Netease Teases New Mystery Shooter, New Globally-Competitive Game Engine?

Everybody loves a good mystery. And it seems the folks at Netease have gotten people talking about one with this teaser page for a new first-person shooter. More about the game will be revealed next Tuesday, but there are some very interesting clues on the teaser page (pictured above).

First is the series of “passwords” used to “hack” into the computer. The three passwords that fail initially are CryEngine, Unreal, and Frostbite. As hardcore gamers know, these are the names of three of the biggest and most modern FPS game engines in the world, and have been used for many of recent globally high-profile FPS titles. But the computer on the teaser site rejects those “passwords” and instead chooses Dynamite. Since that’s not the name of an existing game engine, we can only assume that Netease has developed its own engine for use with this upcoming game.

While it could just be marketing hype, it was definitely bold for Netease to put this apparently engine in the same league as CryEngine, Unreal, and Frostbite. If it really is on that level — and that’s a big if — it could signify an attempt by Netease to move beyond China, or at least to license its new engine to the global game developers who are now using CryEngine or the Unreal engine for their games.

We can also make a few guesses about the game itself from the teaser page. Given that the gun and helicopter on the desk appear to be pretty modern, we can assume the game takes place in or around the present day, and that it probably also involves some vehicle combat. The bloody biohazard symbol is interesting, too — could the game’s plot concern chemical warfare of some kind?

There are also a few guesses we can make about the game based on Netease’s past record of game development. While it seems clear this game is a first-person shooter, Netease’s most successful games have been MMORPGs, and it seems likely that this game may include some MMORPG elements, although it’s hard to say exactly what. More interestingly, though, many of Netease’s biggest games include elements of Chinese history and mythology. Will this shooter also include some China-specific elements to make it more appealing to the hometown crowd?

Whatever it turns out to be, the game is facing what is likely to be stiff competition from the impending release of Call of Duty Online, Activision and Tencent’s interpretation of the global smash-hit shooter franchise as a freemium PC game for the Chinese market. The game is coming out soon, and while I’ve argued that hardcore Chinese gamers may be put off by it, it’s still likely to be very popular, and Netease’s game will need to be pretty impressive to turn heads away from the CoD spectacle.