On October 11th, the fourth phase of "Love and Deep Space" was newly put on sale. Within one hour of its launch, the sales of the "Heart Shadow Moment" tinplate badge exceeded 1 million.
Even if you're not familiar with the term "tinplate badge" – or, more popularly, "bar", there's a good chance you've seen it on the street. It has pins on the back, thin sheets of iron that appear to be small pieces of iron printed with ACG characters, or pinned to clothes piecemeal, or densely covered in a "pain bag". If the theme of these badges is "kokuyi" (domestic otome game), it is likely that their owners also have other forms of merchandise such as acrylic stands, cotton dolls, etc.
It's full of "Love of Light and Night" actor "Charlie Sue".
The badge of "Love and Deep Space" is priced at 15 to 18 yuan, and the unit price of such peripherals is about 2 to 5 yuan, or even lower, in the increasingly transparent factory quotations in China. However, for the consumption of most of these products, the "cost" is often not of practical significance.
As can be seen from the sales changes in the official flagship store, the sales of the "Double Shadow" and "Eye Reflection" badges, which were released at the same time as "Heart Shadow Moment", also exceeded 900,000 in 48 hours. At the same time, "Love and Deep Space" officially opened the pre-sale of the male protagonist Shen Xinghui's single birthday peripherals, and the sales of his single badge reached 800,000 within 1 hour, and exceeded one million after 3 hours.
"Heart Shadow Moment" series peripherals
In less than 2 days after its release, the total sales volume of peripheral products in this series has exceeded 4.3 million, with sales of more than 93 million yuan; More than 2.15 million copies of the actor Shen Xinghui's single birthday peripherals were sold, with sales of about 51.12 million yuan - an estimated total sales of more than 140 million yuan.
In any case, this is a somewhat exaggerated number. However, for the vicinity of Country B, this is still a normal range. When the last issue of "Love and Deep Space" was launched, the total sales exceeded 90 million yuan within 3 hours. In August of this year, "Love of Light and Night" revived the badge known to players as "Wedding Valley" for the third time, and sold more than 1 million pieces again, despite the previous two sales of more than one million.
Nowadays, "valley circle economy" and "two-dimensional millet to save old shopping malls" have become a commonplace topic. In fact, most game manufacturers have already discovered this blue ocean, and peripheral products have become the "standard" of many games, and to a certain extent, they have become the carrier of the game to expand the audience and spread it to the outside world, which in turn affects the brand image of the game itself.
For domestic otome games, the situation is slightly different. In many contexts, its surrounding consumers seem to be more active, have a greater voice, are more willing to pay for premium goods, and even have a bit of a "fan economy" flavor.
To a certain extent, this is related to the business model of China B. In the process of marketing and sales, everything is closely related to emotional services, and this characteristic is also brought to the periphery: most of the national B peripherals are always strongly bound to game characters, forming a unique product model. It can even be combined with the content of the game to complement (or more intensely) provide emotional motivation for the player.
Is it an easy and smooth profit path for national B manufacturers to sell peripherals?
Special sales model
On October 10, the Papergames flagship store encountered a small turmoil. The day before the merch release, the official joint e-commerce platform launched a subsidy activity, which was intended to allow players to enjoy certain benefits when buying peripherals, but in the actual event, due to loopholes in the rule settings, and the different discounts around "Love and Deep Space" and "Love and the Producer", this event quickly caused a wide range of players to be dissatisfied.
Disgruntled players
Discontent spreads from the incident itself to other aspects. Some players pointed out that the pre-sale period of "Love and Deep Space" is as long as 180 days, and most people have not received the last payment when they place an order for this batch of peripherals. Many players expressed their grievances in a rather straightforward tone: "I didn't know that this game wasn't in my phone for 180 days, and your surroundings hadn't been shipped yet, don't you think it's funny?" ”
More experienced players seem to be calmer: "Our second and second players have long been PUA by game manufacturers, cutting leeks, and getting used to it." "Which Yiyu Valley doesn't have to wait so many days? If you don't want to wait, don't buy it, and then go to the second-hand market to collect it when you like it one day. ”
In the selection of national B peripherals, "soft peripherals" such as badges, laser tickets, colored paper, and acrylic stands are the mainstay, and most of them adopt the online full-price pre-sale mode with a limited time and unlimited quantity. The reason for the long delivery time is that due to the limited number of large factories with good quality control and the ability to do complex processes in China, many manufacturers need to "queue up to place orders", which is the main reason why the pre-sale period around most countries B is several months; At the same time, manufacturers also need to control the cost of risk - most of the peripherals are closely related to the game card image, and the card image is always changed frequently before launch, so it is not realistic to make a spot in advance.
Longer delivery times are a common pattern around country B
This statement seems to have a certain degree of reasonableness, but for players, the delivery time still significantly lowers their consumption experience, and at the same time, this sales system also indirectly affects the purchase channels and sales of secondary markets and physical stores around China B.
