CrossFire (video game)

CrossFire is an online tactical first-person shooter game developed by Smilegate Entertainment for Microsoft Windows. It was first released in South Korea on May 3, 2007.

CrossFire
Developer(s)	Smilegate Entertainment
Publisher(s)	WW: Smilegate CHN: Tencent INA: Lyto
Engine	Lithtech Jupiter EX
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	KOR: May 3, 2007 CHN: April 28, 2008 NA: January 30, 2009 INA: November 7, 2009 EU: August 31, 2011
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Due to its popularity in Asia, especially China and South Korea, it has become the world's most-played video game by player count,[1] with a lifetime total of 1 billion users in 80 countries worldwide.[2] It was the world's top-grossing online game as of 2014,[3] and went on to become one of the highest-grossing video games of all time,[4] having grossed $12 billion in lifetime revenue as of 2018.

The game has spawned a media franchise. A film adaptation of the game was announced in October 2015.[5] A Chinese television drama series based on the game premiered in July 2020, and became a commercial success with more than 1.7 billion views in China as of October 2020.

Gameplay

A mission success screen on a team deathmatch mode, the player holding an M16

CrossFire is a free-to-play first-person shooter that features two mercenary corporations named the "Black List" and "Global Risk," fighting each other in an epic global conflict. Players assume the role of either a Black List or Global Risk mercenary, joining an online team that must work together to complete objective-based scenarios. Except for the Zombie mode and Wave mode, each mode can support a maximum of 16 players, each divided into an 8-man team.

Players progress and eventually be promoted through various military ranks, beginning at trainee, with the highest being Marshall. Players can also customize their character's equipment and appearance through in-game items.

CrossFire has a free currency which is called "Game Points" (GP), which is earned through playing and completing matches, buying premium items that grant bonus GP, or fulfilling certain missions. Premium and special items like modified weapons can only be bought using monetary currencies. The content tends to vary from version to version.

Modes

CrossFire features several game modes, each with unique maps and rules.

Team Deathmatch

Teams work towards goals, such as first to x many kills, or the team with the most kills.

Search & Destroy

Black List's objective is to plant and detonate a C4 charge in a designated spot or kill all of the Global Risk players. Global Risk's objective is to eliminate all Black List players or prevent Black List from planting and detonating the charge within the match's time limit. Players do not respawn. Rounds last up to 3 minutes.

Free for All

No teams, teams kill as many players as possible. Players respawn at different locations. The round ends when a player reaches the kill quota for the match or the timer runs out. Weapon restrictions exist for this mode.

Elimination

Similar to TDM, except players do not respawn when killed. In some maps, players start only with their melee weapons and must pick up guns pre-set in the map. Rounds last up to three minutes, with Global Risk defaulting in wins.

Suppression Mode

A new, and much faster Search and Destroy. Each Black List player gets a bomb, and spawns only a few metres from the bomb plant site. The Global Risk must storm their defenses and disarm the bomb before it detonates.

Ghost Mode

All Black List mercenaries have invisibility and melee weapons, while all Global Risk mercenaries are fully visible, but can use all available weapons. Black List emits a heavy breathing sound, footsteps, splashes while running through water, and also become significantly visible while moving.

Shadow Mode

A variant of Ghost Mode. A player becomes a Shadow warrior which is an advanced ghost character. This mode introduces security devices such as Sensors, Lasers and Sprinklers to track down the Shadow warriors. In this map, there are certain parts of the floors which are covered with different textures (including broken glass) that will make more noise than others, making it easier for the Mercenary Soldiers to hear the Shadow Warrior movements.

Mutation Mode

One or two players are infected and mutated 20 seconds into the round. When the time is up or all mutants are dead, the soldiers win. If all the soldiers mutate or die, the mutants win. Mutants are knocked backwards when shot.

Escape Mode

A game mode where the Black List team must "escape" through a portal a certain number of times while the Global Risk team tries to prevent them. There are walls and doors that can be destroyed to make the escaping team's job easier or are a requirement to escape, at half time the teams switch sides (if the team finishes escaping early, then they immediately switch sides. If they do not complete their goal, then the other team only has to finish what the other team started).

Hero Mode

The game plays mostly like Mutation mode, but features a "Hero" character. 20 seconds into the round, one to three players randomly will mutate and one will become the "Hero". Also, mutants here will continue to respawn when killed unless they are killed with a headshot. The game ends when either the soldiers survive until the round ends or they are all mutated.

