Chinese Crossout got wiped, (possibly) getting shut down

Discussion
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This is what I’ve learned from a player from mainland China.

The separate, Chinese version of Crossout, is no longer being published (and/or developed) by Perfect World. It wasn’t making enough profit, so it was sold to Warflames. In the process,

the players’ accounts got wiped. They lost their relics, and years’ worth of grind.

That happened sometime in January, it would seem on the 11th. But before that, the game wasn’t being updated for a year. Which would explain why we’d occasionally see someone posting in Chinese in the general chat. Were they coming over to a Crossout version that was actually being regularly updated?

That player also told me that traditional Chinese was recently removed from Gaijin’s version of Crossout. Although it would appear that happened by May of 2022, at least in the PlayStation version:

Why remove an option for a whole language from a game? Perhaps in agreement with the publisher of the Chinese version, to help keep Chinese players confined to it? I seem to remember the version I play had a Chinese language option. Maybe it was turned off on the PC and the consoles at different times?

Below is the official link to the announcement regarding the wiping of the Chinese Crossout. Not from Gaijin Entertainment, but allowed by the forum rules. The announcement says something about the “Creation Chariot” (i.e., Chinese Crossout) being closed and the players being moved to “Legend of Ghosts.” But the player I talked to called it a wipe, as in still being able to play Crossout under the new publisher, but with restarted progress. So they choose to come here, to spend additional years of grind in a more predictable game (it feels weird calling Crossout that).

(Note the dates: the 9th and the 11th of January, 2023. That’s when Crossout’s peak player count began to double - according to its Steam chart (or at least the steam players). (Soon after, the average player count doubled as well.) It’s still possible that many, or even a vast majority of those, logged in as a result of the recent advertising campaign, with no relation to the Chinese Crossout being shut down or wiped. Especially that the peaks could suggest players from Europe, if I’m reading the chart right. But even if that’s the case, Chinese players should still have the option to have their language available, seeing as they’ve been asking for that in 2022, both in the general chat and on this forum. An option that used to exist, and I don’t remember reading in any patchnotes about it being turned off and why. Especially that there no longer seems to be a conflict of interests, if there even used to be any, that is. Unless “Legend of Ghosts” is a new name the Chinese Crossout is being rebranded to? It sort of looks like they’re getting a voucher code to get extra levels in a completely different game by Warflames. Also, was Gaijin’s ad campaign intended to attract players from the Chinese version? To answer these questions, I’d like to know the proportions of Chinese players to others among the January population spike. I’m interested to know, whether it was Gaijin’s ad campaign that was so effective, or whether the player gain is just a result of the Chinese version shutting down. I’ll ask that player for additional comments, so I can clarify anything I misuderstood. They seemed to be meaning that the Chinese Crossout was being wiped, not shut down completely.)

Google translation:

First of all, I would like to sincerely thank everyone for their support and love for “Creation Chariot”.
Since the beta of “Creation Chariot” has been launched, I have spent countless happy hours with you! However, due to various problems, the follow-up operation of “Creation Chariot” will be transferred from Perfect World Games to Hainan Zhanhuo Huyu Information Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Zhuhuo Huyu”). We deeply regret and apologize for the inconvenience caused to you!

We hereby announce the relevant time schedule for the transfer of the operation rights of “Creation Chariot”, please prepare in advance:

The specific operation transfer process of “Creation Chariot” is as follows:

  1. The download entrance of the game will be closed at 12:00 noon on January 11, 2023, and players will not be able to download the game at that time.

  2. The recharge channel of the game will be closed at 12:00 noon on January 11, 2023. At that time, players will not be able to recharge in the game.

  3. The game server will be officially closed at 12:00 noon on March 13, 2023, and players will not be able to log in to the game at that time.

  4. The compensation application page will open at 12:00 noon on February 6, 2023
    At that time, you can choose any of the following compensation methods. Once you participate in the compensation activities, you are deemed to accept the compensation plan we provide:

  1. Select Go to new carrier
    At that time, the player will first obtain an “activation code” as the old user’s identity certificate. When the player registers “Creation Chariot” operated by Zhanhuoyu, he needs to use this activation code to complete the “old user authentication” to receive it. Provided by Zhanhuoyu item rewards.
    Players can visit the Zhanhuo Entertainment website co.zhanhuo.com for details.

Application Period: From 12:00 noon on February 6, 2023 to 12:00 noon on March 6, 2023.
During the process of players obtaining the activation code through this application process and completing the “old user identity verification” when registering for “Creation Chariot” operated by Zhanhuoyu, we will not provide any personal information about the player to Zhanhuoyu and in-game information.

  1. Apply to transfer to “Legend of Ghosts”
    Application Period: From 12:00 noon on March 23, 2023 to 12:00 noon on April 24, 2023.
    Players can choose to transfer the remaining gold coins in “Creation Chariot” to the account of “Ghosts and Ghosts”. At the same time, we will issue you a reward package. For details of the gift package, please refer to the “Creation Chariot” account transfer page.

