How is "plagiarism" more successful than the original?
In 2011, at an entrepreneurial competition in Shanghai, a contestant from Shanghai Jiaotong University "thundered" the judges.
The player said he was going to make a game that otaku loved, and he said he was an otaku, and the otaku were "very sexy and naïve." The judges never expected that students from the top universities in The country would become like this.
This student's name is Cai Haoyu, and when he was in graduate school, he and Liu Wei, Luo Yuhao and 4 other people set up a game studio in the dormitory, named Mihayou.
Like the famous game company CCOEY. PINK) was born from the electrical appliance bank, and this dormitory studio of that year also became a company after Cai Haoyu graduated, and received 1 million angel investment.
Their ideal is "tech house to save the world".
It's not yet time to save the world, and we have to solve the problem of whether the game can give food to eat. Miha you made two games and received some praise, but the finances were still tight. In order to save money, the four otaku each even received only 4,000 yuan, and by this time their classmates had already received a salary of 10,000 or 20,000 yuan.
With a small partner getting an offer from a multinational company to leave the team, Cai Haoyu's career just began, and he fell into the freezing point.
Later, they recalled this experience, Liu Wei sighed, at that time, it was exhausted, and if there was no improvement in the next year, they were ready to break up.
The earliest "Crash Academy", is a horizontal version of the beautiful girl combat single-player game, the income performance is mediocre, when it was first listed in 2012, it was also too violent pornography, and it was repeatedly reviewed by the Apple APP store.
However, the painting style of the two-dimensional cute lady, similar to the "Persona" series produced by ATLUS, is unclear and unclear, and it also "compares" a Way for the future development path.
PV of Crash Gakuen 1
Source: Baidu Tieba Bar
The characters of "The Tale of the Goddess" are painted upright
It wasn't until 2014 that Mihayou changed "Crash Academy 2" to an online game version, and the revenue of that year exceeded 100 million, which really shined.
Subsequently, "Crash Academy 3" was launched, forming a combination of Crash series, and from a business point of view, it was finally a success. However, Cai Haoyu is not satisfied with this, and these are still far from the game of "otaku" in their hearts.
In 2017, the company launched an A-share listing plan, which was terminated. Cai Haoyu relied on the cash flow of the crash game to "secretly" develop a game. Three years later, the game came out, and they also withdrew their IPO.
This game was later known as Protoshin. It is said that the development cost of "Original God" is as high as 100 million US dollars, which is tantamount to a big gamble for a small and medium-sized game manufacturer.
However, they were fortunate that three months after the launch of "Original God", they won the first place in the domestic game overseas revenue list, leaving Tencent's "PUBG" and NetEase's "Wilderness Action" behind. "Original God" also reached $110 million a month, direct K.O, really a bet right.
In 2021, "Original God" earned as much as $1.8 billion in overseas AppStore and Google Play, making it the most profitable game overseas. Mihayou has also become the world's highest-paid game company (excluding the Chinese market), leaving Tencent and NetEase behind.
According to Lieyun Network, Mihayou's net profit in 2021 is as high as 18.54 billion, which has exceeded the overall net profit of NetEase Group.
10 years after the "Otaku Manifesto" was published, Cai Haoyu and his Mihayou realized their dream of making games for otaku, and even a loyal user of the game launched the action of "hunting down" the founder of Mihayou because the company arranged for the game characters to participate in marketing activities.
All this is only a year away from the launch of "Original God", it is rumored that the market valuation of Mihayou is as high as 180 billion, and even Tencent and Toutiao want to invest in Mihayou and release words to the outside world.
What kind of game is "Original God" that can make game fans around the world crazy, and even the "otaku" in the developed countries of the United States and Japan spends $1.8 billion in kryptonite gold every year, just for his beloved character?
The two-dimensional and open world realms make the world so psychedelic, how did Cai Haoyu and Miha You do it? This article will explore this further.
Challenger of the Empire
All indications are that Miha You made the big brother Tencent (00700. HK) and NetEase (NTES.US, 09999.HK) started to get nervous.
On April 13, Tencent launched a two-dimensional new mobile game "Noah's Heart", which is a seamless big world map team adventure mobile game developed by Zulong Entertainment and represented by Tencent Games. This is less than a month after the launch of "Xuanzhong Ji", which is exclusively represented by Tencent, and the outside world interprets that this is another bet on the two-dimensional open world.
In June last year, "White Night Aurora" was launched abroad with good results, which increased Tencent's confidence in two-dimensional games. Therefore, this year began to test the first domestic two-dimensional open world game "XuanzhongJi".
