When going to sea has become a compulsory course for domestic game manufacturers, the Japanese market that is close at hand has become a must-fight place for soldiers without suspense. In mid-February, GameLook reported that Chinese and Japanese manufacturers staged a 5v5 battle on the Top 10 of the Japanese free list, which shows the importance of the Japanese market.
However, making it to the free list is only the first step, and the more difficult challenge to truly gain the recognition of Japanese players is to enter the best-seller list. Recently, GameLook noticed that in the japanese iOS best-seller list, there are four games newly released by Chinese companies that have been launched this year to enter the Top50, and their online time is in the last 2 months, quickly shuffling the Japanese best-seller list.
In GameLook's view, in addition to these products have a "big factory aura", the accurate insight into the Japanese market and the localization of the bone marrow are also the very important wealth codes for these products to capture Japanese players.
Natural beauty also needs to carry out localization to the end
The ユグドラ レゾナンス by Asahi Lightyear Japanese Company Ninese KK is probably the most "natural beauty" of the four games, because it is a two-dimensional turn-based card game in the standard sense. However, just as "handsome" and "beautiful" have become the standard titles of street selling today, "beautiful girl" and "art prominence" have long become the bad street labels of two-dimensional games. Therefore, if you want to make a list in Japan, it is not enough to rely on the good looks of the characters.
As a result, Nuverse KK set out to make the product more appealing to the tastes of Japanese players from the very beginning of its name. This beautiful girl card game developed by South Korean Big Dipper was originally called Shining Maiden (the costume is called Girl Pinghe). In order to match the fresh fantasy style popular in the Japanese market, the Japanese costume was named "Yggdra Resonance".
From the style and naming, it can be seen that this game with beautiful girls as the protagonist does not follow the sexy style of Korean tourism, but mainly focuses on Japanese aesthetics, emphasizing the cultivation of fantasy and story experience. So during the publicity process, Nuverse KK's entry point was placed on an innovative mechanism of the game - the weather and time in the game can be synchronized with the real world, so as to make the player's fantasy journey more experiential.
Therefore, in the promotion before the opening of the Japanese service, this promotional map with the theme of the change of time of day brushed the major game websites in Japan, and the girlish feeling and freshness that came to the face also made this game sought after by Japanese two-dimensional players. Since its launch on April 21, the game has climbed the best-seller list, reaching 32nd place.
Also with a good theme base is the "Song of the City on the Clouds" of the Three Seven Games. This fresh style of Japanese MMO products in China, Japan and South Korea to achieve a common kill, the monthly flow of more than 300 million, of which the South Korean market monthly income of more than 100 million, the Japanese market in the past 30 days of flow also has about 60 million yuan.
In addition to the Japanese king story of "Brave Saves the World", the art style of this game is also very JPG flavor. In the Japanese market, Sanchi also chose to strengthen the product impression of this JRPG by changing its name, and the title of "空の勇者たち (空之勇魂軍)" is grounded at the same time, but also accurately hits the memory points of JRPG players, which is convenient for the spontaneous spread of products in the player community.
In addition, 37 also invited the well-known Japanese actor Shohei Miura, who has 2.4 million Instagram followers, as a spokesperson to further enhance the appeal of the product. And Miura's own sunny temperament is also similar to the JRPG male protagonist, which also feeds the player cognition of the game itself.
As the "oldest" of the four games, it has been online for more than two months and can still rank in the top 50 of the best-selling list, and it is obvious that Japanese players are quite satisfied with the localization performance of this king-of-the-art Japanese MMO.
Oriental Fantasy: Make Japanese players fall in love with Chinese themes
Compared with the above two products, Lingxi Interactive Entertainment's "Three Kingdoms FantasyLand" and Purple Dragon Game's NetEase next-generation MMO "Celestial Oracle" are undoubtedly facing greater localization pressure in the Japanese market. In order to allow Japanese players to accept these two products with a very Chinese style, the two manufacturers invariably chose the breakthrough of "Oriental Fantasy".
Unlike the Three Kingdoms Strategic Edition, Three Kingdoms Fantasyland is a card mobile game with a two-dimensional fantasy style, and its art consultant is directed by Naoya Yuki, the former artistic director of the Final Fantasy series, so its product positioning is obviously not a hardcore SLG player, but a two-dimensional user.
Therefore, Nichifu chose to take the name of "オリエント·アルカディア (Oriental Arcadia)" as the publicity focus. Arcadia is a paradise in ancient Greek and Roman mythology, or the utopia of Western legends. This treatment of diluting the Three Kingdoms label has led many Japanese players to mistakenly believe that this is another JRPG-style Japanese fantasy mobile game.
