Starfield

Biodata

History

Decline and Su Ye’s Takeover

Starfield was an established game company that had previously competed with Teng Hua’s Qisheng. As Qisheng grew and suppressed its competitors, Starfield gradually faded from prominence. Su Ye inherited the family business a few months before Minecraft’s release, when it was close to bankruptcy 1 10.

Despite his employees’ doubts about Minecraft’s block-based graphics, Su Ye ordered a free release and committed the company’s remaining three million yuan to promotion. He refused to have staff direct sponsored streamer Chen Ze’s gameplay, arguing that discovery was central to the experience. Downloads began surging during Chen Ze’s stream 1.

Minecraft’s Breakthrough

Starfield promised that Minecraft would remain free permanently and offered 100,000 yuan to the first player to defeat the Ender Dragon. After Chen Ze defeated it and downloads exceeded ten million, the company launched the Xingye Official Gaming Platform, releasing free official content and tools for player-created additions 3 5.

Paid community content turned the free game into a major source of revenue. Within a week, reported earnings approached forty million yuan, allowing Su Ye to begin the company’s next project, PUBG: Exhilarating Battlefield 10.

Conflict with Qisheng

Qisheng responded to Minecraft’s success by pursuing acquisition or imitation, eventually releasing Mini World. It also paid reviewers to attack Minecraft and Starfield. Su Ye instructed staff to preserve videos and screenshots before taking legal action 10 12 21 30.

After CCTV featured Minecraft, Teng Hua ordered the smear campaign stopped, but Starfield had already sued Qisheng. The case ended with Qisheng ordered to pay Starfield ten million yuan. Starfield publicized the victory and Qisheng’s plagiarism, encouraging other companies to pursue their own claims 25 27.

Starfield subsequently sued dozens of paid reviewers. Outcomes included public apologies and compensation, with accounts closed in the more serious cases 30.

Games and Content

PUBG Development

• Combat design: Su Ye emphasized tense, exciting exchanges rather than strictly realistic damage that would eliminate players instantly. Development priorities included weapon differences, damage balance, and immersive VR combat 10 22.
• Release standards: Su Ye authorized delaying the launch if necessary to preserve quality, although Luan Le’an maintained that the team could meet the schedule 28.
• Monetization: The game offered a deluxe pass priced at 39.9 yuan, weapon crates, and character cosmetics despite its free entry price 28 41.
• Anti-cheat preparations: After detecting attempted code and data manipulation, Starfield divided development work between optimization and cheat detection. Su Ye also ordered player reporting, manual reviews, reviewer recruitment, and monitoring of cheat-related publicity 43.

Xingye Gaming Platform

Distribution and Creator Economy

• Official resources: The platform launched with free official mods, modpacks, texture packs, shader packs, and servers for Minecraft 5.
• Public development tools: Starfield released a mod-development API and allowed creators to sell their own content 5.
• Revenue sharing: Revenue from paid creator content was split equally between Starfield and the creator 5.
• Creator incentives: Su Ye tasked Luan Le’an with preparing a Creator Incentive Program that rewarded popular creators 8.
• Cross-game social features: Friends lists carried over between games, allowing existing Starfield friends to form PUBG teams 41.
• Trading market: A later update introduced player listings for PUBG clothing and weapon skins. Prices ranged from a few cents to hundreds of yuan; PUBG was initially the only supported game 47.

Rules and Enforcement

Starfield provided a complaint channel and enforced platform rules against deceptive creator monetization 32 33.

• Holy Sword Bearer case: Server owner Fei Wu advertised a six-yuan offer but supplied raffle tickets rather than the promised reward, requiring substantially more spending to guarantee it 32.
• Immediate sanctions: Starfield shut down the server, froze Fei Wu’s platform balances, and ordered recovery of his earnings. Su Ye also directed staff to preserve evidence and blacklist him 33.
• Repayment demand: Fei Wu was required to repay 862,387.9 yuan by November 2 or face legal action 33.
• Public response: Players and creators praised the intervention; community reports stated that the complaint had been handled in under ten minutes 33.

