In the past week, the "super stitching monster" of "Phantom Beast Palu" is like a mechanical séance, and it has suddenly become a hot topic in the entire game circle: everyone first ** whether it plagiarized Pokémon, and then it was about Palu's part-time worker hell joke, and then the president of PocketPair, the company behind "Phantom Beast Palu", also sent an open letter to personally tell the miracle ...... behind the gameAlmost every day, new topics come up about this game.
For the Chinese game industry, it not only brings jokes, but also makes many people have new anxieties: how did this game become popular? Is its success really just by stitching? Why don't we see such an opportunity? Can their success be replicated?
Last Wednesday (January 24), we also organized a grape roundtable to connect with Meow Yu, the manager of *** is indeed not a group, and live-streamed the possible answers to these questions.
The following is a compilation of the live exchange, and the content has been deleted:
Thomas's Skull: How do you feel about "Palu", and did you ever think it would be so popular? I've been electro-impotent for a long time, and now I've been playing for a few days, and it's really been a long time since I "want to cry during the day and at night, and I want to go in my dreams."Palu
Meow Feather:Since last week,Hololive has had several well-known anchors start broadcasting.,I'm very interested in watching it.,The game was launched last Friday.,Probably played until three or four o'clock in the morning.,It feels like a good SoC.,But it's not particularly good.,I also sent *** to say that this game may not be so worthy**.。
But after the game exploded, I started to wonder what the reason was, so I continued to play it and found that it still had something.
Yan Jinyan:I'm a Pokémon player, so thanks to the accurate push of big data, I swiped the ** of "Palu" at the end of last year. At that time, I looked over and thought that its art design was not pure porcelain?
My expectation is that even if they take advantage of the popularity of porcelain, they will sell 2 million in the first week. As a result, it refreshed my cognition round after round, and the sales picture was refreshed too quickly, and it was definitely a big hit that I had to talk about.
Nine Lotus Treasure Lantern:I also paid attention to this game last Friday, and at first everyone said it was a better Pokémon, so I thought it was a Pokémon-like battle game, but later I found out that the gameplay was completely different, but Palu's skin was a bit similar. And it's not just relying on capitalists and Palu to get out of the circle, the game is much more fun than I imagined.
Thomas's Skull: How do you think it became popular? Is there a so-called core user, is it broken layer by layer, or is it broken by several circles together?
Meow Feather:It should be several circles. The first is the people who have been paying attention to this product, and the ** volume of the previous "Palu" trailer on YouTube is actually not bad, it is all million-level volume.
Second, the game has been warming up three or four days before its official launch, and they have found a lot of streamers, including the virtual streamers just mentioned. Many fans will also go to the anchor slice to re-spread the spread. Although the amount of ** for a single slice is not so high, but all of them add up, which is a terrifying number.
Finally, counting other platforms such as Douyin and TikTok, the overall volume of "Palu" may have reached more than 10 million before it was launched, and the volume is very large. After the fermentation last weekend, we can also see a lot of memes of Palu working in black jobs and abusing Palu.
Nine Lotus Treasure Lantern:Regarding the virtual anchor, I would like to add a piece of information. In fact, these streamers have a lot of habits and histories of playing SOC categories, and they have played games like "ARK: Survival Evolved" together in the early days. They are good at playing this kind of game to show the effect, and the audience is also watching it for a long time, so the conversion effect will be very good.
Yan Jinyan:A week before Palu's release, it was actually in the top 10 on its Steam wishlist. By the time the streamer warmed up, its wishlist had already squeezed into the top five. This shows that their own voice is very high.
On the one hand, pocketpair, a studio, has accumulated a lot of players with sales of its last work "Creation Ideal Township" exceeding 500,000. On the other hand, many solo games will distribute the game key to the anchor before the launch, and often as long as one anchor plays the effect, other anchors will immediately follow.
From the point of view of Pokémon players, everyone may not have taken it too seriously at first, and generally felt that it touched porcelain. It wasn't until after the game was launched that almost all the Pokémon communities started a debate between the two factions, saying that this was plagiarism on one side, and saying that the pressure was on GF on the other hand, and GF deserved to be unenterprising. Either way, this will definitely entice Pokémon fans to try the game.
Thomas's SkullTo sum up, "Palu" must have made some preparations in the early stage, but it may also be a case of relying on content to get out of the circle, and it is not like some masterpieces, charter marketing.
It may have several circles of fermentation, virtual anchors, Pokémon IP, SoC, etc., which together pushed the game to the public level and added another fire. For example, a large number of capitalist terriers, everyone is Palu. Especially in the past few years, the domestic public didn't want to go to work anymore, so everyone laughed at themselves and joined the army of memes.
