As a start-up project, most of the manufacturers of shared console game equipment describe to investors a dream of "low-cost one-time investment, no labor, and money can be made lying down". Many young people are attracted to this, but when they really enter the game, they find that if they want to make money lying down on this, there is basically no drama.
On February 19, an ordinary Sunday afternoon, in Wanda Plaza near Beijing's Third Ring Road, the clerk of a Thai milk tea shop was "chasing" diners: there were too many orders, you had to queue for half an hour, do you still order? Just as busy as they are the six shared console gaming devices sitting in the hallway next door.
Six children occupy the three machines on the far left, and two couples sit on the couch in the middle playing Double Form, a two-player adventure game. The sofa on the far right was originally sat idly by the grandmother with the child, and after a young father and son walked around these machines a few times, they couldn't help but say to the child's grandmother: "I'm sorry, we want to play for a while." ”
People passing by this game area always stop to watch, and after a couple stood by and waited for five minutes and there was still no vacancy, they finally left angrily, "Why so many people." The girl said to her boyfriend with a little anger and disappointment.
However, just 48 hours later, on Tuesday night, the Thai milk tea shop was still busy with online orders, but the six gaming devices were empty.
In 2022, shared console games began to appear in "batches" in shopping malls. Taking Beijing as an example, these devices were mainly put in low-end shopping malls "outside the fifth ring road" in the early days, but with the increase of investment points, they have almost "swept" most shopping malls in the city.
The price of more than 30 yuan in half an hour is not a very good game experience, so that veteran gamers are generally reluctant to pay for shared console game equipment.
As a start-up project, most of the manufacturers of shared console game equipment describe to investors a dream of "low-cost one-time investment, no labor, and money can be made lying down". Many young people are attracted to this, but when they really enter the game, they find that if they want to make money lying down on this, there is basically no drama.
Kill time more than the game itself
Although the consoles are on display, you'd be hard-pressed to find real gamers in the shared console gaming area of the mall.
Ma Teng, a shared console game entrepreneur who operates 4 devices in a shopping mall in Beijing, is the boss himself, but as a veteran gamer, he has almost never played on these devices, for one simple reason: the game experience is not good enough.
"Many of the games in it are not very timely, such as FIFA (a football game produced by EA) now has a 2023 version, but the shared device is still the 2021 version. And the graphics and smoothness are not as good as buying a game console yourself. Ma Teng said.
According to Ma Teng's observation, children, young couples or friends are frequent customers of these six devices. For most of them, the need to try early or kill time goes far beyond the game itself.
Image source: 300 million generations of photos
Tian Jing, a post-90s girl, played a shared console game twice in the mall. The first time was during the November holiday in 2022, when she and her boyfriend saw several game devices while shopping at the mall, and played for half an hour with curiosity to mess around with the kitchen (a multiplayer interactive game, nicknamed "breakup kitchen" because it is easy to cause couples to quarrel.
The experience of playing games was not bad, and Tian Jing and her boyfriend had the idea of buying a game console. However, the two of them are still in a state of sharing a separate apartment, neither have an independent space for the two of them, nor can they install large screens such as TVs, and the purchase of a game console has been put on hold.
"Both of us are actually a bit homely, and we really want to cook together, play games at home, watch movies on weekends, but are afraid to disturb each other's roommates." Tian Jing told 300 million generations that in order to have a more comfortable two-person world, she and her boyfriend had to go to the mall for dates or visit the park every weekend. Once I was really tired of shopping in the mall, but I didn't want to go to the other person's residence, so I played a shared console game for more than an hour.
Li Shuang, a 28-year-old girl, although she also has a game console at home, she is still a frequent customer of shared console games in shopping malls. For her, these devices serve only one purpose: "pure to pass the time".
Every time I go shopping with friends, Li Shuang will find a game console to play two. Especially when waiting for a seat in the restaurant, if the waiting time is between half an hour and an hour, there is not enough time to arrange other activities, and she feels tired of playing with her mobile phone, she will play a few games.
