65: Chapter 65 The Alliance is Coming!

Tencent Group Headquarters.

The atmosphere in the conference room was the complete opposite of NetEase's.

Several bottles of champagne were placed in the center of the long table, the corks already pulled, and foam trickled down the bottle necks onto the table.

Several executives held wine glasses in their hands, relaxed smiles on their faces.

Pony Ma sat in the head seat, and the projection screen in front of him displayed the latest daily active user data for heroes of the storm.

The source of the data was simple.

They had spent a lot of money to bribe an executive inside NetEase.

This data, which would be made public sooner or later, wasn't considered an overly exaggerated trade secret, so with enough incentive, the other party relented.

The numbers on the screen were crystal clear.

heroes of the storm, latest daily active users: 920,000.

"When it was 3.2 million on the first day, I really couldn't sleep well,"

Pony Ma picked up the champagne and took a sip, offering a rare moment of self-deprecation.

"Looking at it now, it turns out to be just a paper tiger."

Sun Qiang chimed in from the side, his tone carrying a long-lost sense of ease.

"I'm afraid the daily active users for Heroes will never have the chance to exceed a million again in this lifetime."

"Being able to stabilize at 500,000 in the end is already a blessing from the heavens."

He leaned back against the chair.

"As expected, in the field of gaming, no one can challenge us."

Vice President Chen Yongnian placed his wine glass on the table, a hint of smugness on his face.

"A Blizzard product must be a masterpiece."

He repeated those eight words and then smiled.

"Starting from heroes of the storm, I'm afraid these words won't work anymore."

After a burst of laughter, everyone raised their glasses to celebrate.

When the news of the alliance between Blizzard and NetEase first came out, it had indeed made them nervous for quite some time.

One had to know.

That was Blizzard and NetEase; the former's achievements in the gaming field were quite extraordinary.

So before getting the internal data for heroes of the storm, few of them thought that Heroes would die so quickly.

At the very least, it should have been able to contend with dota 2 for a while.

Even during the first few days of the heroes of the storm open beta.

Few people in the conference room slept well, and even Pony Ma suffered from insomnia for several days.

But no one expected that heroes of the storm would be no match for dota 2 at all, being almost completely crushed without making a single wave.

The atmosphere in the conference room became increasingly relaxed.

In this MOBA war, Tencent almost effortlessly took down the alliance of Blizzard and NetEase.

Thinking of this, even Pony Ma was a bit smug, leaning back in his chair and crossing his legs.

"Heroes is gone, and this great war is over."

"As expected, once again, it is Tencent standing at the end."

Speaking of this, Pony Ma seemed to remember something.

"By the way, that league of legends, it seems it's about to start its open beta too, right?"

Sun Qiang hurriedly took out his phone and took a look.

"There's one last week."

After speaking, he looked at Pony Ma.

"But Mr. Ma, why are you suddenly asking about this?"

"Do you think this game might also be a threat?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the conference room fell silent. If Pony Ma really thought so, they might have to devote a lot of energy to paying attention to league of legends.

But hearing this, Pony Ma directly shook his head and laughed.

"What kind of joke are you making?"

"I just remembered the company hidden behind this game."

Pony Ma leaned back in his chair, reminiscing about something.

"From the beginning clout-chasing dota 2 and Heroes, to later doing something like a Ten-Million Dollar Esports Plan to drive traffic."

"The opponent's methods are very precise, every step landing on a hot topic."

" Putting aside how well the game is made...， This marketing tactic， This is enough to show that they understand the internet very well.."

"But they won't understand."

Pony Ma placed his wine glass on the table and paused.

"The final performance of a game still depends on the game's quality."

"It can't be sustained just by clout-chasing and hype."

"The hype for Heroes was so high before, and the number of pre-registrations and first-day players both exceeded dota 2, but what was the final result?"

"It still died a sudden death."

Vice President Chen Yongnian nodded beside him.

"Mr. Ma is right."

"In the end, games rely on content."

"Promotion and hype cannot influence the final outcome."

Pony Ma leaned back in his chair, the expression on his face completely relaxed.

"But speaking of which, I used to think that under the pincer attack of dota 2 and Heroes, league of legends would be lucky just to barely survive."

"But now Heroes has fallen on its own."

"Instead, it has cleared some space for league of legends."

He paused.

"If this game is okay, and IceFrog's design philosophy hasn't fallen too far behind, it really might be able to attract casual players."

"Then league of legends might also have a few hundred thousand daily active users, just like Heroes."

"A game with a few hundred thousand daily active users is a failure for Blizzard."

"But for a small workshop like Riot Games, it's already quite a success."

After saying this, Pony Ma raised his glass.

Others followed suit.

"Actually, I think we should be more generous."

Pony Ma's voice rang out again, his expression confident and relaxed.

"Since dota 2 has already secured three million daily active users, there's no longer any possibility of it being challenged."

"So."

"As for these games with a few hundred thousand daily active users, just let them be."

...

Over the past month or so.

The direct confrontation between dota 2 and heroes of the storm had attracted the attention of most players worldwide.

From the head-to-head trailers before the open beta to the steady rise of dota 2 and the cliff-like drop of heroes of the storm after the launch.

Every turning point of this MOBA war could trend on major platforms for several days.

heroes of the storm dropping from 3.2 million daily active users to less than a million pushed the drama of this war to its peak.

Everyone's eyes were focused on this duel.

And in this chaotic battle, the last game that had not yet entered open beta was almost forgotten.

On major gaming forums, only an occasional post or two would mention league of legends.

"By the way, is league of legends also about to start its open beta?"

"Seems like next month? Or the month after? I can't remember clearly."

"Among the three games, it has the lowest presence. If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have forgotten there was such a game."

"Even Heroes can't beat dota 2, what does league of legends have to fight with?"

"It'll probably just be cannon fodder when it launches."

These scattered discussions often sank before even reaching the second page.

After all, the fight between dota 2 and heroes of the storm was too intense; no one had the energy at this time to pay attention to a game whose open beta date was almost forgotten.

And in a corner that global players had not noticed.

The league of legends official website quietly launched an open beta countdown.

The design of the webpage was very simple.

On a pure black background, a golden fist logo rotated slowly in the center of the screen.

Below the logo was a real-time ticking countdown.

Seven days left until the open beta.

Below the countdown, there was only one line of text.

"The League is Coming!"