As one of the world's four major mobile game markets, South Korea has always had no shortage of non-Korean game manufacturers, while Chinese manufacturers have borne the brunt of it, and manufacturers represented by 37 Interactive Entertainment have attacked the city in South Korea in just a few years. But recently GameLook found that in addition to Chinese manufacturers, Vietnamese also seem to want to come to South Korea to make a profit, which is a bit of a game outsourcing encounter with North Korean companies.
On April 12, an MMORPG mobile game called "Martial Arts Master" opened reservations in South Korea, becoming the first RPG game officially released on behalf of Vietnamese companies in the Korean market, which attracted the attention of Korean media for a while. For players, Wulin Master also has a Chinese name: The Legend of Jiuyang, which was originally launched in Vietnam and Cambodia in September 2019, and has been at the top of the iOS best-seller list for several months, with a best score of 26.
The publisher of "Wulin Master" is gosu ONLINE, a Vietnamese old cannon company, and friends who know a little Vietnamese may have found that the company is also called "Master" in translation. It is understood that the company was first established in 2012, and the insiders are all senior local game practitioners in Vietnam, with more than 10 years of experience in mobile game publishing. In addition to its headquarters in Ha, the company has branches in Ho Chi Minh City and Hue.
Since its establishment, GOSU's business has covered page games, PCs, mobile games, and is mainly for the Southeast Asian market. But the interesting thing is that the company seems to be particularly fond of Chinese cultural games, and most of the games released are either martial arts or Three Kingdoms, and they have turned themselves into a Vietnamese "Chinese company".
Despite its rise in Southeast Asia, GOSU's challenges in moving to the most important South Korean market for MMOs are clearly different. So, why does this "Martial Arts Master" promoted by GOSU shoulder this heavy responsibility?
Game PV:
Is it really a Vietnamese game? How can the Chinese flavor be so strong
If you do not carefully investigate the developer behind "Wulin Master", many domestic counterparts may have an illusion: is this not a familiar domestic martial arts MMORPG? After all, there are too many Chinese elements of this game, and GameLook suspects that this is a Chinese-made game in itself, but the Vietnamese company has taken the overseas publishing rights, after all, there have been Chinese versions of "The Legend of Jiuyang".
But there is also a possibility that this is really a game developed by a Vietnamese company, and if it is, not only koreans will be confused, but Chinese counterparts and players will also be confused.
For example, in the background setting of the game, "Wulin Master" directly combines the history of the Ming Dynasty of China with the setting of Jin Yong's martial arts novels, and makes a bold adaptation. The story revolves around the eunuch Wei Zhongxian at the end of the Ming Dynasty, when the nine-thousand-year-old demon leader Wei Zhongxian was ambitious to seize the world and used his army to suppress the various factions of wulin. In order to resist, the elites of the various factions jointly form the "Wulin League", and the player is one of the disciples, and the story of the player begins.
After reading the routine opening of this Jin Yong novel, I believe that many people have begun to call out to the insider. But more is yet to come. In addition, according to the content of Jin Yong's novel, the game also sets the five major attributes of "gold, wood, water, fire and earth", and each attribute is also divided into eight gate sects, including Wudang, Shaolin, Emei, Tangmen and other familiar sects are "on the list".
From the perspective of the art design of various sects, "Wulin Master" can be said to have basically eaten jin yong martial arts and Chinese culture. Taking the Wudang school in the game as an example, in Jin Yong's novel, the Wudang school has two main characteristics: one is to believe in Taoism, and the other is to be proficient in swordsmanship.
These two features are clear only in the original design of the character, the wudang character in the game is not only dressed in a flowing, Taoist style attire, but also uses the sword as the main weapon, emphasizing the fighting style of Jukegang. Of course, no matter what kind of class and fighting style, it will eventually be simply classified as the combat strength index.
In addition to the characters, the scene design and soundtrack in the game also have the visual sense of domestic MMO, such as the novice village, the player can see the house full of ancient Chinese style at the first glance. In addition to these ancient buildings that can be seen at a glance, the scene also contains many small details with a Chinese flavor, including folding umbrellas, bamboo, wine jars, stone lions, Chinese screens and so on.
With a plethora of similar Chinese details, the game's Chinese style is even more pronounced. Although the Chinese flavor is relatively strong, in terms of quality, there is still a certain gap between "Wulin Master" and today's top domestic MMO products.
In fact, "Wulin Master" not only copied the setting of the domestic MMO in terms of art and story background, but also "absorbed" the latter's routine in terms of system mechanism. Typical such as the first charge to send mounts and artifact equipment, PVP ranking, automatic hanging up, VIP privileges, cultivation, etc., all the settings of the domestic MMO you are familiar with can be found on the "Martial Arts Master", can not be said to be very similar, can only be said to be a touch.
