Opinion : Seeking Alpha - NetEase: Reasons Behind TX2's Success

from the We've only just begun dept.

Seeking Alpha offers up some initial observations surrounding the strong debut of Netease's BigWorld powered title, Tian Xia 2:

TX2 reached 245K PCU during first week of open beta. NetEase's 3D game Tian Xia II (TX2) reached 245000 Peak Concurrent Users (PCU) on September 26, according to my tracking in the chart below. This represents a 32% increase from 185000 on September 19, the day before TX2's open beta. During this 7-day period, TX2's server capacity expanded 36% to 53 server groups. These two data points (32% and 36%) show that TX2's usage level has increased at a similar pace to server additions, and indicate the game's strong ability to attract new users.

Review : Tianxia II by Netease

from the Better reviewed than Dead dept.

After posting some very solid numbers for Tianxia 2 over the weekend, let's head over to MMO Culture to check out Cinderboy's review of this Netease's title :

TianXia 2 is one of the typical oriental fantasy MMORPG churned out from China, but its the really refined graphics, questing and simplicity which really captivated me. The game was actually in Beta a few years back, but I suppose the company, Netease, had to do some financial shifting to acquire the rights for WoW China, hence the long delay for this game. In case you are wondering, WoW China's chaos is soon to end in the coming weeks. Here's my short journey so far as one of the 8 clans available, the pure magic damage clan.

For more on the game, fantastic screenshots and detailed opinion, head over to MMO Culture.

Netease - TX2 strong results for open beta

from the Gather Stats dept

Tian Xia II (TX2) had a strong open beta debut. NetEase (NTES) launched the open beta testing of its 3D game TX2 on Sunday, September 20. According to my tracking in the chart below, TX2 reached 227500 Peak Concurrent Users (PCU) on Sunday, surging 24% from 185000 in Saturday. During the peak time of Sunday, TX2's overall server utilization rate was about 90%, indicating that average popularity per server remained high despite the aggressive expansion of total capacity from 35 to 51 servers (up 46%) since last Friday.

With thanks to Seeking Alpha.

Netease to Open Beta TX2 today, China - stats/analysis

from the Over in the East dept

On August 26, NetEase (NTES) will release the open beta version of Tian Xia II (TX2), one of its in-house developed 3D games. The open beta will be officially launched on September 20, accompanied by a large-scale advertising campaign. This article discusses TX2's 4Q09 outlook and potential risks, and shows the game's recent trends of Peak and Average Concurrent Users (PCU and ACU).

TX2's PCU will be substantially boosted by aggressive advertising. TX2 is the focus of NetEase's advertising campaign in the second half of 2009, and more than RMB 100 million ($14.6 million) will be allocated to TX2's promotion, according to reports by Sina and Nanfang Daily. My tracking shows TX2 has already reached 160K PCU without much advertising (see chart below). I estimate the heavy advertising surrounding the open beta will propel TX2's PCU to at least 250K in 4Q09.

TX2 players' spending and stickiness will increase significantly. The huge size of TX2's open beta patch (1G - larger than many single games) indicates rich new contents will be added. Currently, TX2's revenues rely heavily on four systems/features: Treasure Box, Soul Pearl (Yuan Hun Zhu), Dresses, and Riding Animals. I believe the open beta version's abundant new contents will diversify TX2's revenue sources, and boost players' spending to a higher level in 4Q09. In addition, the large amount of new contents will increase players' stickiness in 4Q09 because they are likely to spend much time on exploring new maps, tasks, instances (Fu Ben), etc.

TX2 still faces potential risks. Although TX2's game design significantly imitates World of Warcraft (WoW), its skill system, task system, and profession balance still have a long way to go compared with WoW. I believe the open beta version will only partially solve this problem, and a lot of additional R&D efforts are required to improve TX2 after it enters open beta. Although aggressive advertising will boost TX2's PCU in the near term, such PCU levels will not be sustainable if NetEase's R&D efforts on TX2 fail to keep up with the growth in concurrent users.

Thanks to Seeking Alpha.

Navy Legend : in-game screens

from the Blow them out of the water dept.

BigWorld features seven games at China Joy 09

from the Far East dept.

This July's 'China Joy' - Shanghai's equivalent to E3 showcased a number of MMO titles either released or close to release from some of BigWorld's Chinese licensees.

1. 天下贰 Tian xia II http://tx2.163.com/
2. 创世西游 Chuang shi xi you http://csxy.163.com/
3. 创世Online Chuang shi Online http://cs.gyyx.cn/
4. 侠客列传 Xia ke lie zhuan http://www.t2xk.com/
5. 三国群英传OL2 San guo qun ying zhuan OL2 http://sg2.uj.com.tw/
6. 海陆传奇 Hai lu chuan qi http://www.dahaizhan.com/
7. 鬼吹灯OL Gui chui deng OL http://gui.uqugame.com/

Trailer for a BigWorld powered game from http://gui.uqugame.com/ 《鬼吹灯》online高清视频 -

from the Finally, tentacles! dept.

Beijing-based 9Com select Bigworld Engine for multiple games

from the Quick Links dept.

"9Com (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. was formally created in 2007, is engaged in the Internet and mobile communications network of interactive entertainment products (online games, mobile games, etc.)-based operations, sales, R & D and investment in high-tech service enterprises. The company is headquartered in Beijing, with branches in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu"

Link from 17173.com here.

Userjoy's "Kingdom of Heroes 2 Online" goes into closed beta

from the Battle Hardened Brigade dept.

Tianxia II Live - and videos to boot

from the I want to play it but can't understand it dept.

There are several newish videos available for viewers of TX2 who want to grok the game but unfortunately cannot read or write mandarin. For your enjoyment :

http://czdltx2.163.com/tx2/tx2_blood.rar

The original 2008 trailer, and

http://czdltx2.163.com/tx2/tx2zjj_video.zip

Weapons and skills across the TX2 classes, and

http://czdltx2.163.com/tx2/tx2szx_video.zip

Showcases the numerous fashion options in TX2.

That's all for the moment until someone let's up on some server numbers from behind the silk curtain. Good luck Netease and Mr Ding.

6.6.08 - TX2 in da house

from the Come on out we are ready to play dept :

No link as such, other than to announce that Tianxia II, the heavy mojo Chinese epic MMO from Netease launches today. Watch this space...