Early this morning (June 6), the 2026 Summer Game Fest concluded its two-hour, high-energy presentation at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.Major international publishers such as Capcom, Square Enix, EA, and Ubisoft all unveiled their blockbuster announcements, and the relentless barrage of major titles ensured there was hardly a dull moment throughout the event.
However, what has particularly caught my attention this year isn’t just a single major overseas title, but the fact that Tencent and NetEase have both released AAA single-player games simultaneously on the international gaming stage for the first time. Furthermore, the successive releases of their respective titles have created a sense of direct competition.
On the Tencent side, there are *CrossFire: Undercover* and *Gu Jian*, while NetEase has *Return to Tang* and *The Forgotten Sea*. These four titles, representing two distinct approaches, offer the clearest glimpse into the globalization strategies of China’s leading game developers.
The project Tencent unveiled at SGF is likely one of the most complex at this year’s exhibition.
*CrossFire: Covert* was unveiled by Taylor, Chief Creative Officer at developer That’s No Moon, and Jacob, the game’s Director. The trailer opens with a cinematic sequence featuring stunning lighting and cinematography. After showcasing a wealth of environmental details, the footage quickly shifts to tactical stealth gameplay:Crouching and moving slowly, adaptive cover, environmental concealment, stealth assassinations, and large-scale action sequences. The trailer concludes with a cross-fade between two shots, revealing the two characters forced into an alliance as they march side by side through a sea of yellow sand.
In terms of gameplay, the trailer showcases a third-person tactical stealth shooter. Unlike the traditional PVP gunfights in CrossFire, this game places greater emphasis on narrative, cover-based movement, environmental interaction, and strategic decision-making—elements typically found in single-player games.
It is worth noting that the *CrossFire* IP is owned by the South Korean company Smilegate, while *CrossFire: Covert* was jointly developed by That’s No Moon and SG, and is being published globally by Tencent’s K1 Studio. It represents a collaboration between a South Korean brand, U.S. development, and Chinese publishing. In any case, Tencent has finally taken its first step into the realm of AAA single-player games.
Another Tencent-developed game, *Gu Jian*, has released a gameplay-focused trailer that skips the story setup and world-building narration, cutting straight to a boss battle.
The opponent is a magician named “Kong Kongzi,” and the battle takes place on a traditional Chinese opera stage.All of Kongkongzi’s attacks draw from the language of traditional Chinese magic—producing objects from thin air, sleight of hand, and transforming fireworks into swords. His moves feature distinct opera-style postures, rather than the Western fantasy tropes of magic missiles or shape-shifting.
The protagonist takes the field as a judge of the Underworld, and within three minutes, the combat system showcases light and heavy attack combos, a variety of skills and spells, demonstrations of multiple weapons, and a companion system—summoning a Minotaur spirit from the Spirit Realm to assist in battle, which can block damage and trigger cooperative finishing moves.
The value of this trailer lies not in the sheer spectacle of its content, but in the fact that it confirms one thing: Shanghai Zhulong’s mastery of traditional Chinese visual language in Unreal Engine 5 has reached a stage where they can showcase actual gameplay footage.This title is the official sequel to the *Sword and Fairy* series, developed by Shanghai Zhulong—a subsidiary of NetEase’s acquired company, NetEase Sheng Tang—and positioned as a single-player, buy-to-play action RPG.set in the primordial era of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors—a world where gods, mortals, and wandering spirits coexist—and draws inspiration from classical supernatural texts such as the *Classic of Mountains and Seas*.
If *CrossFire: Covert* represents a top-down approach to resource integration, then NetEase’s *Return to Tang* is an original IP brand that has been meticulously crafted by an in-house development team.
The newly released PV for *Return to Tang* is titled “Unsurrendered.” After introducing all three main characters, the video transitions into a large-scale multiplayer battle sequence, followed by a demonstration of horseback archery gameplay.The subsequent snow-covered siege battle has a distinctly epic feel to it, and it’s clear that large-scale multiplayer battles will be the highlight of *Return to Tang*.
While not much information has been revealed so far, the visuals and presentation clearly indicate that this is a high-quality narrative action game. Additionally, based on the early preview on Bilibili’s “Game Preview” channel, we may see a more detailed gameplay demo on the 7th.
Developed by the Lin’an Studio of NetEase’s 24 Entertainment under the NetEase LeiHuo Business Group, *Return to Tang* is led by Hu Zhipeng, Executive Vice President of NetEase, who serves as the game’s producer. From the moment it was announced, it has been regarded as the inaugural title in NetEase’s lineup of AAA single-player games, and the industry has high hopes for it.
The story is set in the Hexi Corridor in 848 AD, following the An Lushan Rebellion—after more than sixty years of foreign rule in Shazhou, local resistance forces rose up to reclaim the lost territories, and ten teams of messengers set out eastward to deliver the news of victory back to Chang’an.Players take on the role of one of these nameless messengers, journeying across three thousand li of treacherous terrain with a young child in tow, with the goal of delivering a letter that will determine the fate of their homeland to Chang’an, the heart of the Tang Dynasty. NetEase officially describes the game as follows: “When history forgets, warriors remember.The world has heard too many tales of kings, lords, and generals—and *Return to Tang* is an ode to the nameless heroes.”
This marks NetEase’s first time bringing a self-developed AAA single-player title to the international stage.Developed using the Unreal Engine 5 and enhanced with the studio’s proprietary tools, *Return to Tang* is positioned as a narrative-driven single-player action-adventure game with a standard buy-to-play model. While a release date has not yet been announced, the game has already entered the playable stage, as evidenced by the launch of its first media closed-door demo during the SGF event (starting June 6).
The second game from the NetEase family, *Sea of Oblivion*, developed by its subsidiary Joker Studio, is in a completely different league from *Return to Tang*; it is a pirate-themed open-world RPG.
The game’s stylized aesthetic is very distinct, and the trailer continues to showcase the IP’s vibrant energy and unique personality. It features open-world exploration combined with turn-based RPG combat. After several rounds of closed beta testing, the official open beta is now confirmed for July, and this could be NetEase’s most significant entry in the open-world genre this year.
When viewed together, the differences between Tencent and NetEase at this year’s SFG are not a matter of scale, but rather a difference in approach.
Tencent has played two “external integration cards”: *CrossFire: Covert* is a three-way collaboration combining a South Korean IP, U.S. development, and Chinese distribution, while *Gu Jian* follows a capital investment strategy centered on strategic investments and a major IP.Neither approach relies on “in-house development from scratch,” but rather leverages Tencent’s global capital reach and distribution network to reassemble existing product resources into a new form.
NetEase, on the other hand, has played two “internal incubation cards”: *Return to Tang* represents a foray into the single-player game sector, leveraging LeiHuo’s two decades of experience, while *The Forgotten Sea* marks a leap into a new open-world genre. Neither of these projects involves external acquisitions; instead, they rely on the company’s in-house development teams to expand into new genres.
It remains to be seen which approach is more sustainable and competitive. But this year’s SGF has at least confirmed one thing: China’s major studios are no longer confined to the role of mere “investors” at the global AAA gaming table. They have finally established a foothold in both product development and publishing.
原创文章，作者：gallonwang，禁止转载：https://youxichaguan.com/en/archives/198439