On the other hand, it is also the overseas market that gives strength, but also brings pressure to Tencent. The "Ark of Tomorrow" of the new domestic game force Eagle Horn and the "Blue Route" of the Barbarian/Yongshi have already surpassed "Glory of the King" overseas, and even NetEase's "Yin and Yang Division" is a big hit.
Source: Northeast Securities Research Report
According to Sensor Tower statistics, the global revenue of "Original God" reached $1.8 billion (about 11.5 billion yuan) in 2021, and by the first quarter of 2022, "Original God" revenue was $551 million (about 3.5 billion yuan). In March, "Original God" returned to the throne of the first overseas income of mobile games.
As a phenomenon-level product, "Original God" has brought fire to the entire two-dimensional game, and all indications show that this track has faintly revealed the king's weather
Before 2014, the size of the two-dimensional game market was less than 3 billion, and it reached 11 billion in 2016. Northeast Securities expects nearly 27 billion yuan in 2021, an increase of nearly 10 times in 7 years.
Source: Northeast Securities
Source: Sensor Tower
Compared with the popularity of overseas markets, the domestic market is unusually lonely. The disappearance of user dividends, the issuance of version numbers and the tightening of supervision have led to a significant decline in the growth rate of the industry.
The dilemma of Tencent Games is already very obvious. According to the latest financial report, Tencent's game revenue in the local market fell by 12% to 29.6 billion yuan in the fourth quarter of 2021, and the game revenue in the international market increased by 16% to 13.2 billion yuan, although it is still the first game revenue in the world, but it is difficult to hide the decline.
In the case of Glory of Kings, 95% of its revenue comes from the domestic market and has disappeared from the latest list of the top 30 overseas revenues.
Not only is the game a brother, the second brother NetEase is also "under pressure".
In 2021, someone once asked Ding Lei, the founder of NetEase, a question, is the rise of new game forces such as Mihayou, Lilith, Eagle Corner, and Folded Paper, and will the industry pattern change from "double dominance" to "three-legged standing"?
Ding Lei did not think much of this. His exact words were, "While it's a surprise that young companies develop successful IP, the most important thing about games is to be sustainable." We have experienced a lot of IP when it comes up, and finally over time, how to maintain continuous growth is actually a huge challenge."
A year later, Mihayou gave a phased answer.
NetEase's net game revenue in fiscal 2021 was 62.8 billion yuan, an increase of 15% year-on-year. Among them, the net income of mobile games accounted for about 70.4%, but it fell by 1.5% from the previous fiscal year. In 2021, under non-GAAP, net profit attributable to shareholders of the Company in 2021 was RMB19.8 billion.
A private equity person said that according to the relevant channels announced that Mihayou's 2020 revenue of 10.128 billion yuan and 2019's net profit margin of 56.95%, combined with the global mobile revenue of Yuanshen in 2020 and 2021, Mihayou's revenue in 2021 should be 32.854 billion yuan, and the net profit is almost 18.540 billion yuan.
In terms of net profit volume alone, Mihayou has been able to sit on an equal footing with the entire NetEase.
Many people will think that the second dimension made miha travel, which is an explanation from the "track theory".
Wu Meng, CEO of Giant Network, also discussed this point at an internal sharing meeting, "Don't look at how successful his "Original God" is, some people say that they have seized an outlet of the second dimension, this is all nonsense, these things are smoke screens."
Wu Meng is regarded as a "breakthrough" for traditional game manufacturers, and many people believe that if there is no boss to disturb him, he may be able to take the Giant Network to a new level. He believes that products such as "Original God" are certainly not based on layout, because under the original organizational model of large companies, it is unlikely that such products will be born.
It was also mentioned that the original god spent $100 million on development, and $200 million a year. Wu Meng said that if "Original God" can be smashed with 10 billion, it will also be successful. But simply by throwing money, you can't smash "Original God".
Without relying on the outlet, not relying on the "layout", nor relying on throwing money, what is the success of Mihayou and "Original God"?
The Age of Discovery
The second dimension, the sea, the console, and the open world show a huge outlet, and having a phenomenal game is an accident. So, without Protoshin, would Mihayou have become a good game company?
Wu Meng mentioned that Cai Haoyu and his Mihayou are top-notch in making games, and in the case of "Crash Academy 3", there are only a few companies in the industry that can make it.
According to the statistics of the dots, in the Japanese game rankings, "Hara God" ranked first in the best-seller list and the role-playing list, and even the New York Times published an article saying that Japan was defeated by "Hara God" in its own game field.