Yan Jinyan:Before, everyone was talking about rats, and then yes, but now they have all become Palu, and the emotions are perfectly connected. And when it comes to the game itself, it does it very much like absorbing materials, which is easy to spread on Douyin.
Thomas's Skull: What do you think will be the grade curve behind it?
Yan Jinyan:It can break 10 million sales in 10 days, and after the "selling number" studio enters, the sales speed may be faster. Just looking at the current results, everyone can't understand it. "Valhalla", which exploded before, has only sold 3 million in three weeks. "Pokémon Arceus" is 6.5 million copies in three days, but how many IPs can compare to Pokémon.
Meow Feather:I expect it to sell 10 million by the end of the second weekend. Some people say that the product life cycle will reach 25 million copies, and it is entirely possible that the game can be done with a discount.
Two days ago, there was an argument that it touched Pokémon's porcelain and took one-fifth of Pokémon's sales in a weekend. But now it seems that its weekly sales rate is comparable to that of some Pokémon works, and this is definitely not just a matter of touching porcelain.
Thomas's Skull: Tell us about the product itself, how fun do you think the game is, and why do you find it fun?
Thomas's SkullI'm not a SoC player, but as some articles mention, Palu really came up with a drunken idea: you can hold a fox in your arms and use it as a flamethrower, you can put a green leaf rat on your head as a machine gun, and there's a giant grass mud horse to help you ...... camelsThese small feedback points are very focused, with a sense of purpose and motivation in the early and middle stages.
Meow Feather:First of all, everyone says that this game has something to do with Pokémon, and I don't really agree with it. As long as you have played the main Pokémon game, you know that the fun of this game has nothing to do with the core gameplay of Pokémon. Palu is of course the core system, but without Palu, it is also a very traditional SoC, which is to collect resources, build homes, and explore and survive.
But when Paluga came in, he added a lot of elements to the SOC paradigm. The first is a strong sense of purpose. Players have to collect more palu, and each monster looks different, making it tempting to catch.
Second, Palu can really be our fighting partner, and it's very interesting to interact with people and pets like the one I just mentioned. It's something I've never seen in similar games in the past, and it's a very big innovation.
In addition, putting Palu in the stronghold to build and produce is actually a bit like raising villagers in Minecraft, but more diverse. It will give you something to do, something to see, and a picture to take while playing. It is a SoC that can be played by one person, and it is collected as a guide to explore, unlike other SoCs, which are very jail to play alone.
Further on, it means that the game itself is quite complete. Although it still has a lot of rough places, it can make combat and simulation management, the two most gripping highlights of SOC gameplay, innovative enough, and it is already very awesome.
Nine Lotus Treasure Lantern:In the past, playing SoC was to work to upgrade technology, fight monsters and then upgrade. Now with the addition of the capture element, the variety of loops is even richer. Why do other SoCs not sell as well as it, in a word, the regular SoCs are not collected, and the SoCs that are collected are not as cute as Palu.
Yan Jinyan:The dinosaurs in ARK: Survival Evolved can only fight, and there is no verification of simulated management. The black slaves of "Conan the Exile" can engage in production, but now everyone is Yan Kong, who doesn't like the cute Palu.
So "Palu" is equivalent to sewing "ARK: Survival Evolved" and "Conan the Exile" into it, packaging a better-looking skin, and using collection and combat, and simulated management to do multi-step verification.
From a category perspective, it solves the hard flaw of SoC's weak sense of purpose. In the past, a non-SoC core player was very confused after entering the game, the sense of guidance of the category itself was not strong, and the bottom was to use survival indicators to oppress players, further like "Valhalla" is to let you fight bosses.
But for pan-users, there is still no solution to the question, that is, why do I have to come in and suffer, and what am I going to do in life. Catching pets is very intuitive, you will naturally want to collect Palu, and after all kinds of verification, the satisfaction will come quickly.
Thomas's Skull: Some people say that now SOC has extended more subdivision directions, such as not necessarily having the pressure of survival, it can be a survival family. Thinking about it this way, is it true that what many people are pursuing when they play "Palu" is not the so-called Maslow demand curve in the past?
Yan Jinyan:I think Palu is going in the right direction. In the past, SoCs were all about survival horror and depressing atmosphere, and when they look back, they will use Maslow's needs to explain it, indicating that they should use pressure to drive players. But now that there is pet hunting, it doesn't need to be driven by survival pressure, so changing the style will definitely cover a wider range of people.
