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This week’s focus: V-circle is not big, creating a magical journey

Just when I thought this week's topic could only take advantage of the popularity of the Olympics, I didn't expect that this afternoon, Tencent made a big move - a game called "Virtual Ring" released its first PV "The History of the V Circle is Rewritten by You!" The official definition of the game is "a strong combat performance strategy development game exclusively for the V circle."

Anyone who hasn’t laughed at the “V Circle” is a god. I guess readers who are familiar with virtual anchors can accept the appearance of virtual anchor elements and characters in a certain game, and some linkage, but making a game specifically for domestic virtual anchors, and it is produced by a big company, is somewhat abstract. So after the PV was released, every ACG group was spreading it with the mentality of watching for fun.

But judging from the quality of the PV and the completeness of the concept, "Hyperloop" seems to be serious.

Just like what was said in the introduction, "The girls who appear in the game are all famous V-circle anchors in this plane." The main anchors who appeared in the PV, "Tian Dou Fa Ya Le", "Nana7mi Nana", "Shan Bao", "Xing Tong", "Shizuku Ruru" and others have fans ranging from tens to millions. They are considered the most influential group in the domestic market. They also have relatively unified modeling styles in the PV, close to the currently popular urban style second tour.

The entire PV's plot lines are full of memes. The opening press conference scene asks whether Xingtong is out of fashion, whether the V circle has shrunk, and even mentions "boxes".

The host's answer later included Otto's famous quote "I think I am" and Neta James' famous quote when he joined the Heat. It can be seen that the production team relaxed the scale of playing abstraction in order to show that they understand the V circle.

The expressions, movements and lines of the several hosts who appeared on the show were also relatively consistent with their original personalities, and the fans of the corresponding hosts should be able to smile knowingly.

However, the nonsensical atmosphere throughout the PV still makes people worry about the mental state of the production team, and the comments are all "humorous", "difficult to maintain", and "old man using mobile phone in subway".

As the saying goes, "Those who can come up with this theme are truly gods, and those who can get the project approved are truly amazing." The game that is most likely to offend both the people-management geeks and the second-game players is finally about to be born...

"Hyperloop" has not announced the specific gameplay, but has released clips of gift giving, training, daily life, and an in-game battle scene. Some sources speculate that the game will adopt a PvE development mode similar to Uma Musume and E-sports Manager.

Personally, I speculate that based on the positioning of a "battle performance game", battles should not require players to perform high-intensity manual operations, but rather issue commands at specific times in the battle to change the course of the battle. This is also in line with the perspective of the player as a leader or agent in the PV.

In fact, after saying so much, the biggest gimmick of "Hyperlink" is still the theme itself: the V circle brawl. At the end of the announcement, there were many reactions from current Vs, who will most likely become characters in the game. The "special thanks" included almost all the companies in the domestic virtual anchor industry, which was a big deal.

Even in the Easter egg, the A-SOUL trio also appeared, and the poster of this scene actually has a line of small words in the main film: the minimum number of registered teams is 4. I don't know if it is a hint or an unintentional move.

Of course, the center of the entire "Hyperloop" is still Tencent's own virtual anchor "Xingtong". The PV is full of Xingtong-related elements, and she also appears as a boss-level character. This is not difficult to understand, as the producer of "Hyperloop", "Tencent Content Ecology Department" (CDD), is the producer of the Xingtong project.

Today, in addition to Xingtong promoting the game, a Xingtong UP also revealed some of the future plans for "Hyperloop". You will have to judge the authenticity of the information yourself.

With the first release at this time, the thing that "Hyperloop" lacks the most is probably the topic of discussion. There are many people on social media who are just watching for fun and are really looking forward to it. It has to be admitted that the V circle brawl is a very promising theme.

The domestic V circle is originally close to the abstract circle and the culture of memes. There are often some incredible "cross-channel" secondary creations made by the public. The most typical one is the B station UP host @徐Toso. The secondary creation small theater he made combines virtual anchors such as Dong Xuelian and A Zi with the P series, and the recent episodes have exceeded one million views.

After the release of the PV of "Hyperloop", fans went to the comment section of "Lao Xu" to complain, "You must be the producer of "Hyperloop", right?" and "Tencent took advantage of you." Now, I'm afraid that we will really be able to see Dong Xuelian fight against Yongchu Tafi in the regular game.

But after the introduction of the flow, the risk of "Virtual Ring" is also obvious, that is, the uncertainty brought by the virtual anchor itself. In the environment of "the V circle is not big, creating myths", in the future game operation, the public opinion events that need to be handled will be magnified exponentially.

For example, if a virtual anchor stops activities or even collapses, how should the game handle it? If it is not handled properly, it will be a double blow to the game operation and the anchor's reputation. Will it also imitate e-sports manager games and release cards for different years and seasons? A 2021 limited 5-player version of A-SOUL?

Finally, I don’t want to predict whether “Virtual Ring” can be made or whether it will be successful. I am more interested in the logic behind its establishment - the commercial attempt of the entire domestic V circle.

existIn an article, I mentioned that overseas Vtuber companies with mature operations, such as Hololive and Rainbow Club, no longer rely on the daily live broadcasts of anchors. The majority of their revenue comes from the sales of derivative products, IP licensing, advertising, etc. Thanks to the cases of making multiple games popular, the ability of overseas top virtual anchors to bring goods has been continuously proven, and they have quickly entered a virtuous circle.

But on the contrary, due to various reasons, the domestic V-circle has encountered a bottleneck in the past two years. The content and format of live broadcasts have not changed much, and the channels for monetization are limited. Since the anchors can see the ceiling when fighting alone, then everyone should work together to do something big, at least to stir up the heat and make the cake bigger, which may be a way to break the deadlock. At this time, the emergence of "Virtual Ring" seems subtle.

If this game can really be operated, and the virtual anchors and operating companies involved can share the profits, then the entire environment will have an additional blood transfusion channel. In fact, for Tencent CDD, this is also a way to keep the Star Pupil project going for a long time. After all, some Star Pupil fans will use "watching Tencent lose money" to attract traffic. And ifVirtual RingIf it can't continue operating and encounters various problems, then...it will still be exciting.

So, no matter what the fate of "Virtual Realm" is, one thing is certain: its life will be a show effect.

Xianyu will charge sellers a handling fee。Xianyu recently announced that it will charge a basic software service fee of 0.6% for all sellers (up to 60 yuan per transaction). At the same time, only for sellers who have generated more than 10 orders and a cumulative transaction amount of more than 10,000 yuan in the same natural month, a software service fee of 1% of the actual transaction amount will be charged for each order beyond that. The change will take effect on August 9 and will be officially implemented on September 1.

Apple puts pressure on WeChat and TikTok to "cut payment"。Reports citing sources said that Apple is stepping up pressure on Tencent and ByteDance, asking the two Chinese companies to "plug loopholes" because creators on the WeChat and TikTok platforms will use these "loopholes" to direct users to external payment systems, thereby avoiding the 30% channel commission charged by Apple.

Image source @CNR

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