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| Super money-making game routines |
In the global boutique casual game track where the head has become solidified, a new "dark horse" work has finally burst out.
Recently, the teahouse noticed that a game called "MONOPOLY GO!" frequently appeared at the top of the game lists in various countries and regions around the world. Since its launch on April 11, the game has quickly topped the list, directly taking the top spot on the US App Store and Google Play's free game list, and to this day, the game still holds the top spot in the US dual-channel free game list, which is difficult to shake.
In the more than a month since its launch, the game has shown a fairly outstanding ability to attract money. According to Diandian data, as of May 17, the game's global revenue is estimated to have exceeded 15.48 million US dollars (about 108 million yuan), and the number of downloads has reached 18.61 million times. AppMagic statistics also show that the game's global revenue in the past 30 days (May 31 data) has exceeded 20 million US dollars (about 140 million yuan).
But at the same time as the explosion, the argument that "MONOPOLY GO!" is a "skin-changing game" is very popular, and many overseas media and game people have thrown out the view that "MONOPOLY GO!" is a skin-changing "Coin Master". So is this game a skin changer? Why does this skin-changing game attract so many players? In the long run, can this game win a place in the "crowded" boutique leisure field? TODAY WE'RE GOING TO TALK ABOUT MONOPOLY GO!.
01
"Gold Coin Master" with "Monopoly" skin
The name "MONOPOLY GO!" may be unfamiliar to everyone, but its back IP "MONOPOLY" was also translated as "Monopoly" when it was introduced into China, yes, it is the "Monopoly" we know.
THE TRADITIONAL MONOPOLY BOARD GAME IS A MULTIPLAYER CONFRONTATION GAME SUITABLE FOR FAMILY AND PARTY SCENARIOS, WHERE SEVERAL PLAYERS COMPETE WITH EACH OTHER, SWALLOW EACH OTHER, AND EVENTUALLY FORM THE RESULT OF ONE "SURVIVAL" AND THE OTHER "BANKRUPTCY", WHICH IS WHY THE GAME IS CALLED "MONOPOLY" (LITERAL TRANSLATION "MONOPOLY").
As one of the adaptations and sequels of the classic IP, "MONOPOLY GO!" retains the basic core of the "Monopoly" series in terms of gameplay, that is, on the chessboard, by rolling dice to promote the process of real estate economic development. The size of the points of the dice, corresponding to the number of squares that the player advances on the board, the random number of dice points and different events on the board, will directly lead to the rise and fall of the player's economic strength.
There are a lot of interesting little animations in the game
BUT UNLIKE TRADITIONAL BOARD GAMES, MONOPOLY GO! HAS BEEN STRIPPED DOWN TO A MORE CASUAL SINGLE-PLAYER GAME, WHERE INDIVIDUAL PLAYERS ACCUMULATE AN ECONOMY THROUGH THE BOARD AND THEN SPEND MONEY TO BUILD AND UPGRADE LANDMARKS, AND WHEN ALL THE LANDMARKS IN THE LEVEL REACH THE HIGHEST LEVEL, THE PLAYER CAN MOVE ON TO THE NEXT LEVEL AND BUILD A NEW CITY. The combination of chessboard and simulation management gameplay makes the main goal of the game clearer and effectively simplifies the difficulty of understanding the game.
Operate the construction interface
Level interface
In the process of upgrading buildings, when the player triggers the "train" event on the board, it will be teleported to the other player's city, and the player can get additional income through the mini-games of smashing buildings and robbing banks. Similarly, to avoid their buildings being attacked by other players, players need to collect shields for defense. This "attack and defense" process forms the main social module of the game.
Smash other people's buildings
"Grab the bank" gameplay, three of the same elements in the point get the corresponding reward
02
Try the gameplay routine
From the overall gameplay structure of the game, "MONOPOLY GO!" is indeed highly similar to the popular "Coin Master". The horizontal comparison is just a way to get money in the game, from the slot wheel of Coin Master to the monopoly board in MONOPOLY GO!, in addition to upgrading buildings, attacking other people's buildings and collecting shield defenses and other gameplay are basically the same.
《Coin Master》
In fact, this combination of random values + building + social gameplay is not unique to "Coin Master", as early as 2013, Israeli game developer Jelly Button Games used a turntable + management + social design when creating "Pirate Kings".
《Pirate Kings》
In 2015, Coin Master was born, replicating the structure and design of Pirate Kings and successfully taking this gameplay a step further. As a free casual mobile game product, "Coin Master" showed an extremely amazing ability to attract money after its launch. According to Statista, by the end of 2022, the game has been downloaded 300 million times worldwide, and the cumulative revenue has exceeded a staggering $3 billion.
