Match-3 Game Out of the Sea: Three Seven, FunPlus, and McGee Taiwen fight each other

Ten major trends of match-3 games, horizontal category integration, vertical deep ploughing of female users

The great philosopher Bernard Sutz defined the game this way: to play it is to voluntarily try to overcome unnecessary obstacles.

Obstacles are reflected in three aspects: visual, quantitative, and qualitative in match-3 games. Visually, players will see rows and rows of blocks (cute pets) "poof" disappearing; in terms of numbers, the score on the screen will continue to rise; in terms of nature, players will feel the challenge of continuously rising.

The type and intensity of feedback will determine the strength of the flow experience. As a high-DAU game category, match-3 games have always been very popular. According to data company GameRefinery, match three officially became the largest category in the US iOS game market in 2020, accounting for 21% of the total market revenue, and this category is still maintaining a rapid growth rate of 30%.

Since 2020, many domestic manufacturers have begun to pour into this track, causing a lot of repercussions, such as Magic Tavern (McGee Taiwen) "Project Makeover", 37 Interactive Entertainment "Doomsday Hustle", Youta Network "Dragonfall", FunPlus "Call of Antia: Match 3 RPG" and so on.

The track is becoming more and more crowded, and the gameplay, content, and marketing methods of match-3 games are also emerging. In view of the current hot situation of the match-3 game market, Jingnuo recently interviewed some match-3 practitioners and combined with their own observations, summarized the ten major development trends of match-3 games now and in the future.

The core gameplay comes to an end, and another way is found

1. The core gameplay is difficult to innovate

Match-3 games have a long history, and Tetris, born in 1984, can be said to be the originator of elimination games. In other words, the elimination of this casual, refreshing way of playing has been recognized as early as 38 years ago.

Fast forward to 2000, a match-3 game produced by Plants vs. Zombies developer Popcap, Gems Maze, began to make this game shine, and Gems Maze was inducted into the World Computer Games Hall of Fame hosted by IGN in 2002, becoming the second game of its kind after Tetris.

After entering the era of mobile games, King, another genius game studio, produced the match-3 game "Candy Crush", which led the era of mobile games, and its sequel "Candy Crush Saga" still occupies the top of the best-seller lists in major markets in Europe and the United States.

King designed special effects for match-four and match-five in the Candy Crush series, and set a variety of level objectives for different stages of the level, such as specifying the elimination of special colors, special pieces, time limits, and the opposite, looking for targets hidden under the jelly, greatly enriching the elimination method and level design of pure match-3 games.

Since then, the pure match-3 games on the market have hardly jumped out of the category of "Candy Crush", mostly based on which to innovate chess elements and seek differentiation.

Match-3 gameplay is inherently simple, and even if you innovate the reward mechanism, you can only reach a maximum of five matches. Starting with Jewels, match-3 games have gone through 22 years, and if you go back further, Nintendo's match-4 game Doctor Mario has a history of 32 years, and the pure match-3 gameplay seems to have come to an end.

Due to the high degree of homogenization and difficulty in innovation of match-3 game products, pure match-3 games are mostly monopolized by a single product for a long time, and in the overseas market is "Candy Crush Saga", while "Happy Match" has become a "brother" in the domestic match-3 market.

However, the low threshold of match-three games and the rapid growth of categories have a strong attraction for game manufacturers. If the latecomers want to get a piece of the pie, they can only find another way, break the restrictions of pure match-3 play, and add more elements to it.

2. Category integration

Manufacturers are the first to target traditional hot categories such as SLGs and RPGs. Like the aforementioned "Doomsday Hustle" is a representative product of the "match-3 + SLG" gameplay in recent years, it chooses the survival theme to strengthen the SLG attributes of the game, and even integrates certain shooting elements, but its core gameplay is still match-3.

"Project Makeover" takes the route of "match 3 + simulation business", with the theme of fashion and cross-dressing, which is mainly the core group of match-3 games is women.

In fact, category integration is not new in match-three games. Far from the "puzzle quest" of "match 3 + RPG", there is the popular Japanese market of "Zhilong Labyrinth", Playrix's "Dream Garden" and "Dream Home" are also representative works of match 3 + simulation management.

Taking "Zhilong Maze" as an example, the pet cultivation and attribute restraint in the game will make the RPG cultivation gameplay extreme in the match-3 game, and the addition of the common draw mode in the card RPG also makes the "Zhilong Maze" occupy a high position in terms of income.