Why do Vietnamese companies love Chinese-style games so much that they even go to South Korea to release such games? In GameLook's view, there are two main reasons for this:
First, Vietnam has long been within the radiation range of the Chinese cultural circle, which objectively deepens the understanding of Chinese culture in Vietnamese society, and South Korea is also covered by the Chinese cultural circle;
The second is the popularity of Jin Yong's martial arts novels in Vietnam. After Jin Yong's novels entered Vietnam in the 1960s, they immediately set off a wave of research and reading, which had a positive impact on Vietnamese society and culture. At the same time, it has also stimulated vietnamese netizens' enthusiasm for martial arts novels and Chinese martial arts film and television dramas.
Combining these two factors, it is not difficult to understand that those native Vietnamese game companies that are infiltrated by this will like Chinese-style products. It is no wonder that after seeing the product, some Korean media directly called out that this is not like a Vietnamese game, but more like a Chinese game.
Vietnamese companies are making waves, and they specialize in selecting games that Chinese companies can't do and don't want to do
GOSU dares to rely on such a Chinese-style MMO mobile game to break into the Korean market where MMOs are rolled to death, not to mention success or failure, but the courage is indeed commendable. In fact, looking at the performance of Vietnamese gaming companies in the global market in recent years, it is difficult to say that it has no chance of success.
Previously, GameLook has repeatedly reported on the amazing achievements of Vietnamese game companies in different fields, and most fields are not even optimistic at the beginning. The most well-known to the outside world may be the popular NFT game "Axie Infinity".
Axie Infinity was first released in February 2018 and is developed by a local Vietnamese game company. For more than two years in the first two years, the game didn't get much attention from the outside world. But since April last year, with the popularity of blockchain and virtual currencies, game revenue has begun to soar, and revenue soared to $670,000 that month.
By May, game revenue had risen to $3 million, compared to $12.2 million in June. July was the peak of game revenue, with games achieving $79 million in revenue in 18 days of that month. According to Axe World, the game's total revenue reached a staggering $196 million in July, with more than 1 million daily active users.
In addition, not long ago, GameLook also reported on a Vietnamese game company, OneSoft, which relied on the launch of a variety of airplane games, using advertising monetization and in-app purchases to successfully achieve "Ben Xiaokang". According to rough calculations, these games, without advertising revenue, only rely on in-app purchases of monthly income of close to 50 million yuan. In terms of downloads, OneSoft's products have remained in the tens of millions of monthly downloads, and its monthly downloads of airplane games have exceeded 10 million.
It stands to reason that the type of playing airplanes that are contemporaries with Snake, Tetris, and Pac-Man has long ceased to be the mainstream, but OneSoft still relies on excellent copycat capabilities plus a little innovation, such as adding PVP gameplay, season passes, etc., to successfully arouse the continuous consumption and retention of players, especially European and American players. According to the data, nearly half of OneSoft's revenue sources come from the US market, followed by developed countries such as Europe and Japan and South Korea.
If you think that the above is the limit of the "game maniacs" Vietnamese, you are obviously underestimating each other. In China, music games are already a type that most manufacturers will not touch. But in the eyes of the Vietnamese, the music game is actually promising.
Vietnamese ultra-leisure company Amanotes seized this market opportunity. It is understood that the company is mainly engaged in the development of music casual games and uses advertising to monetize. At present, the company's monthly downloads overseas have reached more than 20 million times, and its ace product "Magic tiles 3" has nearly 10 million monthly downloads.
In fact, Vietnamese not only perform well overseas, but also explore the great potential in their own local markets. Since 2019, the Vietnamese mobile game market has become increasingly hot, and the vast majority of mobile game publishers are local Vietnamese companies and even Vietnamese state-owned enterprises.
Although the Vietnamese mobile game market is a medium-sized game market in Southeast Asian countries, this emerging market also faces many new challenges. Examples include the growing need for localization and the local government's new regulation of products and stores, which requires developers to have a corresponding version number in order to put products on the shelves.
Under the combination of various factors, the Vietnamese mobile game market has suffered a huge impact, and with the increasing tightening of policy control, international publishers and even Vietnamese local game manufacturers have been greatly affected. But fortunately, the Vietnamese are well aware of the trend of globalization, even if they are hindered in China, but through early going to sea and accurate market vision, they have also successfully won their own acres and three points of land in the international market.
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GameLook Daily Game Industry Report
Global vision / depth is material