"Beyond the World" opened the pre-sale of the first round of "Old Shadows of the Times" on February 3 this year, including bars (badges), stands, decorative paintings and collectible films, with a pre-sale period of 30 days and a delivery cycle of 150 days, which is also the first official peripheral of the game since its official launch on January 26. As of the end of the pre-sale, the best data is the badge, with a total of 80,000 sales.
Players generally have a bad opinion of this batch of peripherals. The reason is that there are disputes about the time, quality, and method of the official launch of the peripherals. Many people think that the game was quickly launched less than 2 weeks after it was launched, and the idea of "making money" is too obvious; At the same time, these products are average in terms of map selection and craftsmanship, and they are complained by players that they are "perfunctory", which also reduces people's enthusiasm for consumption.
The overall design of "Out of the World" is very simple
However, during this period of time, a considerable number of players still bought this batch of peripherals with the idea of "investment". One player commented: "The collection value of this batch of official valleys is much greater than the appreciation value, because it is the first starter. In a sense, the starting official valley is considered a benefit for players who open the server and early players, so it is rarely re-sold. ”
Worried that it will be difficult to receive second-hand players in the future
There is also practical evidence for this idea. In 2023, a social media account with the theme of "buying grain" posted a submission, in which the contributor said that he had bought a large number of pre-sold "Guan Valley" (referring to the officially launched peripherals) of the game in the early days of the "Love of Light and Night", and sold it more than half a year later, at this time, this batch of millet has long been unable to buy, and the badge with an original price of 12 yuan was once "fried" to hundreds of yuan, and she also "earned the first pot of gold in her life".
Although there may be a certain exaggeration in this story, and this kind of behavior is also despised by most players, I have to admit that similar phenomena are not uncommon in the Guoyi Valley circle. The long pre-sale system has made many consumers subtly produce a psychology close to "buying stocks". Even now, you can still search for tables like "Love and Deep Space This Week's Trough Chart".
The "valley price" of "Love and Deep Space" according to the statistics of players
However, in the subsequent sales performance, "Out of the World" has remained tepid. The sales volume of goods in official online stores is generally between 5 and 100,000 copies, and the early official valley did not "skyrocket". To a certain extent, this is related to the delicacy of the card surface of the game itself, in addition, there is no obvious innovation in the official categories and craftsmanship of the peripherals.
Because of this, although the game itself seems to be more popular, in terms of peripheral sales, "Beyond the World" is inferior compared with "Painted Traveler in Time and Space", which is also owned by NetEase. The reason for this phenomenon, in addition to the quality of the surrounding itself, the particularity of its user group is also an important reason - compared with other countries B, the player group of "Beyond the World" is more vertical and close to the online audience, and the enthusiasm and demand for the surrounding area are relatively limited.
It wasn't until July that "Out of the World" released the "Watami Haru" series of peripherals, and the sales of this batch of badges were more prominent, reaching 300,000 pieces - it is worth noting that the weekly performance of the "Watanami Haru" plot in the game is also quite good, and it has been generally praised by players. This also once again reflects that the periphery of the country B is inseparable from the content of the game.
In contrast, the frequency of new products around "Love and Deep Space" is relatively stable, the pre-sale period is short, basically about 10 days, and the delivery cycle is relatively long. In addition, "Love and the Producer", which is also a subsidiary of Papergames, has adopted a similar model, and the delivery cycle of some products has even reached 200 days.
Although players are dissatisfied, judging from the actual purchase data, users' enthusiasm for buying goods around "Love and Deep Space" has not decreased. This is related to the game's current high popularity and huge player base, as well as the sales model of Papergames.
At present, the total sales of several bars in the official flagship store of "Love and Deep Space" have exceeded one million
At present, the Papergames flagship store sells a total of 3 IP peripherals, namely "Love and the Producer", "Love and Deep Space" and the "Nuan Nuan" series, the three games have a certain overlap in the audience, and there are frequent comparisons and slight friction between players - for this reason, officials often need to maintain a good "end water" attitude.
When dealing with such situations, Paperfold always seems to be very cautious. Specifically, in the cycle of launching and replicating the periphery, several IPs need to maintain "equality" and "fairness". For example, the male protagonist of "Love and the Producer" has always maintained the habit of "never returning" on his single birthday merchandise, and other regular merchandise adopts a voting return system - the same principle extends to "Love and Deep Space". As a result, many new players asked, "Is it not easy to buy Paperstack's peripherals if you miss them?" ”
In the secondary market, the 2020 birthday badge of Li Zeyan, the actor of "Love and the Producer", has been "fried" to about 600 yuan each, and the "out-of-print" peripherals of other games have also been more or less raised to a high price. In this case, players will inevitably have the worry of "if you miss it, you will buy it at a high price"; On the second-hand trading platform, there is often a phenomenon of scalpers and "fallen masters".