Meow Feather:To rebate it, the survival theme of SOC in the past was used to limit and allocate player resources. But "Palu" doesn't put a lot of effort into allocating resources, so it doesn't need to amplify the matter of survival.
Thomas's Skull: So to put it bluntly, is it a feasible loop and direction to replace "Palu" with a two-dimensional SOC that collects beautiful girls?
Nine Lotus Treasure Lantern:Palu is a buyout game, and if you think of it as a long-line management game, especially horizontal card collection, its fun and business model are in conflict. The commercialization of cards is to sell characters, and if you can catch characters casually now, fuse or destroy them, then there is no way to commercialize them.
Meow Feather:If you want to collect NPCs and characters for free as the core gameplay, then the core problem of mobile games is how to pay.
Thomas's SkullIt's strange to let everyone capture beautiful girls in the big world at will, but what if it's something else? For example, can the characters have more forms of expression in the big world, like "Ark of Tomorrow: The End", use all the characters, engage in infrastructure, and the characters can not only fight, but also help production.
Nine Lotus Treasure Lantern:I don't think it makes much sense. Take "Ark of Tomorrow" to "Ark of Tomorrow: The End", it's just that the original numerical infrastructure has an extra layer of performance, and that's all. And that's not the key to Palu's unique charm.
Yan Jinyan:This is essentially to make the two-dimensional characters have a better display in the open world, and in the end, it still has to fall on the commercialization of gacha. But now the framework and content of "Genshin Impact" is already the best and most successful on the market, and it is good enough to show the charm of the characters. Hardly.
Moreover, for the second dimension, what kind of big world interaction ideas do you have to come up with to show the charm of the character better than the backhouse interaction? The difficulty can be quite high, and it doesn't mean just copying Palu.
Meow Feather:Let's talk about it a little bit.,I think the SoC track is now on the mobile phone.,In fact, there hasn't been a particularly large product.,This model is very embarrassing to do F2P itself.,I think "The Day After Tomorrow" is still relatively MMO.。
For "Palu", it is a buyout system in itself, and it does not pursue too long-term commercialization and operation, which is also a point where it is still successful even if the content is insufficient. I believe that more than half, or even at most, only one in five of the players who buy the game now, will reach the so-called post-production process, and 20 hours of happiness is enough.
With all due respect, it is now selling 7 million copies, and the cost of 50 million is definitely blood gain, even if it has no quality, it can be stopped later and updated.
Thomas's SkullWe have a theme today called "Palu" can be replicated. I think on the one hand, it is to learn from their SoC design, or the idea of category integration, and on the other hand, there are many people who mention cost.
In the past two days, many interviews and official statements with the production team have been turned out. One of their characteristics is that they have few people, and I heard that their boss seems to have personally done a lot of optimization. The research and development time is not long, although there are two or three years, but in today's industry background, it is normal to spend three or four years making a mobile game.
The second is that some reports say that they particularly like to use free resources online. Recently, many people have launched a "AI detection" campaign, because they feel that many of the elements in "Palu" come from Pokémon.
Thomas's SkullCan this extreme cost-saving situation be replicated in the industry?
Meow Feather:I read an article before, it should be 20 years ago, Xu Yiran interviewed the founder of PocketPair. At the time, he said that 70% of their footage was actually bought, or public material.
I think at least for large domestic manufacturers, they should not do this kind of thing, at least it is more obscure. Because the most intuitive point is that users will scold.
Yan Jinyan:Moreover, the labor cost of the large factory itself is high, even if AI is used to make art materials, it is still necessary to call manpower to adjust, and it is unknown how much cost can be saved in the end.
Thomas's Skull: In what kind of industry, can you use ideas similar to theirs to save costs?
Nine Lotus Treasure Lantern:As Meow Yu said, their cost savings involve the art material. From the user's emotions, the use of free materials can still be forgiven, and it may only be an independent game manufacturer, in fact, pocketpair itself is also an independent team.
Meow Feather:And "Palu" is the team's third product. If they had done it in the first place, they would have died. They have accumulated a mature low-cost system, and if domestic manufacturers are allowed to run again according to their model, I think it may take at least 3 years, or even 5 years, to run out.
Yan Jinyan:Another point is that they are very clear about the direction and goal of the product, so they can save the ultimate cost. Domestic words can be compared to the "Dyson Sphere Project", they also think very clearly, the project management is very good, 5 people can make the game in a short time.
Thomas's Skull: If we just want to make a copycat version of Palu, or find them to authorize it to make a mobile game version, is it possible?
