At the beginning of the new year, the two-dimensional tactical shooter "Calabichu", developed by iDreamSky (01119), ushered in a new era.
On January 1, 2024, the official of "Calabichu" changed its previous low-key posture and laid out a full range of huge advertisements in the landmark subway stations of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Chengdu at the same time.
Behind the large-scale advertising, "Calabichu" is publicized for the official opening of the "public beta reservation". According to the official announcement, the game will be officially open beta on February 1, 2024, when "Calabichu" will bring a lot of new content to meet players in a new attitude.
The industry's first two-dimensional tactical shooter
At station B, the term "paper man" is unprecedentedly hot. As a general term for the two-dimensional related image, the word "paper man" has also developed a derivative of paper sexuality, which has a wide range of recognition in the two-dimensional circle. Now, "Calabichu" has once again pushed the term "paper man" to the front of the stage through the "stringing" gameplay of the in-game characters from 3D to 2D.
According to some of the official data, "Calabichu" has not only gained a foothold in the field of domestic shooting, but also achieved good results. iDreamSky mentioned in the 2023 interim results conference that one month after the launch of "Calabichu" in the undeleted test, the average daily online time exceeded 120 minutes, the ARPPU (average paid user revenue) exceeded 200 yuan, and the average weekly active users have exceeded 700,000. Considering that these data are nearly half a year ago, it is foreseeable that "Calabichu", which is close to the open beta, will be even more impressive in various indicators. This shows the potential and popularity of the game in the market.
According to Zhitong Financial APP, if you search for "paper man shooting game" on station B, there are dozens of videos with more than 100,000 views, "Calabichu" uses this as a gimmick, and it has gained a lot of attention before it was launched, and the traffic is very considerable for a newly launched two-dimensional shooting game.
Since its uncensored launch on August 3, "Calabichu" has been successfully held for two seasons, and has participated in the exhibition matches of the China E-sports Industry Annual Conference, competing with popular e-sports games such as "Honor of Kings", "Naraka: Infinite", and "Valorant", and is deeply loved by players for its excellent shooting attributes and team competitiveness.
In terms of gameplay innovation, "Calabichu" innovates the tactical shooting system in product design by introducing the "stringed" setting, bringing players a unique shooting experience and increasing the strategy and interest of the game. In the game, players can switch between the 3D stereoscopic state and the 2D paper man state at will. In the "stringed" state, the player cannot shoot, but can perform actions such as gliding, climbing walls, and sticking to walls in addition to normal actions (such as moving, jumping, and turning), and can significantly increase the difficulty of enemy shooting.
The "stringed" gameplay is a bold attempt in the industry, making up for the gap in TPS street fighting shooting, and building the positioning of the first two-dimensional tactical shooter in the "Calabichu" industry, which not only has the excitement of shooting games, but also integrates colorful ACG elements, and the direction of the game brings you a unique experience and forms a differentiation from other games.
In addition, Calabichu manages to find a relative balance between shooting and two-dimensionality. Players can not only enjoy the fierce competitive confrontation in the game, but also build an emotional connection with their favorite characters through the "dormitory" system in the game. Through the series of various characters, the game strengthens the emotional connection between players inside and outside the game with a partial two-dimensional design such as character development, exclusive voice, and expression spray paint.
While traditional competitive shooters typically focus on giving players an immediate sense of accomplishment through "wins, losses", Calabichu provides a multifaceted emotional interaction that not only increases players' attachment to the game, but also brings them more deep inner fun.
In this regard, SPDB International believes that "Calabichu" is a rare "two-dimensional + shooting" game in the market, which provides innovative gameplay in the two-dimensional and shooting tracks with abundant supply. Zheshang Securities said in the research report that the original tactical shooting system and pioneering two-dimensional painting style of "Calabichu" have laid a foundation for excellent game quality, which is not only expected to meet the needs of shooting game lovers, but also widely attract two-dimensional audiences, showing its unique competitive advantage from other shooting games, and is expected to become a hit.