Li Zeyan's birthday badge, which was hyped to a high price
For offline stores, this sales model also makes them have many restrictions on purchase and selection. A manager of a physical peripheral store in Tianjin told me that she entered the "Valley Circle" in November 2023, and in the early days of opening the store, she hoped to place some Guoyi peripherals in the store, but since most of the products in the official store were pre-sales, she had to choose to directly buy other players' "withdrawal from the pit" in the secondary market (referring to the fact that after the player withdraws from the pit, all the peripherals related to it will be packaged and sold, and there are more quantities and types).
Since most of the store managers themselves are not national B players, and the stores themselves are not officially authorized, similar situations often lead to offline stores looking similar in terms of product selection, which is difficult to arouse the consumption impulse of players, and it is difficult to attract the interest of "outsiders" through the surrounding itself.
But in a sense, this "scarcity" promotes the consumption of players in disguise. A straightforward example is that miHoYo's "Book of Undetermined Events" has frequently returned to the market for a period of time, which indirectly led to their market price falling in the secondary market. Some players believe that "these Pugu (permanent or easily obtainable ordinary goods) are not worth much anyway, and if you buy them, you will lose money", so they cancel their original purchase plan.
Players think the trough price of "Book of Undetermined Events" has "crashed"
Further, this is also a common purchase idea of Guquan users: while buying a peripheral, it will also consider the rise and fall of the subsequent "outlet" (second-hand sale of the peripheral), as well as the pursuit of "rare items". Although it seems that China B users are more willing to "pay for emotions", it is also difficult to break away from this consumption environment. The supply and demand relationship around most of the country B has formed a delicate balance with the joint cooperation of manufacturers, players and the secondary market.
However, despite the balance, the problem of the long pre-sale system is still not negligible: it is easy for players to cool down after a long wait and choose to get a refund.
In the more intensive period of some game launch peripherals, players are likely to consider using the money to return one peripheral to buy another peripherals because they have placed too many pre-sale orders and do not have enough money to pay the final payment - during this time, after the fourth phase of "Love and Deep Space" peripherals were launched, the data shows that the sales of peripherals in the previous period fell by 100,000.
Players discuss merchandise sales
The neighborhood that is becoming more and more "living".
In addition to the sales model, the specific design and form of the surrounding area is also a key point that affects sales. Generally speaking, the preference of most players is still to have a stable process and a lower unit price (badge), which can show the card image of the game more clearly and intuitively, and is easy to decorate and carry. However, for manufacturers, they not only have to rely on peripherals to bring profits, but also use peripherals to promote the combination of "games" and "players' offline life" - a well-integrated and ingenious design with game content can not only bring players a sense of freshness, but also make the game "out of the circle" to a certain extent, and then attract some pan-users.
Compared with the second game, the domestic second game is more "volume" in this regard: the pass of "Ark of Tomorrow" has left a deep impression on many players outside the circle; "Back to the Future: 1999" has also launched peripherals such as mobile power banks and balance umbrellas that are closely integrated with the game and quite practical.
Special merchandise for Back to the Future: 1999
In contrast, it may be limited by the theme of the game, and the forms around Country B are relatively basic. However, in terms of the richness of the variety, the "Book of Undetermined Events" is particularly prominent, in addition to the more common pendant dolls, including slippers, scarves, paper boxes, gel pens, acrylic pen holders and other products that are very rare in the surrounding area of the country B, covering clothing, daily necessities, books and stationery and other fields.
The Book of Undetermined Events has a lot of useful merchandise
Although there is inevitably a certain premium for these daily necessities that contain IP attributes, they are still in the range that most players are willing to accept. Judging from the feedback from the community, the quality of the goods has also been praised by some players.
However, the sales of these peripherals are decent, even if they show good sincerity in design and development, they still maintain a relatively simple and conventional mode - this is also miHoYo's consistent design idea, adding character attributes through prints, impression colors and other elements in daily products, focusing on practicality, and aesthetics are also good - although "can't make mistakes", it is difficult to surprise players.
One thing that is different from the users of the second game is that the emotional value that players in the game pursue is often more sensitive and specific. In the process, they need to "add value" to their surroundings, and in some moments, the importance of this value far exceeds the usefulness of the surroundings.
The dolls of "Love and the Producer" will be launched with different themes and seasons
For example, the products of "Book of Undetermined Events" include cup sleeves, stickers, character cards, etc., while "Love of Light and Night" takes "wedding" as the theme, and launches products similar to "marriage certificates" in addition to the regular linkage peripherals. For players, the latter is obviously more emotional and meaningful, and many players will still keep this certificate and put it at home after the linkage is over.