Meow Feather:If you have to copy "Palu", it may be at most to appropriate Palu's image. If it's just a simple copy of Palu + SoC's mode, the game is bound to die. The first point is that we still can't solve the commercialization problem of long-term operation, and this thing can't do F2P.
The second is that if you want to copy this model to mobile games, it is actually very complicated. There are a lot of mobile games with "SoC" gameplay, but they either have a survival part that is basically equal to nothing, or the construction part is very rudimentary. I think it is possible to bring a complex system like Palu to a mobile phone, but it is difficult to say how good the effect is.
The success of "Palu", for the current domestic manufacturers, is actually just a hot spot to promote. Of course, this must have made many people think about whether the SOC has expanded, but what "Palu" left us in the end is definitely not a "Palu like".
Nine Lotus Treasure Lantern:Another possible question is the mass-produced gameplay in Palu, how much pressure does it put on the performance of the phone? I don't know, but it shouldn't be that easy.
And their so-called "stitching" is actually doing addition. But their addition is just right, and if you continue to do additions on top of that, the whole thing is bloated. If you do subtraction, the game is not as fun as it is now. Just like when "Moving Forest" was popular, there were no fewer projects in China, but this problem was not solved.
Thomas's SkullI'll summarize a little. On the topic of "whether it can be replicated", there are actually two points. One is that as long as you have a good idea, and then cooperate with the current advanced technology, you can do something bigger; Then there are now medium-sized products, and there are some opportunities again. You can make a pure indie game with a larger amount of content at a lower cost. I remember the president of PocketPair himself mentioned that some large companies can't do some creative work, and small companies may not have the resources, so they can be considered to have eaten the dividends of tactical slots.
Thomas's SkullFinallyLet's talkaThe most fun part, the so-called explosive anxiety. I remember that Meow Yu wrote before that many ** people, investors, including friends who do strategy, are actually quite anxious, how could they miss such a big opportunity. I don't know how you guys feel?
Meow Feather:I'm in the distribution strategy right now, so it's okay, but there must have been a lot of project strategies last weekend for the boss to see, and we have a way to set one up. Or maybe the producer himself will wonder if I want to make a project. There must be many people who think so, because the sales rate is really too fast, and I have never seen a second product of this kind of small factory in my life, which can sell so quickly.
Yan Jinyan:I've been talking to some producers for the past two days, and I feel that the general mentality is quite optimistic, and they are very happy to see this kind of thing. They all have a feeling, that is, it is easier to know than to do. These sharing by PocketPair made them feel that as long as they were creative, they still had a chance of success.
Thomas's SkullI also have friends from Tianmei who showed me his project PPT, and his project and "Palu" really coincide in many parts. But he thinks about it big and requires huge resources to accomplish it.
Thomas's SkullI think this topic is also very interesting, now so many large manufacturers, including Tencent NetEase, are watching SOC, and some small factories are also paying attention, why don't you see such an opportunity to make it in time?
Meow Feather:I think it's because people are too afraid of "losing" now. It's hard for me to say about small factories, but now medium and large manufacturers, a new product has to be tested for countless rounds, constantly modified, and is not willing to go online until the data reaches the standard. Everyone is still more interested in stability.
I don't know what PocketPair thinks, but I'm sure they're certainly not like domestic companies that pursue the ultimate in data. There have been many products in China in the past period of time, and the degree of completion is almost the same, but because the test is not up to standard, or the boss in some places is not satisfied, and then it has been delayed, and finally it is gone. There is also the cold start at the release level, and now the success rate is getting lower and lower, so everyone also tends to extend the testing time.
Thomas's SkullThis topic is also more complicated, maybe some labels, its projects are full as soon as they are listed. For example, Tencent NetEase miHoYo, everyone will look for it. So they may not dare to run for a while like a steam game. Especially for products like SLG, if you only do a small amount of testing, it may not be that useful.
I think it's true that as Tencent's Steven boss (Tencent Group Senior Vice President Ma Xiaoyi) said, many times PC is really a platform suitable for gameplay innovation, whether it is because of the business model or the nature of the players. Mobile games may be a more commercial platform. From this point of view, the case of "mobile game practitioners being slapped by innovative PC games" may continue to happen, and nothing will change.
So the world is quite fair, many times there are a lot of choices and resources in large factories, so it often means that you can't go all in; But maybe like Palu's company, he only has this one card, so he can only play this aspect well.
Their boss also said that he basically spent all the money he earned from the previous one, and this one was just made. If he doesn't get on EA, he can only go to financing or borrowing money to make the full version. It's impossible for a large company to do this kind of thing, either at the issuance level or at the actual cash level.
