Photo: King of Glory peripheral mall.
"Crazy heartbeat! These dresses are so beautiful! ”
"This bad aesthetic, which village came from?"
"Can this sell for 1300?"
In May, the well-known game IP "Honor of Kings" launched the physical women's clothing brand "MEETING SHERO". In order to highlight its uniqueness, the official "Honor of Kings" also said that "each piece of clothing is limited to 100 pieces, and it is accompanied by a collection certificate". However, as soon as its first six women's clothing was launched, its design style and pricing of more than 1,000 yuan quickly aroused heated discussions.
According to the Beijing News shell financial reporter, as the head IP of domestic mobile games, "Honor of Kings" began to get involved in the field of women's clothing many years ago, and has joined hands with clothing brands to launch co-branded Hanfu, co-branded wedding dresses and other clothing. In addition, it has also cooperated with Nescafe, Gillette, MAC and other brands to launch joint products covering 3C, beauty, fast sales and other fields.
The crossover co-branding of the game IP of "Honor of Kings" is only a microcosm of the game industry. Many domestic game IPs are also constantly expanding their territory and breaking through on the road of joint branding with other business fields.
"Honor of Kings" creates a two-level differentiation of fashion women's clothing reputation
"When I first learned the news, I was looking forward to it, but when I saw the actual picture, I found that it was not as amazing as I thought." On May 21, gamer Han Lu told Shell Financial Reporter, "These clothes feel that it is difficult to see the elements related to the game except for the name." ”
The clothes in Han Lu's mouth are the women's ready-to-wear brand "MEETING SHERO" launched by the national game IP "Honor of Kings" in May 2023.
According to the official micro of "Honor of Kings", the women's clothing is a custom brand "WECOUTURE" in the United Nations, which is managed by the other party's "WEBYWE" team. Deconstruct the heroic spirit temperament with fashion language, introduce exquisite craftsmanship and preferred fabrics in the field of custom fashion, and introduce ready-to-wear details to create a designer women's ready-to-wear brand.
On May 21, a shell financial reporter searched in the "King Glory Peripheral Mall" and found that "MEETING SHERO" launched a total of 6 women's clothing designed with four female characters in the game: "Wang Zhaojun", "Sable Cicada", "Xiao Qiao" and "Yao". At the same time, in order to highlight its uniqueness, the official "Honor of Kings" also said that "each piece of clothing is limited to 100 pieces, and it is accompanied by a collection certificate".
Photo: King of Glory peripheral mall.
It is worth noting that these clothes are not cheap. Among them, the most expensive "Wang Zhaojun off-the-shoulder dress" is priced at 1680 yuan, and the cheapest "Sable Cicada Golden Midsummer Night off-the-shoulder dress" also costs 1298 yuan.
Would you be willing to spend more than 1,000 yuan to buy a skirt of "Sable Cicada" or "Little Joe"? Can it be recognized by players?
After the women's clothing was launched, the voices of players on social platforms such as Weibo and Tieba were mixed.
"I was going to buy one as a souvenir, but then I found out it was out of stock." Li Ting, a supporter of the post-00s female gamer, told Shell Financial Reporter that she has been a fan of games for many years and has previously bought figurines, water cups, note holders and other peripheral goods. And this time, after learning that the official launch of women's clothing, I also considered starting. But after searching in the mall, I found that the model that suits me has been disconnected.
Another female player also said that her favorite character in the game is "Little Joe". After seeing the women's clothing with "Xiao Qiao" this time, I also had the urge to place an order, "Although the price is much more expensive than similar clothes, it can be regarded as a 'dream' for yourself." ”
Different from the above-mentioned fans' attitude of "buying, buying, buying", for the design style of the costume and the pricing of more than 1,000 yuan, many players wrote questions under the official micro of "Honor of Kings": "Do you look good at this?" This design? This price? "To be honest, the style is a little rotten on the street", "I want to go crazy about money"...
