The year 2022 marked the end of an era of reckless expansion for the gaming industry, replaced by a harsh 'winter' defined by cost-cutting and layoffs. Reports indicate that at least 75 game titles were shut down or canceled. Tencent led the pack with 26 shuttered projects, followed closely by NetEase and Bilibili. Even high-profile projects in development, such as miHoYo's 'Project SH,' were axed before seeing the light of day.
Manufacturers are not just sunsetting aging legacy titles like 'QQ Tang'; they are ruthlessly dropping games that have been live for only a year or two. Titles like NetEase's 'Book of Fantasy' and Bilibili's 'Shiguang Mengxing' were abandoned despite respectable initial performance. Industry insiders note that the 'scattergun' approach to development is dead, replaced by a focus on cutting unprofitable ventures to prioritize high-quality blockbusters.
Amidst this wave of shutdowns, some games staged a miraculous comeback. 'Yunshang Yuyi' was saved after consumer protection associations intervened, while titles like 'Raziel' and 'The War: 2061' were kept alive by their original dev teams through crowdfunding and self-operation. Netizens joked that developers were literally 'driving Ubers' just to pay for server costs. This desperate landscape reflects a cold, data-driven realism currently dominating the industry.
For players, while canceling unreleased 'pie-in-the-sky' projects (often referred to as 'cutting cakes/biscuits' in Chinese gaming slang) is one thing, shutting down live services directly harms the player base. Many in the community have expressed anxiety, noting that the average lifespan of a game has plummeted to just 1-2 years, leaving them worried about the future of their favorite titles.
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