Overall, the main purpose of category integration is two points: one is to differentiate their own products, and the other is to attract audiences of related themes and related categories and increase the number of users.

Yin Tianming, vice president of 37 Interactive Entertainment Products, said in an interview that the company found that a large part of the audience covered by the two types of games covered by the three match-to-match gameplay and the survival theme overlapped. The proportion of female players in the match-3 genre is very high, and there are actually a large number of female users in the audience of the survival theme, especially in Europe and the United States, many women are fans of American dramas on this theme.

Project Makeover's strategy is to attract younger female users, while to some extent abandoning some of the traditional middle-aged and elderly female audiences. However, from the perspective of market performance, Project Makeover's differentiated positioning and new users have been successful.

Whether it is match-3, SLG or RPG, they are regular customers of gameplay integration. When setting up a product project, it is necessary to consider more about the target users of the game, study and judge the needs and preferences of users, and then choose the appropriate way to play close to the user.

Under the trend of "big integration of gameplay" in the match-3 category, the judgment of the market and users is becoming more and more important.

Female users are still the main force, and it is imperative to go to advertising

3. Male users are hard to win

As the market and users become saturated, manufacturers also want to compete for different types of audiences to break the deadlock. Unlike competitive mobile games such as Glory of Kings, which can attract female users, match-3 games have remained attractive to male users at a low level.

According to specialgamez data, from 2020, the U.S. market match-3 games became the largest category, and the proportion of female gamers reached 90%, and the age group was concentrated in 35-54 years old.

Of course, there are exceptions, such as "Puzzle Quest" and "Zhilong Maze" such as "strong RPG" attribute match-3 games, their gameplay and traditional match-3 are still different, the core selling point is also biased towards numerical cultivation and even numerical strategy battles.

Numerical growth and competition are easier for male players to pay, but it is difficult for a particular product like Zhilong Maze to form a general paradigm for the performance of a particular product in a specific market.

Japanese players have always favored RPGs, but men in the European and American markets and chinese markets prefer FPS, SLG, MOBA and other strong competitive models, even RPGs, traditional card RPGs and the rise of secondary RPGs in recent years are more attractive than "match-3 + RPG".

The reason is that the core experience of match-3 games is always fragmented and sketchy, with small length and shallow content, which is difficult to meet the lasting and heavy game needs of most male users.

Another reason is that women have an advantage over men in match-three. Some studies have shown that women are more sensitive to color than men, and their ability to summarize and organize is stronger than men, so it is easier to distinguish the laws of color and shape in match-3 games, and it is easier to harvest a good game experience. Conversely, some men tend to get frustrated in match-three games and gradually move away from the category.

Even match-3 products with survival themes such as "Doomsday Hustle" also focused on the proportion of female users when setting up the project, and mainly fought for female players who had not yet been discovered.

The mainstream match-3 games on the market: "Candy Crush Saga", "Dream Home", "Dream Garden", "Line: Disney Matchmaking", "Project Makeover", "Happy Matchmaking" and so on. Their art, themes, and plot design are all geared towards female gamers.

Looking at the development history and current situation of the entire match-3 category, it is not difficult to see that female users will still be the main force of match-3 games in the future, and male users are not easy to fight for, and the willingness to pay for the match-3 category is also low. Match-3 game makers still have to do more articles on female users.

4. Younger audiences

Since you want to win the love of female players, you have to see which female users have not yet "entered the game".

If you look at it according to the data above, there are not as many female users under the age of 35 and over 55 in the US market as there are in the main group. In other words, this part of the user has not yet been fully explored. Compared to the two, it is clear that female audiences under the age of 35 have more potential to pay and are more familiar with video games.

"Project Makeover" is a representative product of this direction, it has been successful with the beauty, fashion, and cross-dressing themes that young women are more interested in, and has remained 12th in the overseas income list of Chinese mobile games for nearly a year and a half.

Looking back at the iterative process of several match-3 products of Magic Tavern, from the pure match-3 of "Tasty Treats" to the heavy social operation of "Matchington Mansion" to today's "Project Makeover", the user side of each product is actually shrinking.

Zhao Yongkai, CEO of Magic Tavern, also said in an interview: "'Tasty Treats' is the most suitable game for all ages, the male users of Matchinton Mansion have dropped sharply, and there are few male players in Project Makeover, and it is more difficult to reach the key groups of traditional match-3: middle-aged and elderly women." ”

Interestingly, the constant contraction has not faded the momentum of Magic Tavern. On the contrary, this situation reflects the trend of today's match-3 game market to be more segmented and service-oriented. Especially for many small and medium-sized manufacturers, focusing on market segments is more appropriate and competitive than a "winner-take-all" strategy.

