Lower your expectations and find the right direction As a two-dimensional gamer, one of the author's "fun" before the Chinese New Year is to watch players from all walks of life "fight" under the annual ** of the UP main [domestic two-dimensional mobile game observation] at station B, but because Erguan recently played "Phantom Beast Palu" on the top pigeon, the author had to be a Palu statistical review of the second game market in 2023.
Although the "exit" of a number of second-game games last summer shattered the "myth" of the two-dimensional game that the market called it, looking at the whole year, the second-game track still ran some commendable new works, and the overall quantity and quality have "recovered" compared with 2022.
In the first month of 2024, the excellent performance of products such as "Love and Deep Space", "Beyond the World", "Baijing Corridor" and "Staggered Front" has once again "repaired" some of everyone's confidence in the second tour track.
Looking back on 2023, it is not only to conclude the development of the second tour track in the past year, but also to hope that we can get a glimpse of the future development opportunities of the second tour track from these trends.
Once a year, miHoYo launched an impact on the second in the industry
Compared with the dismal situation in 2022, when only 2 new games in the domestic market exceeded the 100 million turnover mark, about 8 games will reach this standard in 2023, a three-fold increase in number.
Data**: Station B UP main domestic two-dimensional mobile game observation, Zulong Entertainment financial report.
Since most of the games in the statistics were launched after April, the data in the above table does not represent the annual (12-month) revenue data of these games.
There is no doubt that the most eye-catching second game of the past year is miHoYo's new work "Honkai: Star Dome Railway", which won the first place with its exquisite art design, tense plot performance, robust turn-based gameplay and generous publicity methods. The turnover performance of about 18.5 billion in 8 months is basically the same as the global mobile turnover of "Genshin Impact" in 2022, which can be said to be another dominant-level second game.
Just yesterday (February 6), Honkai: Star Dome Rail was just updated 2Version 0 [If you dream at midnight] continues to maintain a high level of plot performance and art design, and the frequency of character launch is also the same as 1Version 0 is the same, with two new 5-star characters coming out of each major version, and it is expected that there will still be a strong performance in the first half of this year.
Honkai: Star Dome Railway 2Version 0 new character [Black Swan].
As for why it is the first half of the year, it is naturally because miHoYo's another new work "Jeopardy Zero" will be launched this year. Judging from the completion and schedule of the previous test, it is expected that "Jeopardy Zero" will be launched around the summer file.
After the launch of "Honkai: Star Dome Railway", we can see that the performance of "Genshin Impact" has declined to a certain extent, although there are some problems with the operation of "Genshin Impact" itself, but "Honkai: Star Dome Railway" has indeed diverted some "Genshin Impact" users. And when "Jeopardy Zero" is launched, "Honkai: Star Dome Railway" will face the same situation.
According to the data of Erguan statistics, it is expected that in 2023, the turnover of all games under miHoYo will exceed 50 billion, and "Genshin Impact" and "Honkai: Star Dome Railway" account for more than 9 percent, an increase of about 15 billion compared with the turnover in 2022. In other words, miHoYo's revenue may usher in an increase of nearly 10 billion yuan in 2023.
At the same time, judging from the previous test performance of "Jeopardy Zero" and the extremely high stickiness of miHoYo, it is not surprising that "Jeopardy Zero" has the potential to have an annual revenue of 10 billion yuan, which is expected to further expand the two-dimensional game plate and bring very considerable income to miHoYo.
In addition, there is news in the market that miHoYo is intensively laying out tracks such as simulation management, war chess and urban open world, and from the perspective of time, miHoYo is likely to maintain the speed of launching new products once a year in the future, further expand and seize the two-dimensional game market.
Today's miHoYo has absolute dominance over the two-dimensional track, especially the launch of "Honkai: Star Dome Railway", which has "blocked" the development path of many turn-based second games to a certain extent. For other medium-sized manufacturers, if they want to make a difference in the second game track, the best strategy at this stage may be to "avoid" miHoYo and start from the "weak point" of miHoYo.
So, how can you "avoid" miHoYo? Let's first talk about several self-developed products from domestic manufacturers on the list.
Developed by Zulong Entertainment, "In the Name of Shining" aims at the female dress-up game track, and it is also the first female-oriented dress-up game developed by the UE4 engine.
