On weekdays, players always talk about konami as a game company, but there are always exceptions to everything, and for Konami, it is "Game King".
In July last year, Konami announced two new games of the Game King IP in one go, and on January 19 this year, one of them, "Game King: Master Duel" (Yu-Gi-Oh: Master Duel) (hereinafter referred to as : Game King MD) took the lead in meeting with players and appeared in front of everyone as a dark horse.
Since its announcement, "Game King MD" has pursued an all-platform strategy, covering multiple platforms such as PC, console, and mobile phone. Although the mobile iOS and Android versions of the "desertion" were officially launched on January 27, they still achieved very significant results.
At the PC platform level, the peak number of online users on the Steam platform exceeded 260,000, surpassing the "Monster Hunter" and "God of War" and other masterpieces launched at the same time. At the mobile level, the game has successfully entered the top of the iOS free list in many places after its launch, especially in Japan, where the audience is large. As of now, the game has been the first in the Japanese iOS free list for 12 days, and reached the third best-seller list.
A week after its launch, Konami announced that the download volume of "Game King MD" PC and console exceeded 4 million, and with the launch of the mobile terminal, the download volume of the game has soared again. On February 7, Konami officially announced that the total number of downloads of "Game King MD" exceeded the 10 million mark.
Recently, Japanese media 4Gamer interviewed Kenichi Kataoka (hereinafter referred to as Kataoka), the producer of "Game King MD", to explore the birth of the game and the future of the game.
It is worth mentioning that Kataoka can be said to be the veteran producer of the Game King series of games, in addition to being the producer of "Game King MD" but also the producer of the blockbuster "Game King: Duel Link" (hereinafter referred to as: Duel Link). Judging from today's achievements, this new work has undoubtedly taken over the banner of "Duel Link" and achieved success again.
The IP iteration is gradual, and the all-platform strategy is effective
As an IP with a history of 26 years and loved by players, the appeal of "Game King" itself naturally does not need to be said, and the reason why the Game King series of games can become the "exception" of Konami is actually due to Konami's hard work.
Over the years, the Game King IP has been launching new works, or comics/anime, or games to maintain the popularity of the entire IP. Not only that, at the level of gameplay, Konami has not stagnated, but has constantly innovated and iterated.
For example, after the superior summoning and fusion summoning that domestic players are most familiar with, the game king has also successively launched a variety of summoning modes such as homophony, excess, connection, and spirit pendulum, and different summoning modes, summoning conditions, and effects have their own characteristics.
In addition to the gameplay level, Konami also makes a fuss about the rules of the game, triggering qualitative changes through quantitative changes.
For example, in 2016, Konami reduced the site layout of the traditional OCG rules, 5 monsters, 5 magic traps, and 1 field magic to 3 monsters and 3 magic traps, and the thickness and health of the card deck were also reduced to half of the original, which greatly accelerated the overall combat rhythm and was more suitable for mobile, which created the explosive "Duel Link".
In 2017, Konami updated the OCG rules to add two Ex Monster Zones, where monsters summoned by players from extra decks will enter the Ex Monster Zone first, which in turn creates operational space and stronger strategy for the pendulum and connection summoning behind.
That's it
In 2019, Konami abandoned most of the gameplay framework and the "one-hit-one" playing style of the previous game king, and created "Rush Duel" with familiar monsters and new card rules, which is faster in pace and less difficult to get started.
King of the Game: Rush Duel
Although it is also cloaked in the "skin" of the Game King IP, because the core rules have changed, different games can always bring players a new experience, and this is also the case in "Game King MD".
In the interview, Kataoka said that "Game King MD" adopts the latest version of the "Game King OCG/TCG Rules" at the battle level, and at the same time includes more than 10,000 cards, and there will be original card packs to further enrich the gameplay. However, at the level of prohibition and restriction cards, neither OCG nor TCG will be referenced, but exclusive restrictions and prohibition cards will be designed.