The Chinese market is a different story. The domestic Internet and game industry started late compared with Europe and the United States, the middle-aged group is not as familiar with the Internet and smart phones as the "Z generation", and there are still some middle-aged groups that maintain the traditional concept of "video games are flood beasts", so the overall domestic game users are younger, concentrated in 18-30 years old and minors.

The domestic blockbuster match-3 products "Happy Match" and "Everyday Love Elimination" show that the game itself serves a younger audience. The enthusiasm and energy of young people is unstoppable.

5. Go to advertising

Focusing on young people is one of the strategies to focus on market segmentation, and it also shows that the product will give up a part of the users from the beginning of the project, and it is difficult to make the DAU a pure match-3 order of magnitude, so the payment rate is particularly critical in this type of product.

Generally speaking, male users are more willing to pay in the game, but they are more inclined to increase the value and compete with players, and if they want female players to pay willingly, it is more important to touch them in the story and emotion.

This is also the purpose of the current match-3 game category integration, adding story content and emotional elements to the match-3 gameplay, so that the game content is connected with the player's emotions.

Match 3 + simulation business game "Dream Home" is set to help Austin complete the task of renovating the old mansion of childhood, prevent this large house full of childhood memories from being sold, as the game continues to advance, players will gradually integrate into Austin's family life and experience the warm family daily life created in the game.

Once the story and interaction have successfully cultivated the player's sense of belonging and immersion, the players are more willing to pay for the game. Correspondingly, the common advertising monetization methods in casual games will gradually abdicate in the "match-3+" category.

Casual games tend to have a high DAU but low willingness to pay, and it is not uncommon to monetize embedded ads. However, when the match-3 game moves towards immersion and dramatization, advertising will greatly damage the game experience, and to a certain extent, damage the reputation and reputation of the game.

Under the trend of the integration of match-3 game categories, the new match-3 products will pay more attention to improving players' willingness to pay and increasing in-app purchase revenue. The means of advertising monetization are more tightly bound to pure match-3.

6. Becoming more sociable

Since we have finally chosen to focus on market segmentation and increase in-app purchases, we must have more effective means to retain users, such as building a social system.

Last year, a match-3 game "Royal Match" produced by Turkish manufacturer Dream Games was popular all over the world, in addition to the micro-innovation of gameplay based on the classic elimination + decoration gameplay, it also boldly cut the plot narrative and put the core experience on mission innovation and teamwork.

Royal Match successfully differentiates through these means and gives teams more incentives in the game, increasing points for team collaboration, team winning streak rewards, and team physical strength. Even in order to meet the player's social experience, some robots will be put in place to create a team atmosphere.

Maybe not all match-3 games have a system for team collaboration, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have a social system. Leaderboards like leaderboards are a basic social element that doesn't focus on collaboration but on competition. Some players find themselves able to reach the top of the leaderboards with only a small fraction of a score, and may generate a willingness to pay to achieve their goals.

Even in games with strong plots, the existence of social systems can satisfy the player's empathic appeals and build intimate relationships with players with common experiences, thus realizing the simulation of real ccp relationships.

If the game wants to have long-term vitality, it needs to pay attention to the role of social networking in it, and help the game achieve long-term and high-sticky operation through social networking.

IP, going to sea, multi-channel to achieve long-term returns

7. Long-term returns

The reason for this emphasis on social is that match-3 games take longer to achieve positive benefits.

In interviews with some industry insiders, they all said that match-3 games take longer than other types of games if they want to achieve a better profit.

On the one hand, the high-DAU and low-pay attributes of match-3 games have led to this situation; on the other hand, casual games need to make long-term large-scale purchases in the initial operation, and excessive marketing costs greatly compress the profit margins of the game.

Especially at present, the market is moving towards boutique, and most match-3 games are not only simple level designs, but also the cost of game input is rising. Especially in the case of pure match-three monopoly monopoly by large manufacturers, it is almost impossible for new products to achieve high DAU to maintain game revenue by relying on advertising purchases.

Although the entry threshold of match-3 games is low, it has natural manufacturer barriers and category characteristics like other types of games, and casual games are not purely based on advertising to pile up DAUs, and the label of "making quick money" can already be torn off from match-3 games. If new manufacturers want to enter the match-to-3 category, they must be prepared for long-term operation and low return rate in the early stage.

