In recent years, when it comes to the medium and heavy tracks of mobile games, we usually pay more attention to SLG and "match-3+". However, in the near future, a number of new MMORPG titles have been launched, and all of them have shown strong revenue growth momentum.
According to Sensor Tower's February mobile game overseas revenue growth list, 4 MMO new games were shortlisted in the TOP 10: the purple dragon game "The Legend of Kalitz" airborne list ranked second, Sanqi Interactive Entertainment's "데블M" (Devil M) ranked fourth, Dewdrop Technology's "이모탈 소울" (Immortal Soul) won the list 6th, and Efun's "데스가르드" (DeathGard) ranked 10th.
Looking further forward at the mobile game overseas growth list in January, MMO mobile games such as "Tomb Robbery Notes" on Youzu Network and "카오스 포털: 저승사자" (Chaos Portal) also entered the TOP 20.
As one of the mainstream heavy categories, MMOs have always had considerable market demand, and in the past, we can also see that many MMOs of the Chinese style fairy tale category have achieved good results in overseas markets.
However, with the deepening of the overseas process and the increasingly fierce market competition, MMOs with high gameplay education costs and high subject matter and cultural barriers have encountered a "bottleneck period" - now that a number of MMO new games have broken through one after another, is it possible that this category track will once again become a "new hot spot for going overseas"?
01
Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Market:
Purple Dragon Game "The Legend of Kalitz"
The new MMO game "The Legend of Caliz", developed by Zilong Games and published by GameBeans, was launched in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan in early February, and topped the iOS game best-selling lists in Hong Kong and Taiwan on the first day of its launch, and currently remains within the TOP 10 best-selling iOS games in Taiwan. According to Sensor Tower, the game ranked 4th on the mobile best-selling list in February and 2nd in the growth list in this issue.
The Legend of Calitz is actually a traditional version of Dragon Country Story, which was launched on the mainland market in March last year. Influenced by Japanese pop culture, Japanese-style MMOs born out of JRPGs also have a good audience base in the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan markets.
Purple dragon games that have launched products such as "Fantasy Simulation Battle" and "Wind Continent" can be said to be familiar with the control of Japanese fantasy themes. As a typical Japanese MMO, "The Legend of Kalitz" focuses on the theme of "How to Train Your Dragon", and the story routine is also the most common "Dragon Quest" in Japanese fantasy themes, but the overall development is more relaxed and lively, giving players a "casual" look.
At the same time, with the theme of "How to Train Your Dragon", the art of "The Legend of Kalitz" has also made some differences. The overall style of the game is bright, and the characters are presented with a cute Q version image, and at the same time, they also make a texture similar to a figure, which is different from the mainstream Q version style in the market, and can also bring freshness to players.
In addition to the product itself, the marketing and buying method of "The Legend of Kalitz" adheres to the route of "holding high and playing high", on the one hand, using the influence of spokesperson Zhang Huimei to create momentum for the game brand, and at the same time, a number of KOLs were invited to shoot promotional videos before the public test; On the other hand, with large-scale purchase volume launch, it quickly starts to make a splash in a short period of time and opens up the local market.
According to statistics, the advertising volume of "The Legend of Caliz" in the past three months exceeded 4,000 sets, with the peak before its launch and the first week of launch, and the main investment channels were AdMob and Meta Audience Network.
At the level of material delivery, "The Legend of Kalitz" mainly has two ideas: first, conventional gameplay/character display, and add keywords such as "high welfare" to attract users; The second is to use a large number of live broadcast/oral broadcast materials favored by Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan users, close to user preferences.
For example, the following set of materials compares "other servers" and "Taiwan servers" in the form of dialogue, leads to "limited time login to receive 300 draws" and displays rare character card faces, highlighting the "high benefits" of the Taiwan service "The Legend of Kalitz" and attracting users to download.
Source: AppGrowing International
Combined with the materials of the live performance, one is "gameplay screen display + narration from the player's perspective", and the other is "live anchor playing games". For example, the following set of materials is expanded on a common live broadcast screen, and the bottom right corner is the anchor who is playing "The Legend of Kalitz", and at the same time shows the mounts rewarded by the game reservation event, attracting users in multiple dimensions.
Source: AppGrowing International
In addition, some of the purchase materials use spokesperson content, but they are all displayed in simple image materials without too much creative output.
02
Korean Market:
37 Interactive Entertainment "데블M"
In recent years, 37 Interactive Entertainment's achievements in the overseas market have been very eye-catching, and its "Puzzles & Survival" and "Song of the City on the Cloud" have entered the top 30 mobile game overseas revenue of Sensor Tower in 2022, of which "Puzzles & Survival" is one of the explosive models of the "match-3 + SLG" track.
