datang Shuanglong Biography". Aoting is the developer of the strategic business web game "The Legend of Three Kingdoms".
6. IGS (鈊象电子) , the developer of "Journey to the West" and "Three Kingdoms" that were popular in arcade halls.
In addition, many game companies have closed down.
One of the most famous is THQ. At its peak, it was also the world's top production and distribution company. It owns many well-known games, such as the real-time strategy game " Company of Heroes ", " Warhammer 40K " series; RPG " Dark Bloodline ", "The Saints Row " and so on. It was later acquired by Nordic and renamed THQ Nordic. Sierra is a famous adventure game maker in the 1980s and 1990s. After 1994, it was changed hands many times and finally sold to Vivendi. In 2004, it was disbanded by Vivendi, and the remaining personnel were merged into Activision. In addition to these two giants, many studios that developed great games have also closed down.
In addition to the above-mentioned developers, there are many small and medium-sized game companies focusing on publishing. The more well-known ones are:
1. Digerati Distribution , an American game distribution company. Help independent development teams publish games. The games released are: Omega Attack, Fall of Light, Monster Slayer, House of Three Quarters, etc.
2. NIS America , an American game publishing company. The games released are: Ranch Story, Persona, Danganronpa, Demon World War II, The World's Longest Five Minutes, SNK Girls Heroes, Ys 8: Dana's Requiem, etc.
3. Plug in Digital , French independent game publisher. The games released include: Knight Manager +1, Impulse, etc.
4. Focus Home Interactive , a French production and distribution company. The games released are: conference, space battleship, mutiny, etc.
5. Paradox Interactive , a Swedish production and distribution company. Riding and Blade are issued by their agency. In addition, strategy games such as Europa Universalis and Iron Ambition have also been produced.
6. 505 games , an Italian game production and distribution company. Its games include Terraria, Survival Guide, etc.
7. Aksys games is a publishing company specializing in translating and localizing Japanese games for the English market. Participated in the production of criminal equipment series.
8. Team17 , an established British publishing and production company. There are games such as Hundred Fights Sky Worm and Allied Death Squad.
9. Arc System Works , a Japanese game production and distribution company. It has games such as criminal equipment and double dragon.
10. Annapurna Interactive , American independent game publisher. There are games such as her and sausage party.
11. Playrix , a Russian game production and distribution company. There are games like Dream Home, Dream Town and so on.
12. Playtika , an Israeli game production and distribution company. The main mobile phone chess and card social game.
13. IAC , American Internet giant (shareholder of http://ASK.com). It owns the Ethereum Clown, known as a blockchain game.
14. Humble Bundle , 10% of the games sold in the game store will be donated to the charity platform. At the same time, some free games are often posted.
15. Spike Chunsoft , Japanese game producer and publisher. The developer of Danganronpa also has games such as Samurai, Nindo, Extreme Escape, Brother Wrestling World.
Other slightly larger publishing companies include: Idea Factory, PQube, XSEED/Marvelous, TinyBuild, Iceberg Interactive, Koch Media, Deadlic Entertainment, Qubicgames, Curve Digital, Plug In Digital, Ratalakia Games, Bigben, 1C Company, Headup Games, Merge Games, Zen Studios, Adult Swim, MicroYds, Milestone Srl, Good Shepherd Ent., Flyhigh Works, Wales Interactive, etc.
I will introduce so much in this issue, and I would like to know more, and give me some praise and support. Wait until I have the next issue