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A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

author:That little thing about mobile games

There are thousands of magic spirits, and the sequel is a long way off.

Nine years of flat waves, the history is still lamentable.

Players who love turn-based mobile games will be familiar with Call of the Devil: Battle in the Sky (hereinafter referred to as "Call of the Devil"). Launched in 2014, this turn-based game has won the glorious historical record of eating four best-selling lists in Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea with its highly creative real-time battle gameplay that can be called the industry benchmark.

In its nine years of operation, Call of the Demon has been downloaded 180 million times worldwide, and it has survived a batch of competitors and is still going strong. In terms of revenue, as of September 2022, the cumulative revenue of "Call of the Devil" exceeded 3 trillion won (total 15.8 billion yuan). Today, the monthly turnover of the game remains healthy at more than 50 million RMB.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

The vitality of "Call of the Devil" has not only brought huge economic income and good reputation in the industry to its developer, the Korean company Com2uS, but also made it a world-class IP with great potential value. Based on such a huge user base and IP appeal, the sequel is expected to replicate its success.

Com2uS has launched a game based on this IP, "Call of the Devil: The Lost Century" (hereinafter referred to as "The Lost Century"). However, the market performance during the two years of operation proved that the game did not live up to the expectations expected of the Demon Summoning IP product.

According to Sensor Tower, in February 2023, the total revenue of the two ends of "The Lost Century" was only $120,000, which is less than 2% of the total revenue of "Call of the Devil" ($8 million).

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

Now, the MMORPG sequel "Call of the Devil: Croniko Battles" (hereinafter referred to as "Croniko Battles") also created with "Call of the Devil" as the IP was officially launched in 98 countries and regions around the world on March 9, 2023, half a year after the launch of service in South Korea, supporting more than ten languages including Chinese, PC, Android, and iOS interoperable. Another charge horn of the Devil Summoning IP sounded.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

("Cronico Wars" was among the best on all platforms and markets when it was launched globally)

The news of this global launch naturally attracted the attention of many Demon Summoner players, and also made me deeply interested in its market performance and influence, and I experienced it for a long time after downloading.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

As we all know, the MMORPG category is a frequent customer of Korean game companies. However, Com2uS, which is also a Korean company, has no other products in the research and development of MMORPGs except for "Wizarding World: IMO" a few years ago; Coupled with the fact that it has already failed once before on The Lost Century, there are many uncertainties about the future of the Demon Summoning IP. Can Com2uS make the "Battle of Cronico" and "Call of the Devil" series IPs achieve each other? Digging deeper into the game may find the answer.

01

Bizarre adventures in a new world

"Croniko Battles" is a Japanese celluloid flat-painted master and servant team MMORPG, players will choose to join the guardian group as one of the three graduates of the summoner academy, collect, summon and evolve their own demons in the adventure, improve the strength of the team, and protect the peace of the world.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

The game focuses on the plot, and the presentation is smooth and masterful. This is reflected in the beautiful animation CG set up for important story points in the game, so that players can enjoy the development of the game's story as if they were watching a drama, and remain interested in its follow-up.

In addition, in the various processes of the story, real-time calculus animations are also used extensively, allowing players to customize characters to appear in them, enhancing the player's interaction and sense of substitution with the game world.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(Real-time calculus animations are interspersed with story and battles to immerse players in the scene)

"Demon Spirit 1+3, adventure has backers", this is the promotional word of "Cronico War" for its own characteristic gameplay. That is, the player controls the summoner as the captain and carries three demons as a retinue to fight together.

In addition to releasing the protagonist's three small skills and big moves, players can also link one of the three demons through the "Soul Chain" and manually release their skills without a CD of mana. The other two demons are assisted in combat through AI control, and their skills have CDs that support switching links at any time. Players can also switch weapon attributes in their hands or consume mana to play other demons during the battle as needed, so as to play targeted effects.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(The Devil's skill mix is extremely deep)

In fact, the game has removed most of the operations, such as adding automatic pathfinding, automatic combat, lineup automatic following and other load-reducing designs; However, they retained some parts, such as the player's ability to dodge and move to avoid damage, control the time when the link demon's skill is cast, and the first forced manual hand in the dungeon.

It not only leaves players room for fighting in Vietnam, but also does not deviate from the numerical development route of traditional MMORPGs, so that players know that they are playing Korean MMO (doge).

