During this time, the issue of game outages has once again attracted attention.
On April 17, Women announced the closure of the game “FoodTalk” and launched a “companion version”. On the night the news was released, many related topics were trending on Weibo.
Not long ago, Ubisoft’s “The Crew 1”, a buyout game that requires full Internet access, also announced the closure of the game. This decision also made many players dissatisfied. In the UK, some players even launched a joint petition, hoping that the government would stipulate that manufacturers cannot shut down games at will. As of press time, more than 8,000 players have participated in the joint petition.
Most online service-based games will inevitably come to an end – revenue is lower than expected, or due to internal adjustments by the manufacturer, the game may be shut down. However, starting from the 2022 “Yunsang Yuyi Suspended Service” incident, domestic players have become more and more aware of the rights protection of digital assets in the game. Last year, the otome game “The Leader is Too Busy” also experienced a similar “suspension” amidst the voices of players. Stop service” situation.
Even if it is just a bunch of code in reality, the spiritual companionship that games have entrusted to players over the years is undoubtedly real. This is especially true for two-dimensional and female-oriented games that use characters as selling points and cultivate a sense of connection between virtual characters and players. Therefore, this Similar public opinions are more likely to occur in these categories.
However, after the general game is shut down, due to maintenance costs and other considerations, in most cases players can no longer enter the game. Therefore, the conflict between the interests of manufacturers and the interests of players has become particularly acute on this issue, and game server closures are also very difficult. It’s rare to find a situation that satisfies players.
In addition to directly and completely announcing the “death” of the game, some manufacturers have made a more compromise choice-“game reconstruction.” Compared with the former, the “reconstructed” game is only temporarily gone and will be brought back to the table with an updated appearance soon, but the player’s previous data will still be cleared and replaced by game resource compensation after the server is reopened.
Fantang Network’s “Cat City”, which will be launched in the second half of 2022, announced this approach just this year, and it has not yet resumed operations. But generally speaking, it is difficult for products that put new wine in old bottles to achieve the same performance as when they debuted on the stage. Binary Games’ “Jump Traveler” went through a controversial “game reconstruction” last year, and the current operation of this product is almost stagnant.
But among the vast number of custom-server games, there are some exceptions where everyone is happy. Last year, a card product called “Death Alice” participated by the well-known Japanese producer Yoko Taro ushered in the “end of life” moment as a two-dimensional game.
Before the game was shut down, it did some common things to appease players, such as giving away a large amount of game resources, making a finale to the game plot, giving an explanation of the story, and creating a stand-alone offline version of the game for fans to experience – these measures have not yet been completed. It can’t be said to be very special, such as “Ejection World Story”, “Dragalia Lost”, “Destiny Child”, “NieR Re[in]Carnation” and other games had similar practices before the server was shut down. This can be regarded as a traditional technique of manufacturers such as Cygames and Square Enix.
However, “Death Alice” does not stop there. To say how this game ends well, it is probably through teasing that the final feelings and IP value accumulated by the game are used.
“Death Alice” was officially shut down in January this year. In addition to becoming an offline version that retains user data, after the game was shut down, its name was changed to “Something that used to be Death Alice” and its icon was changed to ” Tombstone”, the “grave sweeping screen” will also be loaded after entering the game.
Later, this IP was “reincarnated” and a theatrical animation of the same name was launched. Although the production is not sophisticated, the response among the fan base is quite good.
In addition, the sales of this IP-related product are also quite impressive. In June this year, a physical Blu-ray disc will be released on the 7th anniversary of the game’s launch. Not long ago, the game characters also started a linkage with another mobile game owned by SE… The game is dead, but not completely dead, that’s probably what it means.
Nowadays, players are becoming more and more aware of their rights and interests, and the public opinion of the group is forming more and more rapidly. When the game is shut down, manufacturers should also be prepared to have more mature plans and a more active response. To take a step back, we also hope to see a game with emotional connection as its selling point usher in a warm exit, and jointly build an increasingly healthy market.
