Text/According to the light flow & Nine Lotus Treasure Lamp

Recently, there is a game with a strange name on Steam that has become popular - yes, this game is called "Your Wife".

How hot is it? As of this afternoon, the game has amassed more than 1,400 reviews, with a 97% positive rating, and "Your Wife" has received rave reviews.

No way, this game name is really too good to live. In addition, it itself is only 6 yuan, and it is still the first 20% off period, and many players don't mind using this little money to have fun. Then we see:

As for the developers themselves, they are apparently also addicted to playing with the name meme:

So how does this product actually work? Honestly, Your Wife is hardly a game. It's just a Live2D two-dimensional character standing on your desktop, with a fairly delicate vertical drawing, and the character will always look at your mouse, make head-turning, eye-rolling movements, and that's it.

A small product like this, I believe everyone will think that after it has passed this wave, it will soon disappear. But I thought about it a little bit, and suddenly felt that the track chosen by "Your Wife" and the way it broke through actually had a lot of value points worth discussing.

We might as well make a big fuss, "Your Wife", what's so good?

01

Who the hell wants to play with your wife?

What we need to note is that the track of desktop pets is not a new thing in itself. Many people still talk about the "QQ pet" of the year, even under the vertical category of the second dimension, last year there was a "virtual table pet simulator" such a rave reviews of Steam free goods. Not only that, but the functions of many table pet products are far more complete than "Your Wife".

Virtual Table Pet Simulator

So is "Your Wife" useless except for the fact that the name can make it break the ice in this mature track? can't say the same, in fact, its appearance also makes it capture a lot of audiences - that is, this proportional, more delicate, two-dimensional character with color and gas.

This naturally attracts many otaku today. They like two-dimensional, they like to play hot memes, and they usually have computers...... What's more, although the otaku may not have time to play another second game, they still have more demand for this category of content. If you can add a two-dimensional character on your desktop, why not? Looking at it this way, "Your Wife" is simply tailor-made.

What's more,With the continuous volume of art in today's second-game market,The tastes of these users are also constantly being raised,Compared with other table pets with the Q version of the cute series,Such a more delicate painting style、More astringent character,It can attract their attention more。

And "Your Wife" can attract more than just this group of people who love to play two tours. The more general two-dimensional circle is also likely to be of interest to it.

For example, virtual streamer enthusiasts. "Your Wife" is so similar to the virtual streamer's visual representation — in many cases, the character looks like a non-talking Vtuber, and your desktop looks like a live page because of her presence.

For the virtual anchor himself, this is simply an image that can be linked for free, although "Your Wife" can't speak, but there are two people standing on the screen, and they always look a little more lined than one person. For video workers who are not virtual streamers, this can also be a great tool to increase live engagement. Although Grape Jun has not seen a more prominent example at present, "Your Wife" obviously has the potential to become popular among these groups.

For these user groups, no matter how mature the table pet track is, with exquisite two-dimensional packaging, "Your Wife" is still likely to become "the first table pet for young people".

But even so, it can only show that "Your Wife" has found a good market entry angle. Regardless, it's just a thin product. If we imagine it, after catching this wave of popularity, "Your Wife" wants to be popular for a longer time, can there be a chance?

I think there is.

02

How else can your wife develop?

"Your Wife" has a lot of noise now, and if you want to realize this short-term value into a longer-term upswing, you naturally have to expand the content.

Specifically, there are two directions.

The first is to better package existing characters, such as providing a series of features similar to other table pet simulators, or introducing more skins as DLC, etc. Officials are indeed currently designing more ways to play.

For example, the "Virtual Table Pet Simulator" we mentioned earlier, the Lori character in this product can not only interact with players such as touching their heads and dancing, but also have a series of values such as physical strength bar and mood value. From time to time, the player needs to arrange her work, study and other life content, but also buy food for her, supervise her not to touch fish, etc.

This is, of course, the most mature set of logic. But for "Your Wife", it is not a completely smooth direction. For one, it is difficult for this two-dimensional Live2D character to make too many complex movements if it is not designed in advance. Second, this also makes "Your Wife" return to the Red Sea area of traditional table pets, and it is difficult to go to the public in the end.