The phenomenal success of the game not only made the development team behind it, Moon Active from Israel, make a lot of money, but also made more developers pay attention to the combination design of random value + construction + social module. A large number of products with similar gameplay are vying to emerge, among which the most representative ones such as "Board Kings" and "Dice Dreams", as well as "Piggy Go", "Pigs are Coming" and "Pirates Are Coming" launched by domestic developers are also in this category.
Source: MobileGamer
And among these latecomers, many have achieved good market revenue, among which the monthly turnover of "Dice Dreams" has exceeded 40 million US dollars (about 280 million yuan), and "Pirates are Coming" created by domestic developer Haoteng Jiake has directly become the first product with a monthly turnover of more than 100 million in the WeChat mini game platform.
The timeline is today, and MONOPOLY GO! is a high-profile hit, once again confirming that after 10 years of imitation and iteration, the Coin Master gameplay mode still has amazing suction and gold-absorbing "magic".
03
The head IP and the explosive release are strongly combined
In addition to the gameplay routine of "MONOPOLY", the classic head IP of "MONOPOLY" also added a fire to the success of "MONOPOLY GO!".
It is now widely believed that the history of "Monopoly" originated in 1903, and its founder was Lizzie Magie, an antitrust scholar from the United States, who originally created The Landlord's Game (an early prototype of Monopoly) as an educational tool to illustrate the negative effects of private monopoly and promote antitrust awareness.
Lizzie Magie's 1904 adjusted checkerboard design
After 1932, Parker Brothers, a large family business, took notice of the game, bought the rights, and officially began releasing it in 1935. Before the official release, the "Monopoly" gameplay has undergone many rounds of iterations, and the original "anti-monopoly" part has been basically completely deleted, leaving only the "monopoly" gameplay. The "monopoly" targeted by capital has completely lost its original educational significance, and has changed from an "anti-capital" educational tool to a "golden mountain of capital", which is quite ironic to think about.
But to get back to business, "Monopoly" has shown outstanding attractiveness and monetization since it officially entered the commercial market. Parker Brothers is rumored to have sold the game for $2 each, sold 1.8 million copies in its first year, and over the next 30 years, the game sold an average of more than 1 million copies a year.
In 1991, Hasbro, a well-known toy company in the United States, acquired Parker Brothers, obtained the "Monopoly" patent, and began to further adjust and optimize the rules of the game.
In the 21st century, Monopoly has become the best-selling board game in the world. According to tripartite statistics, in 2013, Monopoly had annual global revenue of about $400 million, accounting for 30% of the global board game market share. As of 2015, the game has sold approximately 275 million copies worldwide and has been printed and sold in more than 103 countries and 37 languages around the world, and it is no exaggeration to say that "Monopoly" has become a part of global pop culture.
But after entering the mobile game market, "Monopoly" has not been able to break the circle. For example, the paid mobile game "Monopoly - Classic Board Game" released by Marmalade Game Studio in 2019 authorized by Hasbro, although the game basically replicates the gameplay of the board "Monopoly", but perhaps because the audience of the board mobile game is too small, or perhaps because the "Monopoly" game relies more on "face-to-face" social scenes, and the matching degree of mobile game users is low, the game is launched 3 years later. The cumulative number of downloads is only 3 million times, and the cumulative revenue of the game is only $15 million at a unit price of $5 in the United States, far lower than the annual income of the traditional chessboard "Monopoly" of $400 million.
When creating MONOPOLY GO!, Hasbro and Scopely joined forces to finally find the direction of the "Monopoly" mobile game out of the circle. As a world-renowned mobile game developer and publisher, Scopely is well versed in the routine of the birth of explosive mobile games, and has launched a number of explosive models such as "Stumble Guys" with a monthly turnover of more than 100 million, and according to past data, Scopely's annual turnover in iOS and Android channels is close to 7 billion yuan.
Perhaps under the guidance of Scopely's rich experience in mobile game research and operation, the development team boldly disassembled the "Monopoly" game and reorganized it with the popular routine gameplay to create "MONOPOLY GO!" that perfectly matches the "appetite" of mobile game players. THE TRIPLE BUFF OVERLAY OF HEAD IP, POPULAR GAMEPLAY ROUTINES, AND STRONG DISTRIBUTION STRENGTH, THE EXPLOSIVE VOLUME OF "MONOPOLY GO!" IS ALMOST INEVITABLE.
But if you want to operate in the long term and gain a foothold in the "squeezed" boutique leisure field, the limitations of the game are also quite obvious. From the perspective of IP, the game does not fully present the "Monopoly" gameplay, which may cause some players who enter the game because of IP to uninstall the game; From the perspective of gameplay, the gameplay is not original, and the amount of game content is relatively low, when the aura of new games disappears, it will be difficult for the game to retain players.
Therefore, Teahouse believes that whether the subsequent iteration version can bring surprises to players will become the key to whether MONOPOLY GO! can remain alive. After all, in today's fast-changing casual mobile game market, "eating the old" will never be a long-term solution.