Tencent and NetEase, two gaming giants, have had a lot of disputes recently.
On March 28th, @ Qianzhong Jiufa, a well-known UGC map creator for the NetEase game "Egg Party", claimed that his original map "Yinlan" had been repeatedly plagiarized in Tencent's game "Yuanmeng Star". He has sued Tencent and will hold a court hearing in May.
@The official Weibo account of NetEase Egg Party also posted that for a long time, creators have frequently spoken out about the phenomenon of plagiarism and relocation of amusement park works, hoping that their original works can be protected. They also said, "As a solid support for creators, doing a good job in supporting everyone's growth and protecting their rights has always been the top priority of" Egg Party ", and we will not stand idly by."
In response to this matter, the official Weibo account of @ Yuanmengxing released a statement on the 28th regarding the protection of original map creation, stating that more than 1500 players suspected of violating regulations have been banned from creating maps so far. Recently, after receiving a rights complaint from the author of the "Blue" map, after manual review, "Yuanmeng Star" has taken down all the complained related creative maps and notified the complained players via in-game email in accordance with the handling principles in the "Yuanmeng Star Infringement Complaint Notification Guidelines". Subsequently, the operation team of "Yuanmeng Star" further upgraded the handling policy, prohibiting all players from publishing and using players with the keyword "Yin Lan" to create maps.
As two gaming giants, Tencent and NetEase have been fighting for many years, leading to numerous controversies and disputes over the originality of content. The reporter noticed that in March, there have been multiple verbal battles between games under Tencent and NetEase.
The dispute over party games between two major companies
@Qianzhong Wine's content released on the Tiktok platform shows that his work "Yinlan" was copied at the "pixel level" during the test of Yuanmeng Star. Whether it is the overall logic, play method settings, or the placement of props, some even have the same color, it is almost a one-to-one copy, and he can be reminded of being copied by many enthusiastic young friends almost every day.
According to Tianyancha information, the cause of the case is a copyright ownership and infringement dispute. The plaintiff is Mr. W, and the defendants include Shenzhen Tencent Computer System Co., Ltd., Tencent Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Tencent Tianyou Technology Co., Ltd. The case will be heard in the Intermediate People's Court of Nanjing, Jiangsu Province on May 15th. Tianyan Risk Information also shows that Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems Co., Ltd. has been sued multiple times for copyright ownership, infringement disputes, and infringement of work information network dissemination rights.
"Egg Boy Game" and "Yuanmeng Star" are currently the two most popular party games and direct competitors. Among them, "Egg Boy Party" was developed by NetEase and began platform wide unlimited number testing on February 6, 2021. It was also publicly tested on May 27, 2022.
It can be said that the success of "Egg Boy Game" has driven the strong growth of NetEase's gaming business. NetEase CEO Ding Lei once praised this game in a financial report conference call.
Previously, NetEase released its 2023 performance data, with a total annual revenue of 103.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.25%; The net profit was 29.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 44.8%. In 2023, NetEase's net revenue from gaming and related value-added services was 81.6 billion yuan, of which net revenue from online games accounted for approximately 92.9% of the net revenue of this segment, and net revenue from mobile games accounted for approximately 75.2% of the net revenue from online games. According to the financial report, the proportion of mobile game revenue in 2023 increased year-on-year, mainly due to the increase in the net revenue proportion of mobile games such as "Egg Boy Party" and "Against the Cold Water". The gaming business, especially mobile games, remains the backbone and growth engine of NetEase, and is playing an increasingly important role.
Specifically, according to the financial report of "Egg Party", the game has accumulated 500 million registered users since its launch in 2022. During the Spring Festival, it also achieved a daily active user record of over 40 million, with over 26 million creators and millions of new UGC maps added each week.
On the other hand, "Yuanmeng Star" is a mobile game developed by Tencent Tianmei Studio Group and operated by Tencent Tianyou Technology Co., Ltd. In terms of release timing, "Yuanmeng Star" fell far behind "Egg Party" and was publicly tested on December 15, 2023.