In the Name of Shining" has a high degree of freedom in production and costume content, providing female players with a creative platform of "self-conception, self-leadership, and self-realization", firmly grasping the spiritual core of "her culture" and the needs of female users, and has also become Zulong's current main game revenue**.
On the track of women's dressing, the main players used to be basically only one paperstack, and the current main dressing work of Papergames "Shining Warmth" was launched in 2019, and "Infinite Warmth" is still under development.
In the words of players, among the many female-oriented games, "In the Name of Shining" is not only expensive, but also not very "demonic", and this steady operation ability has also helped "In the Name of Shining" to a certain extent to gain a firm foothold in the women-oriented track.
Contrary to "In the Name of Shining", "Singularity Age" is a completely "male-oriented" love game. Although galgame has a long history of development, in the field of mobile games, because the main audience of most two-dimensional games is men, few manufacturers will specifically target men to make love games like the layout of women's tracks.
However, as the ACG track continues to attract pan-users to break the circle, the general product occupies the mainstream of the market, and from a certain point of view, the rapid development of the ACG category has turned the original core "otaku" emotional experience into a blank track, and "Singularity Era" just hit the emotional needs of this group of users.
Grasping the segmented users to make products is indeed the way for small and medium-sized teams. Like "Back to the Future: 1999", it is actually a somewhat "female-oriented" product. We have also introduced Deep Blue Interactive, the developer of "Back to the Future: 1999", more than once, whose founder Zhou Jian was the vice president of Baiao Family Interactive, leading the development of two-dimensional products such as "Food Language" and "The Law of Creation", and most of the company's core members are from the above project teams. And "Food Language" itself is a female-oriented two-dimensional product, which is probably one of the reasons why "Back to the Future: 1999" chose this route.
This work is different from the past two games, which mostly adopt the Japanese fantasy style route, focusing on the British style, using English dubbing, which creates a high degree of recognition for the product, so that the game has gained a lot of sound before it is launched.
Although the gameplay of "Back to the Future: 1999" is not outstanding, and there was a lot of turmoil during the test, the outstanding art style and occult plot have made the game gain a group of loyal users, and the international server was launched in October, which further pushed up the game's flow, and the Chinese New Year version launched not long ago also allowed players to see the diversified art design of "Back to the Future: 1999".
"Back to the Future: 1999" can be regarded as a representative work of the market in the past few years that emphasizes "volume art" and "volume content", but there are very few manufacturers who can do these two points well, and in 2023, there is indeed only such a medium-sized manufacturer on the market that relies on art and content longboard to win the product. And for more manufacturers, returning to the game is the right way.
"Dusty Forbidden Zone" can be regarded as a representative of gameplay innovation. Although shooting is a track in the Red Sea, it is the first time in the field of two-dimensional mobile games ("Goddess of Victory: Nikke" cannot be regarded as a traditional shooting game in the strict sense).
Judging from the performance of the mobile terminal only, the results of "Dust White Forbidden Zone" are not good, but considering the better PC experience of PVE shooting games, most of the turnover of "Dust White Forbidden Zone" is concentrated on the PC side, according to Mu Mu, the producer of "Dust White Forbidden Zone", the PC turnover of "Dust White Forbidden Zone" accounts for 70%, so 200 million may still be a conservative data.
Objectively speaking, as a pioneering product in a new field, "Dust White Forbidden Zone" does show many remarkable points, such as simplifying operations, focusing on cultivation and skills to match the needs of two-dimensional users, and judging by the standards of a shooting game is not good enough. However, the combination of gameplay in different subdivisions did make "Dusty Forbidden Zone" gain good market attention in the early days of its launch, and it got the ticket to the "100 million-level club".
The last self-developed product is "White Night Aurora" developed by Yonghang Technology and published by Tencent Games, in last year's vigorous second-game war chess battle, probably no one would have thought that it would be this game that will lead the second-game game in 2023 in the end.
The author personally likes the innovative connection elimination gameplay of "White Night Aurora", which is very rare in the second game, has a certain strategy but will not embarrass the player, and there is also a natural sense of refreshment in elimination, which is very easy to get started at the beginning of contact, and is more suitable for the rhythm of mobile games than other chess games.
