Apex has an annual revenue of nearly US $1 billion, and the first week of overseas testing of Apex M

On March 7th, "Apex Mobile Game" started a new round of testing in 10 countries around the world.Although China is not among the top 10 countries, some friends around GameLook tried their best to bypass the geographical restrictions to find out.Although it failed in the end, it also reflects the player's expectations for this product from the side.

Judging from the results of the one-week overseas test, according to Data.ai data, without investing too much marketing resources, the cold-start "Apex Mobile Game" entered the tenth place in the test.TOP10 in the free list in 3 countries, 8 of which won the free list, and entered the top 10 best-selling list in 6 countries, especially in several test countries in Southeast Asia such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. It can be said that it has won the first battle.

In the domestic market, GameLook noticed that "Apex Mobile Game" is on Tap TapThe number of reservations has reached 2.35 million, and it is a new game on TapTap with more than one million reservations, which shows the attention of Chinese players to this game.

So, this product jointly developed by EA Rebirth Studio and Tencent Photon Studio Group canWill it become the next super hit in the tactical competitive category in the global mobile game market?

High restoration + high adaptation, constantly breaking through the ceiling of image quality

Innovative gameplay and gorgeous art presentation are "Apex Legends" in the end gameTwo killer moves for attracting fans.But for mobile games, on a relatively small screen, the dual joystick operation of MOBA or FPS alone is already a bit crowded. How to reproduce the end game experience that combines the two gameplays to the mobile phone without loss?How can the performance of the mobile phone perfectly reproduce the stunning picture quality of the end game?

Let’s conclude first, mobile games not only solve these two bottlenecks, but also keep improving.

In the test version in July last year, the highest picture quality available for mobile games was Ultra, but in this test, the official opened a higher level of Extreme.Judging from the real machine demonstration shared by overseas netizens, the picture quality performance of "Apex Mobile Game" has undoubtedly reached the ceiling level.

Whether it is the sci-fi sense of the panoramic perspective, or the damaged cracks on the asphalt road after the details are enlarged or the wallThe mottled and rusty spots on the screen have better restored the commendable art quality of the end game.What's even more rare is that the fluency of the game is not affected under extremely high image quality, even in high-speed shooting scenes, there is no obvious sense of frame drop.

In terms of operation, "Apex Mobile Game" has also been optimized for mobile phone screens.For example, reducing the area of the direction joystick and moving the small map from the upper right corner to the left at the same time can free up more space for the unique skill buttons of "Apex Mobile Games".The translucent status bar in the center of the bottom uses a high-contrast color scheme and a simple combination of graphics and text to highlight the key information that players need to know most.

On the whole, although the mechanism itself is more complicated, the display content on the screen is moreCompared with general tactical competitive mobile games, the screen look and feel of "Apex Mobile Games" is not messy, but has a unique IP imprint.

As for the casting effect of the skill, it is also remarkable.In this test version, players can experience 9 classic characters including Bloodhound, Gibraltar, and Lifeline.Cool operations such as "Flying Hook" have been transplanted into the mobile game, providing players with a richer control experience.

In general, the successful development experience on "PUBG Mobile" makes PhotonThe cooperation with Respawn Studio has demonstrated a strong research and development background, which has also allowed the performance of "Apex Mobile Games" to continue to improve in several rounds of tests, constantly exceeding players' expectations.

The end game Apex showed a V-shaped rebound, and the value of IP became the highlight of EA's financial report

Before the release of the financial report for the third quarter of the 2021 fiscal year in February, "BattlefieldThe fiasco of "2042" once made the outside world full of concerns about EA's performance.But judging from the final performance, EA, with its deep IP reserves, has successfully withstood the performance pressure of "Battlefield".In the subsequent earnings conference call, the outstanding performance of "Apex Heroes" received frequent roll calls from EA executives.

With the global blockbuster of "PUBG Mobile", from Blizzard's "Overwatch" to Epic's "Fortnite", tactical competition has also become a must for top manufacturers.It is against this background that EA launched "Apex Heroes" on console and PC platforms in February 2019.

Rebirth Studio, responsible for the development of Apex end games, is famous among shooting game fans for its debut work "Titanfall". The backbone of the development of "Apex Heroes" also has the development of "Call of Duty"experience.Such a luxurious R&D team did not disappoint players in terms of game quality and innovation.

