Yingche Network Files for Bankruptcy as Blue Sky Below and Millennium Tour ELF Shutdowns Raise Industry Questions

Yingche Network Enters Liquidation as Two Mobile Games Go Dark

The Shanghai No. 3 Intermediate People’s Court formally accepted the bankruptcy liquidation of Shanghai Yingche Network Technology on July 27, 2026. One month later, at 5 p.m. on August 26, 2026, the company’s two live-service mobile titles—Under the Clear Sky and Millennium Journey ELF—were taken offline. The shutdown has left players asking the usual painful questions: what happens to their accounts, in-game assets, and any premium currency they bought but never spent.

For those still holding a balance, the administrator’s notice offers partial reassurance. Player account data and in-game assets will be sealed and preserved, not deleted. The administrator also says it will draw up a plan for unspent premium currency. The catch is structural: under Chinese bankruptcy liquidation rules, recovering past spending is a long shot. The money most players already spent is almost certainly gone. That gap—between saving data and refunding money—is what will actually matter to players.

The collapse caps a sharp reversal. In August 2024, Yingche took a 25.8% stake in Chengdu Cangmo, a move widely described as the first major investment in domestic standalone games after Black Myth: Wukong broke through. That shareholding then plummeted to 7.7%. Millennium Journey shut down in December 2024, came back in August 2025 as Millennium Journey ELF, and promptly made another headline when its producer resigned during a live stream after the new version went live. Under the Clear Sky lasted even less time in the spotlight: it fell out of the top-200 sales chart within a week of launch. Each of these events, taken alone, reads like a warning sign; together they form a coherent story of a publisher that could not turn momentum into revenue. The cash ran out before the business model could be fixed.

Players are already splitting into two groups. One is writing off its account and moving on; the other is waiting to see what compensation plan the administrator eventually files. The mood is captured by one industry observer’s comment: “When the hot-money tide goes out, what’s left is usually devastation. The ones that actually survive the cycle are the developers still quietly polishing their product.”

Not every project is heading for the same ending. The liquidation has not touched Project Code: Jin Yi Wei, which has been renamed A Sound of Autumn: Jin Yi Wei. That standalone project has already appeared at Bilibili World, ChinaJoy, and Gamescom, and for anyone watching Chinese single-player development, the team is still in active development. Whether it actually reaches release is the question the audience is now tracking more closely than Yingche’s liquidation itself.

Put the two timelines together and Yingche’s failure looks less like a single accident than a diagnosis. The mobile side staged a fast revival and an even faster collapse; the standalone side is taking the slow road, supported by outside investment. Fast money can compress a schedule, but it cannot repair a broken commercial design. In the end, the product—not the funding—is what outlasts the cycle.