Sino-Singapore Jingwei Client, November 11 (Wu Xiaowei) A domestic game called "Yuan Shen" became one of the world's most popular games since September, and the achievement of attracting $245 million in 30 days has also surprised the industry.
However, since the simultaneous global public beta of "Yuan Shen" on September 28, the reputation of this game has been mixed.
The world's highest paid mobile game in the first month of release
"Yuan Shen" is the first game released on all platforms of XBOX, IOS, Android, PC, PS4 and NS in China.
The practice of simultaneous global distribution and multi-terminal interoperability, coupled with the "two-dimensional" + "open world" + "Krypton Gold Draw" as the selling point, has made this free game attract widespread attention as soon as it came out.
From the mobile game perspective, in just a few dozen days, "Original God" became the most gold-absorbing game in one fell swoop.
According to the Sensor Tower store intelligence platform, in October 2020, Chinese mobile game publishers in the global App Store and Google Play revenue rankings, Shanghai Mihayou Network Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Mihayou") produced "Yuan Shen" was released simultaneously across platforms on September 28. The mobile terminal attracted US$245 million in the first month, making it the world's highest-paid mobile game during the same period.
As a result, Mihayou’s October revenue surged by 567% from the previous month, ranking second in the global publisher’s revenue list, surpassing Playrix, Zynga and other overseas manufacturers to become the youngest manufacturer in the head.
Based on this rough calculation, "Yuan Shen" earned US$8.1667 million on the first month of its release.
According to App Annie’s "Top 30 Chinese Manufacturers and Apps by Overseas Revenue in October 2020", it is mentioned that Mihayou is on the list compared to the previous month thanks to the excellent revenue of Yuanshen in the United States, Japan and China. The list jumped 20 places and achieved the first summit.
Daniel Ahmad, senior analyst at Niko Partners, pointed out that as a high-quality game that is popular all over the world, Mihayou Tournament provides players with an open-world RPG mobile game with broad exploration space, sufficient depth and immersion.
Mihayou has accumulated a wealth of experience on the mobile terminal through "Bangbai 3", and at the same time actively explored PC and host platforms, thus successfully developing this cross-platform game.
The most profitable game is actually a plagiarism game?
Comparison chart posted by Sina Weibo netizens
However, after the announcement of the first trailer for "Original God", some players found that the character image and gameplay mechanism of the game were very similar to games such as "Zelda Wilderness" and GTA. Subsequently, some players posted on Weibo The comparison pictures were published, and the topic of "plagiarism in "The Original God"" caused heated discussion.
The conflict with the anchor of the fighting fish game also pushed "Original God" to the forefront.
In March of this year, the anchor Zard (formerly known as Zheng Xiang) released a Weibo after testing the game "The Original God", saying that the game resembled "Zelda Wilderness". Mihayou asked him to delete Weibo. Zard released a screenshot of the communication between the two parties. .
On September 16th, some players discovered that "Zhenxiang" was added after the update of "The Original God". "The anchor tweeted about "The Original God" but was turned into a doorman by the programmer."
On station B, search for the keyword "Yuanshen" and you can see thousands of related videos.
Some players left a message in the evaluation video of "Original God", saying, "Some aspects of bowing, rock climbing, map opening, item interface, etc. really give me Zelda's sense of sight." Other players think that although "Original God" Suspected of plagiarism, but "the gameplay is completely different, the copying is not painful", and said that he did not understand why these "easy to be scolded" elements were added.
Game player's message in the evaluation video of station B
Regarding the "plagiarism dispute", some netizens quoted former Nintendo president Puyu Yamauchi as saying, "Many people will only absorb the advantages of popular games in the past and collect the interesting parts of them together, but this will always be seen by users. . What users pursue is always original fun."
It is interesting to note that the data from the Tianyancha APP shows that Mihayou has recently been responsible for two administrative cases related to the State Intellectual Property Office, both of which are plaintiffs in the first instance.
According to public reports, before this, companies such as Tencent also had precedents for bringing the State Intellectual Property Office to court. These cases all involved trademark or patent disputes.
Screenshot of Tianyancha APP
In addition to plagiarism, the game's thin plot, excessive krypton gold, and too long update time have also become players' main complaints.
After more than a month of going live, some players have "retired". They said that if the update is too long, everyone has nothing to do and they have to leave the game boringly.
On November 9, the official website of "Yuan Shen" released the update notice and activity description
In this regard, on November 9th, "Yuan Shen" issued an update notice, "The Imminent Guest Star" 1.1 version will be online at 11 o'clock on November 11.
After this update, "Original God" will add a series of content in terms of characters, weapons, plots, activities, systems, etc.
Will creating a new IP apply for an IPO for the second time?
In fact, Mihayou submitted an IPO application in 2017.
After creating the new game "Original God", will Mihayou seek to be listed again?
Previously, Mihayou had produced three "Benghuai Xueyuan" series of games, which not only received great acclaim, but also obtained huge profits.
In the first half of 2017 alone, Mihayou’s revenue reached 588 million yuan, net profit reached 447 million yuan, and the net profit margin was as high as 76.02%.
In the same year, Mihayou submitted a prospectus for listing on the main board.
However, the company mentioned in the risk warning that there is a risk of reliance on a single IP.
According to the latest announcement on the website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Mihayou has voluntarily withdrawn the listing application.
Pan Helin, executive dean and professor of the Institute of Digital Economy of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, said in an interview with the Zhongxin Jingwei client that Mihayou, a company that can innovate in models and have certain 3D game production capabilities, is actually Meet the basic requirements of listed companies.
However, one obstacle to the listing of such games is how to maintain the stability of the main creative team after listing.
At this stage, Mihayou’s IPO has a high probability of success, but after the listing, whether it can continue to be sought after by investors depends on whether it can maintain the stability of the game development talent echelon and develop more styles of games.
The well-known economist Song Qinghui told the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client that Mihayou has created a new IP, and the revenue is currently good, and it may be possible to apply for an IPO again.
He also pointed out that if you apply for an IPO again, the success rate may be slightly greater this time.
Competition in the domestic game market is becoming more intense
Despite the controversy, the performance of "Yuan Shen" has started well. Can it open up a new pattern for the domestic game market?
Multi-party analysis shows that the domestic game market has shown the Matthew effect, the position of the leading company is stable, and the competition is becoming more intense.
The "China Game Industry Report for the Third Quarter of 2020" shows that in the past four quarters of the actual sales revenue growth rate of the Chinese game market, two quarters showed negative growth.
In addition, the number of users in the third quarter of 2020 increased by 3.66 million compared with the second quarter, with a month-on-month growth rate of only 0.56%.
Wanlian Securities analyzed that in the Q3 quarter, the domestic game market achieved growth year-on-year and month-on-month. In terms of breakdown, mobile games and mobile games grew month-on-month, and web games continued to shrink.
From the perspective of the industry and product structure, the top manufacturers have a solid position, and the newly launched products are difficult to shake the status of the top old travel. SLG is still a popular category for overseas.
In terms of issuance, buying channels have become the mainstream choice for new travel, leading companies have entered the game, and competition has become more intense.
Galaxy Securities believes that as Internet platform competition enters a relatively stable period, traffic cost fluctuations have become a long-term trend. In the future, the game industry will use high-quality research and development to improve game success rates and revenue capabilities, so as to hedge the small impact caused by rising traffic costs. Look, the game industry still has good growth potential.
(Zhongxin Jingwei APP)
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