Love simulation, two-dimensional shooting, and strategy RPG are all subdivisions that miHoYo has not yet set foot in or has not occupied an absolute advantage. Obviously, there are still a lot of subdivisions for two-dimensional games to explore, such as the sandbox construction being done in Ark of Tomorrow: The End, the recent popularity of the pet hunting gameplay, the more relaxed and comfortable simulation management, and the innovative way to start directly from the development system like "The White Thorn Corridor".
Whether it is innovation or micro-innovation, the key is to find the advantages of the team and the needs of users, such as Tencent also emphasized that it should focus on the advantageous track and keep the fundamentals after the unsuccessful investment in the second yuan. Large companies tend to feel the wind faster and have the resources to execute. But for small teams, choice can sometimes be more important than effort.
What are the keywords for the second tour in the future
Entering 2024, the wind on the two-dimensional track is gradually weakening, but the competition among the players who remain on the field is still fierce. In the past January, we have seen the air battle between "Love and Deep Space" and "Beyond the World", as well as the word-of-mouth reversal of "Baijing Corridor", which can be regarded as pointing out a little direction for the tepid war chess category in the past year.
Jinghe once gave the "Top Ten Second Games in 2024" that we are looking forward to in the article "Two-dimensional Game, Who is Still Attacking and Who is Retreating This Year". In addition to miHoYo's "Jeopardy Zero" and "Singing Tide" to "challenge Genshin Impact" head-on, other products are also biased towards making a fuss on the subdivision track.
The same is true for the entire game industry, where technological change has not yet come, and it is becoming more and more difficult to innovate gameplay, and manufacturers are more inclined to make micro-innovations or integrate gameplay to create new experiences in mature gameplay. So, what is a good subdivision track for a two-dimensional game?
First of all, dating sims for men or women may be a category with deep demand. First of all, the weak social home life in the past three years has made more female users begin to try the entertainment form of games, and transform them into long-term game users, and the proportion of female game users has been rising, among which the post-90s and post-00s, games have become an indispensable entertainment method for girls.
Of course, it needs to be noted that since "Love and the Producer", domestic B games have been developed for nearly 7 years, and Tengwang Mi Stack is the top manufacturer in the game industry, and the competition is still very fierce. However, the needs of female gamers are not limited to love simulation and costume change, they are also widely involved in products such as "Honor of Kings", "Against the Cold", "Genshin Impact" and other products.
In the same way, "The Age of Singularity" and "It's Over! The success of products such as "I'm Surrounded by Beautiful Girls" and the dissatisfaction of male players with a number of second games this year due to character design, plot and other issues show that male players have begun to speak out and fight for the interests of players, after all, there are very few games that can directly bring emotional satisfaction to male players and have sufficient quality. Two types of products for different audiences may learn from each other, and it may create a different kind of spark.
Secondly, the combination with traditional categories is also a major trend, so far we have seen "Dust White Zone" and "Calabichu" in the field of PVE and PVP shooting respectively, in fact, "Goddess of Victory: Nikke" is also a good template, but it is difficult to make the "essence" of the original.
There are many choices in traditional categories, such as MOBA, racing, survival and construction, MMO, simulation management, ......and pet huntingThere are even manufacturers who have tried two-dimensional SLG. Indeed, these gameplay methods are often not very good because of the strong social attributes and two-dimensional games, but weak social does not mean that there is no social interaction, like "Genshin Impact" also supports online play between close friends, and "Shooting the Condor", which will be launched in the first half of the year, also has a bit of a two-dimensional flavor.
This path is more suitable for manufacturers with a certain foundation and resources, after all, how to grasp the social balance requires rich experience and many trial and error, and a certain risk tolerance.
Third, to innovate a game system, "White Thorn Corridor" and "Phantom Beast Palu" are good examples. Almost every game is indispensable to the process of cultivation, the former is to directly make the process of cultivation into a roguelike gameplay with strategy and randomness, and the latter links cultivation with combat, production, construction and other behaviors, so that players can complete the cultivation in the game experience, reduce the fatigue caused by the repeated cultivation process, and allow players to fully immerse themselves in the core content of the game.
White Thorn Corridor [Corridor Patrol] gameplay.
The door of two-dimensional games has indeed narrowed a lot, and it is probably difficult to reproduce the feat of creating a "myth" with one or two two-dimensional games, but there are also some new changes and opportunities worth grasping. Lower your expectations, find the right direction, stay calm, and you will always get something out in the end.