Recently, a number of leading manufacturers have made new moves in the adaptation of mobile games from big IPs.
Tencent opened the second test recruitment of "Heroes of Might and Magic: Lords of Lords" authorized by Ubisoft on December 26, 2023. Due to the decline of the traditional gameplay of "Heroes of Might and Magic", Ubisoft has also snubbed this classic IP for many years, but in fact, Tencent released a "Heroes of Might and Magic: Age of War" in 2017, which is still in operation today. It is worth paying attention to whether this IP can regain its luster in the SLG mobile game market in a form that is more in line with the needs of today's players.
is also a Western fantasy theme, NetEase also announced the SLG "Lord of the Rings: Strife" of the Lord of the Rings IP on December 25 (2023), this product has actually been the first to be launched overseas at the end of 2021, and once entered the top of the iOS best-selling list in many countries, which is another attempt by NetEase to expand the content theme and stabilize the SLG market after "Endless Lagrange".
Zu Long's "Avatar: Return to Pandora" is a shooting MMO mobile game, which was first exposed in early 2021, and was previously announced to be published by Tencent, and now Zu Long is responsible for global distribution, and it has now opened pre-orders on December 28, 2023, and is expected to be paid for testing this month.
is also a big IP with a sci-fi theme, and the SLG mobile game adapted from the IP of "The Wandering Earth" of Scatterblast Network was unveiled at the Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention in October last year, during which topics such as "Chinese-style sci-fi SLG" and "supervised by Liu Cixin" also attracted a lot of attention.
The pursuit of IP stems from the innate aversion of game manufacturers to risk. These native IPs are usually imported or cross-domain big IPs, and their biggest advantages are nothing more than having a mature world view, high visibility and a huge number of potential users.
And when it comes to stability, it's the same all over the world. In the overseas console PC market in 2023, there happened to be IP adaptations of The Lord of the Rings and Avatar, and they all have a certain degree of popularity, the former "Lord of the Rings: Gollum" had a poor response, so much so that after the new work hit the streets, the developer Daedalic Entertainment announced that it would give up research and development and concentrate on publishing. The latter "Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora" is an FPS product released by Ubisoft, which has been launched on December 27 (2023), due to the relatively low-key publicity, it has not caused much discussion at present, and it has not caught up with the popularity of "Avatar 2" released at the end of 2022, which undoubtedly missed a good promotional opportunity.
In addition to the manufacturer's lack of experience in making triple-A games and the relatively rough quality, the game itself is also biased in the selection of the protagonist Gollum, despite the blessing of IP, it is actually very unpleasing to core fans, and it is difficult to reflect the charm of the Lord of the Rings worldview from the first perspective, let alone further expand the game's audience.
But it should be pointed out that successful IP adaptation cases like "Hogwarts Legacy" and "Marvel's Spider-Man 2" are also in sight. Although "Hogwarts Legacy" does not have room for innovation and imagination, and has even been criticized by some players as "canned", it has won the favor of fans only by virtue of its high restoration of the IP, and it has also been a great success in sales, and there is also news of the development of a sequel half a year after its release.
According to the latest leaked documents, after the launch of "Marvel's Spider-Man 2", Sony's studio Insomnia Game (Insomnia Game) is also working on the development of a number of IP games, including "Marvel's Wolverine", and its own original IP "Ratchet & Clank" has been scheduled for 2029. Although some foreign media questioned Sony's over-reliance on IP, saying that the Insomnia group had been reduced to "Marvel's part-time machine", in any case, stable returns are always more attractive to large manufacturers.
There are a large number of Marvel IP adaptations in the leaked development plan
In the mobile game market, thanks to the interoperability of the ACGN industry and the mobility of the audience, as well as the characteristics of the product focusing on serving the role, the pan-ACG IP products seem to have a higher acceptance. Most of the hottest new products in the Japanese mobile game market in 2023 are in the IP ecological chain, including "Jujutsu Hui Zhan M (呪術廻戦 ファントムパレード)", "Monster Hunter AR (Monster Hunter Now)" and "Pokémon Sleep (Pokémon Sleep)".
Among them, "Spell Return M" has won the iOS best-selling list many times after its launch with the serialized popularity of comics and animations, and this kind of manga products are frequently released every year, but fast fever reduction and short life are common problems of this type of product. For example, "Fullmetal Alchemist M", which was launched in August 2022, also topped the best-selling iOS list in Japan, but developer Square Enix has recently announced the date of closure, adding another merit to the title of SE "Mobile Game Graveyard".
再如由韩厂开发的动漫IP改编新品《黑色五叶草M 魔帝之道(ブラックClover Mobile 魔法帝に道 ブラクロモ)》也在去年5月挤入Japan iOS 畅销榜前10,但开服三个月左右就偃旗息鼓。
The classic manga mobile game "Diving Trend"
But in all fairness, this does not mean that the quality of these comic mobile games is very problematic, on the contrary, they tend to focus on highlighting the visual expression of the characters, have better skin packaging to meet the "cooking power" needs of fans, and the gameplay and commercialization model are usually stable.
There are different reasons why it is difficult for these IP products to go far, for example, for new IPs, missing the best publicity node will have a greater impact, such as "Echo of Fate: Sigh on the String" as a multi-project new project, the animation itself has ended quite controversially, and the game has been late after more than a year of Japanese service, and the IP popularity accumulated earlier has cooled down. Another common situation is that the IP itself is difficult to support the ambition of the long-term operation of a mediocre product, and the operation method is too extensive, and it is natural to be constantly replaced by newer similar products. But in fact, these are all manifestations of excessive path dependence on IP, which has caused the Japanese mobile game market to fall into this vicious circle of "IP adaptation battle royale" in recent years, losing its creative vitality, and it is no wonder that it has been continuously impacted and eaten away by overseas products.
In China, players' attitudes towards IP-adapted games also continue to change. The "2023 Mobile Game Industry IP Development Report" pointed out that "when choosing products, mobile IP user groups pay more attention to the quality factors of the game itself, such as picture quality and gameplay, and less than 20% of users who like IP are derived." ”
It is an indisputable fact that domestic players and the market are disenchanting big IPs, and what can really retain players is always the quality of the game itself and the sincerity of IP fans, as well as the team's ability to do a good job in long-term operation planning. We also look forward to seeing manufacturers fully exploit the potential of major IPs and go further on the road of "synergy" between IP and games.