And Kataoka still said that the official filing of the "Game King MD" project was around 2019, and the reason why such a game was launched was because the positioning of "Duel Link" was to increase the audience of Game King players, but at the same time he also believed that there must be a game that allowed duelists to be able to go further on top of it.
In other words, to some extent, the success of Duel Link on a global scale has allowed the game king's player base to expand, and the game king MD is positioned to meet the needs of these new players to enter the class.
It is not difficult to understand why "Game King MD" can harvest such a large number of players in a short period of time, and because of this, at the beginning of the project, "Game King MD" also adhered to the policy of allowing more players to enjoy the charm of "Game King", and also chose a strategy similar to that of "Duel Link" for all-platform distribution.
Kataoka said that the most difficult part of the development process of "Game King MD" is the game experience across different platforms, because it has the development experience of "Duel Link", so cross-platform combat is not difficult, but the compatibility and adaptation between different platforms and data interoperability, there are many places to consider, which has become the biggest difficulty.
Judging from the results, the efforts made on the whole platform are not in vain, and the total number of downloads of more than 10 million in less than a month online may be the best proof. Of course, if the game has a Chinese, GameLook expects that the game's downloads may be one more level.
4K next-generation upgrade, experience full upgrade, but also pave the way for e-sports
In addition to the continuous evolution of gameplay, another highlight of Game King MD is the first Game King IP game to reach 4K resolution.
Generally speaking, card battle games do not go to great lengths in the fineness of the graphics, after all, the gameplay of the game is more strategic, and the improvement of the graphics will not affect the gameplay. However, in Kataoka's view, it is necessary for "Game King MD".
In the first trailer of "Game King MD", Kataoka once said that as a "next-generation card" game that landed on the next-generation console, the overall improvement of visual effects is on the one hand to play the performance of the next-generation console and bring players a new sensory experience, on the other hand, the visual effect upgrade is also to lay the foundation for the future e-sports road of the game.
Kataoka said that "Game King MD" hopes to allow "players" and "viewers" to enjoy the game, and the increase in image quality to 4K is to achieve this vision, and the team also considered the esports factor, because the game screen will be broadcast on a large monitor during the game, in order to allow the audience to see more clearly in the enlarged picture, so it will decide to upgrade the picture at the beginning of the project.
The visual and sound effects of the game are also similar, and Kataoka said that the sound effects of the game can be said to be full of presence, completing the atmosphere that can be expected and can be hyped up.
At the visual level, Konami has been holding OCG physical card-related competitions before, but in the traditional game king physical card events, due to the "manual" settlement of damage calculation and chaining, the time is slower, and a BO3 game that spends 40 minutes is not uncommon. The animation effect and settlement process in "Game King MD" are undoubtedly more intuitive, and the look and feel of the event is better.
Kataoka said that "Game King MD" is closer to the traditional game king OCG in terms of rules and rhythms, and can also automatically solve some problems such as complex rule calculation, so the game is more intuitive, I think it is an excellent work that combines the advantages of both traditional cards and digital games.
In fact, this is also reflected in other card battle games such as Hearthstone, where simple interactions and intuitive visual effects allow some unfamiliar players to understand the game and the game.
In 2018, Japan officially recognized e-sports as a profession, and the trend of e-sports has blown in Japan, such as the total prize money of World Grand Prix, the highest level of Cygames's CCG game "Poetry of Shadows" last year, soared to 280 million yen (about 15.6876 million yuan).
In contrast, although Konami holds the Japanese "national-level" card game IP game king, but the game is "shabby" a lot, although the attention of local players is acceptable, but in other countries and regions is much smaller, while the more and more complex game rules also make the threshold for viewing the game quite high, is not conducive to the development of the event circle. Not only that, Konami also has a "live series" of sports games and related events, holding many competitive game IP, Konami naturally will not give up the prospect of products in the field of e-sports.
Obviously, King of Games MD will be a chance.
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