From Alibaba and Tencent to Xiaomi and Huawei, let's look at the giants that have been cheated by TV games

Everyone says that the gaming industry is very profitable, so at first glance the TV game and game console markets appear to be even more profitable.

Take game consoles like PS4 for example. A large game like "Uncharted 4" costs at least 300 yuan, but you still have to pay first and then get it. After getting it, players will thank God for "Sony is so good". This situation makes everyone jealous.

In 2014, the ban on game consoles was lifted in China, which not only built a bridge for game console giants such as Sony and Microsoft to enter China, but also made wealthy and powerful domestic Internet giants and hardware manufacturers eager to gain something in this trillion-dollar market.

A few years have passed, and domestic manufacturers have really put a lot of effort into TV games, and have invested real money. After spending the money, have they finally heard the sound? Here is a list of the big manufacturers who have been cheated by TV games.

Baidu: The TV game department was established and disbanded three times

It once tried to make up for its shortcomings by acquiring 91 Wireless, but the sky-high acquisition of China Internet for US$1.85 billion did not seem to achieve the expected results.

Fortunately, this failure did not undermine Baidu's confidence in occupying the living room entertainment market; "Baidu TV Game Platform" came into being, thus realizing Baidu's layout in the living room entertainment.

Baidu's goal is to build a TV game integration platform. With "content ecology" as its main purpose, Baidu has chosen to build a TV game layout from multiple directions, such as launching cloud game services through the gamepad SDK adaptation solution, launching Baidu Shadow Stick 3S in cooperation with Skyworth, and jointly creating customized gamepads with Betop. However, after several twists and turns, this comprehensive layout strategy has come to nothing.

According to insiders, Baidu has established a TV game department three times, but later disbanded it due to unsatisfactory performance. Now the department has come to an end and all the former employees have left Baidu and gone their separate ways.

However, judging from Baidu's previous strategic layout and product content, it seems that it is more out of consideration for fear of missing the industry train. As for whether it is intentional or not, it is unknown.

Alibaba: 400 million yuan invested in TV games went down the drain

Compared with Baidu's "playful mentality" of trying new things, Alibaba's huge investment in both software and hardware can be said to be a real effort. As early as last year, there were rumors that Alibaba had invested 10 million US dollars in the Android game console OUYA, which is equipped with Android 4.0 system, Tegra 3 quad-core processor, 1GB RAM and 8GB flash memory, and 1080p HD output configuration.

The funding is intended to develop game products for OUYA and expand its game library (OUYA has also worked with Xiaomi to bring games to Xiaomi TVs and Xiaomi boxes, and the games have been translated into Chinese for sale). The OUYA console makes it possible for people to play medium-to-heavy games on the box.

But in the end, under the strong pressure from Sony PS and Microsoft XBOX, Alibaba chose to transfer OUYA, the pioneer of Android game consoles, which cost it $10 million, to the "takeover man".

Having said that, Alibaba’s accumulation in TV games does not only come from absorbing foreign achievements. The YunOS TV box devices, mainly Tmall Magic Box, give Alibaba certain platform advantages over other TV game manufacturers.

Alibaba has not only invested in mobile social game platform KTplay, massively multiplayer social game developer Kabam, IM application Tango, etc., but also reached cooperation with manufacturers such as Ubisoft, EA, and Gameloft. All these arrangements have provided comprehensive support for its further construction of the game entertainment landscape.

Unfortunately, the Chinese people's naive idea of ​​using TV boxes to create TV games is full of their eagerness for quick success. The final result is naturally that after the turbulent year of 2015, Alibaba's TV games may no longer be based on new actions based on existing models. The investment spent during this period is rumored to have reached 400 million yuan, and the TV game department was also announced to be disbanded at the beginning of this year, and employees were transferred to other departments.

Tencent: MiniStation will not see a bright future if it cooperates with traditional hardware vendors

As a member of the "BAT Group", Tencent can be said to have the richest gaming content. However, unlike the great success of LOL and DNF online games, the miniStation host developed by Tencent and hardware manufacturers such as Lenovo and Skyworth still cannot get rid of the routine of Android boxes.

