More and more big European and American companies doing PC/mainframe games are now also starting to dabble in the field of handheld games, and Ubisoft, a veteran game maker, is one of them.
7 Ubisoft public based on the well-known IP “full blockade” development of the end to hand products “full blockade: dawn”. According to Ubisoft officials, the handheld product is developed by Ubisoft’s core leadership team in cooperation with other studios and partners around the world, and is expected to go live on iOS and Android in 2023.
At the same time as the news was announced, Ubisoft also released a live promotional PV of “Full Frontal: Dawn” and opened the first closed Alpha test. Roughly speaking, “Dawn” basically continues the essence of the gameplay of the “Total Blockade” series of works, which is a scarce item in the shooting handheld game track. And because it was born with a big IP, the attention of “Aurora” is also much higher than the general products.
For Ubisoft, the emergence of “Aurora” heralds another step forward in its game business transformation strategy.
In terms of the content released in the PV, Dawn is not a product that runs on innovation. On the contrary, it retains most of the characteristics of the end-game on three levels: gameplay, worldview and art. If not for the obvious difference between the handheld material and the endgame, you can even take the PV as a new endgame promo to watch.
In terms of story background, “Aurora” continues the main stage setting of the IP series, placing the story in New York City. At this time, the United States is in the post-crisis period, the virus outbreak caused chaos, the government also collapsed. As a Homeland Strategies agent, the player is tasked with restoring order, protecting civilians from hostile forces called the Freelancers, and building the future of the city.
Although the basic framework of the setting remains the same, the plot of “Dawn” is not a copy of the past, but has a completely new storyline. On top of that, officials say the game specifically offers a new PVE campaign independent of both “Full Frontal” and “Full Frontal 2”, allowing players to experience key plot events from a new perspective.
As with other series, the art of “Dawn” also maintains a highly realistic style, in addition to the 3A-level high quality of the support, the quality of the game compared to the general shooting handheld game to score a lot of points. And the official release of other live pictures show that the game is actually quite impressive in terms of detail restoration and realism, which has also received a lot of praise from players.
In the shooting game track, “Dawn” is a rare, “TPS + open world” as a combination of gameplay RPG shooter. Ubisoft said that the gameplay of “Dawn” is basically the same as the IP series, focusing on exploring the open world and playing various PvE contents in single-player or multi-player co-op mode. Players have a variety of career options and can also scavenge, craft, transform and upgrade equipment to fight enemies.
In the PV, you can find the classic squad mode similar to the one in the series “Ghost Recon: Wildlands” – that is, players can form a four-player squad with AI or other real players to perform missions or explore the world together.
In addition, the official release of the interface UI diagram also reveals some information, such as the character can carry two main weapons, as well as the ability to wear up to six pieces of defense, and the five grid points below the weapon bar also seems to indicate that weapons can be allowed to modify, and these settings for IP veterans, is already accustomed to.
But unfortunately, the PV does not see the “dark zone” related display. Simply put, the dark zone is a PvPvE mode of play in the end game. The background setting, “Dark Zone” is a chaotic place in downtown New York, in the “Dark Zone”, players will be able to “mutiny” and attack other players. Of course, the PV reveals the content may only be the tip of the iceberg, the final game in the end what kind of look, still to be followed by confirmation.
The transformation has been going on for a long time, so Ubisoft has hidden so many handheld games?
In fact, this is not the first time Ubisoft launched end to hand products. In April of this year, Ubisoft announced the news that “Rainbow Six Handheld” would soon be online, and within a short period of time it gained more than 200,000 reservations. In the subsequent A test in May, the highly restored end-game Rainbow Six Handheld also won the general appreciation of players around the world.
In Rainbow Six Mobile, Ubisoft adopted the same R&D strategy, not only keeping the gameplay and art performance as consistent as possible with the endgame, but also making a lot of optimizations in the details for the mobile side. For example, in the operation, in order to balance the end-game too complex skillset operation, “Rainbow Six Handheld” targeted to simplify different cadres, like ASH’s grenade launcher is integrated from a separate equipment to the down-hanging type, can be easier to launch grenades.
Pictures In addition, the “Rainbow Six” IP core “competitive depth”, in the handheld game is also fully guaranteed. The most obvious point is the extremely low TTK (time to kill) in handheld games, which places high demands on teamwork as well as on individual operations.