Hero Mode X

Random players are mutated after 20 seconds count down, and one of them is chosen to be the "Terminator" which has 6000 HP and can infect players with longer ranged lightning bolt attacks, making it a rather daunting foe for soldiers. Mutants can only be prevented from respawning by being killed with a melee attack rather than a headshot. The premise of this mode is that once only 2-3 players are left, they can have a chance to turn into Commandos, which cannot be infected like regular soldiers and possess dual kukris, which do massive damage to mutants and prevent them from respawning altogether, however Commandos cannot use firearms. The round ends either with all players infected/killed or if all the mutants are killed and cannot respawn. Also in this mode, it features a damage boost for soldiers, which deals much more damage to mutants and increases every time a soldier is infected. Soldiers can have a maximum of 340% damage boost, to the point of becoming Commandos themselves. This mode also features two expansion packs, one with a new Terminator-like mutant called Havoc, which is same equivalent as Terminator but has slashing attacks instead of electricity attacks and a Commando counterpart called Nemesis, a female commando armed with dual axes. The other expansion is called the Parasite Expansion, an upgraded add-on where the mutants side features a Devil Terminator mutant armed with long blades and a parasite bomb, and for the soldier's side features a new Commando called Devil Hunter armed with Twin Assassin Swords and can regain 200 HP for every mutants killed. In this add-on, the Devil Terminator can infect soldiers using its parasite bomb from a distance and the soldiers will have to shoot each other, if they were hit by the parasite bomb to prevent getting infected and curing the player or their teammates will have the player's primary weapon's ammo restocked.

Zombie Mode

Four players in a Zombie Apocalypse-esque scenario. Zombie Apocalypse consists of a team of four Global Risk mercenaries trying to survive a fixed number of rounds with a boss at the final round. The enemies featured in the game are a variety of "zombified" Black List mercenaries and mutants, each kind having their own characteristic. The game ends once the players survive through the rounds and kill the final boss in the map or if all the players are killed and cannot respawn.

Elite/Bounty Mode

This mode is the first with given money and battle results, similar to the concept of Counter Strike. When the battle begins, players can only use the pistol equipped in their inventory and must buy other weapons using their cash. Cash can be gained by killing opponents or planting/defusing the bomb. This mode is like S&D Pro.

Wave Mode

5v5 or 4v4 team based mode. Both teams must destroy the opposition's defense towers in order to reach the base, which has two "Last defense towers" guarding it, and players must destroy those two towers to start damaging the base (clearance of all side towers is not needed). This is the first mode where the player can pick one of eleven classes before joining the room. Each class is different and has its own skills. This mode also introduces NPCs, airstrikes, mortar bombs, energy transmitters and Class Upgrade Systems.

King Mode

No teams. Players compete in a series of mini-games each round, and the players with the highest score gets selected as a commander each round. The game continues until a player reaches a certain score and fight to be crowned the King.

Sheep Mode

No teams. Players compete to get the most points in the end by picking up sheep, which generate points every so often. Once someone has gotten to a point limit set before the game, the golden sheep is spawned, and everyone must fight to see who will get it.

Big Head

Team death match but with a twist, as the player kills they level up, increasing their head size. The maximum is five. A bar will fill up for each team and when it is full, that team will enter "Big Head" mode, where the player is able to instant kill anyone with a melee attack.

Weapons

CrossFire weapons are based on real-life models, with each weapon belonging to a category. Categories include machine guns, assault rifles and sniper rifles. Each category is functionally similar to their real world counterparts (E.g. Machine guns are heavy, powerful, lay down heavy fire and have long reload times, Submachine guns are lighter and fire faster but deal less damage, Shotguns are effective in close range but ineffective at long distance.) Weapons often have many variations, including different skins which give them different attributes. In addition, the re-skinned versions are often rarer. There are also some weapons which are different from other weapons like the VIP weapons, which have better functions like faster reload, among others. Certain modes have mode-exclusive weapons.

Characters

Characters are the avatar of players and are what they will look like while playing in the game. A note is that while all characters are visually unique from each other, they are all functionally the same with no real advantages or disadvantages from each other in terms of stats, apart from a few limited-edition characters who are, for example; able to see better through smoke or reduce the visual incapacitating effects of flash bang grenades.

The characters featured in CrossFire are a combination of both real and fictional Special Forces groups. The real groups featured are: The Russian OMON, the LAPD SWAT, the British SAS, the Brazilian BOPE, the German GSG 9, the Korean 707th Special Mission Group, the United Nations Special Forces, and the American Navy SEALs. Each character also has both a Black List and Global Risk variant. Some characters are bought with GP, while some are bought with premium currency. There are special characters found in some modes like the knight.

There are also mutant characters for the Mutation/Hero modes, which unlike regular game characters, each have unique abilities.

