Text | Jinx
"Hakimi! Hakimi! Hakimi! ”
On August 30, the two-dimensional game "Pretty Derby" (hereinafter referred to as "Horse Racing Girl") developed by Cygames and operated by Station B. Youjun Girl (hereinafter referred to as: "Youjun Girl") is officially in beta.
On the first day of launch, the game topped the iOS free list and the top of the TapTap Hot List. And on the first day of the open beta, the number of game downloads exceeded 1 million.
So far, "Handsome Girl" has received a total of 950,000 followers on TapTap. Before the official beta of the game, the number of fans on all platforms also exceeded 1.2 million.
Compared with the name of the national uniform with a slight middle two, its international dress "Horse Racing Girl" seems to have a greater reputation. On February 24, 2021, "Horse Racing Girl" Japanese clothes landed at the top of the best-selling and free lists in Japan on the first day of its launch.
"Horse Racing Girl" Japanese free list ranking trend
"Horse Racing Girl" Japanese best-selling list ranking trend
According to Sensor Towe, as of March this year, the cumulative global revenue of "Horse Racing Girl" has exceeded $2 billion.
So, can such a two-dimensional game that is popular in Japan, a two-dimensional mecca, create brilliance again on the two-dimensional track that has already rolled up to a new height in China?
01
Domestic horse racing culture is weak
It is difficult to reproduce the pomp and circumstance of Japanese clothing
According to Qimai data, the iOS turnover on the first day of the public beta of "Youjun Girl" was 2.76 million yuan, and its performance in a number of two-dimensional games can only be regarded as decent. Compared with the 2 billion yen (about 120 million yuan at the exchange rate at that time) in the first week of the launch of the Japanese server, it is a far cry.
"Handsome Girl" iOS terminal running data
Specific to the content of the game, after entering the game, the most intuitive feeling is the strong Japanese style. In the game, players will play the role of the "trainer" of Youjun Girls' Academy, and accompany Youjun Girls' training, growth, competition and other tasks, and finally complete the graduation assessment. It is not difficult to see that the core gameplay of the game is a series of "cultivation". In the process of cultivation, due to the different personalities of the characters, they will give different feedback when facing the same event, which also improves the player's immersive experience.
In addition, there will be emergencies in the development process, and the game also makes reasonable use of these emergencies to show players a more comprehensive and three-dimensional character personality.
It is worth noting that unlike the general casting of nets and focusing on training methods in most two-dimensional games, players can only cultivate one character in "Handsome Girl". This setting allows the player to spend more time and energy on the character, thereby increasing the depth of bond between the player and the character.
After the "cultivation" has reached a certain level, how to measure the cultivation results? At this point, "competition" becomes a way to test "cultivation results".
This kind of PVP gameplay often has the problem of "value is everything", and in "Handsome Girl", in addition to being affected by the value of character attributes, factors such as track selection and the presence of Handsome Girl may affect the outcome of the game. The emergence of uncertainties has further brought players a better sense of immersive experience.
From the perspective of game content, the graphics and gameplay of "Youjun Girl" are remarkable. However, if the national service wants to surpass the performance of the Japanese service, it is relatively unlikely at present.
On the one hand, compared with Japan, the domestic "horse racing" cultural foundation is weak, and players' resonance with the theme will be greatly reduced.
The rise of horse racing in Japan began in 1862 during the Meiji Restoration, and although it is not very long, it has developed rapidly. In the following period, although the horse racing culture rose and fell several times due to multiple factors, the horse racing culture in Japan has always been inherited.
Today, Japan's racecourses are not much different from amusement parks for the public. So, it's no surprise that racetracks carry their childhood memories and horse racing culture is loved by Japanese players.
Although there is also a inheritance of horse racing culture in China, the audience range is still much worse than that of Japan.
On the other hand, in recent years, there has been a surplus of various products in the two-dimensional track, and the total number of players and the ability to pay for a single game will be affected without a major change in the total number of two-dimensional game players.
In August, in addition to "Youjun Girl", station B also launched two two-dimensional games, "Azure Files" and "Sluder". Among them, the iOS turnover of "Azure Files" on the first day was 1.62 million yuan, and the iOS terminal turnover of "Slude" on the first day was 935,000 yuan. Judging from the data comparison, the performance of "Youjun Girl" is quite good.
But you know, the iOS turnover of "Honkai: Star Dome Railway", which was publicly tested earlier this year, reached 21.13 million yuan.
Therefore, putting "Youjun Girl" on the entire two-dimensional track, there is still a relatively obvious gap with the head game. However, with the blessing of animation and IP influence, it is not difficult for the game to maintain long-term stable operation.
02
Restrained buying
Crooked Hakimi marketing
In March 2016, Cygames announced a project to make horses a woman covering manga, animation, games, magazines, music, and offline live.
In 2018, the first season of the "Horse Racing Girl" anime began to air, and if the game was not delayed, the two would have been basically launched simultaneously.
In 2021, the second season of "Horse Racing Girl" was launched on station B. Up to now, the drama has received 45.885 million views and 351,000 barrages, while maintaining a high score of 9.9.
For a two-dimensional game, the ACG crowd is naturally an important target audience. Under the combined influence of the IP matrix and the popularity of foreign servers, the game also has a certain fan base in the domestic market.
From the perspective of purchase volume, "Youjun Girl" still adheres to the traditional publicity and play method of station B, pays attention to the power of its own platform, and maintains a relatively restrained purchase volume.
According to Hot Cloud data, the game only began to have buying volume three days before the open beta, and the purchase volume data on the open beta day reached a peak, with a total of 27,728 creative groups launched, and then the number of launches fell off a cliff.
Although there are not many changes in the announcement of Station B, the unexpected explosion of the word "Hakimi" before the game goes live has also brought a lot of heat to the game.
The word "Hakimi" comes from the second season of "Horse Racing Girl", originally meaning honey, which became popular on the TikTok platform after being covered and used to describe cute little animals. Subsequently, memes such as "electronic Hakimi" and "My born Hakimi" also began to rise. At present, the video under the topic of "#哈基米 Hakimi" on Douyin has reached 1.38 billion views.
This wave of popularity, for the game, can be said to be a no-brainer. Because, in every place where Hakimi is asked, the existence of "Horse Racing Girl" can be seen.
Station B naturally will not let go of this wave of heat, and when it was announced before the public test, it played the slogan of "galloping with 'Hakimi'". After all, it is its own thing, and it is not rubbed in vain.
In addition, soon after the national service open beta, the third season of the "Horse Racing Girl" animation will also be launched. At that time, the game will also usher in another round of popularity.
From the current game content and market performance, one of the most important products of "Youjun Girl" Station B this year, in the current two-dimensional game track can still get a piece of the pie, "Hakimi"'s unexpected popularity, but also let it occupy the "time of day". However, due to the difference in cultural attributes, it is almost impossible for "Youjun Girl" to have a performance that surpasses the Japanese service.