Tencent Goes Nuclear With ¥1.4B Budget to Crush NetEase's Eggy Party — King of Glory Crossover Skin Turns Out to Be a Dye Pack, Community Explodes

Tencent is going full scorched-earth mode. Star of Dreams (元梦之星) is set to launch on December 15, and before the game even goes live, they've already announced a crossover with King of Glory — hit Account Level 10 in Star of Dreams, and you get Da Qiao's Star Element skin 'Warm Dream Star Night' for free in King of Glory. They've also committed to giving away 6 King of Glory-themed outfits entirely free. This is literally the first time King of Glory has ever partnered this closely with another title — an unprecedented move from Tencent's crown jewel.

But here's the bombshell number: the ecosystem marketing budget alone is ¥1.4 billion (roughly $195M USD), and that's reportedly NOT including user acquisition costs. The original poster called them 'the true deity of marketing (宣发仙人).' They've roped in an absurd roster of KOLs — Chen Ze, Uzi, Zhang Dada — a lineup so chaotic that one commenter joked: 'These guys are so meme-worthy that Star of Dreams might actually go viral just from being cringe.' Someone even dug up a Bilibili guide claiming you can grind 18 free skin sets in two weeks — 'The crown prince has returned to the palace.'

But the comment section quickly peeled back the curtain on the 'free skin' promotion. A high-upvoted post (#12) called it out directly: what they're giving away isn't actually the skin — it's a color-swap accessory pack (星元/Star Element). The Da Qiao skin itself is an old 2019 release that costs 888 VP (88.8 yuan / ~$12.4) and has never been given away for free. So you'd need to shell out nearly 90 yuan for the base skin before that 'free' accessory even becomes usable.

This sparked a mini-war in the replies. One player argued the skin 'has appeared in event skin shops countless times — 9 out of 10 accounts own it.' Others immediately clapped back: 'I don't have it, care to send me one? 90% ownership rate? Unless you can prove it with actual stats on Tieba, I'm not buying it.' Another player was even more blunt: 'Star Element skins are absolutely worthless.'

With marketing this aggressive, one commenter asked the obvious question: 'I thought they didn't believe in buying traffic? Why go this big? So weird.' But a savvy player laid out the real picture: 'This isn't about revenue anymore — this is genuine corporate warfare. Eggy Party (蛋仔派对) is directly threatening Tencent's core territory: social gaming. This is Tencent's home turf. They'd bleed money before giving up ground. When the enemy is at your gates, are you really going to worry about conserving ammo?'

What really drove the point home was discovering that even inside King of Glory itself, Tencent is running ads for Star of Dreams — log in and get a free Star of Dreams avatar frame, running December 15-21. They're literally weaponizing their most profitable title as a traffic funnel. Absolutely ruthless.

Bottom line: this is a textbook escalation of the 'Tencent vs NetEase' war (鹅猪大战). Tencent deployed ¥1.4 billion in marketing budget plus the full weight of King of Glory to launch an all-out assault on NetEase's Eggy Party. But among core gamers, the 'free skin' promotion already blew up in their face over its misleading nature. As one commenter perfectly put it — 'Corporate warfare, imminent.' The winner? Ultimately decided by which app the kids install on their phones.