The miniStation micro-game console is Tencent's first cross-screen full-experience home smart entertainment terminal. It can play Android games on a TV with a controller and is considered an important symbol of the Android platform's entry into the living room game market. Tencent positions miniStation as a route for playing mobile games on TV to participate in the console market, although it does not have enough consumer appeal in concept. However, given Tencent's influence in the domestic game market and its support for many game content IPs, many major game companies such as Gameloft and EA have been invited to join the platform.

In terms of content, the first batch of works launched on miniStation include "Asphalt 8", "Naruto", "FIFA", and "Crossfire" which is popular among many "primary school students" and other Android games. In addition, by transplanting content from mobile games to TV, the purpose of quickly converting users can be achieved.

If the Android platform cannot support the banner of TV games, and the miniStation does not become a box that can play League of Legends as people expected, then it is understandable that the industry is worried about the prospects of this Tencent game console.

Perhaps Tencent itself has realized that this way of playing is unreliable. The TGP living room game console Blade BOX jointly launched by Tencent and Intel was officially unveiled during CES ASIA. Although it is not known whether the result of the cooperation with Intel will be the use of the core graphics card built into the processor, with the support of the Windows operating system, at least it can play LOL.

360: Where did the once-sensational Big Chief console go?

It is not surprising that Zhou Hongyi, who likes adventure and challenges, uses the 360 ​​brand to make game consoles, because he himself said that the company's name has something to do with his love for Microsoft's XBOX 360 console. Last year, the localized TV game console "360 Big Chief" jointly developed by 360 and Xiaocong Games was a bold attempt, and the "Red Master" himself personally supported the "Big Chief" at the press conference.

Before it came out, "Big Chief" was still highly anticipated. It was equipped with the most powerful Nvidia Tegra K1 chip on the global Android platform at the time and a maximum 4G+64GB memory combination. With such a high performance configuration, it can even be said that if "Big Chief" was not successful, Android would really be doomed.

However, the result was also a failure, and the ambition of "taking half of the domestic TV game market share within two years, creating an unreplicable TV game ecosystem, and becoming the leader in Android games" was shattered.

Today, although the "Big Chief" can still be seen in the 360 ​​Mall, it is obvious that compared with the smartphones and numerous smart devices that Zhou Hongyi has once again focused on, this TV game console that unlocked the "Failure at the Last Moment" trophy has long been forgotten in the corner.

There is nothing wrong with game consoles solving performance issues first. Nvidia launched the Tegra chip precisely in the hope that games on the Android platform can perform better and even be used to build game consoles.

Unfortunately, Android is both the reason for domestic manufacturers' success and failure. Android has given domestic manufacturers the shortest "shortcut" to making game consoles, but there is no sufficient reason to drive you to continue playing "Asphalt" on your mobile phone on the big screen of TV.

Xiaomi: Why did the TV game team transform into mobile games?

Rice cookers have already started to sell, will Lei Jun be merciful and let the game console go? Following the usual routine, Xiaomi will start with software development when making game consoles.

Lei Jun once pointed out that although Xiaomi does not make games, it can become a gaming company that does not make games. It can provide distribution and channel support for game developers, and better provide ecological services and assistance for the expansion of related games. The OUYA zone has appeared on Xiaomi TV before, so Xiaomi will naturally find ways to develop its own content.

Faced with the console game market that is expected to become worth hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars in the future, Xiaomi's most obvious move in TV games is to invest in Chengdu Ximi Interactive, hoping to make a big splash in the TV game field. However, the final result is that the domestic TV game environment has been lukewarm, and the development team is unwilling to fall behind, so it has to settle for the second best and turn to the mobile game field.

Xiaomi and Ximi have very simple ideas about TV games. They have no intention of challenging Sony and Microsoft at all. They directly focus on the already immature living room entertainment scene, start with the chess and card games that Chinese people are most familiar with, and develop lightweight games. This is also in line with the regional characteristics of Ximi being located in Sichuan.

