When it comes to the most profitable vertical category of games going overseas, SLG must be on the list, but compared with the frequent explosions in previous years, this year, it seems that only the interactive "Whiteout Survival" has been included in the new head product sequence, and the data shows that as of now (December 17), the turnover of the work has been in a stage of steady growth, and the total global turnover is estimated to be about 2.2 billion yuan.
4X SLG, as a sub-category accounting for nearly 80% of SLG's revenue share, saw its global market size drop by 16% year-on-year last year.
However, fortunately, many domestic manufacturers have accumulated deep experience in the SLG track, and can always find breakthroughs in terms of themes, gameplay integration, marketing, etc., and gain room for growth in the stock environment.
Recently, Diandian went overseas and found that a domestic overseas manufacturer that is deeply involved in the SLG track has launched a game called "Last War: Survival Game" (hereinafter referred to as "Last War") in more than 160 countries and regions, and it has earned 53 million yuan in double-ended turnover in less than 5 months after it was launched, and the actual total turnover is estimated to be higher because the game adopts the IAA+IAP model. So how is Last War performing in the market, how do the buying volume and gameplay help it gain momentum, and what other potential products does the low-key developer behind it have?
01
After 3 months of testing, the total IAP turnover was 53 million
Diandian data shows that "Last War" was launched on both ends in early August this year, and the double-end IAP flow in the first month (hereinafter referred to as the monthly double-end IAP flow is referred to as the monthly flow) was only 1.54 million, and the number of downloads was about 460,000, and the game doubled the monthly flow in the next two months, but the corresponding monthly downloads were basically the same as the downloads in the first month, and even dropped to 300,000 in October, so it seems that the paid performance of "Last War" in the early and middle periods was good.
In addition, in the first three months, the Google side of the game showed absolute dominance in both monthly turnover (about 95% on average) and downloads, mainly because the publishing team did not carry out the purchase of the Apple side in the early two months of launch, and it was not gradually launched until October.
《Last War》苹果侧创意素材投放趋势
At the beginning of November, "Last War" began to increase the number of double-end purchases, and the creative materials increased by 8 times to 702 after Apple's deduplication in the month, and the Android side reached 604, and the high-intensity purchase volume directly increased the monthly turnover to 17.94 million, which was 11 times the turnover of the first month, and the number of downloads also increased to 1.29 million.
Up to now, the total IAP turnover of "Last War" has reached 53 million, and the top 3 countries and regions contributing are South Korea (15.8 million), the United States (12.5 million), and Taiwan, China (7.1 million), with a cumulative download of 4.5 million, and the top 3 countries and regions are the United States (730,000), South Korea (430,000), and Indonesia (340,000).
《Last War》苹果侧流水趋势及地区占比
《Last War》谷歌侧流水趋势及地区占比
02
Rich casual gameplay + simplified SLG experience
It is worth noting that as an SLG game that uses the traditional COK-like framework, the hyper-casual gameplay shown below in the screenshots of the "Last War" app store and the vast majority of purchased materials is used, and this kind of mini-game that controls the game's minions to choose between the left and right options while advancing to obtain weapons, number increases, and buffs for themselves is not uncommon in short video promotion.
Screenshot of the Apple Store app
The top purchased materials are estimated by impression
Driven by customer acquisition, many manufacturers have built hyper-casual gameplay into the game as a subsidiary gameplay that provides players with a small amount of resource rewards and incremental fun. However, due to the lack of natural integration between hyper-casual gameplay and core gameplay (SLG, simulation management, etc.), pan-user users who are attracted by casual creativity are prone to a sense of deception and disconnection, resulting in a large number of losses.
In order to solve the above problems, SLG manufacturers began to look for more natural and reasonable gameplay integration in research and development, so as to make heavy SLG games light and interesting.
In the background of Last War, a huge zombie apocalypse sweeps through the cities, people are transformed into unconscious zombies, and players as survivors need to find a way to survive. In the early stage of the game, it is basically impossible to perceive heavy SLG content, and it is more about the casual gameplay and various variants of this gameplay mentioned in the purchase promotion of the experience in PVE battles.