"There is no denying that the "Honor of Kings" IP is attractive to fans, but the launch of women's clothing may not be a success." Han Lu said, "The costume has no obvious game element in the design, and it is difficult to connect the two. At the same time, the price is much higher than the player's expectations, which has to make people have the question of 'cutting leeks'. ”
"Honor of Kings hopes to cut into the women's wear market to attract the attention of consumers in different circles, and then enhance its popularity and influence in more market areas, which is a normal business practice." A clothing industry practitioner analyzed to Shell Financial Reporter, "But the game audience is more young people, and even students." And the price of a single skirt reaches the thousand-yuan grade, which is obviously difficult for most fans to accept. ”
Clothing has become the first choice for game manufacturers IP crossover
In fact, this is not the first time Honor of Kings has introduced women's clothing. IT HAS PREVIOUSLY COOPERATED WITH MANY CLOTHING BRANDS SUCH AS "THIRTEEN MORE" AND "WECOUTURE", AND THE RESULTS ARE ALSO GOOD.
In 2019, King Honor and the well-known Hanfu brand "Thirteen Yu" announced their cooperation, and in the following years, they created a variety of joint Chinese style clothing covering women's clothing, men's clothing and children's clothing.
Shell financial reporters noticed in its official peripheral mall that the price of joint clothing between the two sides ranges from tens of yuan to thousands of yuan, of which the most expensive "Xi Shi You Long Qingmenghua Set" is priced at 1585 yuan. Also in more than thirteen Taobao flagship stores, its highest-selling "Yao Meets Shenlu" co-branded model is priced at 319 yuan, and the monthly sales can still reach 1000+ pieces.
"Similar joint Hanfu also quotes the design elements of female game characters such as 'Wang Zhaojun', 'Xiao Qiao' and 'Cai Wenji', and the costumes are particularly flowing and flexible with the blessing of Hanfu elements." A player who has previously purchased a co-branded Hanfu told Shell Financial Reporter that the series of co-branded models is particularly exciting in terms of elements and price, and has also set off a buying boom in the player base.
In addition to Hanfu, "Honor of Kings" has also dabbled in high-end custom wedding dresses. IN 2021, IT COOPERATED WITH "WECOUTURE" TO LAUNCH THE "FLOWER BLOOM" SERIES OF JOINT WEDDING DRESSES, PRICED FROM 28,800 YUAN, WITH A MAXIMUM CUSTOM PRICE OF 39,800 YUAN, WHICH ALSO ATTRACTED THE ATTENTION OF MANY PLAYERS.
In addition to "Honor of Kings", many domestic game IPs have also set foot in the women's clothing market to break through the circle.
In 2017, the dress-up game "Miracle Warm" launched the original girl's clothing brand "December Warm"; The following year, NetEase's "Against the Water and Cold" announced its cooperation with "Thirteen Yu" to create a precedent for Hanfu design and game IP cross-border joint models; In 2021, another women's joint wedding dress worth tens of thousands of yuan was also released to the game "Love and Producer".
"It's no surprise that many game IPs will be the first step in the field of clothing, and the choice is women's clothing." On May 26, game industry observer Ma Jing analyzed to Shell Financial Reporter, "Compared with male users, female groups are not only more likely to consume impulsively, but also in many games both the number of players and consumption power are higher than the former, naturally in the eyes of many manufacturers target users." ”
Wen Bin, who runs a garment factory in Zhejiang, also said that the model of cross-border cooperation between game manufacturers and clothing brands has repeatedly appeared in the circle, "Similar cooperation is not only conducive to game IP 'breaking the circle', but also 'assigning' value to clothing brands to increase sales." A win-win situation is naturally something that both sides are happy to see. ”
Nowadays, the male market is also gradually developed, and more and more game IPs appear in men's clothing, sneaker brands and other fields.
In 2020, the sneaker brand "361°" and Tencent's "QQ Speed" jointly launched three co-branded shoes; IN 2021, THE WELL-KNOWN GAME IP "LEAGUE OF LEGENDS" AND THE NATIONAL TREND BRAND "BEASTER" COOPERATED TO LAUNCH THE "BEASTER X LOL" JOINT SERIES OF CLOTHING; In June 2022, NetDragon's IP "Magic Domain" announced that it had cooperated with the men's wear brand "Seven Wolves" to launch a co-branded coat.
