text | Programming prodigal
Source | Intelligent Relativity Theory (aixdlun)
On November 30, the Nintendo Switch national version and Chinese promotional poster have appeared in a third-party Tmall store, priced at 2,099 yuan. Tencent released its Nintendo Switch on December 4.
Since Sony's PS4 and Microsoft's Xbox were released in China respectively, the world's three major console giants in this generation are missing Nintendo. After experiencing the failure of licensed GameBoy in the early 1990s and "Shenyou Machine" to enter China at the beginning of this century, with the lifting of the domestic game console ban in 2014, Switch made a beautiful turnaround in the world with Switch. After cooperating with Tencent, which has a deep roots in China, the time, place, people and three talents are ready. It is a move to seek a huge market for hundreds of millions of people in China.
1. FC: History of piracy struggle in chaos
Time went back to the 1980s. Atali , Atali , which dominated the US host market, made the market full of mud and sand with the strategy of mass production of games. The most famous garbage work in history, "ET Alien", even allowed American children to have a terrible black Christmas in 1982. After the 4 million cassettes prepared by Atali were unsold, they were secretly buried in the garbage dump in New Mexico. Atali's liquidation went bankrupt, which was known in history as the "Adali crash."
The American game console market, which experienced the "Adari crash", collapsed completely for a while, and people completely lost confidence in the quality of the game, and the capital market also changed color when it heard about the game. At this time, Nintendo, headed by the late legendary president Hiroshi Yamauchi, launched a red and white machine. In the United States, where there is no ban on game consoles, NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) is used as a promotional caliber in Japan.
Facts also prove that this product, which is highly expected to become a "paradise for game artists", has indeed become the history of electronic products, and is also a legend in the history of games. It has reshape the game industry with its excellent game quality and excellent product functions.
At this time, when the Chinese people just opened the national door, only a few high-quality plays along the coast can keep up with the world trend. The price of an original machine can reach 1,400 yuan, while the average price of a one-square-meter house in Beijing in 1989 was only 1,500 to 1,900 yuan.
1991, the "Xiaobawang Learning Machine" that made the Chinese people realize for the first time that the "Xiaobawang Learning Machine" that used home consoles began to enter the market. The Nintendo FC compatible machine and yellow cassettes, named as home computer learning machine, have completely ignited the enthusiasm for gaming across the country.
Figure: The Xiaobawang learning machine endorsed by Jackie Chan is actually an unauthorized FC compatible machine
Game subversion in the market has blossomed everywhere, giving birth to the industry that purchases game consoles and cassettes from Hong Kong and Taiwan to sell them to game stores. Fuzhou has become one of the distribution centers for game consoles and game cards due to its geographical advantages.
Fuzhou's master Zan reported to the leader and established the school-run enterprise Yanshan Software. He found that game shop owners generally reported that games were either too difficult or too simple. After analyzing the technology of the cartridges, he embarked on the road of self-modifying games and burning them to blank chips. His revised version of "Tank War" was still popular in electronic products malls in small cities in seventh and eighth tier cities until the 1990s.
pirated game consoles are constantly input by Hong Kong and Taiwan, and on the other hand, they are also blooming everywhere in the country. Tan Qiren, a graduate student in the Department of Computer Science at Zhejiang University, visited Fu Zan and thought that the modified cassette would still be pirated, so he had no future, so he made up his mind to make a game console directly. With his research results, he found the earliest domestic pirated compatible machine Ningbo Tianma Game in the early 1990s.
Figure: The earliest domestic copy-compatible machine "Ningbo Tianma Brand", which is characterized by a marquee that can change with the volume of the game
By the end of 1993, China had more than 20 game console factories with annual output of more than 300,000 units, most of which were distributed in developed areas along the southeast coast. The source of crazy pirated version comes from Taiwan, a treasure island separated by a scoop. Taiwan's Jingji Technology's small genius game consoles produced by counterfeit FC even once dominated 70% of Russia's market, with sales reaching 2 million units.
, and Nintendo joined hands with Hong Kong's Wanxin Company to release the domestic market GameBoy in China. As Nintendo's first generation of handheld machine with global sales of over 100 million, it completely made a fuss in the harsh market environment in China.
Picture: The Chinese Business GameBoy once invited Aaron Kwok to endorse the speech. The picture shows GameBoy Aaron Kwok limited edition
The domestic unsound copyright protection system and low per capita income make genuine machines and cassettes unsustainable. Even so, only a small number of groups with good conditions can access cracked machines and pirated cassettes. Moreover, most of the licensed card tapes of Wanxin agents are in English, and a few Chinese translations are also very confusing.
In 1994, there were about 20 million pirated machines nationwide. Nintendo, who could not bear it, sued Shenzhen Belsonic Electronics in 1994, and the court ruled that the latter would compensate 2.4 million US dollars and apologized publicly.
Nintendo's first battle to enter China was the history of the struggle between Ren and piracy.