However, Japanese players are clearly happy to be "deceived". With high-quality stand-up painting, ultra-luxurious voice actors, and excellent balance, this product has been widely praised by Japanese players. At the same time, through the creator incentive program of up to 6.7 million yen, Lingxi Interactive Entertainment has also promoted the construction of the player community of Nichio, which undoubtedly has a significant role in promoting the long-term operation of a game.
At present, this game, which has only been online for more than two weeks, has received 30 million turnover in the Japanese market and has also entered the top 30 on the best-seller list.
In a sense, the "Celestial Oracle" Japanese service, which ranks highest among the four games, is also the most surprising to the domestic game industry, because it sets a paradigm for how to break the game for the Chinese MMO products that are most difficult for many people to open the Japanese market.
Named after azurea-空の唄-(sky blue sky song)," the "Celestial Oracle" day suit does not take gorgeous next-generation art as the core selling point, but instead chooses the "sense of fantasy" in the theme as the main line of the overall packaging. The CM commercial, shot by popular Japanese actress Haruna Kawaguchi, is based on a giant carp that travels in the blue sky, and vividly expresses the beauty of "Oriental Fantasy".
Under this stylized and prominent packaging, the Chinese style fairy elements and Western style magic elements of the game itself have become the auxiliary materials of "Oriental Fantasy", and the value of next-generation picture quality has changed from showmanship to the best stage for depicting "Oriental Fantasy". Therefore, on the day of the game's launch, the "Celestial Oracle" Japanese service rushed to the seventh place in the Japanese Twitter trend list, which also means that this Chinese MMO has truly become a hot topic of discussion among Japanese players.
Of course, this list is also inseparable from the 1.2 million yen gift card lottery launched by Zilong. It can also be seen from this that in addition to the localization of the game itself, in terms of operation, Purple Dragon, which has previously launched a number of explosive models in the Japanese market, is also well versed in the way of Game Distribution in Japan. Through these Japanese players' most familiar and favorite operation methods, "Celestial Oracle" Daily Service has also performed eye-catching after the launch, and has won 30 million streams in two weeks, and has entered the Top20 on the best-seller list, becoming the most eye-catching Chinese manufacturer's new tour.
The test field has become self-reserved, and quality is still the cornerstone of success
In addition to the above four best-selling products, "Flash Party", which has long been at the top of the free list, is also worth mentioning. Although the lack of motivation to hit the best-seller list due to the lack of paid content of the game itself, in Japan, where fighting games are prevalent, this heart-wrenching platform fighting game can be listed in the free list for a long time, which is enough to show that it is also recognized by Japanese players.
Although the subject matter has the advantage of expanding its territory in Japan, because the painting style is biased towards Europe and the United States, localization still plays a crucial role in the performance of this product. To this end, on the day of the launch, Nikko launched the "Hundred Ghosts Night" season and the new hero Shinki Yuri, and the localization efforts finally promoted the game's lasting performance on the free list.
Putting these five products together, in addition to their respective big factory aura and sparing no effort in localization, the excellent quality of the game itself is still the cornerstone of success that cannot be ignored. As for the reason for this cornerstone, manufacturers no longer regard the Japanese market as a "test field" for new products, but as a "self-reserved place" for mature products to continue to increase revenue.
For example, "Song of the City on the Clouds" and "Three Kingdoms FantasyLand" are the first products that have made a good start in the domestic market in 2020, and "Heavenly Oracle" has also landed in the national service in January last year. In addition, "Shining Maiden" Hanbok and Taiwanese clothing have also been served in 2020, while "Flash Party" has been "tested" in the national service for nearly two years because the version number has not been approved.
In other words, none of these five products are truly "new games", but mature games that have undergone repeated polishing and testing in the East Asian market outside of Japan. Therefore, brand distributors such as Heartbeat, Purple Dragon, and Asahi Lightyear endorse these products and carry out high-quality local packaging and promotion in the Japanese market.
Therefore, GameLook believes that it is precisely because of the excellent quality of the product itself that the deep localization of these five games has a foundation. With this good premise, and through the local packaging of the publisher in the Japanese market from head to toe, the effective occupation of these foreign games in the Japanese domestic market was finally realized.
This concept of walking on two legs, boutique and localization, is not only applicable to the Japanese market. Whether it is South Korea, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the United States, overseas enterprises that have a firm foothold in any overseas market undoubtedly have the characteristics of both boutique and localization.
The bright performance of Chinese manufacturers in the Japanese market also shows once again that even those tracks that do not have too many successful precedents (such as Chinese MMOs) or relatively niche categories (such as platform fighting), as long as they can really achieve both boutique and localization, they can still get out of their own way. And even those areas that have frequently appeared (such as two-dimensional cards) still do not accept pride and prejudice. Only by reading the market and being close to the players can we turn our advantages into victories and achieve real success.
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GameLook Daily Game Industry Report
Global vision / depth is material