8. The European and American markets are still mainstream

Considering the long-term return characteristics of match-3 games, it is necessary to consider the cost of purchase and the return rate of user payment when promoting marketing in the early stage.

From the perspective of the market itself, the European and American markets are more mature, and the value of European and American users is also higher. The slower pace of life and considerable disposable income allow European and American users to spend more time and money on games, and manufacturers can bring higher rates of return by advertising in the European and American markets.

At the same time, because of the influence of the European and American markets and media, it is easier to make a name in the European and American markets to promote and improve the influence of products to the world.

Since the introduction of Apple's IDFA policy and Google's "privacy sandbox" policy, the purchase volume in the European and American markets has become more difficult, and manufacturers need to seek other marketing methods, such as brand marketing.

In 2015, Supercell invited Neeson from the movie "Hurricane Rescue" to participate in the "Clash of Clans" advertisement, and spent 4.5 million US dollars to land on the "American Spring Festival Gala" Super Bowl, which eventually received more than 50 million video views worldwide, and was hailed as the world's most influential mobile game advertisement at the time. The effect of brand advertising in the European and American markets can be seen.

The social impact of Super Bowl ads and TV commercials, as well as video ads such as game PVs, is beyond the reach of pure buying. iSpot.tv, a TV advertising market research firm, said of Supercell's investment in branding: "The expected monthly revenue of game brands far exceeds their advertising investment costs. ”

From a regional point of view, the competition in emerging markets such as Southeast Asia is relatively small, and the restrictions on hardware equipment have also raised the retention rate of users in casual games, but the player's willingness to pay and the amount of payment can be paid is low, and the amount of individual value is not high, but the advertising monetization means have a certain feasibility in the Southeast Asian market.

In general, the final benefits that advertising monetization can bring are not considerable, so the current match-3 products are still mainly aimed at the more mature European and American markets.

9. There is still room for competition between the same type

Choosing to enter the European and American markets will inevitably face competition from match-3 giants such as King and Playrix, but the successful launch of products such as Royal Macth, Project Makeover and Doomsday Hustle proves that there is still room for competition in the match-3 category of the same type of games.

On the one hand, match-3 users have not been fully tapped, on the other hand, the exclusivity of match-3 products is not as strong as some heavy mobile games, and a player may play multiple match-3 mobile games at the same time.

From the perspective of level design, due to the existence of mechanisms such as streak activities, developers need to continuously improve the difficulty of the level to ensure the player's pass rate and payment rate, but it will also lead to too much frustration to the player and eventually retreat.

Some players play multiple match-3 games at the same time, and once one of them is a card level, they move on to another game to continue their own elimination experience.

After all, dynamic difficulty design is difficult to achieve in a high-DAU, multi-level game. There are almost no other vendors on the market except King today that can achieve accurate dynamic difficulty adjustments.

Another piece of evidence is that Playrix's "Dream Garden" and "Dream Home" used some art resources in activities at different times because they belonged to the same IP, and finally were found to be "lazy" by players, making Playrix stand on the cusp of public opinion.

It can be seen that although there are influential competitors in the market, there is still room for the survival and development of new games, and the key is to build differentiation and serve good target users.

10. IP

In addition to buying, brand advertising, and TV advertising, anime film and television are also a major way to promote games. CDPR's The Witcher series and Microsoft's Halo series both have VERY popular TV series for viewers and players.

Match-3 games already have a large audience, and the investment in the plot and art resources in the game is also increasing, and it is entirely possible to become an IP.

The most promising is playrix's fantasy series, playrix has completely shaped the story of the character Austin and his entire family with two products, and has the qualifications to develop into an animation.

Of course, animation is not the only way to create IP, such as game sequels, game peripherals and even theme offline activities are effective means to promote IP.

As early as 2018, Chuangmeng Tiandi, the domestic agent of the Dream Series, joined hands with COSTA to launch the first "Dream Garden" theme coffee shop in Sanlitun, Beijing.

The interior decoration incorporates the style of "Dream Garden" and launches the Dream Garden theme coffee package, and Chuangmeng Tiandi has also designed and launched a series of exquisite co-branded peripherals with COSTA, including coffee cups, silk scarves, brooches, etc.

In the low-rate of return of the three-match products, the use of IP promotion in the form of not only enhance brand influence, but also to achieve the integration of virtual and real, to help the development of the industry economy.

"Na Xin La Na Xin La"

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