2. Shenyou machine: a history of compromise in changes
Nintendo's second game into China is a history of helpless compromise in the face of market changes and generational changes.
html In the mid-to-late 1990s, home consoles were in the critical iteration period of shifting from 2D to 3D, while Nintendo's N64 market performed poorly and basically had no time to take care of the mainland market.But Nintendo never gave up on the mainland market.
In September 2003, Iwata Satoshi , which took over the president from Hiroshi Yamauchi, announced in Kyoto that Nintendo will cooperate with Dr. Yan Weiqun, a Silicon Valley tycoon from Taiwan, to establish the "Shenyou Company" to develop game consoles specifically for the mainland.
Picture: Shenyou agent's iQue Shenyou machine
At this time, the State Council issued the "Opinions on Carrying out Special Governance of Electronic Game Business Places" to completely ban the production, sales and manufacturing of game machines. The market environment in which
"Shenyou Machine" is not much better than when it was released in the early 1990s. Instead, it is even more chaotic. The pirated Nintendo compatible machines, parallel SFC, parallel PS/XBOX, various pirated cassettes, and pirated computer game CDs are flying together.
plus the suppression of game consoles by the overall public opinion of the society has made Shenyouji's authentic road very difficult from the beginning.
. Internet cafes that are quietly emerging in China have begun to install popular games such as Counter-Strike and QQ Hall. Online PC games such as Paradise can also be popular in Taiwan to enter the mainland market. The post-90s who have just entered junior high school have begun to enjoy the fun of QQ chat, and the home host seems to have been gradually forgotten.
's first magic game was revamped based on the Nintendo 64 (N64) released in 1996. At this time, the mainstream of the game console market had entered the 3D image generation of PS2 and Xbox. This console is cheap but lags behind the times.
Shenyou machine requires users to purchase Shenyou card by themselves, and then offline the machine will burn the game of 64M memory card by itself. Moreover, since it is a modified machine, Shenyou machine cannot read the Nintendo overseas version of the cartridge. The cumbersome download process and the impossible offline download points, the limited functions are destined to be the first to try for a few people. The actual sales of
Shenyou machine are estimated to be less than 20,000 units. After the 32-bit host represented by
SFC is about to enter the final stage, Nintendo failed to cooperate with Sony to develop a host for optical disc media, and its own development NGC (GameCube) was completely defeated by Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft XBOX. At this time, Nintendo, who is already in trouble, has basically no time to take care of the Chinese market.
Nintendo's new generation of popular somatosensory console Wii was discontinued until 2013 and was not officially released in mainland China. Only a small number of parallel products or refurbished machines purchased by players are circulating.
2013 Shenyou Shanghai headquarters, according to an video game owner who wants to act as an agent for sales of Shenyou Machine East China, there are only a few employees who are doing nothing.
Nintendo's second entry into China has caused constant intrusion of external and internal troubles. The system environment of hand-to-hand big companies has failed here, and PC games and mobile games have begun to fully dominate the domestic game market.After
Wii, Wii U, NDS, and 3DS have not caused any waves in the domestic market. Shenyou Ji Shenyou DS, Shenyou DS Lite, and Shenyou DSi have been launched one after another. The licensed version of the DS series has sold more than 300,000 units, becoming one of the few highlight moments in the Shenyou series. However, the authentic game library under the game console ban is extremely insufficient, and it is difficult to synchronize with foreign markets and approvals, so cracking machines and piracy are still rampant.
Until March 2017, Switch was released and became one of the top ten innovative electronic devices of that year. So far, 40 million units have been sold worldwide. Nintendo Phoenix Nirvana!
Although Nintendo has not cultivated domestic console culture, it has created a group of core subculture fans with extremely high loyalty around the world. Its image in the hearts of core players. Nintendo, which has always focused on gameplay and opposes mobile games, krypton gold game fast food, suddenly cooperated with Tencent, and has many doubts among some core players.
But from any perspective, Tencent is Nintendo's best partner to enter China.
3. How should Nintendo and Tencent turn around the domestic game trend
. Unlike Sony and Microsoft's adventures and gun carball games, Nintendo Games face more censorship risks in the domestic game policy environment. Nintendo Games is inherently characterized by family games of all ages. The current domestic home game console market, which is slightly hot, is full of opportunities for Nintendo.
According to a research report by market research firm Niko partner, the market output value of China's console game market in 2018 was only US$767 million, accounting for only 0.5%. The quota is not only lower than that of developed countries, but also far lower than the domestic mobile game market share.
Although the host market culture is niche, with the further advancement of authenticization, the domestic market can even be regarded as a virgin land that has not been completely cultivated.
According to data from the foreign website gamesindustry, it is estimated that the scale of China's console game market will reach US$897 million in 2022, while the number of Chinese console game players will reach 24.37 million. Nintendo's high-quality production concept that is of all ages is inherently advantageous in the Confucian cultural circle with deep prejudice against games. What is required is the experience of local manufacturers in terms of policy boundaries and operational strategies to avoid trampling on the ground.
