In recent years, domestic game manufacturers have gone abroad in a big way, and various actions from China, such as the layout of new global/regional products, overseas investment and mergers and acquisitions of Chinese enterprises, and cooperation with overseas enterprises, have been frequent. In the face of more and more successful trial cases, can we find the latest opportunities suitable for ourselves? Every weekend, we will take stock of the key points of the week for you.
Voices in the industry
- "Looking back now, we realize that the core cycle has always been the most important thing for gaming products. ”
Recently, Theodulph Somestad, president of King the developer of "Candy Crush Saga", summed up the experience of developing "Crash Bandicoot: Full Thrott" in an interview with foreign media. He believes that the core loop is critical for gaming products. The development focus of "Crash Bandicoot: Full Throttle" is too much on the sub-gameplay, resulting in the core gameplay parkour part (including level design and obstacle settings) not being good enough, and failing to form a game charm that allows players to immerse themselves and constantly challenge the next level, as in "Candy Crush Saga". Only when the level design is perfect enough will the player pay attention to the various scenarios and sub-gameplay of the game.
- "Although this category is still the original category, it can achieve good results by innovating in the category theme and designing differently for different users." ”
On April 24, at the IAA Mini Game Special Session of the WeChat Open Class, Xue Feidan, the lecturer of the Open Class, gave an in-depth explanation on the theme of "Ecological Development and Content Observation", and provided different suggestions for the four types of IAA Mini Game developers.
First of all, for content creators, she believes that they can focus on the polishing of gameplay and themes, as well as the improvement of game quality.
Secondly, for the popularity guides, she encouraged them to explore more pan-entertainment content inspiration in their daily lives, starting from popular game categories such as simulation management, puzzle solving, finding faults, and IO, to explore how to achieve long-term operation through ingenious game design.
In addition, for those who are deeply engaged in investment, she suggests starting with traditional answering questions or match-3 categories, and using the first-day ROI as an important indicator to assess the quality of the game in the early stage.
Finally, for IP owners, she proposes to prioritize combining existing genres with high audience acceptance, such as action, hyper-casual or board games, with their own IP.
Industry news
[1] On April 26, the official website of the National Press and Publication Administration released the latest batch of domestic game version number lists. A total of 95 games have passed the review this time, including Zulong's "Dragons: Kassel's Gate", NetEase's "Broken Land", Zhongqingbao's "Lost Island Gaiden Pumpkin Town", Thunder Interactive's "Cube Continent", and Sony's China Star work "Lost Soul".
[2] On April 22, Swedish game company Embracer Group announced a major restructuring and split the group into three separate companies: Asmodee, Coffee Stain & Friends, and Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends. Under the new structure, Asmodee will act as a publisher and distributor of tabletop games, and Coffee Stain & Friends will transform into a diversified gaming company focused on developing indie games for PC, console, and mobile. Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends, on the other hand, is positioned as a creative powerhouse for triple-A games for PC and consoles, and is also the owner of well-known IPs such as "The Lord of the Rings", "Tomb Raider", "Dead Island", "Kingdom of Heaven: Deliverance", and "Metro".
[3] Shenzhou Taiyue released its 2023 performance report. According to the financial report, in 2023, Shenzhou Taiyue will achieve a total revenue of 5.962 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 24.06%, and the net profit attributable to the parent company and net profit deducted from non-attributable to the parent company will be 887 million yuan and 829 million yuan respectively, an increase of 63.84% and 85.77% year-on-year respectively, both reaching a record high.
[4] A few days ago, Microsoft released its financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2024 ended March 31, 2024. According to the financial report, Microsoft's revenue for the quarter was $61.86 billion, a year-on-year increase of 17%, and its net profit was $21.94 billion, a year-on-year increase of 20%. Among them, Xbox game revenue increased by 51% year-on-year to $5.45 billion. This includes a "55-point net increase from the acquisition of Activision."
[5] Recently, the WeChat Open Class IAA Mini Game Special Session was held in Wuhan. In the first quarter of 2024, the daily active users of Mini Games increased by 20% year-on-year, and the monthly active users of IAA Mini Games reached 500 million. The year-over-year growth rate for advertisers was 35%, and the growth rate for traffickers was 15%. IAA Mini Games have been identified as a key factor driving the growth of users in the market, and live streaming on Channels has increasingly become an important way for the growth of IAA Mini Games. According to this, it is expected that the overall commercial volume of IAA mini games will exceed 10 billion in 2024.
[6] Recently, Blizzard announced that the 2024 Blizzcon will be discontinued, but the event may return in the coming years.