Of course, there are many issues involved, such as how to play cards with a remote control? How to play mahjong with a remote control? How to play Landlord with a remote control? Why don't I just use Xiaomi mobile phone to play Landlord? And so on. When "Xi Mi Landlord" finally became a mobile game, Lei Jun himself should have rejected it at first. Think about it, with the territory that Xiaomi has touched, is there a need for another mobile game company?

However, Xiaomi's intention to develop TV games has a far-reaching impact on the industry. Xiaomi's TV games and Xiaomi controllers have led many people to speculate that it is only a matter of time before Xiaomi makes its own Android game consoles. Seriously, many industry celebrities have thrown themselves into the wave of making Android game consoles because of such gossip. Unfortunately, they may never face a head-on battle with Lei Jun until their death.

ZTE The9, Huawei: Does anyone still remember that they made game consoles?

Internet companies are about to be gathered together, and well-known domestic hardware manufacturers are bound to be indispensable.

Combining its years of experience in the field of communication hardware and game content production and operation, and with an investment of RMB 12.5 million from Guangdong Radio and Television, ZTE Jiucheng has contributed to the industry's layout with a TV game console called FUNBOX (commonly known as: lunch box).

The "lunch box" is equipped with NVIDIA's Tegra 4 processor, and its content resources mainly come from two aspects. One is the resources brought in by the investor 9town, among which several large domestic game companies such as Linekong have also joined the cooperation; the other is NVIDIA's TegraZone, which contains many large-scale games specially designed for Tegra 4 and ported from the PC.

Although the product team of "Fanhe" includes many leaders from major game companies such as SQUARE ENIX, and both the product design and the texture of the handle make "Fanhe" a benchmark for domestic consoles, the same reason applies to the failure of 360 Chieftain. Android game consoles are slightly higher than TV boxes, but far lower than traditional consoles and gaming PCs, and their neither-upper-north positioning makes it difficult for players to mention them.

On the other hand, Huawei also launched the Tron micro-console in 2014, which was positioned in the mid-range market and also used NVIDIA hardware solutions and ran a customized version of Android. In particular, the initial rumor that Tron could run PS3 games shocked many players who received the gossip.

So what happened next? There really wasn't anything that happened next. Not only did the Huawei Tron fail to show people how magnificent it was to run PS3 games on Android, even the real Huawei Tron was still in the conceptual stage and out of reach of ordinary consumers. Everyone has seen the final result: it was much easier for Huawei to make money by focusing on making mobile phones.

The Yangtze River's new generation is pushing the old generation forward, what will be the next giant?

In addition to the examples mentioned above, the well-known domestic game manufacturer Snail has also launched the OBOX game console, which was unveiled at the CES in the United States. Before last year's China Joy exhibition, the domestic Magic Egg console even threatened to compete with Sony and Microsoft. Of course, most of these products have been reduced to a life cycle of "the length of a press conference". On the other hand, TCL, a domestic TV company, is willing to do practical things, but its T² Android game console has not gone further.

The dream of Android consoles in China has been completely shattered, just like the opinion expressed by a representative of a G-brand game developer who started out as a mobile game developer recently, "all the Android game consoles that cooperated with us are dead."

To be honest, the way Chinese people make game consoles and TV games is somewhat similar to how Chinese people make cars. It's obvious that the engines and gearboxes are not made well, but every day "Zotye designers are holding tape measures on their way to the Porsche and Bugatti booths." The key is that the students are having a lot of fun and don't seem to want to stop playing.

For example, in May this year, the much-anticipated Axe Technology "Tomahawk F1" console was officially launched. It has the same idea as an Android game console, but the difference is that after the industry was riddled with holes and scars, the late Axe has been seen by many as the last ray of hope. What kind of axe did Wang Feng of Linekong build with 60 million US dollars? Some industry insiders have suggested to Wang Feng that each batch should not exceed 1,000 units, and the "eat less and eat more" strategy should be adopted to speed up the iteration rate. Who knows, it may reduce losses?

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.