But if the waiting time is more than an hour, Li Shuang will immediately abandon the shared game console, because it is too uneconomical. "It costs more than thirty yuan to play for half an hour, I think it's quite expensive, if it costs almost 100 yuan for more than an hour, two people might as well go to the movies." Li Shuang said.
In addition to young people, the main customers of console games are children and their parents.
At about 8 p.m. one weekday, Lin Mo, a post-80s mother, was playing a gunfight game at the mall with her four-year-old son. "Oh, don't hit me first, I'm not ready." She shouted to her son.
Lin Mo told 300 million generations that in order not to let her son indulge in games, she rarely let her son play with mobile phones, let alone buy game consoles at home. Occasionally going to the mall to play shared console games belongs to her "reward" for her son.
"Attack" the mall
From the perspective of time, 2022 is the "first year" of the project of sharing console games.
Panyu District of Guangzhou City is a concentration of manufacturers of shared console game equipment, and Ye Feng is one of the manufacturers here. He told 300 million generations that there are many factories in Panyu District that make video game equipment, and shared console game equipment began to "popularize" in these factories in early 2022.
The production of this equipment is actually very simple, "hardware generally only needs a computer host, plus a monitor, gamepad and machine appearance frame, software manufacturers to develop a system." Ye Feng said.
In order to minimize the cost, most manufacturers' computer hosts are assembled by buying parts, "the manufacturer will first release a version of the design, and then make the appearance model, equipped with the computer, do a good job of the system can be assembled out of the library." Everyone makes similar things, and the biggest difference is probably the appearance frame. Ye Feng told 300 million generations.
The entry threshold is low, coupled with the high homogenization of products, there are more and more manufacturers of such equipment in Panyu District. Last summer, some media reported that there were more than 20 manufacturers on the market, and according to Ye Feng's observation, there are now no less than 50. "This year, everyone is generally optimistic about entertainment equipment, and I feel that I feel a lot more home at once." Ye Feng said.
At the level of consumer terminals, Ma Teng's intuitive feeling is also that more and more shared console game equipment is being launched, and many of them are in mid-range shopping malls and shopping malls in urban areas.
Currently, shared console gaming equipment is generally invested by individuals. These investors either join or buy out equipment from manufacturers and put it in terminals such as shopping malls. More equipment means more investors behind it.
In Ma Teng's view, shared console games may seem or sound like a good business at first glance and can easily attract investors. "Selling equipment will generally tell you that this is a one-time investment, and then you don't need to be watched, you can 'lie down and make money', a machine is only a few thousand yuan, the cost is not high, so many people invest." He said.
Image (profit model provided by equipment manufacturer)
In terms of venues, the investment promotion policy of shopping malls has become more and more relaxed in the past two years, and rents have also decreased (in Beijing, for example, according to Savills data, the average rent of high-quality shopping malls in Beijing in the fourth quarter was 817.5 yuan per square meter per month, 4.6% year-on-year), which provided convenience for shared console gaming equipment to enter the mall.
Ma Teng works for a company that makes unmanned retail equipment and often has to deal with shopping mall properties. He remembers that before 2019, the shopping mall was very strict in attracting investment, and formats such as shared console games would definitely not be able to enter the mall, "In the past, the shopping mall felt that this kind of thing occupied the place, and in the past two years, there have been more empty rents, and the shopping mall also wants to use the atrium to make money, and now it is possible to cooperate and cooperate." Ma Teng said.
In addition, in Ma Teng's view, there is another reason why shared console game equipment can "capture" the mall: there are fewer competitors.
According to Ma Teng's experience, the competition of shared console game equipment in the mall is a variety of unmanned retail formats, such as the small pavilion of K song, the doll catching machine and even the unmanned orange juice machine. Because the cost of venue rent, operation and other costs is relatively high, many of the previous retail in the mall have lost money.
