2024/09/29 23:52
I was in Japan and watched Tencent being overcrowded
2024/09/29 23:52
Text/Repair&Yan Jinyan
01
I found out that Tencent had finally landed after several years in Japan.
According to the "2023 Japan Mobile Game Market Analysis Report" released by Sensor Tower, Tencent became the publisher with the fastest revenue growth in Japan last year by an overwhelming margin.
Behind this achievement, there is one thing that may be beyond everyone's understanding, that is, Tencent can be so fierce in Japan, a large part of the reason is the two-dimensional ability.
Looking at the data, it is not difficult to find that one of Tencent's major contributors in Japan is "Goddess of Victory: Nikki" (hereinafter referred to as NIKKE). According to public data, more than half of NIKKE's revenue comes from the Japan market, and NIKKE also ranked second in the top 10 game revenue growth in the Japan market last year.
Compared with the data, the recent Tokyo Game Show (TGS) can directly reflect the popularity of products in Japan.
This year's NIKKE product exhibition area was placed in the overall exhibition area of Tencent Games' overseas brand Level Infinite. From the first day of TGS's Player Day, the front of the exhibition area was surrounded by water.
At the scene, NIKKE made a special giant display cabinet in order to simulate the player's ten companies, in which not the character figures were placed, but the characters Coser. The on-site impact of this event installation is very strong, even if it is placed in the entire star-studded TGS venue, it can be regarded as a novel arrangement. Whether you're a player of the game or not, you'll be drawn to it.
In fact, just an hour after TGS opened, the NIKKE event site was already crowded with players.
When Kim Hyung-tae, CEO of Shift Up, and Yoo Hyung-seok, producer of NIKKE, came to the stage to interact with the players, the heat of the scene was further pushed to a climax, and the players' voices came one after another, and the front of the exhibition area was also surrounded by water.
On the daily push, you can also see many players spontaneously sharing what they saw and heard at the NIKKE booth.
This time yesterday, I never thought I could be so happy at TGS. I really enjoyed it and thank you again to everyone who offered such a place! Thank you!
I had the privilege of participating in the real 10 companies! Kim Hyung-tae even challenged the real 10-in-a-row in front of my eyes! Luck was fantastic!
You might think that it is not unusual for NIKKE to gain such popularity at TGS. After all, in offline exhibitions, two-dimensional products with stronger content capabilities always have an advantage, and this is Japan with a strong ACG atmosphere.
But if you look at the overall history of NIKKE since its launch in Japan, you will find that Tencent has mastered some methods at the distribution level, and this is not just a product that can be done by itself.
For example, they have put a lot of effort into the overall form and content of live broadcasting, and pay special attention to offline marketing.
Recently, the game's 1.5th anniversary was broadcast at Studio Earth, the largest studio in Tokyo, the Tokyo Tower Media Center, and the topic was among the top three most searched in the world on Twitter. During this period, their niconico super conference exhibition, real ten consecutive pumping devices, attracted a large number of players on the spot, and the queue in the venue once came to more than 3 hours.
In addition, the game also carried out a creative linkage with the Shibuya landmark Akita Inu advertisement, and the animation of the interaction between the three characters of NIKKE and the Akita Inu appeared on the outdoor 7 screens, and the time was announced on the hour. This linkage has even attracted the attention of the Japan mass media.
The publishing team believes that combining what users love with real life will elicit strong emotional repercussions and leave a lasting impression. Although some ideas are already common online, when they are put offline and combined with life scenes, they may be able to collide with more ideas, allowing players to discuss online, and the efficiency and popularity will be much higher.
The arrangement of TGS activities can also be regarded as a continuation of this overall idea.
In addition to the popular live-action Ten Consecutive Events, in-game voice actors MAO, Satomi Arai, and Yoko Higasa also appeared at the game booth to perform famous scenes in the game, which made content-conscious Japan players feel the worldview and charm of the game offline.
Another benefit of this is that it can continue to maintain the popularity and popularity of the game offline, which can not only increase the recognition and pride of existing users, but also create a "this game is hot" pull atmosphere for players outside the circle, converting them from passers-by to potential users.
For the veteran players of the game, the team also displayed the works of the core creators offline, and many users stopped to check in. And those creators obviously felt the team's intentions, and expressed their emotion on the daily push, which is quite a two-way trend.
NIKKE's booth was really fantastic! Move!
In this way, Tencent really has a feeling that it has penetrated Japan's two-dimensional dimension.
02
In this TGS trip, Grape Jun also found that Tencent's efforts in the Japan market do not stop at the second dimension - in the Level Infinite exhibition area, they also brought several other European and American products that are completely different from NIKKE, and they have also gained a lot of popularity.
For example, the near-future theme of "Exoborne", which focuses on the evacuation shooting gameplay. Because the game's world view is set in the post-apocalyptic world of the southern United States, they made a small yellow bus with representative elements on the scene to simulate the game atmosphere, and players can sit in it and experience an immersive audio-visual experience. On the first day of TGS Player Day, the enthusiasm of the players exceeded my imagination, and I had to wait in line for 1 hour to get on the bus.
For another example, "Dune: Awakening" made a small theater of the Dune universe on the spot, with rows and rows of players sitting together, staring intently at the big screen, quite like watching the movie premiere.
These games, at first glance, may not match our impression of the Japan market. After all, none of these categories have anything to do with ACG, and they are all PC products.
But this may just reflect Tencent's judgment on the Japan market.