Regional availability

Region	Publisher	Release date	Closure date	Status	Notes
South Korea	Smilegate (previously Pmang)	May 3, 2007 (Pmang's first launch) December 12, 2013 (Smilegate's relaunch)	July 11, 2012 (previous publisher) March 3, 2020[6](relaunch)	Closed	—
Japan	Playgra (previously Arario)	February 23, 2008	March 31, 2018	Closed	—
Vietnam	VTC Online[7] (previously VTC Game)	March 18, 2008	—	Active	—
China	Tencent	April 28, 2008	—	Active	—
West[8]	Smilegate West (previously G4Box)	January 30, 2009 (North America)	—	Active	Merger of the North America, Europe and Latin America servers
Philippines	Smilegate (previously Gameclub)	September 17, 2009	—	Active	—
Indonesia	Lyto	December 8, 2009	December 21, 2020	Closed	—
Russia	Mail.Ru	June 2, 2010	—	Active	—
Taiwan	Macrowell OMG	March 24, 2011	March 23, 2014	Closed	—
Europe	Smilegate West (previously SG Interactive)	August 31, 2011	November 7, 2018[8]	Merged into the West server	—
Brazil	Smilegate West	November 29, 2011	—	Active	—
South East Asia	Gambooz	September 12, 2013	March 17, 2015[9]	Closed	—
Latin America	Smilegate West	January 28, 2014	March 18, 2020	Merged into the West server	—
Iran	Ariogames	March 16, 2019	May 7, 2019	Closed	Closed due to the US sanctions imposed on Iran
CF Zero	Smilegate	December 18.2019	October 28. 2020	Closed	-

Commercial performance

CrossFire is the most played video game worldwide, with 6 million concurrent users and 1 billion registered players in February 2020, according to developer Smilegate,[10] with the majority of players in Asia, especially China and South Korea.[11] The game had 660 million players worldwide by 2018,[12] and has reached a lifetime total of 1 billion users in 80 countries as of 2020.[2]

In 2013, the game was one of the three most popular video games in China, with a revenue of almost $1 billion.[13] It was the world's top-grossing game of 2014 at ₩1.5 trillion ($1.3 billion).[3] By 2015, CrossFire had grossed $6.8 billion ,[14] making it one of the top five highest-grossing video games of all time, along with Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Street Fighter II and World of Warcraft.[4] CrossFire grossed $1.1 billion in 2016 and $1.4 billion in 2017, making it one of the three top-grossing PC games for both years, along with League of Legends and Dungeon Fighter Online (DFO).[15][16] In 2018, CrossFire grossed $1.3 billion , making it one of the year's five top-grossing video games, along with Fortnite, DFO, League of Legends and Pokémon Go.[17] It grossed $1.4 billion in 2019,[18] bringing its lifetime revenue to $12 billion as of 2019.

Legacy

Crossfire Mobile

Crossfire Mobile is a free application for mobile users to play a separate CrossFire experience on the go; while maintaining the overall aesthetic of the original game. The application is developed by Smilegate and Tencent. The game is running on Unity and was released on December 3rd (2015) for iOS and Android devices to all markets. The game is now only operating in China as other markets have been closed.

Crossfire Zero

Crossfire Zero was a free spin-off first-person shooter PC game for the Southeast Asian market released in January 2020. This game featured two game modes, one which offered classic modes such as S&D and Team Death Match and the other offering a Battle Royale style mode. The game ran on Unity and has and was closed on the 28th October 2020.

Crossfire: Warzone

Crossfire: Warzone is a spin-off real-time strategy mobile game, for iOS and Android mobile devices.[19] It was developed by Joycity, and released on July 28, 2020.[20]

Crossfire HD

Crossfire HD is a free spin-off first-person shooter PC game set to be released exclusively for China. This game has been described as a remastered version of the original Crossfire using Unreal Engine 3. Crossfire HD has recently went into a fourth closed beta in China in August 2020.

CrossfireX

CrossfireX is a first-person shooter set to be released exclusively for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. Smilegate Entertainment wanted to expand the narrative of the franchise and introduce it to a broader audience. Therefore, the team partnered with Xbox Game Studios to create a console version and entrusted Remedy Entertainment, a Finnish video game developer, to create a single-player campaign for the game.[21] As Remedy at that time was exploring the idea of working on a first-person shooter, and planned on developing multiple projects at once, the team agreed to help Smilegate.[22] Remedy had been working on the single-player portion since 2016.[23] The single-player portion will be powered by Remedy's own Northlight engine, which was used previously in Quantum Break and Control. Remedy was chosen due to the team's expertise in creating memorable fictional worlds and characters. Inspired by Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil, the team hoped to create characters that are "larger-than-life".[22]

Other media

Film adaptation

In October 2015, it was announced that Neal Moritz would be producing a film version of CrossFire, after spending a year weighing up proposals from Hollywood producers and studios.[24]

