53: Chapter 53 Blizzard's Demise, Still a Master?

Liu Li sat down, adjusted his glasses, and spread the report on the table.

"It has some potential."

He pushed up his glasses.

"Its simplified design is indeed very attractive to new players who have never played MOBA, but that is also the problem; simplification means a lack of depth."

"A lack of depth means low long-term stickiness."

"Most members of our team have this assessment of league of legends. After playing league of legends for a while, people will find it boring."

"Most members?"

Sun Qiang frowned, sensing something off in that statement.

Liu Li nodded.

"We have a member in our group, a fresh graduate named Zheng Yue. He rates league of legends quite highly and feels this game has huge potential, perhaps even surpassing dota 2."

"But he's the only one who thinks so."

Hearing this, Sun Qiang couldn't help but chuckle.

"Young people these days, they don't know how high the sky is or how deep the earth is. No matter how good league of legends is, it's impossible for it to catch up to dota 2."

"Still too young."

After speaking, Sun Qiang tapped his fingers on the table twice.

"Then where do you think the upper limit of league of legends lies?"

"At most, a game with a daily active user count in the five hundred thousands."

Liu Li turned a page of the report.

"dota currently has 1.5 million daily active users. In our model predictions, dota 2 could reach three to four million daily active users, or even higher. The two are not on the same track."

"So our conclusion is that league of legends has potential, but not much."

"It will not pose direct competition to dota 2; at most, it will only attract some attention."

"But Vice President Chen Yongnian wants us to continue monitoring the subsequent development of league of legends."

Vice President Chen Yongnian is the Vice President of the Tencent Games Business Group. He was originally in charge of dota 2, but because Pony Ma attaches great importance to this game, Sun Qiang, the current Tencent Vice President, took over.

Sun Qiang did not speak. His fingers were still tapping, the rhythm very slow.

"Vice President Chen Yongnian is cautious by nature. Since your team has already given a conclusion, there is no need to continue paying attention."

"However, being cautious is not wrong."

"If this game can really reach 500,000 daily active users, then it would be the MOBA game with the highest daily active users on the market, besides dota, and I don't want to see that scene."

"Keep watching it until league of legends enters open beta; we cannot let this game have even a sliver of a chance to surpass dota..."

Before he could finish his sentence, the door to Sun Qiang's conference room was pushed open from the outside.

Pony Ma stood at the door, with a worried-looking Vice President Chen Yongnian behind him, and even the producer of dota 2, Brandon, had come.

Seeing this lineup, Sun Qiang was stunned for a moment, not knowing what had happened.

Even if league of legends was rated highly and had great potential, it wouldn't warrant Pony Ma coming in person, would it?

"Ma, President Ma."

Sun Qiang's voice was full of surprise, and Liu Li, who was on the side, only dared to keep his head down, not daring to speak.

Pony Ma was wearing a simple white shirt and holding a tablet computer in his hand.

"Don't bother watching league of legends anymore; withdraw all energy."

Clearly, Pony Ma had also heard Sun Qiang's words just now.

Sun Qiang raised his head and hurriedly made room for Pony Ma.

Pony Ma sat in the main seat, connected the tablet to the big screen behind him, and swiped something on the screen.

"What happened?"

Sun Qiang looked at Vice President Chen Yongnian.

"In the MOBA game field, Blizzard has entered the fray, partnering with NetEase."

Sun Qiang was stunned for a moment, and Liu Li was equally dumbfounded.

There are actually very few global game companies that can garner Tencent's attention, but Blizzard is one of them, and it even ranks at the forefront of Tencent's concerns.

Whether it's World of Warcraft, Warcraft, StarCraft, Hearthstone, Diablo, or Overwatch, they are all hit games with tremendous global influence.

"Blizzard quality, guaranteed" has almost become a catchphrase among global players.

Overwatch, back in the day, even surpassed dota in daily active users for a period.

Not to mention, dota was originally born from a player-made map in Warcraft. Back then, Tencent competed with Blizzard for a long time to acquire dota, and finally spent a huge sum of money to bring dota under its wing, giving it an independent client.

And now, Blizzard has personally entered the fray to make a MOBA game, and is partnering with NetEase, which is of considerable size. How could Tencent not be worried?

If someone said that league of legends could surpass dota 2, not many people would believe it; it would even cause laughter online.

But if it were Blizzard entering the MOBA field, even at the very moment of hearing this news, Sun Qiang had already begun to worry about their dota 2.

After all, Blizzard is truly capable of creating a game that could surpass dota 2!

Meanwhile, Pony Ma had already projected the image from the tablet onto the screen behind him.

The moment the projection lit up, everyone in the conference room went quiet.

On the screen was a still frame from a CG promotional video.

In the center of the screen, a logo they were all too familiar with slowly emerged: Blizzard.

Below the logo was a line of text: "heroes of the storm, coming soon."

The scene switched, and one Blizzard classic IP character after another walked out of the darkness.

The Archangel from Diablo stood proudly.

The Queen of Blades from StarCraft spread her wings.

The Lich King from World of Warcraft held Frostmourne.

And the last one to walk out of the darkness was Tyrael.

The modeling for each character was exquisite down to every strand of hair, and every frame of the image carried Blizzard's unique art style.

The promotional video also had a few segments of actual gameplay, but they flashed by in an instant.

At the end of the promotional video, all the characters turned into five silhouettes, standing at the entrance of the Nexus.

The screen went black. A line of text appeared: "Your heroes, assemble here."

"NetEase publishing, heroes of the storm, coming soon to open beta."

Big companies in this world are accustomed to going straight to open beta; closed beta is implicitly a move for smaller companies. Both heroes of the storm and dota 2 only underwent internal testing before going straight to open beta.

As the screen faded, the silence in the conference room lasted for a long time.

Pony Ma raised his head and glanced at Vice President Chen Yongnian, who quickly took out his phone and navigated to Blizzard's official website.

"This promotional video was released across the entire internet over ten minutes ago."

"It instantly ignited countless players overseas, and the trailer's popularity is rivaling our dota 2."

"Furthermore, there is a detailed introduction to this game on Blizzard's official website."

"And the open beta date for heroes of the storm is only one month apart from dota 2! It's clearly meant to go head-to-head with us!"

Vice President Chen Yongnian's voice was dry; it was clear he felt the pressure from Blizzard's unexpected move.

He paused and continued.

"Like league of legends, heroes of the storm also focuses on being a more simplified MOBA game, but the direction of simplification is completely different. Currently, they've only mentioned a few points: no gold, no last-hitting, and shared experience for the whole team."

"Although I don't know if these simplifications are good or bad, the fact that Blizzard dares to announce it so high-profilely shows that heroes of the storm is rated extremely highly within Blizzard and NetEase."

"Backed by Blizzard and NetEase, this game is a huge threat."

"Moreover, countless classic IP characters under Blizzard will appear in this game; the fan base alone is immeasurable."

"There are even rumors that the Chinese server of heroes of the storm will include characters from NetEase."

After Vice President Chen Yongnian finished speaking, Pony Ma tapped his fingers on the table, drawing everyone's attention. Then he slowly spoke.

"league of legends at best will only steal a few players; it won't pose too high a threat to dota 2."

"But this heroes of the storm is an opponent of the same magnitude as dota 2."

"It has the potential to threaten, or even surpass, dota 2."

He looked up.

"From now on, concentrate all resources and keep a close eye on heroes of the storm!"