Source: Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily

A phenomenal game called “Phantom Beast Paru” appeared at the beginning of 2024. The game was launched on January 19, and the peak number of online users exceeded 2 million within 24 hours, ranking second in Steam's historical rankings; sales exceeded 8 million in 6 days. Moreover, in just 5 days, the game's revenue reached US$189 million, or about RMB 1.35 billion.

According to data released yesterday by developer Pocketpair, the game's sales volume on Steam has reached 12 million copies, the number of players on Xbox has also reached 7 million, and the number of players worldwide has surpassed 19 million.

“Phantom Beast Paru” came out of nowhere, not only sparked huge discussion among players, but also directly triggered$TENCENT (00700.HK)$,$Alibaba (BABA.US)$/$BABA-SW (09988.HK)$Wait for a new round of price inflows from cloud service providers. Currently, Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud are prominently providing “Phantom Beast” deployment tutorials on the homepage, and have reduced the price of online game servers to a minimum of 26 yuan/month.

▍ To seize Phantom Beast Palu players, Tencent Ali starts a price war

opens$Baidu (BIDU.US)$/$BIDU-SW (09888.HK)$If you search for “Phantom Beast Palu,” ads from cloud vendors such as Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, and Uber stand out.

As the first phenomenal game in 2024, after “Phantom Beast” went live, the game often stuttered and dropped due to server overload due to too many people. In order to be able to experience “Phantom Beast Paru” normally and smoothly, many players have set up the “Phantom Beast Paru” server (private service). This has also allowed domestic cloud vendors such as Tencent Cloud and Alibaba Cloud to smell huge business opportunities.

“Cloud servers can support more players to play together, just like private servers. The game's own connection is quite poor, and homeowners and players can't get into the room when they go offline.” A game practitioner from a major internet company told reporters.

Among them, Tencent Cloud and Alibaba Cloud immediately went out of business and launched a cloud server solution dedicated to online games. Meanwhile, other cloud service providers such as HUAWEI CLOUD, Univer, and JD Cloud promptly followed suit and launched corresponding cloud server packages one after another.

The “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter saw that Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud are prominently providing “Phantom Beast Palu” deployment tutorials on their homepages. The price also dropped further from the recent 4-core 16G 32 yuan/month to about 26 yuan/month.

“I don't know if big manufacturers aren't doing business well... I didn't expect that major cloud manufacturers would also end up with this kind of online package. In the past, when players deployed a similar online service on the server, they had to call and ask you what you used it for.” one gamer exclaimed.

Due to this wave of users who need cloud servers, they are all gamers with no technical background, not professional developers. If the cloud server deployment process is complicated and cumbersome, it is easy to be discouraged.

In order to reduce the pressure on players, Alibaba Cloud provides a one-click deployment service. It has already helped players complete the configuration required for the game in advance. You only need to select the number of players to complete the deployment.

Tencent Cloud also published a tutorial on how to build a private service for “Phantom Beast” through its official website and WeChat account. At the same time, Tencent Cloud's lightweight server launched an application template function, which claims to be able to deploy the “Phantom Beast” server in 10 seconds.

HUAWEI CLOUD also launched a one-click deployment for “Phantom Beast”, which simplifies complicated processes such as manually setting up a server environment, installing a game server, adjusting network ports, and arranging security configurations. There is no need to understand the code. Players follow the guide, and the construction can be completed in just six steps.

“Phantom Beast Paru” doesn't consume much server, making it difficult to drive the price of cloud servers to increase. However, it can drive the usage of lightweight clouds and small servers. Recently, lightweight servers have grown many times.” A relevant person from a cloud service vendor introduced it to the “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter.

▍ Generative AI invades the gaming sector

Although “Phantom Beast” went viral when it went live, it has always been accompanied by controversy. Not long ago, a Twitter user specially compiled dozens of art design comparisons in “Phantom Beast”, some of Paru's art designs similar to the classic game Pokémon.

According to public information, the “Phantom Beast” project had only 4-10 employees at the beginning of construction. In just a few years, a blockbuster game with mature game attributes, including 110 Palu, a large number of complex 3D models and original graphics, and rich gameplay, was created, which also made people doubt that generative AI played a huge role in it.

Meanwhile, Takuro Mizobe, CEO of “Phantom Beast” game developer Pocketpair, is also a supporter of generative AI, and has shared many news about game production using AI technology on Twitter.

“The success of Phantom Beast Paru shows that the application of “game+AI” has a market and is an important direction for the future game industry.” A senior game practitioner told the “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter.

A brokerage analyst said that so-called “stitching” means micro-innovation based on successful games. This kind of micro-innovation has a high success rate, especially in the context of slow innovation in the game industry. It is very important to meet the different needs of gamers through micro-innovation. Furthermore, cost control, particularly in the field of art design, involves the participation and use of Al technology. Improving art production efficiency through AIGC tools is the key to reducing costs for games that may become popular in the future.

Currently, AI technology has begun to play an important role in the game industry. For example,$Microsoft (MSFT.US)$A partnership was reached with AI startup Inworld to introduce an AI-based “character engine” to give game characters richer emotional and behavioral expressions by integrating multiple large models, audio models, and machine learning models.

In addition to making characters more intelligent and generating game content, AI technology can analyze player behavior, automate game testing, etc.

$Zhejiang Century Huatong Group (002602.SZ)$Its Shengqu Games said yesterday that AI simulates user behavior and has fully automated tests. Compared with traditional automated testing, AI can use the advantages of test samples and learn to complete a large number of tests in the game like a real player, making up for the lack of manual testing. Currently, Shengqu Gaming plans to launch the commercialization process of the AI automated testing platform in Q1 this year. At that time, the platform will provide testing services to the outside world.

Influenced by the success of “Phantom Beast”, the brokerage analyst mentioned above said that in the short term, they are more optimistic about big manufacturers, such as Tencent,$NTES-S (09999.HK)$/$NetEase (NTES.US)$,$Beijing Ultrapower Software (300002.SZ)$,$37 Interactive Entertainment Network Technology Group (002555.SZ)$etc.

“Examples include 37 Entertainment, which already combines zombie survival and SLG gameplay, and Shenzhou Taiyue, which focuses on SLG product development. Manufacturers, including “Little Empire”, paid more attention to team configuration before battle, and adopted new gameplay methods such as matching and automatic combat, such as$G-bits Network Technology (603444.SH)$The company, on the other hand, tried to combine elements such as two-dimensional, role-playing, and SLG while deepening its expertise in the field of placement categories. The SLG and placement-type products it has developed are one of the company's highlights from the second half of 2024 to 2025.”

Based on the opinions of various brokerage reports, the game industry has recently received both the support of popular new games and a “warm wind” of policies. Approaching the Spring Festival schedule, the game sector is expected to usher in a wave of steady rebound if popular new games can maintain popularity and drive an increase in overall industry turnover, compounded by factors such as relatively friendly policies and improved market sentiment.$Kingnet Network (002517.SZ)$,$Kunlun Tech (300418.SZ)$,$Shanghai Yaoji Technology (002605.SZ)$Individual stocks rebounded strongly yesterday when the general market declined; the future is worth continuing to pay attention to. Gaming giant NetEase closed up 3.34% in US stocks yesterday, rebounding nearly 25% from a low on December 22.

Editor/jayden