According to the "Famitsu Game White Paper 2024" released by the Kadokawa ASCII Research Institute in Japan, mobile games in Japan's online game content market, although still accounting for 71% of the share, have fallen for three consecutive years, while the market size of PC games has expanded by 24.9% over last year, and in the past four years, the proportion has gradually increased to 14.5% of the overall share, making it the fastest growing game market in Japan.
At the same time, according to the statistics of the Japan Electronic Information Technology Industry Association, Japan's PC shipments in August 2024 increased by 19.5% compared with the same month last year to 523,000 units, showing growth for the second consecutive month, with a monthly increase of more than 10%, and the size of Japan's PC market has doubled for three consecutive years. And where there is growth, there are new opportunities.
Based on this premise, it is not surprising that Level Infinite brought Exoborne to Japan for release. It's also a competitive shooter with a focus on PVP, and it's only available on PC and console. The game will be tested more by the end of the year, with a launch planned for 2025. This game can also be regarded as a continuation of the idea of "3A quality long-term operation game" that Tencent has been doing.
Exoborne Executive Producer Brynley Gibson told Grape that the Exoborne's differentiators compared to similar products are the exoskeleton armor and weather system. The former allows players to customize each game to suit their strategy, while the latter is not only visually impactful, but also has a real impact on the game, making it necessary for players to take the weather into tactical considerations.
The combination of the two ensures the richness and fun of the core of the game, and together with the hybrid gameplay of PVP and PVE, they together constitute the game's differentiation.
Dune: Awakening is a SOC (survival building), and it is also one of the most popular game genres on Steam, "Conan the Exile", "ARK: Evolved Survival", "Valhalla", ...... You can think of a lot of games.
Unlike MMORPGs, SOCs also have multiplayer social elements, but the pressure is far less than that of MMOs, and the relationships between players are not so closely connected. Even when played solo, the game gives players room to grow and is not tied to social gameplay. So on the Steam Japan hot list, SOC is also a regular visitor.
In order to make Japan players understand the game more quickly and intuitively, Level Infinite directly invited a large number of developers to come to the scene and communicate directly with players on the stage.
For example, two producers of Dune: Awakening, Nills and Farah, came to the scene and talked about everything about the company and the project. They state that Funcom was founded in the early 90s and has been involved in the MMO genre for a long time, and to date, more than 25 games have been made.
At the same time, they also told everyone why they wanted to make it and how they planned to make this product. Dune Awakening has been in development for three years now, and includes a production system, building system, co-op features, free trade, political factions, and other series of content. Farah says he really likes the sand dunes and has even been to the Sahara Desert several times to make sure the sand feels real.
When the developers were digging their hearts on the stage, the players in the audience also gave enthusiastic feedback, and they would ask questions and suggestions, hoping that the developers would make a more localized MMO design according to the playing environment and habits of Japan players. To some extent, these exchanges have long crossed cultural barriers.
This may also show the strategy of Level Infinite's global distribution - not only to bring domestic games overseas, but also to help European and American manufacturers enter East Asia, or help East Asian manufacturers to go to Europe and the United States, focusing on taking global products and doing global distribution.
03
In the past, we have talked many times about Tencent's going overseas.
Since 2019, Tencent's senior vice president Ma Xiaoyi has repeatedly emphasized to Grape Jun that they do not want to rely on large-scale buying and low value-added crowd tactics, but hope to rely on core gameplay and basic quality to succeed on different platforms, different regions and different categories, and eventually make overseas revenue more than half of Tencent's total game revenue.
Of course, it's hellish to get there. If you look at the world, there probably isn't any gaming company that has actually done this. It takes a lot of time and goes through an extremely complex process.
Judging from this year's TGS scene and Tencent's Japan revenue in the past two years, they have at least completed the infrastructure work in the Japan market.
In terms of categories, they have gained a good report card in the mainstream two-dimensional market in Japan. In addition to mobile games and two-dimensional games, they are also exploring the ability to expand horizontally.
What's more, in various cases, the team's Japan distribution strategy has also been improved: what kind of product needs what kind of distribution methods and resources, how to hit the list on a daily basis, who should local KOLs look for, what kind of operation activities are popular with Japan players, and how to allocate local resources in the case of limited budgets...... Faced with these questions, the team should already have a set of answers in mind.
In order to help developers solve more problems, Level Infinite has also been accumulating its own middle office capabilities in the past few years. For example, the operation tools they are building will provide localization, content production, distribution and operation, marketing and promotion support for cooperative projects on the premise of adapting to the goal of cross-platform, cross-business model and cross-regional distribution, including AIGC technical tools, game security (such as anti-cheat) and other technical support.
Kim Hyung-tae said that Level Infinite is a very good partner to work with, and the global distribution can be safely handed over to the more professional Level Infinite, who only need to concentrate on the game development itself.
Exoborne executive producer Brynley Gibson also told Grape Jun that they now have about 400 employees around the world, with offices in London and Sweden. But they are relatively new to East Asian markets, such as Japan, and they are very eager to communicate with Japan players in person to understand their real needs. In this regard, with Tencent's help, they can do more with less.
Level Infinite's regional head of distribution for Japan and Korea also said that this time back to TGS, they hope to work with global partner studios to bring richer game content to Japan players.
To some extent, Level Infinite's participation in TGS is not only a summary of the stage, but also a sense of preparing to open the next new stage in Japan. In the next stage, they may no longer be just a newcomer to challenge the existing top categories (such as two-dimensional elements), but as a pioneer, using the global system and advantages to explore more possibilities in the Japan market.
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