In the past few years, the short drama track has developed to soar, and according to the prediction of relevant institutions, the scale of China's short drama market may exceed 50.4 billion yuan in 2024, which is a proper sunrise industry. In addition to making money, the model of skits has also quickly integrated into pop culture. The Shenzhen Health Commission, which broke the circle and became popular this year, relied on the classic mode of short dramas to create a quick stalk, and at the same time bluntly pointed out issues of social concern, making the originally serious media more down-to-earth and gaining the popularity of netizens.
When a non-traditional track becomes popular, there will be more people from the traditional track who want to squeeze in and get a piece of the pie. For example, an Internet executive begins to release personal short videos to try to bring goods, and more drama stars may also enter the short drama track in the future. But this year, the most unexpected competitor in the short drama industry was born - it is NetEase's open-world martial arts mobile game "Against the Cold".
No kidding, in the past few months, the mobile game has introduced AI tools that allow players to record videos using game footage, as well as a lot of publicity about its own story. Especially recently, the official directly shouted the slogan "The new 'independent series' is about to start", which makes people confused.
In fact, it is not difficult to see from the official announcement that this update is an exclusive mission related to the popular character Yan Wugui in the game. But compared with the regular mission update, the official has added more film and television narratives and a variety of options, giving it the general texture of an "independent series".
But the question is, why does the game industry want to run to the side of short dramas? The answer is still hidden in the audience itself.
Laymen watch short dramas and think that it is the exaggerated plot + recharge payment that leverages the weakness of users, but film and television drama practitioners clearly understand that the popularity of short dramas is due to the loss of too much audience for regular dramas. The routine of conventional dramas is too obvious, fighting for favors, tyranny, business wars, Cinderella turning over, and poor boys going against the sky. When you see the beginning, you can guess the story of the end, and the story is cut into 50 episodes for you to watch for half a month. Can you not be weak?
And the routine of the short drama is to give straight balls crazy, one episode in a few minutes, and explain the plot of 10 episodes of the TV series. Even if the recipe is the same, but people give it happily enough. There are no boiling pre-roll ads and product placement ads; The cast lineup is basically amateurs, the salary is not high, and there are no embarrassing performances and green screen dramas. The transaction model of watching one episode and buying one episode screened out the types of episodes that the audience didn't like at the lowest cost. The audience doesn't have to watch the drama to blow the praise, and they can get the new drama they like more without watching it, and the consumption experience is greatly enhanced.
The success of the skit is to put what the user wants at the highest priority. The formula of the mobile game "Against the Cold" puts the needs of players at the top of the list.
Before the launch of this game, domestic MMOs once fell into a strange circle. Low-cost production and high-cost publicity are the norm. Players who don't charge money can basically only use Big R as a toy. It's also a cliché that the price of vanity items is inflated. And the mobile game "Against the Cold" became a big hit in the first month of its launch, with 2 billion yuan in the account, just by canceling the routine and coming up with real materials.
In order to avoid vicious competition between players. The official does not sell numerical items, and the equipment system is updated every season. Make sure that neither Big R nor Liver Emperor can bully ordinary players all the time. In addition, the prices of the in-game cosmetics are also very affordable. The 6 yuan 1 set and 1 yuan 1 set of fashion can become a hit every time they are launched. This attracts a lot of audiences who don't like liver krypton and just want to seek a stable environment.
In addition, gamers pay attention to a love of the new and hate the old, the more the more the less. In order to cater to this characteristic, NetEase has invested more than one billion in R&D funds and hired a team of 1,000 people. Ray tracing effects, triple-A gameplay, and chemical engines are all arranged one by one. In addition to the gameplay that comes with the launch, there are more than 10 kinds of updates every month, and you can come up with a large expansion pack in three months.
After the overlap of various factors, the mobile game "Against the Cold" has a very large audience, and the official result of the last statistics was 50 million users.
And the ascension itself has no upper limit and no boundaries. After the number of players reaches a breakthrough. Because these players like content, they continue to launch a variety of secondary creations and derivative content. The official new fashion, there is a "sales crown" to take the initiative Amway. The new gameplay officially launched by the government also has Internet celebrity players and community experts to actively promote it.
In particular, the various short video content of the mobile game "Against the Cold" once gained more than 10 billion traffic on Douyin. This makes the official see a clear demand - the new generation of audiences needs more elements that can play memes.
So in the past few months, the mobile game "Against the Cold" has launched an AI video maker, adding a lot of pop culture elements and hot memes to new maps and dungeons. Recently, new plots have also begun to be promoted in terms of plot quality. even wants to subvert the traditional plot through side plots and other ways to bring a new experience.
It is not difficult to see that the reason why the mobile game "Against the Cold" is so successful is inseparable from its focus on user needs. And the premise of this focus is that many manufacturers are indeed getting more and more away from players. I wonder if NetEase can rely on the success of this IP to bring more fundamental changes to the domestic game circle? What do you think? Let's talk in the comment section?