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(Using position movement and soul chain skills to clear the level, leaving room for operation, improving strategy and fun)

In the early gameplay, in addition to running map exploration and receiving tasks, players have the most contact with is to raid various dungeon quests to advance the plot and obtain resources.

Each of the dozens of story quests has a unique map landscape and route design, supplemented by characteristic mechanics and puzzle elements, which effectively reduces the player's sense of repetition during the push map opening period. After the story, these quests are also made into independent levels that can earn the first reward, divided into several difficulties for players to remake.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(More than thirty dungeons have their own unique mechanics)

The game divides various cultivation resources into meticulous details, and there are naturally many kinds of copies of daily brush resources. There are single-player only, and there are many that require players to team up with multiple players to complete the level. Players use up the daily number of entries to these quests, which takes a lot of time.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(It's okay to hug your thighs)

It is worth mentioning that in the process of raiding single-player quests, NPCs will also introduce players to the storyline of the dungeon with pop-up dialogue.

For example, when raiding Rudrin's skeleton copy, the game tells some trivia about it: after the collapse of the ruins of Casco, the Guardians fell into the fall. After the sleeping skeleton soldiers woke up, they were actually attracted by the abundant local fruits and grabbed fruits from the residents to eat. This caused dissatisfaction and anger among the residents, so players were invited to go on a crusade.

Inserting these short stories may not be noticed by players who are attentive to the book. But its inadvertent infiltration of the worldview can make people feel the ingenuity of the production team.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(The content of the copy for each difficulty level is linked to the previous level)

In the middle and late stages, the core gameplay of "Cronico Wars" is PVP, and it has a complete arena system like "Call of the Devil".

The arena is divided into two types. One is a "challenge arena" (PVE gameplay) in which the player is deployed offline and hosted by AI for another player to attack online; The other is the real-time matching "battle arena" (PVP gameplay).

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

In the "Battle Arena", players each kill one weapon of the opponent is WW, then each WW, and then each chooses 4 demons, and each kills 1 of them to enter the battle. It mainly relies on the player's understanding of the demon spirit and the micro-manipulation awareness in the battle to win. (At present, the global server has not opened this model for the time being)

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(Battle Arena battle process, from Youtube blogger: 스토리텔러Storyteller)

The game also has many functional gameplay common to MMORP G, such as tower climbing, exchanges, guilds, clothing rooms, professional skills (alchemy, cooking, forging, processing), wild activities (gathering matches, fishing, dance parties, world bosses), etc. The completion of each module is also relatively high, so I will not repeat it here.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

Overall, Cronico makes some innovations based on the MMORPG framework. Both fast and slow game rhythms make content playable before, during and after the game. While bringing fresh fun and challenges to players, it also expands the story capacity of the "Call of the Devil" IP.

02

Make the Demon IP great again

Call of the Demon itself is card-themed, and its story is usually a simple setting without an in-depth storytelling. Therefore, the development team of Cronico decided to use the narrative of the MMORPG process to break this limitation. Through the game's character dialogue, plot performance, CG animation, etc., to tell a deeper and more complete story, and improve the world view of the "Call of the Devil" IP.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(Rich chapter plot of the main story)

"Battle of Cronicus" also prepares a unique life and backstory for individual demons. By solving the commission of the inhabitants of various places, players can gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between demons and the continent. This also provides a more delicate foreshadowing and supplement to the creation of the IP world view of "Call of the Devil".

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(Love and hatred between demons and residents)

As an IP sequel, it is not difficult to find in "Cronico War", which inherits many elements of "Demon Call".

For example, the card drawing method and the appearance design of the demon spirit basically follow a generation, and the three-headed Q version character design is full of closeness to fans and players.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(Continuation of the scroll, altar drawer and demon appearance settings of the previous game)

The way demons are cultivated, the appearance changes after awakening, and the setting that all can be upgraded to the highest star (equality of all beings) is no different from the first generation. The same demon spirit is divided into five attributes: wind, water, fire, and rare light and dark, and has different skill sets, which are exactly the same as the generation.

And unlike the first generation, it is the skill effect of the devil. Although the positioning of each demon in the lineup has remained largely unchanged (the first-generation replenisher will not become a second-generation warrior), the details will be modified accordingly according to the MMORPG's game mode to make it more reasonable.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(The Dog Priest on the wind attribute is still positioned as Resurrection Milk, but the skill effect has been fine-tuned)

In Call of the Devil, players need to constantly explore trial and error in actual combat if they want to know if a demon is really useful. This is because the game only provides a vague overview of the skill effect ("huge" damage, "medium" probability), but does not specify the skill value (percentage vs. specific number). Whether it was intentional or not is unknown, but this practice of educating players has become one of its unique features.