  1. The compensation application page will be closed at 12:00 noon on April 24, 2023

  2. At 23:59 on May 24, 2023, the platform will officially stop the customer service of “Creation Chariot”.

After the game is suspended, unless you have agreed otherwise with us or as otherwise required by laws and regulations, your data (including behavioral data, character data, etc.) in the game we operate will be deleted or anonymized, but the country Except for compliance obligations that are otherwise required by relevant laws, regulations, rules, and regulatory documents or that need to be performed by the platform.

If you have any questions about the compensation plan we provide or the content of this announcement, please give us feedback through the customer service platform:
Online customer service: https://cs.wanmei.com/im?gameId=200013

The official operation team of the game “Genesis Chariot”
January 9, 2023

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A good lesson in:

“Digital objects can be deleted in an instant, you really own nothing.”

If you can’t get over losing it all in an instant, then don’t play. This is also a good reason to make sure your having fun along the way. Then you can be like “it was fun while it lasted”

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I knew that player count uptick was more than just advertising. The game is gaining new players at low power score but only very marginal gains. This also explains the lack of new steam reviews which is actually declining in numbers.
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Thank you for posting that the air is finally cleared on the matter

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Oh man. Im so glad om not chinese. Chinese devopers seem to ruin games i love. It definitely sounds like they are doing a terrible job on chinese crossout.

About a year ago a game called Shadowbane was released on to steam by chinese developers that had picked up the game. It was my favoritr game for a decade. But what they did to shadowbane was brutal. They made it a p2w game. Homey dont play that. I bet chinese devs made their version of crossout p2w as well.

Just be thankfull we have the devs we have. I know i am. They are doing great things with crossout from the land of “close to russia”. I bet if all i had to play was chinese crossout i just wouldnt. I bet its super p2w. There are so many amazeing games made by chinese developers. But the p2w factors are so dominant and over present i cant stand to play them in such a state. Ill support a game. But as soon as its p2w im out. Chimeraland wasnt very p2w when i started. You could f2p at first and be competative. I even spent like 100 bucks on it i loved it so much. But then in its beta phase they made is extremely p2w and they ruined the games pvp unless you want to spend 5 grand on the game. It broke my heart.

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Omg all that nolstagia

I was stunned when I see u talk about shadowbane are released on steam after all these years and suddenly it’s own by a china man company

Still remember when I was 10 years old before getting into Everquest,

I was drooling over all those MMO on a gaming magazine

And same here , I would auto ignore all games from Chinese developer because 99% are p2w

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I played Shadowbane for years. I owned almost 25% of a whole server for awhile.

The last thing I ever did in shadowbane made the lore server collapse and then Shadowbane was finally forced to close the game. (But that is a long story)

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I was one of the Dead Presidents. black shield with a white horsehead. We were the first to do the kamikaze sentinels. Based off my farming sentinal named farmsalot. I remember when people just thought those sentinals were meant for melee, i was the only dude with a pure caster. I had parry and block maxed out. The build baffled people at first when i used the suicide nuke and one shot whole groups solo. Pretty easy to counter once people realized what it was. But there was that one sweet period where no one understood wtf i was playing. Its builds and moments like those that shadowbane shows a resemblence to crossout in terms of how they are both managed and are able to be balanced as games.

Ps you wish you were why shadowbane servers went down. Your superiority complex is showing.

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When we first infiltrated the lore server it was glorious. I took a group of about 15 guys with me.

We befriended one of the mods on the forum that ran the Templar faction.

We played with them for about 4 months, took over 6 city’s.

Then, when the time was right, as planned from the beginning, the last thing we would do in Shadowbane…

We gave the lore server over to CN and that was the end of the last non-CN controlled Shadowbane server.

Everyone in the community was so proud of how they could keep CN out of the lore sever.

:slight_smile:

Edit - I had a screenshot somewhere with me flying in the air over hundreds of CN soldiers on the ground that we used to ban cities with. It was some fun times for sure.

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You missed out on ShadowbaneEmulator after shadowbane servers went down. Many years of fun were had. Well over half the population was CN. We would win. They would win. At one point we made the CN players make an agreement that they would seperate in to smaller clans and not colaborate. They did it. Because we were dominateing them at that point and we threatened to wipe all of their cities off the map. They eventually broke that agreement once their forces were bolstered and our allied alliances were broken up and the aliance waged war on eachother; because war is fun. CN started useing mass boxing and lag tactics, because they knew china had the best connection and we would lag out before them; giveing them an oportunity to wipe our forces easy as we were all locked up. They werent able to dominate with that tactic, but they were able to level the playing field with it. Ill pat myself on the back and say i was a big player in pushing back enemies as i often comanded the armies we used to face them. Tenshi had tactics for real.

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Sounds like a ton of fun.

So now I know that you know :slight_smile: I’m telling the truth. (Not that it matters)

Random people don’t just know this kind of crazy stuff.

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As i know if this information is correct, it could explain why players from the Chinese version of Crossout might have been seen in the general chat of other versions of the game, possibly seeking a version that receives regular updates and support. official website

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Someone probably accidentally made a build made to look like a bear character owned by Disney and uploaded it to the exhibition