Game-Time report/March 14 news: Today, ByteDance’s internal letter about structural adjustments has once again stirred the nerves of people in the domestic gaming circle. It announced Zhaoxi Guangnian’s current business positioning and latest structure within ByteDance.
What is eye-catching is that Hua Wei, Bytedance’s head of human resources, was appointed as the person in charge of the game business to manage UGC, Mu Tong and Zhaoxi Guangnian, while Yan Shuo was transferred to the company’s finance department.
Byte’s internal letter reads:
Dear students in the game department:
Hello everyone! After undergoing adjustments to strategic positioning, the game business will return to incubation status. In the next stage, the core of the game business is to patiently conduct stable operations and continue to explore with a mission and vision in a way that is in line with the development rules of the industry. Therefore, the following adjustments are made to the organizational structure of the game business:
@华伟会 will be the person in charge of the game business, managing UGC, Mu Tong and Chaoxi Guangnian. @囧士 will be transferred to the company’s finance department.
Under the first-level game department, a new second-level department game-UGC was created, and @Luo Ji was appointed as the head of the department. The original Block project leader @daijunyi Tony and the Cell team leader @Sky were adjusted to report to Luo Ji. Luo Ji Hua Wei reports.
@Hector, the former head of ONE Publishing Studio, will continue to be responsible for the agent products of Zhaoxiguangnian. The former game-technical head @Jeffrey and the former global business head @Rachel Lin will report to Hector, and Hector will report to Hua Wei.
The head of Oasis Studio @王kuiwu and the head of Youai Business Department @Hu Bing reported to Hua Wei.
As for the progress of the project teams that have been sold and divested, Game-Time has previously reported that Tencent took over the R&D teams of some Chao Xi Guangnian, specifically the two-dimensional tactical competition project (S1) of Shenzhen Gravity Studio, and the Second Division of Jiangnan Studio. Dimension Open World Project (J5), and established a new company Saros Network Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. Saros was registered on December 21, 2023 and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tencent Group. This new company is reported to be independent It is operated by the former head of S1 studio.
As for individual project teams that have already launched games, there have been rumors in the industry that FunPlus and Palm Entertainment have gone to negotiate, but the progress is not clear. This also reflects that the domestic game industry does lack experience in taking over already launched projects. Considering The valuation is not low, and it is difficult for buyers and sellers to quickly agree on the value of projects and teams. This also indirectly shows that the giant’s game team and its friends in the same industry cannot and cannot afford it.
For games that Zhaoxiguangnian has obtained agency rights and custom-developed game products, some project distribution rights have been handed over to partners.
Judging from the information released in Byte’s internal letter today, considering that in the past few years, especially after the announcement of game business adjustments last year, Zhaoxi Guangnian has experienced large-scale project cancellations and layoffs, the current structure of Byte’s game business The adjustment was still in a “maintaining the status quo” and smooth transition manner, and the rights and responsibilities of the game business were handed over to the new person in charge, Hua Wei.
What surprised people in the industry is that Hua Wei was originally the person in charge of human resources at ByteDance, but after the adjustment, the heads of the game studios and agency distribution lines all reported to Hua Wei, taking into account Hua Wei’s previous career background. , which can easily lead to industry insiders speculating that there may be some new changes in the Byte game business in the future.
Game-Time believes that Byte’s new positioning of “incubation business” for the game business may have two meanings:
1) From the original strategic business positioning of the “six major BUs” alongside Douyin, it has returned to start-up or marginal business, which means that future resource investment in the game business will be significantly reduced.
2) While downgrading the strategic positioning, positioning it as “incubation” means that the assessment requirements for profit, revenue, user volume, and growth will also be reduced accordingly.
Under the new positioning of the incubation business, what is the future goal of the retained Byte game business: business growth, innovation, or conservative management? Or continue to wait for the right buyer to sell the existing team and projects, which is quite curious.
Judging from the current arrangement that focuses on stability and over-development, without the group’s large-scale resource investment, whether the Byte game business can achieve self-generation and self-driven development will ultimately test the actual quality of the game projects and teams that have been retained. , and only by continuing to remain competitive can we find reliable buyers in the long wait in the future.
According to Game-Time’s observation, the cash flow situation of at least some of Byte’s game projects is relatively stable. For example, the monthly revenue of “MLBB” and “Crystal Core” is still stable at more than 100 million. “Watcher of Reamls”, “One Piece”, “Idle Girls”, “Marvel SNAP”, “Planet Reboot”, “Dragonheir” and other released games have monthly revenue of more than 100 million. Revenue is still in the tens of millions.
ByteDance’s game team is obviously not worthless, but in a market environment where the global game industry is experiencing a growth stall and the domestic market is becoming increasingly saturated, there are almost no companies that can take action. This also reminds those who are still on the front line of the game industry. Facing the unpredictable game market in the future, manufacturers must not only be stable but also respond in a timely manner.