And this generation of "personality" succumbed in the second generation, and players can click on the skill enhancement interface after obtaining the demon spirit. This arrangement is also to cater to the fast-paced gameplay of MMORPGs and reduce the learning cost of players.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(The first generation of skills only says what is in the red box, while the second generation clarifies the value)

Runes are a deep equipment matching system, and they are also the first cog that drives the strategy of Call of the Demon to become changeable. As a major feature of the first generation, it was naturally used by the second generation, and some rune types that were not in the first generation were added.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(Diverse rune collocations)

Based on the first generation, the second generation is rubbed; Borrow another second generation and enrich the first generation. Improving the "Call of the Devil" IP and making the sequel and the previous game achieve each other, this is what Com2uS hopes to achieve with this product.

03

Up to 9 years bottleneck period

However, despite the world-class success of Call of the Devil, as one of the first "first movers" to enter the gaming market, the experienced Com2uS seems to have entered a long bottleneck period in recent years.

According to Com2uS's financial report for the third quarter of 2022, its total operating volume in mobile games in 2022 was about 352.4 billion won (equivalent to about 1.854 billion yuan) as of the third quarter. In contrast, it can be seen that the performance has not changed much from previous years.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(Source: DART, unit: million won)

In the nine years since Call of the Demon went live, Com2uS has launched hundreds of game products. Although the quality of the games they made was good, there was never a hit that could match it. This exposes some problems.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide
A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(Com2uS Android game revenue top 20 in February 2023, the red frame is an old work from three years ago; The new works did not perform well. Source: Sensor Tower)

First of all, the quality of Com2uS's games, while not bad, may not be innovative enough and not attractive enough.

You know, a large part of the success of Call of the Devil is because of the originality and depth of its gameplay.

The "Battle of Kronico" introduced above as an example, it also has a 3+1 lineup with this rare gameplay change. But in actual combat, the heavy strategy of "Call of the Devil" has been diluted a lot by the numerical system of MMORPGs, and the actual effect of originality is not much.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(Account level bonus and booklet collection bonus applicable to all employees make the value cultivation bottomless)

Looking at Com2uS's other games, most of them are on the path that has been walked by previous people. Although the exterior is polished exquisitely, but the inside is not too prominent, such a game is more difficult to win the market.

Second, there may not be enough attention to different types of user needs to meet user needs.

Hundreds of games cover many genres, it seems that Com2uS is casting a wide net, and the user layer covered should be many. In fact, quantity does not represent quality. Com2uS may be too fragmented in game genres to dig deeper into the needs of each type of user.

In addition, Com2uS may not have many resources to focus on polishing a product, resulting in a poor user experience, which in turn affects user loyalty.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(Com2uS Holding has a shorter interval between releasing new apps with its subsidiaries Source: data.ai)

Finally, it may be that there is not enough attention to changes in the market to make it difficult to adapt to them.

At present, there are two main product development routes for Com2uS, one is the IP agency development route ("The Walking Dead", "MLB", "NBA", etc.); The other is to turn the self-developed relatively successful product into an IP and produce a sequel route ("Demon Call", "Dragon Soul", etc.).

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(Dragon Soul is a very well-received turn-based strategy PVE game, and Com2uS will launch its sequel, Dragon Soul: AFK RAID)

The former can quickly gain attention and recognition in the market with the help of known well-known brands, reducing the cost of promotion; To a certain extent, reduce the risk of innovation and avoid major mistakes in product development and promotion.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(The Walking Dead IP itself is a kind of heat)

The latter can fully explore the potential value of existing products, better use existing resources and user base, and further improve the market share and user stickiness of products.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

("Kronic Battle" relies on linking with its own "Call of the Devil" to gain fan popularity)

However, creating IP and sequel routes with self-developed successful products may make users feel that the product lacks novelty, and if it is not done well, it will reduce the reputation of the product.

Moreover, both product routes rely more on well-known IP and products already in place, which may affect the company's innovation ability and creativity.

Looking at the current volatile market conditions, these two product routes may not be flexible enough to adapt to their changes.