In addition to continuing to cultivate the "match-3+" track, 37 Interactive Entertainment has also returned to its familiar MMO category this year, "데블M" (Devil M) was launched in the Korean market on January 11, according to Sensor Tower, as of March 5, 2023, the game's global revenue has exceeded $11 million.
Reflected in the app store list, the game has remained within the TOP 40 of the iOS Korean best-selling list so far, with the highest ranking 19th, while Google Play has performed better, and is currently stable in the top ten of the best-selling list.
As far as the product itself is concerned, "데블M" is a very "typical" Korean fantasy MMORPG mobile game. On the outer packaging, the game name has the "M" character, and the icon is designed as "dark background + game name", and the overall look and feel is very close to other local magic MMOs in Korea.
The gameplay design of the game is also in line with the habits of Korean users, with on-hook upgrades, automatic battles, high-intensity and deep development strategy systems, etc., emphasizing the "refreshment" of the game.
In terms of promotion and marketing, "데블M" does not take the common "spokesperson + KOL marketing" route and large-scale offline launch, but concentrates on the level of purchase volume, with high welfare activities and rewards to attract users. According to statistics, the game currently has more than 2,000 sets of materials, and the main investment channel is AdMob.
As for material creativity, 데블M mainly shows the scene and gameplay of the game, while the display of the battle part highlights elements such as damage values, skill lighting effects, and character upgrade special effects to stimulate users' sense of challenge. For example, the following set of materials shows the character exploring the map, fighting monsters, picking up a large number of rare equipment, and strengthening his strength.
Source: AppGrowing International
03
There are also two new MMO games
Break through the Korean market
In addition to 37 Interactive Entertainment's "데블M", Q1's MMO new game that performed well in the Korean market includes Dewdrop Technology's "이모탈 소울" (Immortal Soul) and the fantasy network "데스가르드" (DeathGard), both of which are fantasy mobile games.
According to Sensor Tower, "이모탈 소울" earned four times more revenue in February than in January, and revenue continued to rise. In our previous article, we analyzed the buying volume idea of Dewdrop Technology's MMO. According to statistics, "이모탈 소울" currently has nearly 7,000 sets of materials, and the main investment channel is Meta Audience Network.
In terms of buying materials, "이모탈 소울" follows its distribution routine in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, mainly around download rewards, combat power improvement and gameplay and other content to produce a series of materials, of which live-action materials are one of the key points. For example, this live-action material, embedded in the daily scene, is triggered by 5 million combat power to be free, and the plot is further extended with how to improve the combat power to get the exemption qualification, thereby introducing the benefits, gameplay and character settings in the game.
Source: AppGrowing International
"데스가르드" of Yixian Network has the best score of 30th on the Korean iOS game best-selling list, and still maintains a good revenue growth momentum.
South Korea and MMO categories are all areas that Yixian Network is good at. On the whole, "데스가르드" is very targeted in the Korean market, and the product gameplay and art are built around the preferences of Korean users; In terms of purchase marketing, as a new game launched in February, "데스가르드" is not very much at present, and in terms of material creativity, it mainly shows game fighting gameplay and art scenes, and it is worth noting that it will be paired with some live materials to attract users.
For example, in the following material, the video begins with the content of the real beauty "dress-up catwalk", and with the dress-up content, the rare equipment of the game is displayed at the bottom of the screen, showing the "appearance change brought about by character upgrades", quickly grabbing the user's attention through the live material in the first few seconds, and then switching to the gameplay scene display of the game.
Source: AppGrowing International
There are also creative ideas for ads that introduce games with live streamers. For example, this material, in the form of a question and answer between two anchors, introduces and endorses the gameplay through the answers of the female anchors, and embeds the gameplay and art display.
Source: AppGrowing International
04
epilogue
On the whole, these MMO new tours, which have achieved good results in Q1, focus on the market areas of Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, South Korea and Southeast Asia, these three markets have always been the main output positions of domestic MMOs, and only the first stop of "Tomb Robbery Notes" chose Europe and the United States.
It is not difficult to see that the current MMO overseas thinking is still based on mining mature markets and existing markets, and wanting to stand out in the increasingly volatile market competition undoubtedly tests the strength of game manufacturers' product polishing, buying volume, brand marketing and so on, which is a comprehensive "user battle".
Game Grape Recruitment Content Editor,
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