"For example, it turned out that there was a self-service orange juice machine in the Guorui Shopping Center of Chongwenmen, the rent per month was 3,000 yuan, the turnover was only about 2,500 yuan, and the loss of one or two thousand a month was lost, and it was not done after renting for a year." Ma Teng said.
A batch of business formats enter and withdraw, and shopping malls always have to introduce new things. Between the changing tides, this time it was the turn of shared console gaming devices.
Shopkeepers trapped by game consoles
Young people are the "main force" in investing in console-sharing game projects. An investment officer of an equipment manufacturer told 300 million generations that their customers are basically around 30 years old. Ma Teng, born in 1995, is one of them.
In the summer of 2022, Ma Teng, who had worked for several years, suddenly wanted to use the money he had saved and the resources he had accumulated to do a side job and increase his income. He found that shared console games and VR equipment are very popular, plus he has some shopping mall property resources, and as a game fan, he has always had the dream of opening a game hall, so he decided to buy a few to try.
At that time, there were two models in front of him: one was to join, pay a franchise fee to the manufacturer, buy equipment at a lower price, and then draw about 10% of the turnover to the manufacturer every month; The second is to directly buy out the equipment and operate it yourself.
Ma Teng chose the latter, in the process of buying equipment, he chose the cheapest one after many price comparisons, and finally bought 4 machines at a total price of 22,000 yuan. Because of the property resources, Ma Teng paid a low rent, but even so, the profitability of these four equipment is still not ideal.
The most "bleak" is the working day. "From Monday to Friday, there is basically no people, it has become a rest area, and the delivery staff sit on that sofa to rest." The clerk next door to the shared console gaming device said.
Image source: 300 million generations (empty on weekday nights)
The same is true of Ma Teng. From Monday to Friday, the total turnover of the four devices is basically fifty or sixty yuan. Weekend traffic is high, but the "reception" capacity of the machine is limited.
From October 1 last year to February 21 this year, the total turnover of Ma Teng's four equipment was 5,090 yuan, with an average daily turnover of less than 10 yuan per device. After deducting the rent deduction points to the mall during this period, Ma Teng recorded a total of less than 4,000 yuan.
"At first, I set the price at 30 yuan for half an hour, and then when I saw that no one was playing, I changed it to 20 yuan, but it still didn't work." On the first day of the Spring Festival, Ma Teng took a look at the running water and quickly hung these four machines on the salted fish.
Reviewing the side business engaged in this time, Ma Teng summarized two points: First, the placement position is very important, even 80% can be decided, but there are not many good positions, and the position of making money, as long as it is put in, people are reluctant to come out; Second, the so-called unattended actually needs people to operate, and it is basically impossible to "make money lying down".
Ma Teng is definitely not the only one who is "trapped" by the shared game console. An example that can testify is that Zhang Qiang, who originally did VR equipment recycling, has also recently begun to recycle shared console game equipment. "It's normal to have discrepancies, find out for yourself." He said.
Many manufacturers in the upstream of the industrial chain have orders and then assemble and ship, so the risk is not large. However, as they have more peers, so has the pressure to compete.
Ye Feng told the 300 million generation that manufacturers are basically pure buyout models, making money by selling equipment, and the profit is basically about 10%. The franchise model, which was popular last year, can no longer be pushed this year, "There are more and more manufacturers, the price of equipment is also low, who still pays the franchise fee." He said.
The good news is that with the recovery of consumption, the flow of customers in the mall is picking up, and Ma Teng and Ye Feng have some expectations for this year. "The person who recycles the equipment only gives me 3,000 yuan a piece, and if it can't be sold at a good price, I'll put it there, in case there are more people this year." Ma Teng said.
(Note: The respondent requires that Ma Teng, Tian Jing, Li Shuang, Lin Mo, and Ye Feng are pseudonyms)
Source: Economic Observer
Editor: Lv Bing