After the release of the Switch Bank, Tencent and Nintendo have three aspects that can be focused on in the long run:
1. Focus on local social marketing, multi-port reshaping the host culture
First of all, local social marketing. Due to the decades of host culture gap in China, it is different from European and American players who have a deep emotional belonging to host manufacturers and well-known IPs, and have even formed a subculture group whose influence has begun to backfire the mainstream cultural circle.
The play habits of most marginal players and casual players in China have been shaped by the free krypton gold game. Some well-known IPs have weak emotional attributes, and most players need popular science.
Starting from the consumption habits of Generation Z that emphasize personalization and social interaction, Nintendo's Switch handheld console has the potential of high-quality second-generation trendy products. Due to the ice-breaking function of the game in social interaction, using social stickiness can also expand the peripheral area of players. Life in the
Z era is becoming increasingly individualized, but there is a strong need for group participation. Even some niche interests are organized with a circle culture with strong boundaries.
Large-scale popular culture brought about by targeted marketing is more likely to shape a habit of playing and consumption overnight.
Maybe some people still remember a long marketing post in 2018 "H1Z1, there are such a group of red-clothed troops fighting foreigners in the game", which led to a large number of players registering for Steam, and indirectly became the precursor of the later "chicken-eating" game PUBG. Steam's Chinese users surged from 14 million in 2017, up from 30 million in 2018. Focusing on local marketing image is a must-pass for foreign companies. Sony, who has been operating in China for many years, has been well aware of this. Hirai's friendly image has always been loved by PS players, and frequent appearances on domestic social media. In-depth interaction with players may be something that Nintendo needs to learn well.
In addition, the spontaneous Amway from core players born in the 1980s and 1990s is a force that cannot be underestimated. In the early stages of the Switch's launch, offline group gatherings organized by former Nintendo players and new players showed a high degree of stability and stickiness. For marginal players over 30 years old, they can especially play the "feeling card" to connect Nintendo with the play memories of a whole generation of people in the past 30 years and the FC (red and white machine) era, mobilizing the spontaneous publicity power of core players, and often create phenomenal topics.
Given the huge number of ports that Tencent has mastered, we can consider promoting and distributing products and games from multiple ports such as short video end, streaming advertising and program sponsorship. We can seed the host usage and consumption habits of those born in the 10s, 15s and even 20s after the 1920s from the root.
2. Focusing on competitive online and offline competitions, hosting
Nintendo games such as Zelda series and Pokémon series have become classics in the history of interactive entertainment, but there is still a long way to popularize science in China. In addition to the core console and stand-alone players in domestic games, the other main groups are competitive game players with LOL and Honor of Kings, DOTA2, Hearthstone, etc. as the core.
"2019 China E-sports Industry Research Report" data shows that in 2019, China's e-sports users reached 400 million, with a year-on-year growth rate of 12.9%. It is estimated that the user scale of China's e-sports market will reach 430 million in 2020.
Although Nintendo's consoles and games emphasize more casualness and family entertainment, Nintendo still has strong competitive potential and well-known IPs such as " Nintendo Fight ", "Super Mario Bros.", and "Mario Made". Using competitive nature to attract more players to a topic of attention and improve user stickiness and topic dissemination is a specialty that Nintendo had already performed in the US market in the 1990s. How to deeply integrate Nintendo's core IP with e-sports after entering China this time will greatly test Tencent Games' operation team.
3. Tencent game cultivation third-party login Switch
Because Honor of Kings Overseas Edition (AoV for short) was launched on Switch as early as 2018, and performed well. In cultivating third-party games and studio login Switches, it is one of the localization tasks that Tencent must carry out.
But the only thing to worry about is whether the game quality and style can be effectively unified with Nintendo's consistent idea of quality and no krypton gold. Since Nintendo has always had high quality requirements for games logged into its own platform, how Nintendo compromises with Tencent in this regard is also one of the main factors that will affect Nintendo's future development strategy in China.
After entering China, Sony actively adopted the strategy of cultivating local studios and set up a project of "China Star" to encourage development of entrepreneurial teams to provide financial and technical support. After all, Sony's long-term good relationship with third-party studios has long since the current generation of Sony crushed Microsoft.
localization includes foreign game Chineseization, synchronous game login, local third-party games, and the three are of equal importance.
, especially in the context of the current entertainment industry increasingly emphasizing the content ecosystem, actively introducing third-party games that better understand the tastes of local players will play an extraordinary role in promoting Nintendo's localization. At today's press conference, Tencent listed 20 works with good reputation in domestic games in recent years, including works such as " Chinese Parents " and "Esch", which shows Tencent's emphasis on local third-party games.
last.
No matter what, after today's press conference, a large number of hardcore players, including the author, will probably mutter to Shenzhen in tears: "Thank you Penguin, Lao Ren, you are still back after all!"
Reference materials:
Video game bus, Nintendo rumored
Southern Weekend, Nintendo: Can't pass this level in China
Big Dog, Shenyou China
Guangming Daily: Computer games are the "electronic heroin" targeting children
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