In addition to being able to control the minions to get various increases by moving left and right as they advance, players and zombies need to fight on both sides of the obstacles, and in order to increase the coolness, the game also designs boss battles. In addition, under the same casual gameplay, in addition to minions, players can also carry card heroes to stack skills to release tower-like defense-like gameplay.
In the SLG gameplay that slowly starts in the middle and late stages, the urban construction elements responsible for carrying the in-game loop still account for a very large proportion, and after the large map is unlocked, exploration, resource collection and looting also exist. However, in order to make a smooth transition from casual gameplay to mid-to-late game, Last War has simplified urban construction, and most of the resources in the game can be obtained by placing idle players.
On the whole, in the game experience of "Last War", the casual gameplay mentioned in the promotion has been enriched and diversified, which not only avoids the negative feeling of "the wrong goods" for players, but also provides them with a refreshing and relaxed game experience in the early stage, and at the same time lowers the entry threshold of SLG, so that a certain proportion of pan-users can spend the period of increasing the difficulty of the game, so as to stay completely.
03
A reliable team is a necessary ingredient for success
Invested by Tencent, he is also the major shareholder of Jiangyu Interactive
Last War's precise positioning in terms of gameplay and purchase volume has created its rapid rise in overseas markets, which is inseparable from the R&D team behind it.
The developer of "Last War" is Beijing Yuanqu Entertainment, which was established in 2020, and its co-founder is Xie Xianlin, the former president and co-founder of Zhixingtong. Tianyancha shows that Yuanqu Entertainment received investment from Tencent in the year it was established, and Tencent currently holds 10.17% of the company's shares.
In addition, Yuanqu Entertainment is also the major shareholder of the popular "Top War", with a shareholding ratio of 36.5%, and "Pocket War" also appears in the masterpiece on its official website. Diandian data shows that "Pocket Shock", which was launched overseas in 2019, still maintained an overseas double-end turnover of about 180 million yuan in November, which shows the success of its long-term operation.
In fact, although Yuanqu Entertainment was only established in 2020, its team's past published works are very rich, as early as 2010, it released the five-minute online development simulation game "Happy Farm", and in 2014, it released the SLG game "Clash Of Kings" under Zhixingtong, both of which are browser games based on the Facebook platform.
After 2015, the team began to focus on the mobile game market, and cooperated closely with SLG manufacturer Longchuang Yuedong to publish the manufacturer's "Last Empire", "Last Shelter" and "Rise Of Empires" respectively, and in 2018, the Yuanqu team began to undertake the publication of "Top War".
04
SLG还跑出了《Build Master》
The monthly turnover has exceeded 20 million
Whether it is from the resume of its founder or from the team's early works, it can be seen that Yuanqu Entertainment is a manufacturer with heavy SLG genes. In fact, the self-developed and self-released "Last War" is not its first successful SLG game, and its official website also shows a title called "Build Master: MarsVille" (hereinafter referred to as "Build Master").
"Build Master" adopts European and American cartoon style, the game framework is still COK-like, and the gameplay incorporates some elements of simulated management.
After entering the game, players will play the role of a Martian explorer, the early experience is mainly focused on urban construction and plot exploration, simulation management, players need to collect information through mining, tree cutting and other channels to build a city, layout of various functional buildings, in addition to planting, cooking, etc.
In terms of plot exploration, the level system is adopted, and players can obtain various resources during the exploration, and "Build Master" embeds hyper-casual gameplay in the exploration, mainly to increase the fun of the early stage of the game and attract pan-users, and in the early stage of the launch, it added "Roguelike + lawn mowing" In March of this year, the gameplay was replaced by a bridge gameplay, in which players need to use the wood at hand to build a bridge bridge according to the terrain.
With the deepening of casual gameplay, the exploration aspect began to encounter "interstellar pirates", players began to need card battles, coupled with the continuous construction of urban barracks and other buildings, the content of SLG began to gradually become the core.
