2020 is known as the first year of Otome Games, during which major game makers have come to an end.

2020 is known as the first year of Otome Game, during this year, major game manufacturers have come to an end. Big players such as NetEase, Tencent, and ByteDance have left the game before, followed by well-known game companies such as Mihayou and Perfect World, all wanting to win a place in Otome games.

The popularity of the Otome game was deeply influenced by the “Love and the Producer” launched by the paper company in 2017. It is precisely because of the success of “Love and the Producer” that domestic women have opened the “gate” to the game market, and many game manufacturers have seen huge business opportunities in the domestic female market.

The paper folding company to which “Love and Producer” belongs mainly focuses on mobile female-to-mobile games, and has two main product lines, the Nuan Nuan series and the Love series. The products of the entire company are aimed at the female market, and each series of products are deeply loved by female players in the market, especially “Love and Producer” can be said to be the well-deserved number one IP in the Otome game. As the market gradually becomes saturated, how long can stacks of paper remain the top spot?

Stacking paper opens the door to Otome game

The so-called “Otome game” refers to the fantasy of love as the main line. Players have emotional entanglements with multiple male protagonists through the female characters in the game, promote the development of the storyline, and finally attack the male protagonist. “Love and” is a typical Otome game.

Before the release of “Love and”, most of the Yiyou that domestic players came into contact with were from Japan, well-known classics such as “Constellation” and “Devil Lovers”. In the Otome market in China, Orange Games launched the female love game “Sovereign Heart and My Heart” in 2014, but it is different from the Otome game’s “one female protagonist + multiple male protagonists + supporting roles” role configuration, so it is strictly It’s not an Otome game. It can be said that the appearance of “Love and” has painted a strong stroke on the blank scroll of China’s Yiyou market.

The success of “Love and” is due to the deep cultivation of the two-dimensional culture. The statistics of the “Cultural Industry Development Prospect Forecast and Industrial Chain Investment Opportunity Analysis Report” released by the Foresight Industry Research Institute show that the scale of my country’s two-dimensional users reached 250 million people, including more than 80 million core two-dimensional users.

So in the year “Love and” was launched, Folding Paper was the first person to open China’s Yiyou market. Not only did it have a large user base for two-dimensional games, it also coincided with the golden “blank period” of the Yiyou market. , Occupying the right time, place and people, this is also the objective condition for “Love and” to become popular in the market.

Although there were women who launched the game before “Love and”, the audience was relatively small, and the response in the market was mediocre, far from the phenomenon of “Love and”. The success of “Love and” has greatly stimulated the market demand of the second game, attracting many game manufacturers to line up in the second game market. As the players enter the game more and moreWith more and more, the originally niche B tour has become popular and gradually becomes the main theme of the market.

The “men” who attack the female market

A product that wants to target female players is like a crucian carp across the river, but only “Love and” has become a representative of female-oriented games. Once “Love and” was released in December 2017, it won widespread attention with its outstanding results, and quickly detonated the market, opening a new era of domestic Otome games. In the three years of game operation, “Love and” has attracted many girls to immerse themselves in the beauty of virtual love by virtue of the unique charm of the game.

The reason is that “Love and” set an extremely Mary Su’s storyline. In terms of character setting, it is also well versed in the needs of women in the game. It has set up domineering president Li Zeyan, talented scientist Xu Mo, public security special police Bai Qi, and idols. Superstar Zhou Qiluo these four outstanding characters (the tenth chapter of the game unlocks the new character Ling Xiao). As a TV station producer, the female protagonist deepens the emotional bond with the four male protagonists during the filming task, and the first simulated text message, phone call and circle of friends system in the game, so that the player’s sense of experience is upgraded. Interaction in the world.

“Love and” can be popular among women, and it is precisely because the paper-stacking game can see the neglected female game needs, so the appearance of “Love and” fills the blank area of ​​female game needs.

It can be said that in the process of the growth of the game, Chinese female players are also constantly growing, and at the same time they have demonstrated a good level of consumption in the game field. The economy created is no less than that of male players. It can even be said that in the past few years Otome game grew up entirely by harvesting girl purses.

Dachang enters the game, and the Yiyou market is surging.

The popularity of “Love and” has also made many big companies see the huge business opportunities of Otome games. In 2020, game manufacturers such as Tencent, NetEase Cloud, ByteDance, etc. have also launched the same type of Otome games, and the market competition has become increasingly fierce. Folding paper, as the leader of the female game industry, also feels great pressure.

Even if it is a leader in the industry, the strength of other new players cannot be underestimated. At present, there are female-oriented games such as “The Love of Light and Night” launched by Tencent Games, “The Traveler in Time and Space” launched by NetEase Games, and “Undecided Event Book” by Mihayou.

In the form of the game, the major factories have eliminated the brainless love story, and added the professional attributes of the role to the love story. The intern designer in “The Love of Light and Night”, the freshman in the art department of “The Traveler”, and the intern lawyer in “The Incident Book” have enriched the character and the exploratory nature of the plot to a certain extent, but they still cannot be removed. The label of love, for players, the most important thing in the game is the freshness and emotional experience, the same love game does not attract users to stay permanently.

According to the preliminary estimate of the Foresight Industry Research Institute: FemaleThe size of the sex game market will still maintain a growth rate of about 7%, and will exceed 71 billion yuan by 2024. It is foreseeable that the number of female users in the game market will be large in the future, but a good market prospect does not mean that it is a simple matter for women to tap the game market. As the scale of female users expands, their participation in the game industry is also increasing, and the requirements for games are getting higher and higher. It will not be easy for game manufacturers to capture the female market in the future.

Break through the stacking dilemma?

As the number of games on the market has increased and competition has become increasingly fierce, the future development of “Love and” is not optimistic. After three years of exploration and innovation, it is not easy for folding paper to come today. To maintain today’s glory, stacking paper not only has to face the front and back of major game manufacturers, but also optimize and upgrade the game system. Under such circumstances, the situation of stacking paper can be said to be really difficult.

The fourth year of “Love and the Producer” has also begun to show deficiencies. The dullness of the game copy, the lack of vertical painting, and the outdated style are also problems facing paper stacking. The longer the operation time, the vitality of the game will also decrease, and the richness of the storyline and game interaction will also be greatly reduced, which will impact user activity to a certain extent.

Therefore, if you want to start a new plot of rebirth, you can set plot points to increase the flexibility of the game. More importantly, avoiding clichés in the plot can greatly increase the appeal to users. Write the story well and maintain a good reputation in the second tour industry. Although there is no B game that surpasses “Love and” in the market, the newly launched B game also brings a lot of freshness to players, and it is bound to disperse some users who stack paper.

In addition to the optimization and upgrade of the game itself, Folding Paper can take advantage of the IP advantage of “Love and” to conduct cross-border cooperation with multiple brands and multiple industries to realize the animation production, virtual character cross-border endorsement and development of the two-dimensional game Peripheral products, etc., improve the IP industry chain and create more economic benefits. In this process of creating benefits, virtual characters can penetrate into real life, so that players can experience the game more deeply.

Finally, the market is changing all the time. Only by truly understanding the game needs of female users and making a correct plan in conjunction with the market can they stand firm for a long time. Under the endorsement of the Nuan Nuan series and the Love series, whether the folding of paper can continue the myth of Yiyou will inevitably require continuous testing over time.