In recent years, music rhythm games seem to usher in a revival. Although the heyday of peripheral-based rhythm games such as Rock Band and Guitar Heroes is long gone, some developers are integrating music elements into existing gaming categories. For example, the mini-game "DJ Competition" in the RPG mobile game Dislyte borrows the mechanics of music rhythm games, and the FPS game "Metal: Hellsinger" requires players to follow the music rhythm to fight monsters and provides songs created by bands such as System of a Down, Trivium and Lamb of God.
At the same time, traditional music rhythm games are also booming, especially in the mobile game market. In this category mobile game, "Beatstar" has achieved unprecedented success, so that the American hip-hop rap music group Black Eyed Peas once launched new music in this game. Eminem has also worked with Beatstar to promote his new album.
In Japan, music rhythm games are particularly popular. GameRefinery data shows that in the Japanese mobile game market, "Music/Band" is the fourth-ranked sub-category. In the second quarter of 2022, music rhythm games had a market share of about 6.1% in the Japanese iOS market, and several games entered the top 200 best-selling list of iOS. In terms of overall revenue, the scale of the Japanese music rhythm mobile game market has reached 8 times that of China, and an astonishing 35 times compared with the United States.
This may surprise Western readers. Except for a very few professional mobile game websites, European and American game media rarely report mobile games, and Japanese and Chinese mobile games are more difficult to gain their attention. Unfortunately, this also means that most people know nothing about Japan's booming music rhythm mobile game market and it is difficult to understand the market's potential for the global music industry.
At present, the two most popular music rhythm mobile games in the Japanese market are " Idol Dream Festival ! Music" and "World Plan Colorful Stage Feat. Hatsune Miku". "Idol Fantasy Festival! Music" is a 2D Vowel Music game launched by Le Element, while "World Plan" is produced by Sega . Among them, "World Plan" can better highlight the main characteristics of Japanese music rhythm mobile games.
In the US, Chinese and Japanese markets, there are some key differences between popular music rhythm mobile games. Beat and casual rhythm games are more popular with American players. Chinese players generally like to use various personalized decorative props. In Japan, best-selling works such as "World Plan" integrate rhythm gameplay with character-oriented narratives, often with very detailed storylines, as well as role-playing (RPG) and cultivation elements.
In Japanese pop music rhythm mobile games, characters usually have an animation-style appearance. In addition, these games also include complex cultivation systems, such as allowing players to increase their character levels, characters have their respective career advantages, unique skills, etc. In many ways, most successful Japanese music rhythm games can be classified as music RPGs.
In Asia, successful music rhythm mobile games have another key feature, that is, they are usually associated with other highly recognizable IPs, such as games, animation works, or idol teams. This may explain why "The World Plan" is so popular among Japanese players: As a Vocaloid singer (Note: Vocaloid is an electronic music production and voice synthesis software developed by Japanese musical instrument manufacturer Yamaha ), Hatsune Miku is one of Japan's most successful and popular virtual idols.
Driven by Hatsune Miku's brand influence, "World Plan" often ranks among the top ten best-selling Japanese iOS games. This work provides a large number of virtual singer characters with their own unique skills, with a total of 5 different teams appearing. At the same time, players are allowed to unlock new team members through in-app purchases and upgrade their characters... In the music rhythm mobile game, "World Plan" is also one of the few works with a pass system.
Another interesting trend is: Like popular hosts and PCs such as "Fortnite" and "Roblox", some music rhythm mobile games have also begun to provide players with concert experience.For example, World Plan held its first concert in June this year called Connect Live and invited virtual idol band Vivid BAD SQUAD to perform live. Players can purchase tickets in advance and then use glow sticks and animated emoticons to interact with the band. During the period before and after that event, the World Plan's in-app purchase revenue increased almost triple.
In PUBG Mobile, which has more than 30 million daily active users (DAU), the Korean girl group Blackpink recently held a virtual concert, and Canadian singer Justin Bieber will also hold a concert in another tactical competitive mobile game "Free Fire"... In time, with the advancement of fiber optic broadband and 5G technology, some popular mobile games have more players than the most popular console and PC games, and the top music rhythm mobile games may even steal the limelight from games such as "Fortnite" and "Roblox".
Original translation https://musically.com/2022/09/12/music-and-rhythm-games-are-trending-in-japan-guest-column/