In December 2021, PlayStation Japan officially posted the ranking of the most shared games in Japan using PS4/PS5 on Twitter in 2021, and "Original God" ranked second in the open world RPG list and first in the game best-seller list.
Japan Game Leaderboards
Source: Dot Data
Japan is the birthplace of two-dimensional culture and two-dimensional games, and "Harajin" can have such a performance in Japan, reflecting the true strength of Harajin. And "Crash Gakuen 3" Krypton gold ability can also rank in the top ten in Japan, which can always be said that MihaYu has achieved the ultimate in the world of the second dimension, right?
"Protos" has also raised many questions, the most controversial of which is the "plagiarism gate" of "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" produced and released by Nintendo (NTDOY.PINK).
For "plagiarism", founder Cai Haoyu is more "frank".
Cai Haoyu believes that this is a kind of "borrowing", and "borrowing" has become the tradition of Mihayou. "Original God" makes players criticize the most is the imitation of the scene of "The Legend of Zelda", which is not the first time that Miha You has "borrowed".
The initial "reference" should start from the Crash series, "Crash Academy 1" gameplay is basically a copy of "Zombie Town", and there are even rumors that Miha You purchased the code of "Zombie Town", but "Zombie Town" officially denies its purchase code.
Comparison of the original gods and the legend of Zelda
Source: Sensor Tower
The entire Crash series has "borrowed" many well-known games, in addition to the aforementioned "Persona", there are also "Devil Cry", "Angel Hunting Witch", etc., and even "Devil Cry" is jokingly called "Crash 3" free material library.
Cai Haoyu himself admitted that when he did "Crash Academy", he borrowed the system of "Zhilong Labyrinth", because as a novice, he could only learn from it, "When we really started to make it into a commercial work, we began to consider how its system was made and how to adjust the values, we didn't understand how to do this thing, and then we copied other people's systems, it was as simple as that."
Many players have said that after the success of "Original God", domestic players have generally low evaluations of Mihayou and "Original God", and even there are many crusading voices on the Internet, while "Original God" is applauded overseas, which is a somewhat intriguing phenomenon.
Japanese players have received rave reviews of Harajin. Whether it is the characters or plot, or the gameplay of the game, it is attractive enough, and whether it is plagiarized or not, it is rarely mentioned.
Some industry veterans said that this situation of different evaluations is related to the experience of Japanese players and domestic players.
Domestic players generally pay attention to online games and mobile games, and have less contact with games such as "Original God" with consoles, open worlds and two-dimensional elements.
Japanese players are mainly online games and console games, before many players have played "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wilderness", "Protoshin" can also get the love of Japanese players after the launch, and the side also reflects the production ability of "Protoshin".
IGN is the world's largest game entertainment media, giving "Original God" a 9-point rating, reviewers believe that "Original God" is not just "copycat" "Zelda Legend" so simple, its uniqueness, fantasy world, various characters and RPG system with depth are unique to "Original God".
"Original God" ranked first in overseas game revenue, not by the third world countries, but by making a name for itself in the most prosperous country of the game.
In the U.S. market, there are super game giants such as Blizzard and Ubisoft, and "Original God" still has the first place in the best-seller list of the role-playing list and the third place in the best-seller list of comprehensive games in the United States.
U.S. Role-Play Best Seller List
Source: Dot Data
Foreign media in the evaluation of the game standards are not the same, and the object of comparison with "Original God" is the same kind of free card plus two-dimensional mobile game, in this regard, "Original God" is simply a dimensionality reduction blow to these games.
Although "Original God" is suspected of imitating "The Legend of Zelda", it can achieve transcendence, and it is very likely that in the two-dimensional style open world mobile game, "Original God" is unprecedented.
In Cai Haoyu's eyes, this is not the most important, he is more concerned about the game's gameplay and graphics to gain the recognition of players.
Shanda introduced "Legend" to let Chinese players play online games for the first time, which is a good memory in the hearts of many old players, with the improvement of the level of domestic games, domestic games to reach the world's top level is the dream of many domestic players.
A senior game industry insider told Alpha Factory that Mihayou's ability is not only in terms of planning, ""Original God" is doomed to success as long as it can be made after the planning is completed", "Original God" was finally made, and exceeded expectations, indicating that Mihayou's team production ability is also top-notch.
Miha's game leaps and bounds are also not available to other game manufacturers.
From the side-scrolling shooter Crash Academy 2 to the third-person action game Crash 3 to the open-world game Harashin, the average game manufacturer generally only extends within a series.
