Our reporters Xu Xinyi and Wu Kezhong report from Shanghai
Under the market situation of stock competition, the game industry is taking two different paths: rolling content to the left, polishing high-quality products, and competing for players' time and feelings; Aim to the right at the player's fragment time in an effort to reduce the burden on the player.
So far in 2023, a number of mini-games such as "Whiteout Survival", "Seeking the Way", and "Let's Go Muffin" have stood out in such a market environment and become hits.
Among them, "Let's Go Muffin" "kills" the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan markets in China in a casual and healing style, raising hundreds of millions of yuan in a single month. On May 15th, this company (02400. HK) has officially landed in the Chinese mainland market.
On the eve of the launch of the national server of "Let's Go Muffin", the reporter of "China Business Daily" learned from XD that the player base of this game is mainly young office workers, and with the busy life, it is impossible to take care of the hobby of the game, "What 'Muffin' has to do is to implement the 'easy and loving' at the same time, and provide players with complete RPG (role-playing game) fun."
MMOs that can be placed"Our target audience is a lot like a lot of people on our team, and they're all heavy MMORPG players." The promoter of "Let's Go Muffin" told reporters, "With the involvement of work and age, players who love games with role-playing elements do not have so much time to play MMO (massively multiplayer online games). ”
On May 15, the game landed in the Chinese mainland market. Previously, on January 23, it was launched in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, China. According to the data of the APP data analysis platform Diandian, its dual-platform revenue exceeded 100 million yuan in the first month of its launch. Among them, the response in the Taiwan market was the highest, accounting for 83% of downloads and nearly 70% of payments.
In March, "Let's Go Muffen" set a new record in monthly revenue in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, China, with an estimated total revenue of about 145 million yuan on the two platforms, and was the champion in the revenue of joint games.
Let's Go Muffin is a mobile game that combines the form of idle and contains MMORPG elements, players can freely build core skills and manually release tactical skills. Its art adopts a relaxing and healing Japanese-style Western fantasy painting style.
This isn't XD's first foray into the idle game track. Previously, XD had launched "Playing Poli Every Day" and "Endless Ulala". The former was in open beta in 2016 and is an idle mobile game licensed by Ragnarok RO; The latter was launched in 2019 and remains one of the top five games in terms of revenue contribution as of 2023.
"Let's Go Muffin" was developed by Team MEKA, the original production team of "Everyday Poli". "Compared to "Hit Polly Every Day", "Let's Go Muffin" combines some interesting content from 'the lightness of the placement class' with the 'heavy of MMO'. We hope that 'Muffin' can inherit some RPG elements, so that players can experience the fun of role-playing for a longer time. According to the above-mentioned person, "through our observation, the crowd portrait of 'Muffin' is 20-30 years old, who want to experience the fun of role-playing games, but do not have much time to experience heavy games." ”
With the rise of domestic casual games and mini games, the situation of China's mobile games going overseas has also changed, and products such as casual and SLG have replaced content-based and heavy products at the top of the list. According to Sensor Tower data, "Last War: Survival Game", "Whiteout Survival" and "Legend of the Mushroom Brave" ranked among the top three in the overseas revenue list of Chinese mobile games in April, followed by "Honkai: Star Railway", "PUBG MOBILE" and "Genshin Impact".
The reporter learned from Xindong Company that in addition to being launched in Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, "Let's Go Muffin" is expected to be launched in Japan and South Korea and other regions.
It is reported that after three or four years of research and development, the scale of investment is significantly less than that of MMO and ARPG heavy-duty products previously launched by XD, and the R&D team is less than 60 people.
The above-mentioned person said that in terms of product positioning, the R&D team hopes that "Let's Go Muffin" can become a product that allows players to feel the fun of role-playing, and at the same time provides light social gameplay, making "combat" and social fun enough. "We hope that players will be able to find a source of fun for themselves in 'Muffin', whether it is to find like-minded friends through social play, or to enjoy the fun of casual development alone."
Meet different playersIt has been revealed that in addition to the App Store and TapTap in Chinese mainland, "Let's Go Muffin" is expected to launch a mini-game version. A mini-game version is currently in preparation.
In Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, "Let's Go Muffin" has played a marketing combination of linkage, well-known singers singing the theme song, and KOL promotion.
Regarding the future publicity and distribution investment of the national service of "Let's Go Muffin", the product promoter said that in view of the good results achieved by this product in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, the team is confident in its market investment in public beta in Chinese mainland. "In the core position, we will accumulate voice through multi-dimensional and multi-circle KOL content exposure, provide material and market popularity support for delivery, and improve the efficiency of buying and acquiring customers."
"In the coming months when competition is fierce, we believe that the uniqueness of Muffin's products can also attract a significant number of players to experience our games." The promoter of "Let's Go Muffin" said.
According to him, the unique feature of Let's Go Muffin is that it provides both casual and heavy gamers with the content they need. "For example, a mildly convenient two-player party mode is provided to reduce social requirements and improve the gaming experience for casual players; With the theme of the light main story, it is also equipped with classic four-player cooperative dungeons, difficult challenges and other heavy content, which strengthens the playability in an all-round way and gives players free choice. ”
According to the review section of the game "Let's Go Muffin", some test players think that this game has a deep development system and heavy krypton, which brings some negative experiences. In this regard, the above-mentioned product promoter said: "We have also received these player demands, so we will take into account the experience and space of players with different levels of krypton gold in all aspects of the game, and we will also further improve the benefits to ensure that different players can find their own fun in the game." ”
The rise of light casual gamesAccording to the "2023 China Game Industry Report", the scale of game users in China will stop declining in 2023, with a year-on-year increase of 0.61% to 668 million, a record high. The growth rate of the number of Chinese players has been below 1% for three consecutive years, and the game market has entered the stock competition.
In this context, content-based games represented by the two-dimensional style are no longer "version answers". Among the two-dimensional games that will be launched in 2023, "Honkai: Star Dome Railway" can be called the only new product that hits. In Sensor Tower's March 2024 China App Store mobile game revenue rankings, "Honkai: Star Dome Railway" ranked third.
At the same time, mini-games based on casual, SLG, and idle gameplay will "make a fortune with muffled sound" in 2023, and their gameplay and themes have also been greatly enriched in this year.
From the end of 2022 to the beginning of 2023, Century Huatong (002602. SZ) subsidiary Diandian Interactive has successively launched two ice and snow survival SLG games, "Frozen City" and "Whiteout Survival", both of which have rushed to the top of the sales list after several months of operation. Among them, "Whiteout Survival" has become the best-selling list of mobile games in the global SLG category in 2023. On May 14, the national server version of "Whiteout Survival" "Endless Winter" ranked second on the best-selling list of WeChat mini games.
At present, "Seeking the Dao" is ranked No. 1 on the best-selling list of WeChat mini games, and "Seeking the Dao" is sponsored by Sanqi Mutual Entertainment (002555. SZ) was issued in the summer of 2023. After breaking into the top three of the best-selling list of WeChat mini games in July 2023, it is firmly at the top of the best-selling list. The November 2023 research report of Shanghai Shenyin & Wanguo Securities Research Institute estimated that the total turnover of "Seeking the Dao" in the third quarter of last year may exceed 1 billion yuan.
At the end of 2023, 4399 Games' adventure mobile game "Legend of the Mushroom Brave" will land in overseas markets. According to Sensor Tower data, in the Korean market, which has been dominated by local RPG manufacturers for many years, "Legend of the Mushroom Brave" surpassed local RPG masterpieces such as "Lineage M" and "Odin: God Rebellion" in one fell swoop, and topped the best-selling list of the Korean mobile game market in January 2024.
According to the "2024 China Game Industry Trend and Potential Analysis Report" by Gamma Data, a third-party research institution, since 2022, with the rise of medium-to-heavy mini games, the proportion of in-app purchase payment has increased rapidly, and has rapidly driven the growth of the mini game market. In 2023, the market size of mini games will reach 20 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 300%.
(Editor: Dong Shuguang Review: Wu Kezhong Proofreader: Yan Jingning)