I don't know how many friends still remember the grand scene of the "118 World War of Country B", at that time, a number of domestic otome games were either for the open beta, or for the major version update, or for the purpose of sending benefits for the New Year, focusing on blowing the marketing whirlwind on the same day, and as competitors, they even tacitly played interactively, and the hot search on Weibo once gave people the illusion of "National B Zone".
Among them, of course, there are some unplanned coincidental elements, but it is enough to show that the track of National B has now become a battleground for soldiers.
Now, more than a month has passed, and when the smoke of this war gradually dissipates, we can also see the real stage winner.
According to the statistics of Qimai Data, since the global public beta was opened on January 18, Papergames' 3D otome game "Love and Deep Space" has always been stable in the top 20 of the domestic best-selling list, and the highest has even rushed to the top 2. Some industry leaders also revealed that in the first month, the turnover of the national service alone has exceeded 500 million yuan, setting the highest record for domestic love games.
In the overseas market, "Love and Deep Space" also performed well. In other countries around the world, the game has also topped several free-to-play charts and made it into the top 10 of several best-selling lists. According to the statistics of Diandian data, it easily topped the global new game revenue list in January.
Taking Japan, the birthplace of otome games, as an example, "Love and Deep Space" also created a scene of "foreign monks chanting scriptures": on the day of the open beta, it topped the free list of Japanese servers, and later rushed to the top 6 of the best-selling list, and the sales even won the top 1 of local women's games for a timeOn January 23rd, Love & Deep Space became the number one trend on a daily basis, and to this day, its popularity is still undiminished, and you can find a lot of discussion about this new game on social platforms such as 5ch and X.
Judging from the above market results, one thing is certain: as the first domestic otome mobile game released simultaneously in the world, "Love and Deep Space" seems to have become the one with the best debut results overseas.
This naturally raises the question, how did "Love and Deep Space" do it, and what did Papergames do right in the face of the new challenges of global distribution?
In my opinion, the answer given by Papergames is actually not complicated, that is, on the basis of absorbing the traditional Yiyou nutrition, it further creates a breakthrough point of differentiation.
In fact, most of the common characteristics of otome games on the market in the past focused on the narrative, and the "sense of love" created by the product itself often broke out in a few climactic plot moments that strengthened the bond, which in turn triggered the player's synaesthesia empathy.
On the other hand, since its inception, it has been deeply involved in the "female-oriented mobile game" track, and its products have always had a certain characteristic of "driving the public with a small niche", which is also destined to its underlying creative logic of "user appeal as the main orientation".
Specific to "Love and Deep Space", aside from the breakthrough innovation at the gameplay and art level, it also focuses on the "sense of love" from the narrative perspective, and on the basis of the traditional B game, it also firmly grasps a key called "immersion", which highlights the player's heartbeat for the character. When this kind of "heartbeat" frequently appears in the daily relationship between the player and the character, the harvest is naturally a more long-term and strong bond.
To take the simplest example, in the main interface of the game, players can press and hold the voice button to talk to the character, or chat about some daily topics, or touch the character's heartbeat and touch different parts of the character's body; Outside the main interface, players can grab claw machines with characters, shoot headshots, etc., to replicate various scenes of couples going out together in real life; The addition of the interactive card surface allows players to feel the freshness of the "paper man" more intuitively.
Judging from the feedback from overseas players, these differentiated designs can obviously be called the most typical "small national B shock".
If you summarize it in a more straightforward and simple sentence, it is that "Love and Deep Space" allows overseas users to play the "fresh" otome game.
Of course, this kind of "freshness" is not only based on the distinction of the underlying creative logic, but also reflected in the differences of national culture.
On the smaller side, China's food habits and the tradition of sending pennants in the country of etiquette can arouse the curiosity of overseas users.
In general, different views on love and expressions of love can trigger a wide range of **.
The industry often discusses how to better fulfill the mission of cultural export in the tide of domestic games going overseas, and it is obvious that all of the above is an effective way to moisten things silently.
But at the same time, we must also recognize that the so-called interest in Chinese culture generated by overseas users because of a game is just "icing on the cake" for the big proposition of culture going to sea, because becoming the "light of domestic production" itself is already the most powerful cultural output signal.
Just like Otomate's view of "Love and Deep Space": limited by the traditional product production system, it is difficult for them to produce commercial masterpieces with large-scale costs. And a product of the level of "Love and Deep Space" is a difficult production direction for Otomate to challenge.
otomate: A Japanese veteran label that has been focusing on Yiyou for more than 20 years, and has launched many successful products such as "Thin Sakura Ghost" and "Scarlet Fragments".
This reminds me of an earlier cross-border conversation between miHoYo and Falcom. At that time, Yosuke Kondo, president of Falcom, also expressed similar feelings.
Once upon a time, "Chinese manufacturers can't make triple-A masterpieces" was once regarded as the Achilles heel of the domestic game industry, but now, perhaps we should have re-examined the global game industry pattern from a different perspective.
For Chinese people, one day, most of the mobile games that are popular around the world are made in China (in a sense, there is actually such a trend in some subdivisions), which may be the ultimate value of domestic games going overseas.