When you finally see such a story, you may think that the project brought by the boss himself and the project that the company is all in is better? But for them there is no choice, it is really to put their lives on the line.
Meow Feather:In the past, the development and distribution of mobile games were actually known for being fast, but in recent years, I think everyone has become more stable. Of course, this is also a cost issue, but it is quite miserable. Then again, just like Tencent, are they really willing to unconditionally support the creation of innovative games for PC? Not necessarily.
Thomas's Skull: In the president's speech, he mentioned that he has reunited with many miracles and all kinds of strange talents, such as a convenience store worker who has no experience, and he only has a junior high school education, but he is very good at modeling firearms and acting in actionI also taught myself English。How much credibility do these have?
Thomas's SkullI don't believe there is such a legend. I think what is pointed out behind this point is actually the anxiety of talents in the domestic industry. For leading companies, recruiting good talents is particularly expensive, and the cost of the project is also super expensive. That's why people fantasize about stories.
Meow Feather:I think it's all. He picks up a bunch of young people from the street and then just makes you an NB thing, which is impossible. Take the domestic situation as an example, I believe that there are some so-called talented young developers in China, but in the end, I didn't see such a thing come out. Really powerful people are expensive.
Yan Jinyan:I think there may still be translation errors in this thing, and there are some errors summarized by netizens. Judging from the experience of this president, he has a relatively good background, has interned at Nintendo, mixed with JPMorgan Chase and the currency circle, and his connections are definitely not bad.
Like the president mentioned that their program boss doesn't use git, only unreal. But in fact, that program is also an old man with more than ten years of experience, he has management experience, and he can also assign pipelines. So it's not as amazing as he says.
Nine Lotus Treasure Lantern:This thing itself is actually done by their company as a marketing event. Objectively speaking, this is also a survivorship bias. Many companies recruit so many great people, can't they make great things? Neither is it. And in comparison, it will definitely have a higher success rate than if you went to pick up people on the street. It's just that they came out as a special case, and everyone was surprised.
Thomas's Skull: You have done it in the front line of the manufacturer before, do you feel that there will be this so-called Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon situation?
Nine Lotus Treasure Lantern:Of course, there are young talents with strong educational backgrounds and project backgrounds. But the question is how much impact you can have on the project. From the perspective of the first-line level, the young people recruited are actually Dangpalu, a level 10 mischief cat and a level 5 mischief cat, and the difference is not so big in the project.
Even for the project "Palu", although they have a lot of grassroots employees, I believe that it is the middle and senior management who really affect the project. Therefore, whether or not there is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in a project can only be reflected when these people have greater influence.
Thomas's Skull: Finally, let's have a brain hole. What inspiration do you think SoC or pet-related things in "Palu" can give to big manufacturers?
Meow Feather:I think "Against the Cold Cold" may soon make a similar one. They are actionable, willing to make trouble, and the boss is more tolerant. I think it's quite possible to make one. And this gameplay is sewn into "Against the Water and Cold Mobile Game", and it may really be possible to get something out.
Then miHoYo must also want to do it. I think other companies may not be genetically right.
Yan Jinyan:For companies like Panax notoginseng, Palu's absorption transmission path may give them a little inspiration. In addition, recently, I have also seen a lot of people cue "Delusional Mountains and Seas".
Meow Feather:Let's have an interesting chatDo you think Palu has a chance of winning Game of the Year?
Thomas's SkullI think whether it can win the grand prize in the future depends on its iteration speed. If it can make a relatively complete content in the next few months, there is still a chance to go to the next level. I think the current quality is almost meaningful, it is still a longboard absolutely long, but a bit of a hard product.
Nine Lotus Treasure Lantern:I think that if you want to talk about awards, "Palu" has a word-of-mouth risk, so it is a natural disadvantage in this regard.
Meow Feather:I think it's just an 8-point game right now. However, Nintendo's side should be OK, and there are rumors that Nintendo's own employees are also playing "Palu". I think they're going to have to play this stuff too.
Yan Jinyan:Lao Ren's attitude towards this kind of thing still lies in whether it will damage the Pokémon IP, such as some mods. And the gameplay stitching concept of "Palu" is actually really a bit of Nintendo's flavor in it.
Thomas's SkullThis is a very legal issue, and we are not professional, but the art does look quite similar.
Meow Feather:If "Palu" was made by a domestic company, the small factory might be fine, but the big factory would have been scolded to death. But I think it's very interesting that at present, whether it is the comments under some anchors or the reviews on Steam, in fact, everyone is still relatively tolerant of "Palu".
Thomas's SkullI think it's because it's really fun. When it's fun to a certain extent, your body is honest and your inner attitude will change.