Exclusive Interpretation Of "Overwatch": Building A Gaming Empire Belonging To Blizzard

"Overwatch", which was revealed at BlizzCon in 2014, will be launched on May 24, 2016. After nearly two years of waiting, players have finally waited for the global launch of "Overwatch". Different from "Hearthstone" and "Heroes of the Storm", "Overwatch" is a brand new game, developed by Blizzard after 17 years. This article will explain "Overwatch", a shooting online game, to see what this game can bring to Blizzard and players.

Games follow market trends

Games are products of the times. As times change, games change with them. "World of Warcraft", "Diablo 3", and "StarCraft 2" are all games with profound backgrounds and rich cultures. Today, when smartphones and tablets are popular, this kind of game has difficulty adapting to the market. Instead, it is replaced by short-term, fast-paced games to cater to this fragmented era.

Obviously, changes in the market lead to changes in user needs.

After the release of the "Legacy of the Void" version of "StarCraft 2", the main story is coming to an end. The number of players in "World of Warcraft" has dropped from tens of millions to 5.6 million. The ability to tell stories is also declining. The sixth expansion pack "Legion" "The Second Coming" will be launched on September 2, and we look forward to the resurrected Illidan once again continuing the glory of WOW.

Let's look at "Diablo 3" again. Due to the bottleneck of the game mode (swipe, swipe, swipe), "Heroes of the Storm" is more like a defensive product. The map mechanism is both a feature and a limitation. Players cannot "show off" operations and focus too much on the team. Personal presence is low, but Blizzard has been changing...

Blizzard has always liked to use patches and expansion packs to modify online games. Through continuous improvement, a version that is widely accepted by players will eventually appear. "Warcraft 3", "StarCraft", "Diablo 2" and subsequent WOW, Diablo 3, "Heroes of the Storm", etc. are constantly improving and gaining recognition from players. We also look forward to the surprises Blizzard will bring us.

"Hearthstone", which is in line with the market trend, contributes 20 million US dollars to Blizzard every month (last year's data, this year it is expected to be more).

Faced with the decline of old products, Hearthstone, which earns 20 million a month, cannot serve as the backbone of Blizzard. Blizzard urgently needs to create a new world for players to explore, which can not only retain Blizzard fans, but also attract young users, thus bringing all ages together. Attracting players to the Blizzard camp is one of the goals Blizzard wants to achieve.

Blizzard’s development philosophy conforms to the market

Despite facing older players, loss of numbers, and aging products, Blizzard has been able to quickly adjust its strategy to adapt to changes in the times and player needs.

At present, MOBA games are popular in China. Game consoles have just started after the lifting of the ban. European and American consoles are popular with guns, cars, and balls. Players hope to complete a game in a short time and pursue sensory stimulation and less brain use. This is consistent with Blizzard’s game philosophy. Fit - Easy to learn, hard to (easy to learn, hard to master).

Every Blizzard game is produced strictly in accordance with this concept. Twenty years ago, Blizzard used its best method to create the most trend-oriented "Warcraft". Ten years ago, it used its own concept and method to Having produced "World of Warcraft" that conforms to the trend, Blizzard has once again followed the market trend and produced "Hearthstone" and "Overwatch"

The Birth of Overwatch

Players who follow Blizzard must know that Blizzard has been developing a game called "Titan" in secret, hoping to surpass WOW. However, the production concept cannot be realized with the current capabilities and ends in failure. However, Blizzard has transformed a game that failed in development into a game. It becomes a brand new game, this is "Overwatch".

In terms of the world view structure of "Overwatch", "The story takes place on a future Earth where science and technology are highly developed. During a period of global crisis, outstanding soldiers, scientists, adventurers and weirdos from around the world gathered together to form a team aiming to The special force that saved this world torn apart by war, they were "Overwatch." Over the years, the organization's influence gradually dissipated, and it was eventually forced to disband..."

Science, religion, civilization, race and ideology collide, conflict and integrate. This vast and open universe background is conducive to the infinite addition of plots and the infinite extension of stories. No one can deny the unbridled imagination of Blizzard employees. It can be said that, "Overwatch" is broad and open in terms of world view structure.