Competitions

Starfield Building Cup

• Organization: Starfield proposed the competition to Chen Ze and subsequently organized it with participating streamers 8 12.
• Entry process: Players registered through the Xingye Gaming Platform and posted construction videos tagged with Minecraft and the competition’s name 12.
• Judging: Public voting determined the hundred most-liked entries, which streamer judges then reviewed and scored 12 23.
• First-place prize: The announced prize was 500,000 yuan 12.
• Official showcase: Starfield released footage of its Forbidden City build, inspiring Zhang Sheng to recreate the Old Summer Palace 21 22.
• Notable entry: Zhang Sheng’s Old Summer Palace reconstruction became a viral showcase of the game’s building possibilities and a highlight of the judging broadcasts 23 24.

Third-Party Events and Esports Plans

• Community tournaments: Starfield permitted Chen Ze to organize his own Minecraft tournament, provided he followed applicable rules and submitted a reporting form describing the event and its timing 50.
• PUBG tournament timing: Su Ye intended to wait until the player base and ranked ladder matured before holding an official tournament 48.
• Long-term ambition: His proposed offline tournament system would begin in stadiums and eventually use a dedicated Starfield venue capable of holding hundreds of thousands of spectators. He wanted gaming competitions to achieve World Cup-level prominence 36.

Financial and Audience Growth

Physical Merchandise and Related Businesses

Su Ye separated physical-product operations from Starfield Game Company, arranging a new company to manage Minecraft-style building blocks. He later identified communication problems between the game company and Starfield Industries and considered establishing a group company 30 32.

• Leshi Building Blocks: Interlocking blocks modeled on Minecraft blocks. Su Ye approved outsourced production for the first batch, planned in-house production afterward, and proposed giving away early sets through an official-server event 30.
• Early sales: Leshi sold tens of thousands of sets, generating approximately 3.7 million yuan in profit 34.
• Retail expansion: Su Ye allocated 100 million yuan for quality physical stores, beginning in first-tier cities 34.
• Starfield Art Toys: Retail stores stocked Leshi building blocks, Minecraft figure blind boxes, and themed torch lamps 34.
• Collector merchandise: Blind boxes included standard figures and limited collector’s editions, including an axolotl obtained by Pipi 34.

Personnel and Relationships

• Su Ye — Inherited Starfield and directs its game concepts, pricing, platform policies, legal strategy, and expansion 1 5 25 46.
• Luan Le’an — Game designer and principal development contact; handles project implementation, progress reports, and technical investigations 1 10 28 43.
• Deng Jiajia — Su Ye’s assistant and secretary; coordinates publicity, recruitment, merchandise arrangements, and headquarters planning 28 30 43 45 46.
• Liu Maosheng — HR staff member whom Luan Le’an was to notify about recruiting for overseas expansion 22.
• Zhang Jiadong — Reports platform misconduct to Su Ye and receives instructions on enforcement 33.
• Zhang Zhisheng — Handles Leshi’s production and retail-expansion discussions with Su Ye 34.
• Chen Ze — Sponsored early Minecraft streamer, Building Cup collaborator and judge, and later organizer of an independently proposed tournament 1 8 23 50.
• Qisheng / Teng Hua — Long-standing competitor responsible for imitation projects and a paid smear campaign; defeated by Starfield in court 10 27 30.
• Zhang Zhiguo — Land-bureau director involved in discussions about Starfield’s proposed headquarters site 45 46.

Workplace and Expansion

Staffing

• Pay raises: Su Ye increased ordinary employees’ monthly salaries by 3,000 yuan and management salaries by 5,000 yuan during PUBG development 28.
• Recruitment: Following the anti-cheat meeting, Starfield sought additional capable developers and manual reviewers to address staffing shortages 43.
• Overseas operations: Su Ye instructed Luan Le’an to recruit personnel for overseas expansion and considered a global Minecraft promotion campaign after the Qisheng lawsuit 22 25.

Proposed Headquarters

• Preferred site: Land near Guangming Lake, below the Shencheng Institute of Technology and close to a subway connection 45.
• Land designation: M0 industrial research-and-development land intended for headquarters, R&D, and technology offices 45.
• Purchase proposal: Su Ye sought all 240 mu, offering one billion yuan upfront and proposing further monthly purchases 46.
• Approval status: Reserving the site required district coordination and city approval. The supplied chapters show negotiations and an investigation into Starfield, not a completed acquisition 46.

Branding

• Logo: A minimalist black-and-white faceted star surrounded by a planetary orbit. The mark appears on official merchandise, including figure bases 35.
• Game presentation: PUBG opens with gunfire, black-and-gold imagery, a gaming-headset animation, and the Starfield Games logo 37.