Institutions are optimistic about the performance of product turnover and long life cycle operation after public beta
Shooters have always been one of the most mature categories in the gaming industry, whether it's Valorant, csgo, PUBG or Overwatch, which requires a lot of reaction speed and micromanagement skills.
The shooter market is huge. According to Business Of Apps, global shooter games generated $4.6 billion in revenue in 2022, with a total of more than 1.8 billion downloads. In addition, according to the "2023 China Mobile Game Category Development Research Report" released by Gamma Data in July 2023, more than 30% of users chose shooting games on the question of "what gameplay you are still interested in, but you haven't played related products in the past year".
In the view of Zheshang Securities, this reflects that mainland game users are more interested in shooting game products than other categories, but this demand is still not fully met. At the same time, the main shooting games in the market such as "Counter-Strike" and "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive" are generally long-term operations, and Tencent, the agent publisher of "Carabichu", has rich operational experience in the shooter category, and its "Crossfire: Gunfight King" and "Peace Elite" have also achieved long-term operation. With the support of Tencent's profound operational experience, it is highly certain to achieve long-life cycle operations.
Zhitong Financial APP learned that the two keywords of "competition" and "shooting" highlighted by iDreamSky are the very clear positioning of "Calabichu", and it launched two modes in the first stage: 1. Strong competition, strong ranking blasting mode, 2. Team competition mode.
In this regard, Chen Xiangyu, founder and CEO of iDreamSky, said at the financial report conference that in the current mobile game environment, especially the two-dimensional theme, only two development capabilities can meet the needs of users: 1. Provide high-quality content and be content-driven, and 2. Be play-driven and provide unique gameplay. In the first stage, it has been very clear that the creative gameplay of "stringing + shooting" can be recognized by young people, and you can see the fun brought by "stringing + shooting" in the anchor of station B and the second creation of station B.
At the same time, in the entire industry market, if you want to make a shooting game with a high threshold, only by entering the competitive game can you break the circle and produce greater vitality, so the company chose to do a more challenging competition in the first stage, Chen Xiangyu said that the competitive gameplay will also bring greater imagination to the future of this game.
Regarding the performance of "Calabichu" after its launch, Soochow Securities believes that the product content of "Calabichu" is excellent and the gameplay is novel and out of the circle, and believes that its highly ornamental fair competition gameplay is highly suitable for the operation of e-sports events, and is optimistic about accumulating core users and expanding pan-users through content operation before and after its launch; At the same time, Tencent, the publisher, has very rich operational experience in the big DAU and fair competition categories, and is optimistic about the operation performance of the product after it is launched. At the same time, SPDB International also expects the company's cash flow to improve significantly in 2024 with the gradual improvement of iDreamSky's new game products.
The company has already clarified its plans for Calabichu and will focus on the content aspect. During each season, 1 or 2 maps with different gameplay will be updated according to the actual situation, and the blast mode, which is the core gameplay, will also maintain the rhythm of updating once every 2 seasons, completely solving the player's worries about the single gameplay mode. In the near future, there will be multiple modes such as "cart" added to the game.
Season 3 brings a new "Crystal Rush" map and gameplay. Players need to gather and compete for resources to achieve victory. In addition, the addition of new characters is not just about providing new cosmetic options. The introduction of each new character will bring players new tactical and strategic options that will give the game even more depth.
For example, the superstring body "Flavia", which has already appeared, is positioned as a duel. Her skills will be designed around hallucinogenic and remodeling. Flavia's ultimate can generate a field that makes it impossible for enemies to see characters in the circle. When the character dies in the field, Vlavia will become invincible for 3 seconds and revive at full health. Combined with the passive skill cooldown reduction effect, she is sure to be a powerful weapon for players to explore a variety of new playstyles.
From this point of view, the update of the map and characters is not limited to visual changes. With new gameplay modes and random combinations of character skills, the player experience will always be fresh and interesting.
Returning to the development path of iDreamSky in recent years, since 2019, the company has begun to gradually deploy self-research and adopt a boutique strategy. Today, the company has built a stable base in terms of self-developed games. With the continuous strengthening of iDreamSky's self-development capabilities and the gradual improvement and launch of new game products, the company's profitability is expected to usher in a significant increase.