Explore Cutting-Edge Tech & Products at NetEase Games

Over 20 NetEase Games experts was shortlisted to present at GDC this year, delivering more than 16 talks across the Core Concepts and Summits sessions.

Presentations from NetEase Games sessions focused on sharing insights based on its blockbuster titles such as Harry Potter: Magic Awakened, Life After or Naraka: Bladepoint, highlighting its use of machine learning in game development, debating the future of tabletop games and showcasing research about the management of gaming communities.

NetEase Games will also introduce CliCli, an integrated game editor and global distribution platform which removes barriers to entry for game creators.

NetEase, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTES and HKEX: 9999, “NetEase” or the “Company”), one of China’s leading internet and online game services providers, attended the 2023 Game Developers Conference (GDC), with its employees delivering more than 16 talks across the Core Concepts and Summits sessions.

NetEase Games also showcased CliCli at booth S1332 in the Expo area and during a sponsored presentation titled Developing a User-Generated Content Platform Ecosystem. CliCli is an integrated game editor and global distribution platform which removes barriers to entry for game creators such as the need to write code, helping them concentrate on game design and getting to market faster.

NetEase speakers was sharing success stories from blockbuster titles such as Harry Potter: Magic Awakened, Life After or Naraka: Bladepoint, showing how machine learning can make game development more efficient, debating the future of tabletop games and revealing insights about the management and nurturing of gaming communities.

In total, over 20 NetEase experts have been shortlisted to present at the event. Here are a few selections from the NetEase lineup at GDC:

An Exploration of Attracting New Users Through Livestreaming Traffic-Buying: The Fantasy Westward Journey team will share the role of product marketing in keeping the franchise relevant over more than a decade and utilizing social media-based marketing strategies that encourage players to keep coming back to the game.

Achieving High-Quality 90fps Realism in a Mobile Game, Technically and Visually: The team of Ace Racer, a high-speed driving action mobile title launching on March 16th, introduced in detail how they achieved a smooth 90fps experience while ensuring high-quality realistic graphics effects, which have been verified online. The session shares their experiences on the trade-off between visual art and performance from multiple aspects, such as pipeline rendering, vehicle scene optimization and ideas on the optimization process.

Is Beauty Emotional or Rational: Cosmetics and Consumer Choice in Naraka: Bladepoint: Naraka: Bladepoint offers players hundreds of skins to choose from for their characters. By analyzing players’ aesthetic preferences, Xinwei Chang, senior UX researcher at ThunderFire, introduced how the Naraka: Bladepoint research team found regular patterns of consumer choice and quantified the abstractive beauty behind a character’s skin.

Efficient Software Occlusion Culling on Mobile Platform in Life After: Wenhui Tao, game engine programmer at NetEase Games, shared an efficient software occlusion culling (SOC) solution which improves game performance, with a high culling rate at a very low cost. Attendees learnt about the different issues that arise in culling and how to deal with them, from organizing data and implementing a runtime culling algorithm to generating high quality occlusion meshes.

From Copy to Subscriptions: A Statistic Perspective of Naraka: Bladepoint: Naraka: Bladepoint is the world’s first successful combination of the melee and battle royale genres which requires many players joining at the same time. The game was launched on PC followed by console and, in this session, attendees will learn about the challenges and strategies to deal with the move from paid to free games, and how game data can be used to make business-related inferences and support project decisions.

Creating the Art of Harry Potter: Magic Awakened: Qingfeng Zeng, game lead artist at NetEase Games, revealed the process behind building the hand-painted stylized art pipeline and more insights from the development of Harry Potter: Magic Awakened.

The State and Future of Board Games: During a panel conversation, researcher Ming Liu joined other tabletop game developers and journalists to discuss the ongoing growth, development and diversity of a hobby that continues to showcase original ideas, new approaches and even new technology.

Caring for Togetherness: Nurturing Hybridity in the Cross-Platform Game Community: Bingjie Yu, UX researcher at NetEase Games, shared how Thunderfire has created guidelines and strategies for game developers and community managers that help them build more inclusive, transparent and sustainable hybrid game communities.

Differentiated Management Communities: Centralized vs. Decentralized Communities: Keyu Wu, senior UX researcher at ThunderFire introduced the characteristics, differences and segmentation types of centralized and decentralized gaming communities and share targeted and effective management methods to enable communities to have a positive impact on their games.

The talks listed above and other presentations from NetEase Games are available to GDC attendees with All Access, Core or Summit passes. For more information about GDC 2023 and where to watch the NetEase Games presentations online, visit the official event website at https://gdconf.com/

About NetEase, Inc.

As a leading internet technology company based in China, NetEase, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTES and HKEX:9999, “NetEase”) provides premium online services centered around content creation. With extensive offerings across its expanding gaming ecosystem, the Company develops and operates some of China’s most popular and longest running mobile and PC games. Powered by industry-leading in-house R&D capabilities in China and globally, NetEase creates superior gaming experiences, inspires players, and passionately delivers value for its thriving community worldwide. By infusing play with culture and education with technology, NetEase transforms gaming into a meaningful vehicle to build a more entertaining and enlightened world.

Beyond games, NetEase service offerings include its majority-controlled subsidiaries Youdao (NYSE: DAO), China’s leading technology-focused intelligent learning company, and Cloud Music (HKEX: 9899), China’s leading online music content community, as well as Yanxuan, NetEase’s private label consumer lifestyle brand.

NetEase’s ESG initiatives are among the best in the global media and entertainment industry, earning it a distinction as one of the S&P Global Industry Movers and an “A” rating from MSCI. For more information, please visit: https://ir.netease.com/

About NetEase Games

NetEase Games, the online games division of NetEase, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTES and HKEX: 9999), is a leading global developer and publisher of video game IP across a variety of genres and platforms. NetEase Games’ development and publishing slate include titles such as Knives Out, Harry Potter: Magic Awakened, and Naraka: Bladepoint, and partnerships with major entertainment brands such as Warner Bros and Mojang AB (a Microsoft subsidiary). NetEase Games also supports the growth and development of its innovative global studios in Canada, Europe, Japan and the United States. For more information, please visit https://www.neteasegames.com/