Introduction: This article is one of Game Daily’s 2022 “Gold, Three, Silver and Four” recruitment season series reports, aiming to provide reference for more practitioners and job seekers, and help you understand the internals of major game manufacturers faster The organizational structure system mainly analyzes the organizational structure of Tencent Games (IEG Interactive Entertainment Business Group).
In 2012, in response to the mobile Internet trend, Tencent adjusted its organizational structure for the second time since its establishment and reorganized its original business into seven major business groups. The Interactive Entertainment Group (IEG) was formally established. Responsible for the operation and development of the company's overall interactive entertainment business.
In February 2021, the organizational structure of Tencent’s interactive entertainment business group was adjusted again. Many of the original game product departments, cooperative product departments and related business support departments were cancelled. Major companies such as Tianmei and Photonics The research studio will make corresponding adjustments. Since then, Tencent's game business has been mainly divided into five major sectors, namely "Functional Departments", "Self-Research Studio Group", "Game Publishing", "International Product Operations Department" and "IEG Global". In terms of personnel, Tencent COO Ren Yuxin serves as the president of the IEG business group, and Tencent Senior Vice President Ma Xiaoyi reports to him. The following are the relevant persons in charge of the major sectors and self-research studio groups. The specific structure is as follows:
1. Six self-research studio groups
Public information shows that Tencent’s IEG business group currently has six self-research studio groups, namely Tianmei Studio Group, Photon Studio Group, Rubik's Cube Studio Group, Northern Lights Studio Group, Boston Studio Group and NExT Studios, each work group has a different research and development focus, basically achieving full category coverage.
Among them, the first four major studio groups were split in 2014 from eight studios under IEG: Linlangtianshang, Tianmeiyiyou, Wolong, Quantum, Lightspeed, Rubik's Cube, Northern Lights and Colorful Stone. ; The Boston studio group was officially established in 2008, and 14 years later, the specific situation of the studio group is still unknown; NExT Studios was established in 2017, focusing on the research and development of creative games.
Currently, under each studio group, there are also multiple studios responsible for different specific products. For example, Xiaoyaoyou Studio and Tianji Zhiqu Studio under the Photon Studio Group are responsible for the research and development and operation of the "League of Legends" mobile game and "Golden Shovel War" respectively. It is understood that not all studios are responsible for the research and development and operation of games. Taking Tianmei N1, N2, and N3 studios as examples, they are mainly responsible for work related to the adaptation of games and animations.
At the same time, in terms of new product development, major studio groups will also conduct research and development in the direction that the current studio focuses on. For example, the recently launched "Return to the Empire" is produced by Tianmei Studio, which is better at war strategies. Research and development, the details are as follows:
2. Distribution agent and game project review
Game Daily learned through public information that Tencent IEG in 2021 After the organizational structure of the business group has been adjusted, its game publishing has changed from the original three-in-one publishing model of "self-research studio - distribution line - marketing department" to integrating the self-published team and related market business into self-research work Studio, a distribution model with self-research studio as the main body. This product-oriented distribution model that vertically digs deep into the category also has higher requirements for the product itself.
A person familiar with the matter told Game Daily that currently there are different processes for game project approval within Tencent’s IEG business group according to different types of products. If it is a self-developed game, the studios affiliated with the self-developed studio group will submit the report, and then the president of the studio group and the owners of each sub-studio, marketing and relevant responsible persons will conduct an internal evaluation. After passing the game, the game will be packaged (required Including game introduction, world view, art, gameplay, operating income plan, etc.), submit it to the review meeting composed of the person in charge of the distribution line, the presidents of major self-research studio groups, and related business and expert groups for scoring and evaluation. The project can be approved only after passing .
If it is an agent game, then the distribution line project team and the game business department will look for high-quality products externally, and then submit the corresponding demo to the distribution line evaluation center. After passing the evaluation, the game will be proposed and submitted to the review committee for scoring and evaluation. After passing the evaluation, the project can be approved.
In terms of game review, it is understood that the "star review mechanism" will be used before 2021, with a maximum of 6 stars (100,000 users will be introduced in 60 days of testing), and after passing, the maximum number will not exceed 40 million Cash budget. However, after the structural adjustment in 2021, IEG canceled the "star review mechanism", leaving each studio group to decide its own budget. For certain categories of games, the group will give certain resource tilts.
3. Tencent’s external investment
According to the public information query, since 2005, Tencent has invested in more than 100 game-related companies in China, covering leisure, social, and character Multiple categories and tracks including performance, 2D, console, and overseas. In 2021 alone, Tencent invested in at least 45 game-related companies. Among them, the largest public investment amount was its investment in Century Huatong in March 2021, with an amount of 2.79 billion yuan.
Overseas, Tencent has also tied up with many well-known game R&D companies around the world through investment and acquisitions. For example, in 2016, Tencent spent US$8.6 billion to acquire 84.3% of the shares of Supercell, a Finnish mobile gaming company, which was one of the few "big deals" in the global gaming industry. Up to now, Game Daily statistics indicate that Tencent has invested in more than 24 overseas game research and development companies (public information inquiry may not be complete). The specific situation is as follows:
The above is convenient. This is the Tencent game chapter of Game Daily's 2022 "Gold Three Silver Four" recruitment season series. We will continue to sort out the internal management structure of some game companies through public information in the future, hoping to provide some reference for job seekers and practitioners, and also Welcome to provide more relevant information.