Author |Akagi bottles
Edit| mia
After playing otome games for so many years, the coolest thing turned out to be not the 'Raiders' male protagonist.,It's the male protagonist's reverse 'Raiders'.。 ”
Around 2020, otome games jumped out of the independent track, and big factories entered the game one after another to join in the excitement. Following the first circle-breaking mobile game product "Love and Producer" in China B, new players continue to emerge, and major game manufacturers such as Tencent, NetEase, miHoYo, and Chaoxi Lightyear have entered the game one after another. However, for a period of time, under the tightening of the rules and edition numbers, some products had to remove the label of "otome" and put on a more general "female-oriented" coat, under the topics of national B refuge, accompanied by heated discussions among players.
Nowadays,The national B market, which has two background boards of "stock market" and "pure love", has once again ushered in the prosperity of new products, and a large number of new products have been launched one after another, causing a catfish effect。On January 18, Papergames, a pioneer of domestic otome mobile games, launched a new product "Love and Deep Space", and NetEase raised "Beyond the World". Soon, women in the operation period have launched big moves to mobile games, such as Tencent's "Love of Light and Night", NetEase's "Painted Traveler in Time and Space", miHoYo's "Book of Undetermined Events", "Codename Kite" produced by Lingxi Interactive Entertainment, and women's mobile games such as Zulong's "Famous for Shining", etc., have all launched to players with version updates, new card faces, new PV and other benefits.
At present, it seems that the two new products have performed well in the early stage of their launch. According to the data, the turnover of "Beyond the World" and "Love and Deep Space" from January 20th to January 26th was 11.9 billion and 123.6 billion yuan, more than "Genshin Impact". Previously, "Love and the Producer" had set a record of 300 million turnover in the second month after the launch of the service. At present, "Love and Deep Space" and "Beyond the World" have been online for less than two weeks, according to Qimai data, as of January 30, "Outside the World" and "Love and Deep Space" are in the TOP6 and TOP7 positions in the free list of iPhone games, which is in line with the development trajectory of new mobile games.
The national B market is ushering in a new war, joining the new generation of "technology and ruthlessness" otome mobile games, not only in the 3D form of non-paper people, but also in the form of contemporary "scumbags" who are mainly anti-guest, as well as various "18+ earthy marketing actions" ......Otome mobile games are breaking into the market with a whole new look.
On January 18, the "National B War" began, mainly due to the launch of new products "Love and Deep Space" and "Beyond the World" launched by Papergames and NetEase at the same time. The latter was originally scheduled to be launched on the 26th, perhaps in order to "go to war" and was raised to the 18th. The addition of popular female-oriented games under Tencent, miHoYo, and Lingxi Interactive Entertainment, as well as the Friendship Times female-oriented mobile game "Floating Memories Linglong", which was launched in early January, have made this battle more and more interesting.
The official positioning of "Beyond the World" is "infinite romance mobile game", and the network ** attribute blessing is obvious. As an ordinary college student, the player can enter different timelines in different worlds, experience the experience of different identities, and of course, meet the fates of different male characters, and die if you are not careful. In the game, players can interact with the male protagonist by collecting cards.
Judging from market feedback, players generally like its orange light** general plot, with the blessing of AI technology, the male protagonist of Guoyi called the player's name (screen name) in the original voice for the first time, which became one of the discussion points. The thunder point of the product is also obvious, the vertical painting is a bit "collapsed", and the obvious AI drawing traces cause players to be dissatisfied; There are many black screens, and the scene is single and slightly rough; Krypton metallic is obvious; There is basically no companionship system, and the player's daily emotional communication with the male character is missing. To sum up, players generally think that the painting style of "Beyond the World" is a little sloppy, and the traces of hasty launch are heavier, but the victory lies in the plot supported by the copywriting, and the male characters who love players to death, as the plot progresses, there are some moments that even make players feel a little "scum".
As a sequel to "Love and the Producer", Love and Deep Space continues the worldview of "Love and", and is officially positioned as a "fantasy high-immersion 3D love game". Players quickly consciously positioned it as "Love and Producer Plus Edition", and the main feature of the product is the first-person perspective of the 3D version, which has a strong sense of immersion. It is worth mentioning that this is not an otome mobile game that has been established in recent years, compared with 2D, 3D mobile game products have a longer R&D cycle, "Love and Deep Space" first exposed the actual machine promotional video in 2020, roughly estimated, the R&D and production cycle is at least 3 years.
