Shanghai Mihayou Network Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Mihayou"), which was "brought to fly" by the game "Genshin" and grew from a second-tier manufacturer to a leading manufacturer, looks forward to the evergreen of this game IP and continues to invest in operating costs. The first stop of the "Genshin Symphony Concert" 2023 global tour is scheduled to be in Shanghai, and the pre-sale ticket price is 432-1480 yuan, although the price is close to the highest ticket price of the first-line singer Wang Sulong and Mao Buyi's concert is 1580 yuan and 1680 yuan, the pre-sale ticket is still quickly sold out within 3 minutes of the ticketing, and the price is nearly twice the original ticket price in the secondary ticket market. "Genshin" from the initial explosive momentum swept the game market, to gradually become famous overseas, driving Mihayou to win the global monthly revenue championship, and now the momentum is gradually fatigued, this game released in 2020, is expanding the layout, fully rolling out in animation, events, cross-border co-branding and other fields of attempts, looking for a new narrative of IP.
Shanghai Station advance tickets sold out in 3 minutes
The story line in the game is advanced to Fontaine, the country of water, and version 4.0 of "Genshin" is online, and at the same time, outside the game, the IP monetization road of "Genshin" also tries to tell new stories offline.
According to the ticketing platform, the two performances of the Shanghai leg of the "Genshin Symphony Concert" 2023 global tour opened for pre-sale on the evening of September 10, and quickly sold out within 3 minutes after the ticket was issued. At the same time, 10 symphony concerts that will be staged in five city theaters including Beijing and Tianjin in October are also showing that there are no tickets available.
In addition, the Beijing Business Daily reporter noticed that in the secondary ticket market, the concert also speculated nearly twice the original ticket price. At the same time, merchants who charge 100-300 yuan for auction fees and provide ticket-grabbing services have gradually become active in second-hand trading platforms and game super calls.
A person who has been selling concert "scalpers" for a long time revealed, "I did not predict the high popularity of this project in advance, and only a small number of tickets were hoarded." Don't worry about finding buyers, and game concerts often have additional game benefits, even if the tickets can't be sold, the included game props and peripherals can be sold separately."
Relying on traffic still requires content attention
Moving from online operations to offline crossover poses greater challenges to the audience and loyalty of game IP.
From the specific price point of view alone, the price of "Genshin Symphony Concert" is high compared to the performance of the concert category. The pre-sale tickets priced at 432-1480 yuan are not only higher than the Hisaishi Jean & Miyazaki Anime Classic Audiovisual Concert, which is also an IP-derived concert, with a maximum ticket price of 599 yuan, but also higher than the highest ticket price of 580-1080 yuan for the traditional symphony orchestra concert. In addition, the price of the performance is also close to the concert ticket price of the first-line singer, only taking Wang Sulong and Mao Buyi as an example, the highest grade ticket price of the two singers' concert is 1580 yuan and 1680 yuan respectively.
In fact, the concert with the game soundtrack as the main performance track, "Genshin" and the Miha You behind it are not the first attempts, and online concerts will be held in 2021 and 2022. Such concerts have also grown into a common way to link players offline in the game industry, including games such as "League of Legends", "Honor of Kings" and "Ark of Tomorrow".
According to public information, some game manufacturers have self-built game music teams, Mihayou holds the original music team HOYO-MiX, Tencent's game "Honor of Kings" has launched the "Hear Chinese Music" music label, and the manufacturer behind the game "Ark of Tomorrow" Eagle Horn Network has established a wholly-owned subsidiary Shanghai Uketa Boundary Music Co., Ltd. to provide music production, musician management, music distribution, performance scene and other businesses.
Music critic Zhou Lin pointed out that in terms of commercial value, concerts, as a new channel for monetizing game content products, can bring intuitive and substantial returns to manufacturers, IPs and products, and the social attributes of concerts can also be used as added value of content products to enhance the freshness of game product experience. However, it should be noted that the core value of music works at concerts is still the artistic value of music itself, and the market needs more high-quality works to attract audiences, so as to achieve the effective integration of performances and games, and the mutual transformation of audiences and players.
"The improvement of user game aesthetics puts forward higher requirements for the game audiovisual experience, and game manufacturers gradually change their thinking from the early coordination and purchase of music copyrights by third-party platforms, reduce their dependence on outsourcing, and gradually establish their own music teams, which not only improves the cultural attributes of games, but also helps to enhance the content thickness of game products." Game industry analyst Wei Mingye said.
Seek a new path for IP to continue its life
It is undeniable that content products have their life cycle, even if they are market hits.
Relying on "Genshin" and its multiple game IPs, Mihayou quickly entered the ranks of new game forces. According to Sensor Tower data, "Genshin" attracted US$245 million in the first month of its launch, becoming the world's highest-grossing mobile game during the period; since then, it has won the Chinese overseas mobile game revenue champion for six consecutive months, breaking records to become the highest-grossing game IP in history, with a cumulative revenue of US$2.3 billion on Google Play and App Store in the first year of launch. In terms of word of mouth, he has been nominated for the TGA "Best Mobile Game" and "Best Continuous Game" awards for three consecutive years.
Now that the game has been updated to version 4.0, public information shows that the investment in the purchase volume of Genshin (that is, the game is promoted by purchasing traffic) has increased significantly, but it is facing a decline in active users and revenue. According to Qimai data, in the past year, since mid-April, the iPhone revenue of "Genshin" has not been as good as before.
In addition to content updates, "Genshin" and Mihayou have also increased the pace of IP operations in recent years, extending their tentacles to larger areas beyond the game itself. Announced that it will co-produce the "Genshin" animation project with animation production company UFOTABLE, and in addition to holding official international competitions based on the built-in "Seven Saints Call" gameplay of "Genshin", since 2023, it has completed cross-border co-branding with Pizza Hut, Heytea, Kiehl's, Alipay and other brands. According to incomplete statistics from the Beijing Business Daily reporter, 2023 has just ended three quarters, but the number of cross-border co-branding completed through the "Genshin" IP has been the same as in 2022.
For the future development plan of "Genshin Concert" and "Genshin" IP, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily contacted Mihayou, but did not receive a reply as of press time.
"For long-term game products, stable content updates are required, and various activities are also needed to enhance audience stickiness and freshness, and give IP more monetization space." Wei Mingye said.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Lu Yang Han Xinyuan