Today, regarding the news of large-scale layoffs of Chaoxiguangnian, which is widely rumored in the industry, Game Top asked Chaoxiguangnian for confirmation. The other party responded,There will indeed be business direction and organizational adjustments, which will focus more on the exploration of some innovative games and related technologies. But at the same time, we will also do a good job in the continuous operation of already launched products to fully protect the rights and interests of players.
In addition, Game Gyro also learned from insiders close to ByteDance that Zhaoxi Guangnian is facing adjustments similar to PICO, that is, abolition of the middle office and distribution departments, leaving only R&D and maintenance of online products, and the maintenance is also temporary. A person familiar with the matter said, “All projects under development will be cut off regardless of their progress, and all online projects will be sold.”
Rumors of layoffs are confirmed, ByteDance’s organizational structure is adjusted
On November 24, Zhaoxi Guangnian, a subsidiary of ByteDance, which is mainly engaged in the gaming business, was exposed to large-scale layoffs. According to widely circulated news in the industry, the layoffs involve various projects under development and launched in the morning and evening, including products that were launched during the year and performed quite well, such as “Crystal Core” and “planet:Restart》.
Rumor has it that last Friday, ByteDance established a valuation team led by the R&D department to begin evaluating the value of each project. Whether it is under development or has been launched, it will be sold or disbanded. Many employees certified as Bytedance on Maimai also stated that they have received notices of business changes and layoffs, and the company will settle layoffs in accordance with N+1, year-end bonus, equity conversion, etc.
Prior to the news of layoffs, there were rumors in the industry that ByteDance was selling its wholly-owned subsidiary Mutong Technology. Reuters quoted people familiar with the matter on November 15 as saying that ByteDance was seeking to sell Mutong Technology and had negotiated with a number of potential buyers. Subsequently, Bloomberg, Snow Leopard Finance and other media also followed up the report and revealed that the sale price of Mutong Technology will be no less than US$5 billion. However, ByteDance did not respond to this rumor.
Today, news of layoffs in ByteDance’s gaming business unit continues to circulate on the Internet, and Game Gyro sought confirmation from ByteDance’s Chaoxi Guangnian. Zhaoxi Guangnian stated that there will indeed be business direction and organizational adjustments, and it will focus more on the exploration of some innovative games and related technologies. But at the same time, we will also do a good job in the continuous operation of already launched products to fully protect the rights and interests of players.
From Chao Xi Guangnian’s reply, it can be seen that the news of layoffs is basically true. ByteDance’s gaming business will undergo massive contraction——For games that have been launched and are performing well, we will seek to divest them while ensuring operations; for projects that have not yet been launched, except for a small number of innovative projects and related technology projects, they will be shut down.
People close to ByteDance revealed that the decision was discussed repeatedly for a long time by business leader Yan Shuo and ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo. Liang Rubo believes that although the game business has achieved certain results, in the past few years, Byte Games has pursued “big and comprehensive” projects, with unfocused projects and scattered resources. It should invest energy and resources into more basic, innovative and imaginative things. project. People familiar with the matter also said that its follow-up focus will be on UGC platform and AIGC games.
In the past few years of ByteDance game development, it has achieved certain results.
Public information shows that ByteDance’s game business began in 2019. At that time, Zhang Yiming set two long-term development goals to enter e-commerce and games. Based on the goal of gaming, from 2019 to 2020, Bytedance launched the “Oasis Project” for self-research on heavy games on the one hand and established multiple self-research game studios; on the other hand, it acquired Sanqi Interactive Entertainment Its subsidiary Mokun Technology has invested in Shanghe Network, Maibo Games, Youai Interactive Entertainment, Shenluo Interactive Entertainment, etc., and has frequently made moves in the investment field, accelerating the construction of its own game system through self-construction + investment acquisition.
In 2021, ByteDance built ChaoXi Guangnian, the parent company of the time management tool product “ZhaoXi Calendar”, into a game company with R&D, operation and promotion capabilities, and launched ChaoXi Guangnian’s official game website in February of that year. Subsequently, Chaoxiguangnian successively launched a number of games such as “Ragnarok RO: The Birth of a New Generation”, “Senior Figure Group”, “One Piece Passion”, “Moon in the Heart of Flowers and Mountains”, all of which achieved good results. During the same period, ByteDance expanded its investment and acquisition territory again, and acquired Mutong Technology, a capable player in the overseas gaming business, for US$4 billion.
In the following two years, both Morning and Night Lightyear and Mutong’s technological development were quite good. “Crystal Core”, which was launched in Zhaoxi Guangnian in July this year, is considered to be the company’s first “big hit” self-developed game. Qimai data shows that the revenue of “Crystal Core” on the iOS platform reached nearly 70 million yuan in the first week of its launch. , and has been in the top ten best-selling games in the App Store for nearly a month. Some organizations predict that the game’s monthly revenue across all platforms is expected to exceed 600 million, with the cumulative revenue exceeding 2 billion. The recently launched science fiction-themed survival RPG game “Planet: Reboot” had more than 10 million new users in its first week of launch, and is currently ranked in the top 10 best-selling list and the top 6 free game list.
Another “Marvel Snap” released by Zhaoxiguangnian’s overseas agent also received good sales. AppMagic data shows that the game earned over 1.2 billion in revenue in 2022, and won the TGA Mobile Game of the Year title.
Mutong Technology launched its self-developed “next-generation card RPG mobile game” “Watcher of Realms” in April this year. The product’s first-month sales were close to 70 million. Although the income is not particularly outstanding, Mu Tong’s ability to develop next-generation 3D games and publish them in the European and American markets can be seen from behind the game, and this ability is a necessary condition for joining the competition of large-scale games. In addition, Mu Tong has also tried casual and two-dimensional games, such as “Mobile Legends: Adventure (Fantasy World and Adventure)”. From this point of view, Mutong Technology itself still has great development potential.
Behind the structural adjustment: the results of “reducing fat and gaining weight” in the general environment
In the past two years, the global economy has been in recession, and major Internet companies have invariably implemented measures to “reduce costs and increase efficiency.” ByteDance is no exception. Last year, ByteDance conducted a round of cost reduction and efficiency improvement. At that time, ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo said at the company’s all-hands meeting, “This year (2022), the company’s revenue growth has slowed down, and product DAU is growing, but the growth rate is lower than the target set at the beginning of the year. We will continue to promote the organization.” Lose weight and gain weight.” From his words, what can be felt is that ByteDance’s performance in 2022 failed to meet expectations, and personnel optimization, cost reduction and efficiency increase will not stop.
By 2023, ByteDance’s cost reduction and efficiency improvement will continue. Not long ago, PICO, the VR department of ByteDance, issued an internal notice stating that it would adjust its organizational structure and lay off employees. Among them, the PICO mobile OS team will be integrated into the ByteDance product development and engineering architecture center. PICO is a VR software and hardware manufacturer acquired by ByteDance for 5 billion in 2021.
Today, Zhaoxiguangnian is facing the same situation as PICO.
