XD Network has made a new game with a monthly turnover of more than 100 million.
According to Diandian data, it is estimated that the cumulative revenue of iOS + Google channel as of February 19 exceeded 13.61 million US dollars, and according to this trend, its first month turnover exceeded 100 million yuan. This achievement not only exceeded XD's own expectations, but also was a leader in XD's new games in recent years.
However, the outside world is hardly optimistic about the long-term performance of "Let's Go Muffin". Xueqiu, a "research expert in the field of culture, media and Internet" with 60,000 followers, quickly reduced his position after holding shares, because he judged that the product was not as good as previously expected.
What kind of product is "Let's Go Muffin"?
Let's go Muffin is a casual placement category, focusing on hang-up and cultivation experience, and its development team is the original team of RO Ragnarok (who once produced the IP placement mobile game "Everyday Polly"). The style of the game is cute, including a number of convertible professions and a rich skill library, and the core feature is multiplayer dungeons + cute pets.
Because the game has been launched in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, there is no shortage of domestic players to share their actual feelings. Judging from the collection, a large number of players think that "Let's Go Muffen" is a mature enough mobile game, but there are also many problems.
To name two evaluations that have received more attention from discussions:
A user pointed out that "Let's Go Muffin" draws on the excellent settings of "Hit Polly Every Day" and "Endless Ulala", and at the same time tries to integrate a large number of new experiences, but it is "doubtful" whether these new settings are effective. For example, the most critical MMO setting has greatly changed the way of playing games, and has higher requirements for user operations and social relationships.
Some people believe that this is a unique cool point of the game in the category of idle machines, which will bring stronger user stickiness; Some people also said that if you can't acquire pan-users on a large scale, it will be difficult to eat for a long time among category users who value a sense of relaxation and satisfaction.
Some users also talked about growth feedback, saying that "there is no bottom pit of values" and "there are many cultivations". The user has participated in 5 tests and played the public beta version for more than half a month, in his opinion, the game has a high demand for resource consumption, and a large number of cultivation classifications lead to a huge gap between the upper and lower limits of the same level of characters, and it is difficult for ordinary players to get the thrill of the strategy when facing difficult dungeons.
This evaluation did make some players choose "not to play", and the long-term impact is a matter of opinion, because this is a phenomenon that exists in most products, and if XD can do a good job in the association of user layered experience in the future, it may also turn into a product advantage.
Based on various feedback, "Let's Go Muffin" is a new generation of products based on the mature R&D experience of XD Network, but it cannot be said to be an epoch-making innovation project, and its new experience is still full of uncertainties.
"It may be popular for a while, but the probability of becoming a phenomenon is very low."
Although XD Network is good at the distribution of casual idle games, it has limited the opportunity for "Let's Go Muffen" to become a hit in the Chinese mainland market in terms of development model", talking about whether "Let's Go Muffin" will become a new "Endless Ulala" and achieve a global outbreak, some practitioners gave such a view.
The logic of this judgment is not difficult to understand.
The so-called "development model" refers to the fact that XD Network makes games around the first goal of attracting traffic to Taptap.
This concept has actually been tried since 2016, and it was clearly put forward when XD Network was launched in 2019, and it became the guiding concept for XD Network to make games in the next two years. SwimThe drama ** was analyzed in the article "Ten Questions and Ten Answers".Although Huang Yimeng began to shrink product investment and turn rational after 2022, he did not overturn Taptap's insistence on being the core.
Falling to the national server of "Let's Go Muffin", the current plan is still exclusive to taptap, which means that it will be the same as "Sword of the Lily of the Valley", and the customer acquisition on other Android channels is greatly limited.
Some people may suggest that "Endless Ulala" was also exclusive to taptap, but the product is a breakthrough in the market gap in the exploration of leisure placement + socialization, on the other hand, "Let's Go Muffin", as the user commented above, it does not have enough excellent original content support to stimulate players to choose from taptap** games for "Let's Go Muffin".
In recent years, there is no shortage of leisure and new games in the domestic market, which has also made this market more competitive. Therefore, as a new product on the track with micro-innovation and mature experience as the main competitive advantage, if "Let's Go Muffin" wants to win in the market, the opportunity lies in attracting all users in a wide range of categories, and "exclusivity" is just blocking this road.
XD Online makes games, and if you don't innovate, there is a high probability that it will "die".
How to do a good job in the future national uniform will be a big difficulty, and it is also the key to whether "Let's Go Muffin" can stand firmly.
It can be confirmed that "Let's Go Muffin" is not as important as "Sword of the Lily of the Valley" before the company, but the performance in the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan markets in China is likely to change the operation positioning of XD Network for this product, and as for how many achievements can be replicated in the Chinese mainland market, it is a new test for XD Network.
Just talking about the fact that XD Network is making games, and is unwilling to let go of taptap, it is decided that only big innovative products can continue to raise the market's high expectations for it, but Huang Yimeng's choice to strengthen self-research investment has given his team too high "hematopoietic" pressure.
How hard is it to innovate?
Judging from the financial reports in recent years, the revenue of XD online game business is still supported by the old products such as "Sausage Party", "Endless Ulala" and "Ragnarok M", of which the first two are developed by Xiamen Really Fun, and the latter is developed by Junmeng Games, and XD Network is the first publisher. Its self-developed "Torchlight" and "Sword of the Lily of the Valley" are all short highlights and then quickly slip down.
At the moment, "Let's Go Muffin" can even be said to be a self-developed masterpiece of XD Network, although the direction of this product is not a breakthrough innovation, it uses the team and painting style of Wonderland RO, and chooses the framework of "Endless Ulala".
Although self-development is more cost-effective, under the business structure of XD Network, Huang Yimeng may really consider making games for TapTap, and look forward to whether the accidental creative explosion of self-developed is reliable.