Today's migrant workers are angry in the lattice room during the day, and when they go home at night and turn on the computer, they become "cyber capitalists" who squeeze electronic villains.
In order to dispel the resentment of going to work in the thirtieth year of the Chinese New Year's Eve, migrant workers flocked to download this game called "Phantom Beast Palu", just to be able to live an addiction to squeeze others in the virtual world.
In "Phantom Beast Palu", players can command the creature "Palu" inside to produce and work, and see who is unhappy can directly "optimize".
Because the gameplay poked too much at the hearts of workers, this game exploded overnight.
On Steam, the sales of "Phantom Beast Palu" instantly topped the list, and the number of simultaneous online users was as high as 2 million, twice as many as the second-place "CS Go".
Among domestic players, the discussion about "Phantom Beast Palu" is also extremely hot.
Someone created a series of "workplace black words" based on "Phantom Beast Palu", and the topic of "Phantom Beast Palu" on Douyin directly rushed to 1.35 billion.
Alibaba, Tencent and other major manufacturers even went down to make cloud server acceleration solutions for "Phantom Beast Palu".
"Phantom Beast Palu" is not only a fire, but also a first-class ability to roll money.
Within a few days of its release, "Phantom Beast Palu" rushed to the top of Steam's best-selling list, selling 8 million copies in less than 10 days, earning nearly 200 million US dollars, equivalent to about 1.3 billion yuan.
You must know that last year's popular domestic game "Finished, I'm Surrounded by Beautiful Women" only sold more than 30 million in two weeks after it was launched, which is not an order of magnitude at all.
But it is such a popular and popular game, but it is saddled with the black cauldron of "plagiarism".
In the eyes of some veteran players, the core gameplay of "Phantom Beast Palu" is similar to "Pokémon", and the map setting is the same as that of the "Zelda" series, and the similarities can be seen at a glance even if you don't play the game.
Even the creative team is not shy about plagiarism, and the game creators have generously promoted their "plagiarism experience" to the media.
Clearly wrote "plagiarism" on his face, why did "Phantom Beast Palu" become the first hit game at the beginning of 24?
The first hit in 2024: Plagiarism on the open card, not afraid of the defendant
The popular "Phantom Beast Palu" is not a masterpiece of a big factory, but a product of a small studio called Pocketpair.
Pocketpair has only released a few games before, and the sales evaluation is mediocre, and the founder, Takuro Mizobe, was not even a practitioner in the game industry before, but was from a financial background.
In various ways, Pocketpair belongs to the typical kind of small workshop with no technology and no talent.
However, the mediocre Pocketpair unexpectedly discovered a game development route that suited them: stitching.
Pocketpair's previous games were all copied from the east and picked from the west, for example, the old work "Creation Ideal Township" was complained about by stitching games such as "Minecraft" and "Zelda", and the reputation and sales were very dismal.
And "Phantom Beast Palu" is the culmination of their years of "stitching" experience.
The player uses a ball item to capture "Palu", which is the same as in Pokémon;
The open-world gameplay used in the game is highly similar to the "Legend of Zelda" series from the art style to the setting;
Some people even picked up the character modeling of "Phantom Beast Palu" and "Pokémon", but the appearance details are different.
Copying game masterpieces has become a common practice for small studios like Pocketpair.
Not only can you easily get a mature gameplay mechanism, but you can also make yourself "black and red" because of the reputation of a masterpiece, which is a typical "porcelain marketing".
But "Phantom Beast Palu" touched porcelain this time, and it was not a good stubble.
You must know that the two games "Pokémon" series and "Zelda" series that "Phantom Beast Palu" is accused of imitating are the big guys behind the Japanese game manufacturer Nintendo.
Nintendo is known as the "copyright maniac" in the Eastern Hemisphere, but if there is a little plagiarism or borrowing of their IP, it will be sued by Lao Ren.
Previously, a Japanese kart company made a racing car with a Mario jacket, and within a few days of its launch, it was forced to withdraw all related products by Nintendo's mad dog-style lawsuit.
But this time, Nintendo has no way to take "Phantom Beast Palu".
Because the "manuscript level" of "Phantom Beast Palu" is very high, and it is regarded as a treasure by Nintendo's IP image and game logic, "Phantom Beast Palu" only imitates roughly, and does not completely appropriate.
After observing for a while, Nintendo failed to find any evidence of plagiarism in "Phantom Beast Palu", so it could only make a vicious announcement.
Players who don't think it's a big deal to watch the excitement will naturally not miss any opportunity to make trouble.
Within a few days of its launch, some technical players made a mod with the appearance of Pokémon, making all the characters in the game of "Phantom Beast Palu" become Pokémon.
As a result, within a few days of the launch of this mod, the creator received a lawyer's letter from Nintendo, proving that Nintendo had been staring at "Phantom Beast Palu" for a long time.
It is said that porcelain marketing is a game of "dancing on the tip of the knife", but "Phantom Beast Palu" is undoubtedly a master of porcelain touching.
Stitching monsters into a hit, all boosted by two fires
There is a saying circulating on the Internet:
You can spray Phantom Beast Palu as a stitching monster, but you can't deny that it's fun.
In order to keep the game from being trapped by the stigma of "stitching monsters", Pocketpair has put a lot of effort into it.
Of course, "Phantom Beast Palu", known as "Ultimate Stitching", was originally a "collection of strengths" in terms of gameplay.
