The channel service has become the "king of the mountain" who buys road money,

This made the game manufacturers have to rebel.

Ali made a move, will other big factories stud?

Recently, Ali Lingxi Interactive Entertainment's SLG mobile game "Three Kingdoms: Strategic Edition" announced on its official website that because the cooperation with the vivo channel has ended, it will stop cooperating with the vivo channel, and will remove the package of the vivo app store and stop the account login of the channel on March 7, 2025.

According to the announcement, "Three Kingdoms: Strategic Edition" will stop the registration of the vivo channel on January 6, 2025, and the recharge of the vivo channel on February 5, 2025.

In addition, vivo channel server players can apply for a refund, and for players who still want to keep the relevant assets in the game, they can also contact customer service to assist in asset recovery.

What is a channel service?

That is, in order to obtain more users, some games authorize domestic Android mobile phone manufacturers to operate servers as agents.

There is no difference between the official server and the channel server, but the account data and server of the channel server are all responsible for the mobile phone manufacturer of the corresponding channel, and the channel side can also get a part of the commission from the turnover.

At the beginning of 2021, NetEase CEO Ding Lei publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with the high share of game revenue by the Android channel on the earnings call: "There is only 30% overseas, and Android manufacturers have no reason to share 50%, which is very unfavorable to the industrial ecology." ”

Ding Lei further complained, "China's Android market is the most expensive, up to 50%, which makes no sense." ”

In recent years, there have also been other game manufacturers that have chosen to take the initiative to remove the Android channel.

For example, in August 2023, "All-Star Street Ball Party" became NetEase's "first game to be released from public beta on Android channels".

In June 2024, the operation team of Tencent's "Dungeons & Warriors: Origins" (referred to as DNF mobile game) announced that due to the expiration of the contract, DNF mobile games will no longer be available on the app stores of mainstream Android channels in China such as Huawei, vivo, and OPPO from June 20.

XD Company (CEO Huang Yimeng said that the domestic Android channel will not only be divided into half of the revenue, but its official website package will also be installed by the "tanuki for the prince", and it will be secretly replaced with a channel package that needs to be shared, so it is better to take it off the shelves directly and only do the official website.

At present, the leading domestic game manufacturers mainly adopt two methods in response to the channel commission: directly do not go to the traditional Android channel or avoid the channel to recharge, and guide players to consume in the official channel of the game.

As for the treatment of not being able to use the Android channel, more and more games have begun to join the queue brought up by games such as miHoYo's "Genshin Impact", Lilith's "Awakening of Kingdoms", and Eagle Point's "Ark of Tomorrow".

NetEase's "All-Star Street Ball Party", Zulong's "In the Name of Shining", and Xindong's "Sword of the Lily of the Valley", which will be launched in 2023, are not available on Android channels.

"Heartbeat Town", which will be launched in 2024, is also exclusively published on Android by XD's zero-commission TapTap game platform.

Another way to guide players to charge directly is to a certain extent to avoid channel commissions, and can eat the traffic of the Android platform.

For example, Tencent, NetEase and other large manufacturers have also opened online stores on multiple shopping platforms, which also provide more attractive direct charging benefits.

What do you think of the removal of "Three Kingdoms: Strategic Edition" from the vivo channel?

What is the reason behind the removal of Android channels by game manufacturers in recent years?

In 2025, will this kind of thing of game manufacturers removing Android channels become the norm, and why?

In this regard, Hu Lei and Shule of the financial network had an exchange, and this monkey thought:

The channel service has become the "king of the mountain" who buys road money, which makes game manufacturers have to resist.

The "toll tax" charged by the channel service is too high, even more than the "Apple tax", even major game manufacturers such as Tencent and NetEase have suffered from the "Android tax" for a long time.

The removal of the vivo channel this time is, in a sense, a strong man's broken wrist.

It may also be that the activity of a single channel is insufficient, but it cannot be merged into the official server, so it can only drive some users to migrate by suspending the service.

In recent years, game manufacturers have removed Android channels, and the core is still that the "taxes" of various Android channels are too high.

At the same time, channel servers directly cut players into more detailed areas, which is equivalent to leaving some users in the corner for some games that need to improve the player experience through popular regions or cross-server battles.

In 2025, will it become a trend to remove Android channels? Foolish thought:

Protesting by removing the Android channel and fighting for the reduction of the Android tax may be an option for game manufacturers that urgently need to return revenue.

Whether or not a concerted action of game manufacturers can be formed will determine whether such a "struggle" can be effective in the end.

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