In addition to the above two relatively clear product directions, Com2uS also has branch directions such as developing non-magic IP but playing games that are magic-like and creating sports games.

Although the former has rich development experience, it is difficult to surpass "Call of the Devil" itself; The latter sports games are also difficult to do. Taking football games as an example, except for a few big manufacturers who dare to try real competition, the vast majority of football games are card collision or simulation business gameplay (the same is true for Com2uS's "Galaxy Soccer Team" and "Football Soul"), and this gameplay is now relatively backward and difficult to have further development prospects.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(The football element is imposed)

Com2uS simulates real competition in baseball, which stands out among these products. While the baseball mobile game market isn't narrow, it's not one of the most popular genres.

In some countries and regions where baseball is popular such as the United States and Japan, the market for baseball mobile games is relatively large; In other countries or regions, the market demand for such games is relatively low. Because most players who choose to play baseball on their mobile phones also play baseball in reality. So this type of product does not bring much revenue to Com2uS.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(MLB 9 Professional Baseball series)

04

Build a gaming circle

Breaking the game with blockchain?

See what the future holds for Com2uS.

They have been focusing on launching blockchain-based games for almost two years. Call of the Devil: The Lost Century was updated as a blockchain game in 2022 to serve users worldwide. Com2uS may continue to develop and launch various game genres based on blockchain to enhance competitiveness in the global market.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

Is the so-called "chain game" a gimmick or an opportunity?

Specific to the Com2uS and C2X platforms, they plan to connect a number of Com2uS games to the blockchain to create a decentralized Web 3.0 ecosystem and lead the global market.

This may be seen as a very promising and innovative initiative that, if successful, could bring new opportunities and developments to the gaming industry, as well as provide users with a better gaming experience and economic returns. Com2uS also said in its financial report that it will continue to deepen the development of chain games in the future.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(Com2uS has since released blockchain games such as Kritika Global and Idle Luca.)

But from the current revenue of the Com2uS series of games, joining the blockchain does not seem to give them much help, and it seems that the gimmick accounts for more.

In addition, in an increasingly competitive global mobile gaming market, a platform that uniformly manages global users is becoming increasingly important. Com2uS has also developed its own global mobile gaming service platform "Hive".

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

"Hive" is designed to allow global users to complete universal login and registration under Com2uS & Com2uS controlled games with only one account. In addition, based on seven languages, including Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese Simplified, and Chinese Traditional, we provide services in more than 10 languages depending on the game, providing membership functions such as login, social networking, and community, as well as game operation and marketing functions such as system management such as security and statistics updates, banners, announcements, pushes, and customer consultations.

Games such as "Call of the Devil", "Fishing Enthusiast" and "Galaxy Soccer Team" entered the global market through "Hive" and achieved good results.

"Com2uS will use 'Hive' as a global mobile game service platform to carry out joint cross-promotion activities based on user groups to improve the chances of successful global entry of games." Com2uS wrote in its earnings report.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(Players can use the same Hive account to participate in multiple Com2uS games)

Marketing is becoming increasingly important in mobile gaming. Com2uS increases user loyalty through game promotions with continuous user communication and management, and promotes their products through various media.

In addition, by establishing game-specific brand homepages, Com2uS provides direct customer management and communication for each game.

They have also established a customer service center and CRM to provide customers with satisfactory services, such as equipping each game with a dedicated section, and proactively understanding the needs and tendencies of mobile customers and applying them to content to maximize satisfaction.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

(Hive Call Center in 16 languages worldwide)

05

epilogue

Com2uS is exploring new possibilities in the gaming industry through continuous experimentation and innovation, and hopes to provide players with a better gaming experience and economic returns through the development of blockchain-based games and global mobile game service platforms.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide

Although the future development potential of the Call of the Demon IP is still unknown, the market performance of other new games is also sluggish. However, Com2uS's craftsmanship in self-developed games, insistence on continuous update and operation of old games and its brave exploration of new technologies still make them have a respected reputation and are at the forefront of the game industry.

Com2uS also recently announced that "Cronico Wars" recorded a total of 5 billion won in sales within four days of its global launch, equivalent to 26.35 million yuan. It is expected that they can take advantage of the globalization of this product to break through the bottleneck period and bring more surprises and innovations to players in the future.

A product eats for 9 years, slashes 15 billion flowing water, and now their new work has begun to slaughter the list worldwide