"Your Wife" is a two-dimensional product, so there will inevitably be a route to play IP. For example, more peripheral products have been launched, and at present, the official has indeed launched a small grain like Bar Haw.

In my opinion, the official can also bring more packaging and shaping to this character in other forms of content. For example, "Your Wife" can directly take advantage of this wave of popularity to become a virtual anchor, which is the best direction to land. Although the virtual anchor has long been rolled into the Red Sea with an extremely harsh living environment, if it is airborne with its own heat, it seems that it is not without opportunities.

The third route, in the opinion of Grape King, has more possibilities, that is, to refer to the direction of "Wallpaper engine: Wallpaper Engine" and make a platform.

"Your Wife" has chosen such a delicate two-dimensional route from the beginning, so it can also develop it into a more long-term driving force, like the second game, continue to launch more characters, and provide a steady stream of freshness.

But this inevitably comes with a cost problem. Therefore, it is the best logic to give the opportunity to make characters to users like "Little Red Car".

Wallpaper engine, virtual table pet simulator and your wife

Due to the similarity between this table pet and the virtual anchor industry, there are not many self-designed Live2D characters like this exquisite and movable in China.

If you pay attention to platforms such as Mi Painter and Bilibili Workshop, you will find that countless materials like "Your Wife" are produced every day, from character design and painting to Live2D bone binding. Therefore, it is not difficult for "Your Wife" to expand the UGC at all.

And if you look closely, you will also find that some people ask for two-dimensional characters not for live broadcasts, but to better enrich the "self-design". If these groups are given a chance to move on the table, it will surely make many people excited.

In addition, if "Your Wife" moves towards platformization, it will actually be able to leverage more users at a lower cost than self-produced characters, and even if the product still maintains the current route of small profits and quick turnover, it can also get more income.

At present, many users have also made similar suggestions, which can also be seen that the demand does exist.

However, considering that "Your Wife" is mostly produced by individual developers, if you want to turn it into a platform, it may not be so easy to prepare development tools and creative workshops. If you really want to go to a "hit", you have to consider opening the time window of UGC and implementing the function quickly, which makes it more difficult to operate.

Of course, UGC is not the only choice, another conceivable direction is that with the maturity of a series of AI technologies such as large language models, if there is an AI bonus, the table pet as a companion product, there will be more opportunities. On Steam, you can see products in a similar direction, and there are a lot of good reviews at present. And big manufacturers are also more optimistic about this direction, such as miHoYo's virtual idol "Luming", which is closer to the AI table pet track.

03

epilogue

At present, "Your Wife" is indeed just a small product of Tuyile, its volume is still too small, and there is still a long way to go to develop into a so-called platform, and even this software may not necessarily go in the direction of the platform.

But I have to admit that the mode of "Wallpaper Engine" is too fragrant, and it is still the leader in Steam seven or eight years after it was launched. It's just that there are too many low-cost software similar to a few dollars, but there are too few out of the circle, and "Your Wife" can be regarded as a big opportunity. After all, in the category of table pet software, because of the perennial development and low production threshold, there has long been no opportunity for new products to break the circle.

The value of this opportunity lies in the fact that as a low-threshold and high-embeddedness viewing tool, the table pet does not need too much in-depth consideration, as long as it can continue to provide users with freshness, it is not afraid that no one will buy it.

That's why, in our view, platformization and UGC will be an important direction for the future of this category. With the addition of UGC, the product can keep users paying attention, and the value will be greater in the future.

For a larger and more general category like ACG, providing companionship is often one of the core demands of ACG groups. At a time when the two-dimensional game track has become unrollable and users are feeling fatigued, the concept of side games has taken advantage of the situation.

So go a step further, the small table pets with lower thresholds, higher embeddedness, and the main companionship and enjoyment may also have the opportunity to become everyone's new favorite.

This article is from Xinzhi self-media and does not represent the views and positions of Business Xinzhi.If there is any suspicion of infringement, please contact the administrator of the Business News Platform.Contact: system@shangyexinzhi.com