In February 2020, it was announced that Sony Pictures will be developing the film adaptation, Tencent Pictures will co-produce and co-finance and Moritz will produce through his Original Film banner.[25]

Television drama

CrossFire, a Chinese television drama series produced by Youhug Media and Tencent Holdings, premiered on July 20, 2020. The plot is a coming-of-age story about two young CrossFire gamers, played by Chinese movie stars Lu Han and Leo Wu, attempting to compete in CrossFire e-sports competitions. The show became a commercial success, receiving more than 980 million views on online streaming platforms within four weeks of release.[26] As of October 2020, the show has received more than 1.7 billion views in China.[27]

References

1. "Smilegate to close Berlin office just over a year after it opened". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on November 10, 2018. Retrieved November 10, 2018.
2. Kroll, Justin (February 13, 2020). "'Crossfire' Movie Adaptation Lands at Sony (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
3. Lee Ji-yoon (May 20, 2015). "[Herald Interview] The woman behind success of 'Crossfire'". The Korea Herald. Archived from the original on May 29, 2015. Retrieved May 29, 2015.
4. "World of Warcraft Leads Industry With Nearly $10 Billion In Revenue". Game Revolution. CraveOnline. January 26, 2017. Archived from the original on August 18, 2018. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
5. Kil, Sonia (October 14, 2015). "'Fast & Furious' Producer Neal Moritz to Make Movie of Korean Hit Game 'Crossfire'". variety.com. Archived from the original on October 15, 2015. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
6. "[안내] 크로스파이어 서비스 종료 및 환불 안내". crossfire.co.kr. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
7. "VTC Online chính thức ký kết hợp đồng phát hành sản phẩm Đột Kích tại Việt Nam". Retrieved June 1, 2020.
8. "Together CF EU and CF NA will make ... CrossFire West!". crossfire.z8games.com. Archived from the original on November 26, 2018. Retrieved November 26, 2018.
9. "Smilegate shuts down CrossFire SEA". gamerage.com. Archived from the original on November 26, 2018. Retrieved November 26, 2018.
10. Kroll, Justin (February 13, 2020). "'Crossfire' Movie Adaptation Lands at Sony (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved September 16, 2020.
11. "Smilegate to close Berlin office just over a year after it opened". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on November 10, 2018. Retrieved November 10, 2018.
12. "Smilegate Entertainment announces details for the CFS 2018 Grand Finals". Business Wire. September 7, 2018. Archived from the original on January 11, 2019. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
13. Davis, Kurt (December 9, 2014). "Why the South Korean game market looks almost nothing like it did last year". Tech in Asia. Archived from the original on June 23, 2015. Retrieved May 29, 2015.
14. "The 11 top-grossing video games of all time". Business Insider. August 15, 2015. Archived from the original on November 13, 2017.
15. "Market Brief — Year in Review 2016". SuperData Research. Archived from the original on January 17, 2017. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
16. "2017 YEAR IN REVIEW: DIGITAL GAMES AND INTERACTIVE MEDIA" (PDF). SuperData Research. January 25, 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 11, 2018. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
17. "Market Brief – 2018 Digital Games & Interactive Entertainment Industry Year In Review" (PDF). SuperData Research. Archived from the original on January 2019. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
18. "2019 Year In Review: Digital Games and Interactive Media" (PDF). SuperData Research. Nielsen Media Research. January 2, 2020. Archived from the original on January 2020. Retrieved January 12, 2020.
19. Ghiurca, Andreea (July 29, 2020). "Everything you need to know about real-time strategy and base-building game Crossfire: Warzone". Pocket Gamer. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
20. "CrossFire: Warzone Releases Worldwide". Gamasutra. July 31, 2020. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
21. "Remedy partners with Smilegate to develop CrossFire 2 campaign". MCVUK. July 28, 2016. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
22. Van Allen, Eric (July 24, 2020). "Remedy Says CrossfireX Draws Inspiration From Metal Gear and Resident Evil". USgamer. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
23. Yin-Poole, Wesley (November 21, 2019). "Remedy on making a Call of Duty-style campaign for the biggest FPS in the world". Eurogamer. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
24. Kil, Sonia (October 14, 2015). "'Fast & Furious' Producer Neal Moritz to Make Movie of Korean Hit Game 'CrossFire'". Variety. Archived from the original on November 30, 2017. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
25. Kroll, Justin (February 12, 2020). "'Crossfire' Movie Adaptation Lands at Sony (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
26. Ye, Josh (August 13, 2020). "Tencent's e-sports drama based on CrossFire game is a smash hit". South China Morning Post. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
27. "'Crossfire' and its 1 Billion Users Are Ready to Hit the Mainstream License Battle". License Global. October 21, 2020. Retrieved January 7, 2021.

External links

• Official website