If “Rainbow Six Handheld” can successfully come out of the circle, it may help Ubisoft to open up new blue ocean in the field of mobile e-sports. As the first ace in Ubisoft’s “premium free-to-play” transformation strategy, the importance of “Rainbow Six Handheld” is self-evident.
Ubisoft’s entry into the handheld game is actually not difficult to understand. Not long ago, Ubisoft announced its 2021 financial results, showing that the company’s revenue fell 4% year-over-year to $2.2 billion, while net profit was only $84 million, a huge drop from last year’s $111 million. Not long ago, Ubisoft announced its 2021 financial results, showing that the company’s revenue fell 4% year-over-year to $2.2 billion, while net profit was only $84 million, a huge drop from last year’s $111 million.
After successive investment of resources in the end game to no avail, many people have guessed that Ubisoft will have a big move in the field of handheld games, but did not expect Ubisoft’s action would be so fast, just two months after the announcement of “Dawn” again. But in fact, this is not all Ubisoft has to offer.
During the earnings meeting, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot revealed its “game transformation strategy”, saying that the company “plans to expand the development space of its most popular IPs” and also said that “Ubisoft is developing four very promising titles. Ubisoft is developing four promising handheld games, and will also expand its overall game lineup with new IPs and major entertainment licensing brands.”
Yves Guillemot isn’t just talking the talk, as at this year’s Tencent annual conference, Tencent announced that it would be working with Ubisoft to become the distributor for the endgame of “Total Blockade 2” in China. For Ubisoft, strengthening the partnership with Tencent, the handheld giant, is clearly beneficial to the development of subsequent products.
In fact, Rainbow Six Handheld is developed by 11 Ubisoft studios in cooperation with Tencent. And throughout the development process, Tencent has been providing expertise and advice to the team. As for whether Tencent is involved in this “Dawn”, there is no official disclosure. But if Tencent can participate in it, it will undoubtedly help improve the quality of the product and is expected to expand the influence of the IP to a wider group of handicraft players.
Europe and the United States big factory collective into the pit, to make what kind of child?
An objective fact is, although Europe and the United States old end game big factory have a good skill, but why revenue is not compared to hand game manufacturers.
As the saying goes, if you can’t beat it, you can join it. Ubisoft is not the only one coveting this piece of meat in the handheld game market, EA next door is also playing this little scheme. Like Ubisoft, holding the super “Apex Heroes” IP EA also opened the hand tour process, very early announced that it will cooperate with Tencent to launch “Apex hand tour”.
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At present, according to AppMagic data, the estimated revenue of “Apex Handicap” in the first month of iOS and Android has exceeded $13 million. Considering that revenue is the result after deducting the platform draw, 3:7 split, the spending generated by “APEX Handicap” has actually exceeded $18 million (about RMB 120 million).
Another giant, Blizzard, also did not hold back and jointly launched a handheld product based on the Diablo IP, Diablo: Immortal, with NetEase. AppMagic’s data shows that Diablo: Immortal generated $14.5 million in revenue in its first week on iOS and Android.
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In addition to Diablo: Immortal, Blizzard is also rumored to be launching an MMO handheld game based on the World of Warcraft IP. And before that, Blizzard has announced the “big move” that has been held for years, by the original team devoted to the development of the Warcraft IP hand game “Warcraft Arc Light Battle”, but the silly style and “Royal War” general card game has caused a lot of players to resent.
In fact, look back at these Europe and the United States big factory into the hand game set, without exception are taking the sentimental route. These in the announcement of the beginning of the end to hand products that caused a furore, the vast majority are not towards innovation in this direction, but more is to take the restoration route. The data also shows that if the degree of restoration is high enough, it can indeed bring huge gains for manufacturers, EA has “APEX hand game” is an example.
After EA ate the first crab, if once Ubisoft successive success, it is not difficult to imagine how this will affect the entire European and American game market development trend. At that time, there may be more and more traditional 3A major manufacturers to practice the host, handheld game two-handed strategy. Considering that these large European and American manufacturers are better in IP influence and industrialized R&D, they may be able to create fine products that far exceed their peers.