Imitating the games of well-known manufacturers, and then making top-stream products, and even forming a system, although this level cannot catch up with the level of Blizzard, it is comparable to the big manufacturers such as Tencent and NetEase.
In addition to these, Cai Haoyu also said that the character is one of the most important components of "Original God". The characters embody both unique gameplay based on different elements and cultural characteristics, which reflects Mihayou's mind in terms of IP.
Several founders of the entire Miha Tour are avid fans of EVA, and even the name of the first mobile game they made, "Fly Me 2 the Moon", is the EVA TV animation version of the ED ending song, and the first interaction with other IPs in "Crash 3" is to link with EVA.
The strength of Mihayou is that it relies on the two-dimensional world built by EVA, and through gameplay and graphics, it successfully captures the hearts of two-dimensional fans and builds an open two-dimensional game world.
In the process, Cai Haoyu and his team have experienced a long period of tempering, and they have maintained their original intention of making top games, so they finally succeeded.
Liu Wei and Cai Haoyu have mentioned that 2013 was the most difficult time for the whole team, as a graduate student of Shanghai Jiaotong University, the salaries of the students after graduation were 10,000 or 20,000 yuan, while the people of the Mihayou entrepreneurial team only got 4,000 yuan.
Co-founder and president Liu Wei also mentioned that if "Crash Academy 2" had not been made, the team may soon be disbanded.
The level of the Miha tour team, the original intention and ability of the founder are the keys to the success of miha tour, and there are also lucky elements of the times, while miha tour breaks the rules of the game industry and makes the traditional game play ineffective.
When Miha You made "Crash Academy 2", the whole team was only six or seven people, if in the era of end travel, it was difficult for Miha You not to produce "Crash Academy 2", even if it was made, the later release was also a big problem.
The release of "Crash Academy 2" did not follow the traditional mobile phone store model, even if it could be released, as an unknown game manufacturer, the promotion and brushing costs of "Crash Academy 2" Miha Tour could not afford it.
Mihayou chose special distribution channels, such as choosing the TapTap zero-share model, and choosing the B station, accumulating the first users for the game.
Cai Haoyu once mentioned that for a game and a game company, it is important to accumulate a group of users, and 50% of the users in the initial stage of "Crash Academy 2" are obtained from the B station where the secondary users are active.
As for the success of Mihayou and "Original God", the outside world believes that this special distribution model of Mihayou is a challenge to the traditional distribution channels, but in fact, Mihayou and Cai Haoyu's team have no way to choose.
"Original God" was later released through the traditional model, but the right to speak was significantly expanded, from the traditional share ratio of 5:5 or 6:4 to 7:3, objectively changing the weak position of game manufacturers.
The success of "Original God" also represents a new trend, the user demand for high-quality products has increased significantly, and an industry veteran said that making good games in the future is the core competitiveness of game manufacturers.
For the success of Mihayou and "Original God", Wu Meng, CEO of Giant Network, said that the key is Lao Cai and his team.
An unknown door
The door to the open world of two-dimensional games has been opened by Miha You, and "Original God" has also been successful. But it is not only Mihayou himself who pushes the door in, but also the new power of games such as Lilith, Fold paper and Eagle Horn, and the traditional game manufacturer NetEase is also doing well, and Tencent is catching up.
The future of open two-dimensional world competition is bound to be more intense, Cai Haoyu also expressed his worries, afraid that after the age of 40, it will be difficult to grasp the needs of users.
"Technology house saves the world", whether it can save the world is still unknown, but it opens an unknown door to the world.
Many people have a lot of doubts about Mihayou, and the reason for doubt is nothing more than that Mihayou only relies on a single IP operation, and there is still a lot of uncertainty in the future.
This may also be Ding Lei's attitude. Perhaps the big guys have forgotten that the rise of many game manufacturers at the beginning also relied on single IP, "Journey to the West" made NetEase Games, and "Legend" achieved Shanda Network.
After NetEase Games made money, Ding Lei chose to raise pigs, and Cai Haoyu had bigger dreams.
According to the latest information, Mihayou and NIO Capital have led a company called Energy Singularity, focusing on exploring commercially available fusion energy technologies.
Not only nuclear fusion, But also Mihayu is interested in metacosmities and brain-computer interfaces. The world of the second dimension and the otaku is full of singularities.
Before the success of Miha Tour, there are still EVA and many predecessor leaders to learn from; after becoming the top stream, who can Miha Tour learn from?
No one knows where Miha Tour will lead everyone.