From the perspective of character design, we noticed that the British Tracer, the Egyptian Pharah, the Japanese Hanzo, the French Black Widow, the German Reinhardt, the Indian Symmetra, the Nepalese Zenyatta... heroes The design style can be said to be universal, and the globalization trend of characters is very obvious.

The art style takes care of the aesthetic tendencies of teenagers and Asian groups. It can be seen from the game's promotional video that showing the hero's battle process from the perspective of teenagers hints that Blizzard attaches great importance to the youth group.

As can be seen from the pictures, the designs of the heroes are diversified and cartoon-like. The video introduction of each hero is based on heroization and idolization, which is very conducive to the development of derivatives.

Let’s take a look at the gameplay of “Overwatch”. To paraphrase Wang Jun on Zhihu, “Overwatch” is a “3D multiplayer competitive shooting game in the guise of CS, with a MOBA core and WOW spirit.”

First of all, "Overwatch" is an FPS game, in the same vein as CS, but unlike CS's first perspective, some heroes in "Overwatch" will smoothly switch to the third perspective when using specific skills, and each The heroes all have unique skills, so the game is just a CS game.

In fact, it has the core of MOBA games. The obvious difference between MOBA and FPS lies in the subdivision of professions. The subdivision of heroic characters in "Overwatch" brings diversification of skills. With Blizzard's excellent production skills, this brand-new shooter Games may be called FPS+MOBA games.

Due to internal conflicts, these watchmen were divided into two factions, drawing on the spirit of WOW - the pursuit of justice and honor. Similar to the Alliance and Horde in WOW, there is no right or wrong camp. It is their duty to maintain the honor of their team and the justice left behind.

What can "Overwatch" bring to Blizzard?

"Overwatch" entered people's attention on April Fool's Day in 2014. Blizzard applied for a trademark, and its scope was video games and its online game services. When it came to the 2014 Blizzard Carnival, Blizzard expanded its scope again, in one fell swoop. It includes various publications such as books, comics, and calendars, as well as various clothing such as sweatshirts, hats, and T-shirts, as well as various toys such as stuffed pistol figures.

The intention is very obvious - to cultivate a new gaming brand.

As mentioned earlier, "Overwatch" emphasizes the heroization and idolization of characters. Each character has a distinct personality, which is very conducive to the secondary creation of animations and movies.

Not surprisingly, "Overwatch" will next create a series of products based on heroic characters, such as comics, animations, toys, movies, and theme parks, forming a more diversified market.

Two episodes of the Overwatch anime have been released, from which we can see Blizzard’s first-class animation production standards. If you use the Overwatch animation to deceive others and say it is a promotional video for Pixar’s next year’s movie, some people will definitely believe it.

What's clear is that Blizzard is moving in this direction. The movie "World of Warcraft" has been confirmed to be released in June this year, and the new game "Overwatch" is ready to launch.

Although movies do not make as much money as games, movies have more social attention and topic dissemination than games, and are a mainstream form of entertainment. Therefore, the "World of Warcraft" movie brings not only money to Blizzard, but also brand effect and social impact. effect.

In addition to movies, Blizzard has cooperated with the famous publisher Random House to publish novels on themes such as "World of Warcraft" and "StarCraft". It can be seen that Blizzard does not want to limit itself to the field of games. It wants to create an entertainment empire involving the entire industry chain of games, movies, novels, animation, toys, etc.

The 198 yuan "Overwatch" is equivalent to half the price of the AAA masterpiece, and many people bought the 328 yuan collector's edition. Whether it’s 198 or 328, it doesn’t matter whether you have more money or less. What’s important is that we thank Blizzard for bringing us such a fun game when we were young and leaving us with wonderful memories.

Produced by Blizzard, it must be a high-quality product.

Some people say that Blizzard has changed, from paranoia to compromise.

Is it really?

Blizzard has not changed, what has changed is this era, and us in this era...

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