Different from traditional FPS games, "Apex Heroes" boldly integrates the hero mechanism and skill gameplay of Moba games. In addition to the standard gun battle content, each hero has unique exclusive skills, which alsoThis makes the skill connection between players in this team competitive game very important.For example, the bloodhound can scan hidden enemies and highlight the enemy's traces. With the portal skill of the evil spirit, it can quickly go around behind the enemy and catch the enemy by surprise.

In addition, this game also changed the usual dim wasteland style of chicken eating games,Instead, it adopts a beautiful comic style with bright colors and cool visual effects, combined with a sci-fi scene setting, bringing players a refreshing audio-visual effect and a refreshing shooting experience.As a result, the game generated record revenue of $92 million and more than 50 million players in its first month.

However, due to the proliferation of cheats and slow content updates, the performance of this game also quickly fell to the bottom. After only two months, the monthly income fell to 24 million US dollars.Fortunately, Rebirth Studio, which adheres to the principle of "no overtime", actively listened to the feedback from community players, gathered cheating players into a special server to "fight with gods" to achieve soft isolation, and brought a large number of heroes, maps and gameplayThe update on the Internet also allowed the game to achieve a V-shaped rebound.Today, the daily peak online number of this game on Steam is around 400,000 people, ranking among the top six on the platform.

At the earnings conference call in February this year, EA executives proudly announced,The number of monthly active players of "Apex Legends" in the third quarter of fiscal year 2021 increased by more than 30% year-on-year, and more than 28 million new players joined the game in 2021, and the current number of players has exceeded 100 million.In terms of revenue, EA expects that "Apex Heroes" will bring the company nearly US$1 billion in annual revenue, and "Apex Heroes" will also become the twins that will drive the company's revenue growth in the new fiscal year together with the "FIFA" series.star.

Of course, the executives also made it clear that it is not only client games that drive the company's revenue growth, but also the player participation and evaluation of "Apex Mobile Games" during the testing process.Looking forward to the follow-up performance.

Frequently launched 100-million-dollar blockbusters, tactical competitions will also usher in new products

A previous report released by Sensor Tower shows that in 2021, there will be a total of 8The revenue of mobile games exceeded the US$1 billion mark, and the tactical competitive category took up two seats.Among them, the combined revenue of "PUBG Moblie" and "Peace Elite" exceeded US$2.8 billion (excluding China's Android revenue), ranking first in the world.The Southeast Asian "little giant" Garena's "Free Fire" has an annual revenue of 1.1 billion US dollars.

In addition, Netease's "Wild Action" is expected to have more than 3 billion yuan in revenue last year.Epic's "Fortnite" was removed from Apple's App Store, so its revenue data was not available.For reference, within 90 days after its launch in 2018, the global turnover of the mobile game "Fortnite" has exceeded 100 million US dollars.

The above set of data has fully demonstrated that five years after the launch of "PUBG Mobile", tactical competition is stillIt's a track with a bright future.Especially on the mobile game side, the multiplayer fast-paced gameplay of tactical competition has a high degree of fit with the social and fragmented characteristics of mobile games. Therefore, although it is a bit late, the outstanding quality "Apex Mobile Game"Still placed high hopes by EA.

After a simple topic search on Twitter, you will find that although it is only a small-scale test limited to ten countries in the Pacific Rim, "Apex Mobile Game" has become a global playerHot items to watch out for.Under the topic of the same name in the mobile game, you can see Spanish-speaking players complaining that their operations are too good, and English-speaking players showing off their 1v3 operations. There are even some who bypassed many restrictions and successfully entered the game and began to comment and ask for advice online.Ask the Japanese player.

Except for players who complain about game download, registration, optimization, etc.Players from all over the world who speak freely seem to be too happy to give the game itself a review.However, for a new game that has not yet been officially launched, being able to immerse global players in it is already a success of "the world is the same cool and hot".

However, if you want to say that the type of official tweets with the most comments is still the players who "wish for it and think about it".Since this test bypassed major game markets such as China, Japan, Korea, Europe and the United States, many players were unable to experience the charm of "Apex Mobile Game" in the first place.Therefore, compared with whether it can become the next hit, these players are more concerned about when they can actually play this game.

Although the official launch time has not been clearly given, judging from the current degree of completion, the distanceThe final version shouldn't be far away.For more than 2 million domestic pre-ordered players, the prudence of the mobile game test and the excellent quality of the real machine demonstration make the wait more worthwhile.After the test is over, what kind of results will "Apex Mobile Game" achieve after its global official release?Wait and see.