"Yuanmeng Star" has also received the attention of the CEO of the group. According to media reports, on January 29th this year, Tencent CEO Ma Huateng stated at the annual meeting, "Yuanmeng Star is not only a game, but also has a social component. This is our main stronghold, and we must give it our all, and require all businesses to combine and explore common development."
Although it was launched late, with the attention and support of the group's "cash capability", "Yuanmeng Star" has been soaring in marketing since its launch in December last year. In the first phase, it planned a special investment of 1.4 billion yuan for the construction of the national esports competition system, content ecosystem creator incentives, and UGC map creator incentives, among other special development projects. Long term investment is even more capped.
"Opening Tears" in "Yin Yang Master" and "King of Glory"
Tencent and NetEase are not just in a fierce battle over party games.
On March 22nd, the official Weibo account of @ NetEase Yin Yang Shi mobile game suddenly released a lawyer's letter, claiming that multiple characters in Tencent's "King of Glory" had plagiarized "Yin Yang Shi", including "King of Glory" and "Li Bai · Broken Moon Sword Heart" suspected of infringing on "Yin Yang Shi"'s male character Su Zuo, and "King of Glory" and "Da Si Ming" game materials suspected of infringing on "SP God Qi Huang" in "Yin Yang Shi".
Subsequently, Tencent's @ King of Glory official Weibo account responded by targeting a series of malicious behaviors in certain games today and in the past, including but not limited to: 1. repeatedly posting false content defaming our side through official accounts, attempting to gain attention; 2. Publicly release commercial incentive tasks through official accounts, guiding creators to create malicious pull and trample video content at a suspected price of 20 yuan per item; According to the plagiarism standards of certain games, they have been repeatedly suspected of plagiarizing our popular characters. The investigation and evidence collection have been completed, and legal measures will be taken to seriously retaliate.
Recently, there has been more than one verbal battle between games under Tencent and NetEase. On March 11th, Xishanju's Jianwang 3 announced the permanent cancellation of in-game equipment repair fees. NetEase's game "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" reposted the Weibo and claimed, "It's already 2024, but there are still game equipment repairs that need to be charged?" Subsequently, Tencent came to an end, and the official Weibo account of the mobile game "Tianya Mingyue Dao" linked with "Jianwang 3", bringing up the topic of "combining swords and knives to clean up pig evil". In this public opinion battle, games such as "One Dream Jianghu", "King of Glory: Dawn", and "Tianxia 3" have also joined the hot search.
According to public information, Xishanju is a subsidiary of Kingsoft Group responsible for gaming business. In 2017, Tencent strategically invested $143 million in Xishanju, with a 9.9% stake.
Behind the competition between the two major game companies is the era of games entering the stock market. The 2023 China Game Industry Report released at the China Game Industry Annual Conference shows that in 2023, the actual sales revenue of the domestic game market was 302.964 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.95%, surpassing 300 billion yuan for the first time; The user base reached a historic high, reaching 668 million people. Although game revenue and user base have both increased, game user base has already accounted for about half of the population, and the industry traffic dividend period is gradually fading away. Companies need to pay more costs in terms of time and money to attract new players.
Like NetEase, Tencent's marketing expenses also increased significantly in the fourth quarter of last year. According to Tencent's recent financial report, in the fourth quarter of 2023, sales and marketing increased by 79% year-on-year to 11 billion yuan, accounting for 7% of revenue from 4% in the same period of 2022. This was mainly due to increased promotion and advertising efforts to support new content releases, as well as a lower base in the same period of the previous year.
However, with the increase in expenses, the local gaming business has performed well. According to media reports, Ma Huateng specifically criticized the gaming business at the annual meeting. According to financial report data, in the fourth quarter of 2023, Tencent's local market gaming revenue decreased by 3% year-on-year to 27 billion yuan. Tencent explained in its financial report that the main reason was the decline in revenue for "Honor of Kings" and "Peace Elite", partially offset by the contributions of recently launched games such as "Fearless Contract" and "Ark of Destiny".
