Burning through 3 billion to support "players," the 2026 version of Netease's Justice Online ignites its first big spark!

Looking across the entire gaming industry, you won’t find another game like Netease’s Justice Online mobile version that is so lavish and unconcerned with costs. In a sense, it’s the most generous game ever. To win players’ favor, it spends money with no limits, seemingly willing to return all its profits to the players.

Justice Online mobile is Netease’s well-known “big spender.” During its development, it was a money-burning machine, with over 1 billion yuan invested. Despite such a huge investment, before even launching publicly, it declared it would completely avoid pay-to-win mechanics, adopting a “no grind, no pay” seasonal system, encouraging players to willingly spend on cosmetic outfits by offering a superior gaming experience.

Thus, the entire business strategy of Justice Online shifted from pushing players to spend money to making players fall in love with the game itself. To deepen players’ affection, it never hesitates to invest heavily in development and generous rewards. The upcoming 2026 Spring Festival update is the latest example.

Before the Spring Festival update arrives, Justice Online mobile has already been aggressively investing in content. It invited experts from the Dunhuang Research Academy for full supervision, accurately restoring murals and landscapes from eight caves, even acquiring the rights to “Hexi Corridor” as background music; it held a virtual New Year’s Eve concert on the scale of the Spring Festival Gala, collaborating with top dancers like Tang Shiyi for motion capture, and attracted live coverage by the People’s Daily.

Entering the 2026 Spring Festival preparation phase, the official spending escalated further, explicitly committing to “unlimited investment” to build the new version: introducing the new Flying Goddess faction Hongyin, launching “tough player” level Spring Festival benefits, releasing the most heartwarming Spring tasks, inviting new intangible cultural heritage teams, and partnering with Xinhua News Agency to launch the “Heroic Warmth” event. Additionally, there will be the return of the New Year amusement park, brand-new lucky New Year costumes, rare treasure hunting in the vast desert, and many other activities, aiming to deliver the most authentic Jianghu New Year atmosphere and the most immersive Spring Festival experience for players.

Beyond these benefits and events, Justice Online’s Jianghu world will undergo a comprehensive upgrade with new factions, new rewards, new storylines, new gameplay, and new audiovisuals... The official confidently claims, “Everything you can imagine, we have it; and even things you haven’t thought of yet, we have those too!”

Each of these features comes at a considerable cost; saying it’s money piled up is no exaggeration. Not to mention the supervision fees for the intangible cultural heritage teams and the prestige of partnering with Xinhua News Agency, just the New Year costume gifts and the 288 selectable costumes for players alone cost in the tens of billions. Burning 3 billion on the entire Spring Festival event is by no means an exaggeration.

Even more “terrifying” than the spending is its ongoing impact — a money-burning version like Justice Online’s Spring Festival update is not a one-off; it sets a benchmark for future updates. The better and more costly this round of benefits is, the more will be expected next time, with even higher standards. From this perspective, you could say that the 3 billion spent on Justice Online’s Spring Festival update actually lit the first big firework for its 2026 year.

So, what do you think about Justice Online mobile, this big spender, and its Spring Festival update? Share your thoughts with us.