"Game IPs all hope to join forces to cut into other areas and get more potential players." Wen Bin said, "But it should be noted that the success of co-branded products depends on many factors such as player needs, clothing design and marketing publicity, rather than simply hanging a name, otherwise it is likely to fail due to product failure." ”
Revenue fell by 10%, forcing games to break the crossover circle
Game IPs seek to break the circle, and for good reason.
"Although the revenue from other areas of co-branding is much lower than the revenue of the game itself, game manufacturers hope to attract consumers from different circles through the linkage of IP, so as to achieve the purpose of extending the product life cycle." Ma Jing said analytically.
Shell financial reporters noted that although "Honor of Kings" has repeatedly won the global mobile game best-selling list, even according to the mobile data platform Sensor Tower, in April 2023 alone, its revenue from the global App Store and Google Play reached $213 million. However, it is worth noting that according to Tencent's financial report for the fourth quarter and full year of 2022 released in March 2023, Tencent's game business revenue for the whole year of 2022 was 170.7 billion yuan, down 2.1% year-on-year.
As mentioned in the financial report, the main reasons for the decline in revenue were the implementation of protection measures for minors, a significant reduction in the game market for minors, and fewer new game releases. As far as individual games are concerned, the revenue of core games such as "Honor of Kings" and "Peace Elite" has also declined. At the same time, the financial report pointed out that "Honor of Kings" resumed the year-on-year growth in the number of daily active accounts in the fourth quarter of 2022, and achieved a new high in turnover during the Spring Festival holiday in 2023.
"Although I play games now, it is far less 'krypton gold' than before." Li Ting told Shell Financial Reporter that she had previously spent nearly 100,000 yuan on games, and now both the number of plays and the frequency of recharge have been significantly reduced, "occasionally recharge tens of yuan, but more often it is 'Buddha' games." ”
According to the "2022 China Game Industry Report", the actual sales revenue of China's game market in 2022 will be 265.884 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 10.33%. The number of game users was 664 million, down 0.33% year-on-year.
"There has been a significant decline in game revenue." A head of the game R&D team told Shell Financial Reporter frankly, "Nowadays, in addition to the fierce competition in the industry, entertainment methods including short videos and live broadcasts have also begun to rob users of entertainment time with games." ”
"At present, the game industry has entered the era of the stock market, and game manufacturers are eager to expand the audience of games and convert multi-circle users on the basis of strong IP." Ma Jing, an observer of the game industry, said.
In order to acquire more users, game manufacturers naturally lock the "circle-breaking" mode on crossovers. In addition to the clothing field, more and more traditional industries have also appeared game IP.
"Now you can see game elements everywhere in shopping malls, convenience stores, restaurants, etc." Player Liu Lei said, "The Coke bottle can is printed with the character of "League of Legends", the poster of "Genshin" appears at the door of KFC, and even the "Honor of Kings" logo can be seen on the razor. ”
For a time, many traditional industries such as 3C, beauty, and catering have emerged products with game elements.
Han Lu told Shell Financial Reporter that she often sees her favorite beauty brands and game IPs jointly launching lipsticks, eye shadows and other cosmetics, such as La Mer and "League of Legends" joint exquisite water, MAC and "Honor of Kings" jointly launched lipstick, "Different fields of things to create joint models, not only surprise fans, but also have an urge to buy home collection." ”
"Brand co-branding not only allows consumers to feel the respective qualities and characteristics of the partner brands, but also has a strong interest in new products." An advertising practitioner analyzed that "cross-border co-branding of game IP has become a current trend. This allows each other to gain wider exposure in each other's field and use each other's influence to increase user recognition and promote marketing products more quickly. ”
Beijing News shell financial reporter Qin Che editor Chen Li proofreader Liu Baoqing