In addition to the 3D form, the product also amplifies the player's personalized attributesPlayers can pinch their faces and adjust their voices, which is no longer the existence of players as general characters in the past - there have been "stand-in literature" incidents caused by the suspicion of "private design", and the game characters are no longer "paper people" images, but incarnated into 3D models with rich expressions and dynamic three-dimensional dimensions.
At the same time, the player's interaction with the character has also been strengthened, in the game, the player can shoot a big head sticker with the character, grab the doll, stretch out the arm to open the palm, drag the character's chin, and even make prank ...... such as poking the game character's buttocksIn addition, according to the producer, in order to strengthen the sense of connection between the player and the character, the game has added a two-player battle mode, but it is relatively simple. Another player revealed that "Love and Deep Space" had launched a VR interactive dating experience at the booth during the testing phase, and a VR version of the experience version may be launched in the future.
The shortcomings of the product are also obvious, because the product is in 3D form, many players have reported that the memory has reached 10G just after the game is opened, which is high for a mobile game product. In addition, some players believe that they are accustomed to seeing the paper people in women-oriented products, and the 3D version of the game characters looks unrealistic, which makes people "unsuitable".
As you can see,Otome mobile games are essentially products that provide players with a love experienceIn the early days, when "Love and the Producer" was dominant, various small and medium-sized manufacturers once launched otome-like products that combined the core elements of other popular categories, trying to prove to the market:Otome didn't want to abandon the male audience, so Otome mobile games ushered in a "metamorphosis period"., adding elements of combat and reasoning, such as adding female characters to playable NPCs, etc., but most of the "regardless of class" results are obviously mediocre.
To sum up, the current stage of Guoyi products no longer tries to win the attention of players through peripheral functions, but lays a good "foundation" for love, and enriches players' "love feelings" through character design, plot, and interaction. It can be seen that whether it is the increase in functions or the strengthening of copywriting, as a product type driven by emotional value, after all, the most impressive experience for players is always the "feeling of love".
From a marketing point of view, "Love and Deep Space" and "Beyond the World" are undoubtedly successful, and it is not uncommon to dominate the hot searches on Weibo many times.
Just when players were still reminiscing about the opening benefits of the party game "Genyume Star", Otome Games also threw out a generous start. After "Beyond the World" was finalized, the official Weibo gave the "101 lottery free delivery" benefit. At the same time, "Outside the World", which is "not as active as an official account", left a message in the official Weibo comment area of many games of the same type such as "Love and Deep Space" and "Love of Light and Night": Bigger and stronger together.
The content is bigger and stronger, but the purchase volume is not soft, and players have watched the advertising films of these two games on various platforms many times, which is not only the feature of contemporary otome mobile games, but the characteristics of most new product announcements. According to dataeye-adx data: "Love and Deep Space" began to increase its launch at the end of December this year, with an average daily delivery of **+ around 500. Three days before the launch, we continued to increase our efforts and doubled every day. Among the creative forms of its delivery materials, "game character world view display" and "plot record" account for a relatively high proportion. And "Beyond the World" will only start to be launched in January 2024 after the project team officially announced the "unlimited and undeleted" test, and the delivery will remain at about ** 200 groups.
Judging from the trend of buying volume, perhaps it is because the series of products bring stronger confidence, or perhaps it is more prepared, and the publicity and distribution investment of "Love and Deep Space" seems to be more generous. According to the existing market feedback,Players are also still adapting to the 3D form of the love mobile game.
According to the "2020 Game R&D Force Survey (Mobile Games)", from 2018 to 2023, the average annual compound growth rate of the female game market is 184%, and it is estimated that the market size of China's female-oriented mobile games will reach 95.8 billion yuan in 2023. According to Niko Partners, women account for 37% of gamers in Asia, and female gamers in Asia are growing at an annual rate of 11%, almost twice the growth rate of male gamers. As the preferences of men and women for games gradually merge and the boundaries tend to blur, the penetration of mainstream games in the female gamer group will become higher and higher.
Under the market size of 100 billion, the market plate of love games is gradually getting bigger, whether it is a female or a male galgame, refer to last year's hit product "Finished! I was surrounded by beautiful women", and in the game track, the potential of the game market that deeply cultivates emotional value can be seen. With the continuous deepening of the integration of the game industry and the entertainment industry, in the future, this kind of love content that deeply cultivates emotional value will continue to gush into the game content, and welcome a bright future in the context of AIGC film and game interaction.