It's worth mentioning that these discussions about sentimental value often complement the community activities of the players in China B. Earlier, "Love of Light and Night" collaborated with Japan entertainment company Bandai to launch "Ichiban Bounty". In the early days of publicity, due to the high pricing and the difficulty of extraction, players' desire to buy was not strong. However, after the release of the product, due to the large size of the doll itself, the cute shape, and the ability to dress up in many ways, many players began to "raise" the doll as a "child", and continued to create a second creation on social media: taking care of the doll, dressing up the doll, acting in a sitcom with the doll, and even sharing the comfort or encouragement they received through the doll.
"Raising" dolls "light" players
In this process, "Ichiban Reward Baby" has been endowed with more emotional value by players, and its price in the secondary market has also risen, with a single price reaching thousands of yuan. Although Bandai has previously launched a lot of the same series of products linked with other IPs, it obviously shows a more special state on "Love of Light and Night". This is closely related to the mentality and community activities of national B players when purchasing and using peripherals, and for today's players, many times, their gameplay scenes have spread from the game itself to real offline life.
In this regard, "Love of Light and Night" has a clear purpose. In terms of reaching users, it has largely played the advantages of Tencent. In the development of the periphery, it always consciously grasps the focus of "emotional value", "companionship" and "life", and has good innovations and highlights in specific product design. Judging from the intuitive performance, many of its peripherals have produced a certain "circle-breaking" phenomenon on social media.
Taking the actors' "Birthday Valley" (peripheral products launched on the characters' birthdays) as an example, the model adopted by "Love of Light and Night" is to launch regular goods such as bars, colored paper, and postcards, and also launch peripheral sets that are configured differently every year and are similar to "gift boxes", with a strong sense of ceremony.
The 2024 gift box is made into a hardcover book, which contains a soft plastic villain with a character image, a scented candle made in the shape of a birthday cake, and other peripherals such as a matching Polaroid, wooden coaster, film card, etc., and the pictures on the Polaroid and the film record the growth of the male protagonist or the story between him and the player. On social media, the unboxing video of the box has clearly attracted a lot of attention from non-gamers.
In contrast, "Love and Deep Space" and "Beyond the World" do not have much action in this regard for the time being. On the one hand, the online time of these two games is still relatively short, and at the same time, the more complex peripherals have certain requirements for operability, shipments, quality control, and production cycles, which are all common problems that manufacturers need to consider.
A more three-dimensional experience
While it sounds like there are a lot of problems for the vendors to solve, in general, they have created a practical path, and all that remains is competition between similar products.
This path largely depends on the consumption psychology of players and the long-term community ecology of Guoyi. Although most players say they don't want to get involved in the comparison between which male protagonist's bar is sold out first and which male protagonist has higher sales of solo merchandise, they still believe in some moments that the constantly beating sales numbers on the store page do have their value - such as showing popularity, in exchange for more official discourse, and even becoming a kind of "proof of love".
"Love and Deep Space" players count sales
On the other hand, there are also many players who oppose this kind of "fan circle behavior" that compares sales
However, one thing that makes people feel hopeful is that since the past two years, with the development of the valley economy, it can be clearly seen that manufacturers have become more sophisticated in the way they hold offline activities, and many surrounding sales scenes have also changed more.
In June 2023, the collaboration between "Love and the Producer" and Shanghai Animate Café received good reviews. In Japan, Animate Café will cooperate with animation and game works to carry out café projects, and will launch original meals and limited goods related to the work in the café, which is also a set of mature and relatively fixed peripheral offline sales scenes - although players are dissatisfied with the café's food, price and peripheral blind drawing mechanism, but in general, the store atmosphere can be called comfortable. Some players said: "The experience is very good, and the offline lady (the intimate name between the players of "Love and the Producer") is very gentle!" Offline is addictive. ”
Players clocking in at a coffee shop
From October 2 this year, "Love and Deep Space" has also launched a collaboration with Japan coffee shop Sweets Paradise, and some products will be sold after the event. This part of the periphery has been praised by many players for the selection of patterns, and it is also very popular in Japan.
The advantage of the offline sales scenario is that in addition to the consumption itself, players can also carry out a series of social activities, and in this situation that can build a common discourse system, they buy not only the product itself, but also the resonance of emotions and values, as well as a gentler state of communication.
At the same time, more importantly, with the changes in the market and environment, the needs of players are becoming more and more multi-dimensional. For Guob, many times, they are no longer a closed system that only relies on the game content itself, but are constantly extending outward. These seemingly "out-of-game" things have become content that players pay for, invest time and effort in, and profoundly affect them. Therefore, manufacturers also need to achieve more three-dimensional continuous operation through more practical content - now, national B manufacturers have begun to work cultural tourism IP co-branding, derivative peripherals, and offline activities, perhaps, this is also an indispensable part of the development process.