The staff at Pocketpair even put it bluntly: "Borrowing ideas from your favorite games is Pocketpair's game development style." ”
The founder, Takuro Mizobe, did not shy away from "plagiarism", he simply admitted that "Phantom Beast Palu" borrowed from "Pokémon", and also revealed some other details.
For example, the idea of capturing Palu was indeed borrowed from Pokémon, and the map style and style were also modeled after Zelda.
However, the game's quest system is based on ARK: Survival Evolved, the building system is more like a parody of Minecraft, and the attribute entries are taken directly from Don't Starve.
Of course, "not copying according to a mold" has become the biggest secret of "Phantom Beast Palu", and being able to "fuse" the elements of so many excellent games together is enough to reflect the depth of Pocketpair's skills.
Although stitched, "Phantom Beast Palu" gives players an unusually rich variety of gameplay options, and many "Pokémon" players even "defected" to the camp of "Phantom Beast Palu".
Some players bluntly said, "If Pokémon can update the gameplay, I won't be a stitching monster like the phantom beast Palu." ”
The 94% positive rating on Steam proves one thing: for players, stitching doesn't matter, it's fun to play.
In addition to clever stitching methods, the reason for the popularity of "Phantom Beast Palu" is also related to its game content.
In the game, the player and "Palu" are not only partners, but can also instruct Palu to "work" for the player, engaged in construction, production and other work.
And once Palu is too stressed, he can be healed by the player, and of course he can be "abandoned" or even "dismantled"
In between, players have turned Palu the Phantom Beast into a "capitalist simulator".
In the game, capturing Palu in a different way and letting them build a "sweatshop" for themselves has become people's favorite gameplay.
This gameplay is too empathetic to the migrant workers, so in the Palu player community, many memes that combine reality and games were born:
For example, "The last thing that is missing here is Palu." If you don't do it, some of them are Palu Gan" "The current Palu is too young, and the workload is a little heavier and he starts to get tired" "I recruited you in so that you can solve other problems that Palu can't solve"
On the Internet, there are also many strategies on how to make Palu work more efficiently and squeeze Palu more ruthlessly, and the prosperity of these secondary processing content has also promoted the further popularity of this game.
"Playing Palu on weekends and being Palu on Mondays" has become the daily routine of migrant workers, and the harder they are squeezed, the more ruthless they have become the most ruthless foreman in "Phantom Beast Palu".
On Weibo, #幻兽帕鲁已经获得了将近3亿次浏览, Bilibili and other platforms, videos related to "Phantom Beast Palu" can get millions of views.
Whether it is an idle player or a passer-by playing a stalk, a large number of migrant workers have spontaneously become the boosters of the popularity of "Phantom Beast Palu".
The reason why migrant workers flock in is also very simple: they usually endure the hardships of part-time work, and they can't "turn over and be the master" in the game?!
Migrant workers who are being "watched",
Tampered with the game's popular password
The explosion of "Phantom Beast Palu" has made many peers envious and jealous.
Many people can't figure out how such a game that relies on copying for development and porcelain for marketing can become an annual hit.
In the eyes of traditional game practitioners, a "popular game" must contain the following key points:
Addictive gameplay, extreme graphics card graphics, movie-like plot, and unique settings.
Various major game manufacturers are crazy involution under this framework, but the cost of enjoying a game is becoming higher and higher, and players are pursuing better hardware and more time investment.
The quality of games is getting higher and higher, but the cost of enjoying games is also rising, and high-quality games can only end up being a carnival for a niche group.
For example, last year's game "Baldur's Gate 3", despite numerous awards and a strong reputation, the total sales so far are less than the weekly sales of "Phantom Beast Palu".
The popularity of "Phantom Beast Palu" is exactly the same as last year's dark horse game "Finished, I'm Surrounded by Beautiful Women".
The gameplay and production methods of "Finished" can even be described as "outdated", and the development cost is even less than that of traditional triple-A masterpieces.
But it successfully broke the circle through gimmicks and interactivity, and became the biggest dark horse in the second half of the domestic game circle in 2023.
Although the gameplay of the two is very different, the explosion has one thing in common: it makes players feel real in the game world.
For example, the purpose of "Finished" is very simple, so that migrant workers who are usually tired of work can have an "ideal love" in their spare time.
In order to give players a "real love" experience, the developers of "Ended" specially selected actors who fit the character settings, and also set dozens of different endings for the simple game.
Although it is a "concubine" style cool drama, "Finished" can always let players wander in "brainless cool dramas" and "real love", which greatly enhances the sense of immersion.
And "Phantom Beast Palu" has achieved the ultimate in "guiding players to squeeze Palu".
Palu is not only a "game item" that can be assigned a job, but also has emotions and health, but also initial skills related to the type of work.
Any one of the player's actions can affect Palu's working status and efficiency.
Guiding players to "squeeze" Palu in a different way has become a "dark line" for game designers.
On the Steam homepage of "Phantom Beast Palu", the publisher clearly noted: "Use Palu to feed their hunger" and "Keep working until the end of their lives".
In order to dispel the "moral baggage" in the hearts of players, the publisher also specially marked that "Palu is not subject to labor laws".
A small game can allow players to experience the road of "questioning the boss, understanding the boss, and becoming a (fake) boss", and then suddenly find "Palu is myself" in the repeated pressing.
While indulging in it, people lament how their lives are being "watched".
Immersion and experience are certainly essential qualities for a good game.
But compared to a "perfect" game world, a game that players can easily relate to is easier to bring fantasy and players closer.
Compared with "plagiarism", Qu Gao and Oligoku are the biggest dead end of the game.
The picture comes from the Internet, please contact to delete the infringement