Similar to Last War, whether it's app store screenshots or double-end purchase materials, Build Master focuses on building bridges as a casual gameplay to attract more users with lower purchase costs.
Screenshot of the app store on the Apple side
Estimate Apple-side creatives by impression
Estimate Android creatives by impression
Diandian data shows that "Build Master" was launched in July last year, and the total turnover and downloads of both ends have been on a steady climb. In the first month, it received 675,000 double-end turnover, with 265,000 downloads, and the turnover data fluctuated between 1 million and 2 million in the next 5 months, and most of the turnover came from Google, mainly because there was almost no buying action on the Apple side during this period, and Google's deduplicated material creativity increased all the way from 565 to 2000+.
Starting in 2023, "Build Master" began to gradually increase the buying volume on the Apple side, with the double-end turnover exceeding 10 million for the first time in March reaching 11.65 million, and the double-end turnover directly rushing to 23.2 million in October.
Up to now (December 17), the cumulative downloads of the game are estimated to be 21.12 million, and the top 3 countries and regions that contribute to the download volume are the United States, which accounts for 18.7% of the total downloads with 3.94 million, India with 1.15 million and Turkey with 1.13 million, It is worth noting that although India and Turkey contribute more downloads, their turnover is low, 830,000 and 2.5 million respectively, accounting for 0.46% and 1.38% of the total turnover.
The total turnover is estimated to be about 175 million yuan, accounting for 55 percent of the total turnover, and the top 3 countries and regions are the United States, which contributed 55 million to 30.8% of the total turnover, South Korea, which accounted for 2% of the total downloads but contributed 27 million turnover, and Taiwan, China, which provided 22 million turnovers with 1.9% of the total downloads.
05
Walk on two legs
Other genres continue to try
Although Yuanqu Entertainment has launched two SLG games with remarkable monetization in overseas markets through track accumulation, gameplay integration and light operation, observing the games published by the company since its establishment, Diandiango believes that Yuanqu Entertainment does not plan to only deploy in SLG, and other categories are also in high-frequency attempts.
According to public information, Yuanqu Entertainment has released the idle game "Nightclub Royale: Let's Party!" and the arcade idle game "Skyfall: My Adventure" overseas, the former is currently not available, and the latter has been removed from the shelves in May 2023;
In January 2022, the overseas release of the idle card "Heroes of Mythic Might", after the game was launched, the turnover fluctuated and declined, and the total turnover of iOS is estimated to be about 10.3 million so far, and the iOS turnover in November this year is even less than 30,000 yuan;
In 2021, the MMORPG "Echoes of Magic" represented by him was tested overseas and officially launched in 2022, but the game was removed from the shelves half a year after it was launched, and its developer was disbanded in March this year. It is worth noting that "Echoes of Magic" is a game developed by Beijing Nabu Planet, a company invested by Beijing Blue Sky Horizon Venture Capital Center (Limited Partnership), which Xie Xianlin indirectly held shares in the early days;
The low-poly style sandbox game "Zero based World", which was also developed for Beijing Blue Sky Level Venture Capital Center, was released on Steam in July 2020, and the mobile game version will be tested overseas in 2022, and there is no new news at present.
Obviously, although Yuanqu Entertainment is gradually taking the overseas road of mild SLG, there are still various challenges in the short term if it wants to walk on two legs and eat more cakes from other tracks.
References:
1. The founder of Zhixingtong started another business and made two casual SLGs
2. Go to sea big guy to get serious! Dry casual simulation gameplay SLG, overseas monthly downloads have reached 2 million
3. In the past two years, the "hyper-casual + medium and heavy" fusion games that have repeatedly exploded have quietly started a new round of upgrades
4. After making a product with a monthly turnover of nearly 400 million, this "big guy" set sail again and chose to integrate the SLG category
5. The big guy who goes to sea makes "SLG Cool Tour", and the monthly flow has exceeded 20 million!