【7】首款游戏模拟器Delta已登录苹果商店,已创300万次下载量。 Delta不仅能支持GBA游戏,还涵盖了NES、SNES、Nintendo 64、Game Boy Color以及Nintendo DS等多个平台。
[8] Recently, Sensor Tower released the March 2024 Global Top 100 Mobile Game Publishers Revenue Report, in which a total of 39 Chinese manufacturers were shortlisted, attracting a total of US$2.13 billion, accounting for 38.4% of the global TOP100 mobile game publishers' revenue in this period. Among them, on the day of the launch of version 2.1 of "Honkai: Star Railway" at the end of March, the revenue reached the peak of daily turnover this year, and the game's revenue in March increased by 56% month-on-month, ranking 6th in the global mobile game revenue list. Publisher miHoYo's mobile revenue increased by 12% quarter-on-quarter.
[9] Recently, Sensor Tower released the top 10 most popular mobile games downloaded in the world in March 2024. The number of global mobile game downloads on the App Store and Google Play was 4.29 billion, up 8.2% QoQ. The Indian market ranked No. 1 with 739 million downloads, accounting for 17.2% of the total global downloads. The U.S. market ranked 2nd with 7.9% of downloads, followed by Brazil with 7.8%. Among them, Garena's "Free Fire" (including "Free Fire MAX") topped the global mobile game download chart in March with more than 27 million downloads.
[10] On April 25, miHoYo officially issued a document stating that the PC launchers of its games "Genshin Impact", "Honkai Impact 3" and "Honkai: Star Dome Railway" will be updated in the near future, and players can choose to download and install the "miHoYo Launcher" after receiving the update.
[11] According to foreign media sources, due to the influence of the hit American drama "Fallout" and the sharp discount of the series of games, the sci-fi game "Fallout 4" released by B Company in 2015 soared in the European market, increasing by more than 7500%, topping the sales list. Another work of Fallout IP, "Fallout 76", has set a new career record for the number of simultaneous online users, reaching 73,368, entering the top 30 on Steam's hot play list.
Product Observations
[1] On April 23, Finnish developer Supercell's new product "Squad Busters" was launched in Canada, Denmark, Norway and other countries, and topped the free list of 3 countries on the App Store on the second day of its launch, with a total of 8 countries entering the top 10 of the free list. The game is a PVPVE brawl mobile game, 10 players fight their own battles, develop a lineup by collecting resources and other methods, the overall experience is casual and light, and the game also gathers multiple characters from Supercell's classic products.
[2] On April 24, the open-world dress-up mobile game "Infinite Warmth" developed by Papergames started the "Fantasy Test", and Gyro-kun also experienced it for the first time.
[3] On April 23, miHoYo's Jeopardy Zero was released on the App Store and opened for pre-order. The page shows that the game is expected to launch on July 4.
[4] Recently, Klei Entertainment, the developer of "Don't Starve", launched the EA version of the 2.5D meat pigeon action new game "Crucible Jungle" on Steam, with 69% of positive reviews. The game is a traditional level meat pigeon like, players can build their own Buid, and defeat the boss to win.
[5] On April 22, the mobile game "Dungeons & Warriors: Origins" (DNF mobile game) officially announced on Weibo that it will be released on May 21, which was developed by Neople and distributed by Tencent, and obtained the game version number in February this year.
[6] On April 23, it was reported that NetEase Games' self-developed and self-released genuine licensed strategy game "The Lord of the Rings: Discord" officially announced that its public beta launch time was May 16. The total number of pre-orders for the game on all online platforms has exceeded 2.5 million.
[7] On April 23, 2024, Niantic, the developer of Pokémon GO, announced that its AR mobile game Monster Hunter Now (iOS/Android) has surpassed 15 million downloads. Co-produced by Niantic and Capcom, Monster Hunter Now is officially available on iOS and Android on September 14, 2023. A week after the game was launched, the official convenience announced that the number of downloads exceeded 5 million.
Investment and financing express
[1] Recently, Krafton, the Korean developer of PUBG, acquired a minority stake in Far From Home, the developer of the independent open-world base building game "Eternal Sky", and Krafton will support Far From Home to continue to develop "Eternal Sky" and future projects.
[2] Recently, Atari announced that it will "resurrect" the Infogrames brand and reposition it as a publishing brand. Ingeberg, the predecessor of Atari, was founded in 1983 and will now exist as a subsidiary of the brand after its resurrection. Invog will focus on publishing and acquiring IP, the first of which is Totally Reliable Delivery Service, which was purchased from publisher Tiny Build.
[3] On April 19, Lehua Entertainment issued an announcement, announcing the acquisition of ByteDance's virtual idol group A-SOUL and two other virtual artists (Sino and Xinyi) at a price of 30 million yuan.
Note: Some information may have occurred earlier than this week, but because it has been reported less or has not yet been reported, it is classified as this week's weekly report.