Now that the competition in the mobile game track has begun to diverge into more diverse games, MMORPGs may also become the next stage of competition.

Reading Entertainment | yiqiduyu

Text | Garlic jelly corner

To make mobile games, you need to find Chinese manufacturers, and this idea has probably gained a certain understanding among global game manufacturers. This time, the MMORPG game "Final Fantasy 14" (hereinafter referred to as "FF14") from the "Final Fantasy" series of the "Final Fantasy" series of the well-known Japanese game manufacturer Square Enix is released in the form of a mobile game through Chinese wisdom.

Although the mobile game "Final Fantasy 14: Crystal World" got the version number in August this year, if you really want to say that this news has attracted market attention, it is the first PV video officially released on station B a few days ago. In the video, the message of "FF14" producer Naoki Yoshida and the release of the mobile game PV screen attracted the attention of many "FF14" terminal players, even if the old players were ridiculing, but as the number of views of this video gradually increased to 34W+, the number of fans of the official account of the mobile game B station of "Crystal World" also came to 34,000.

Nowadays, "Against the Cold" has almost no rivals in the mobile game MMO track, even NetEase's own "Condor Shooting" has not changed a single bit this year, and "Crystal World", as an overseas IP mobile game development project that Tencent barely retained a few years ago, may also shoulder the responsibility of bringing some new excitement to this track. However, from an objective point of view, it is not easy to say where the "Crystal World", which has not yet been launched, can go.

1

It's not a life-sustaining end that changes hands

Take the old IP and look at the new players

Although the PV of "Crystal World" asked the producer of the "FF14" terminal game to send a message, "Crystal World" is not a "nostalgic suit" for the terminal game.

As an old game that has been in operation for 11 years, FF14 has been facing the problem of how to attract new players in recent years. In the context of the MMORPG genre gradually fading out of the field of vision of young people, this game has accumulated a lot of game content due to years of operation, and some players have statistics that it will take 300+ hours to do the entire main story, which is a great probability of persuasion for new players.

Therefore, starting from a mobile game is indeed a way to keep up with the times. However, from terminal games to mobile games, what needs to be adjusted is not only the changes brought about by the changes in the game side, but more importantly, the difference in user groups often makes a game IP so popular that mobile games are silent when they are in terminal games.

Specific to "Crystal World", the biggest difference between it and other domestic MMORPGs is the infeasible double-end interoperability. The national server of "FF14" is represented by Shengqu, and the R&D and operation of "Crystal World" is Tencent Photon, and the two companies operate separately, so that the end of "FF14" is not able to realize the fragmented time play of mobile game service players.

In addition, the game content of "Crystal World" is based on the 2.0 version of "FF14", which is not very attractive to veteran PC game players who have played 7.0 except for the freshness of mobile games, so it can be said that the main target audience of "Crystal World" is not FF14 PC game players.

In the official producer dialogue video, "FF14" producer Naoki Yoshida also said several times that "Water Crystal World" is intended to let players who are interested in "FF14" but have not entered the pit for various reasons feel the charm of the game. Therefore, although "Crystal World" has the blessing of well-known old IP, it does not have many market advantages, and compared with other old MMOs that have launched mobile games to continue the life of terminal games, "Crystal World" looks more like a new mobile game that inherits the characteristics of "FF14".

2

A free-range game like no other

Can it be to the taste of the Chinese people?

Since it is a game for new users, Crystal World must face the problem of whether it is suitable for the current market.

At present, the popular games in the mobile game market are basically dominated by strong competitive games and casual games, such as "Glory of Kings", "Peace Elite", "Delta Operation", "Battle of the Golden Shovel", etc., and its core gameplay has some meaning of using fragmented time, including the "Against the Cold" mobile game that rides the dust in the MMO track, focusing on lightweight content and casual social networking is also one of the reasons why it has been able to get to this point.

From this point of view, Crystal World is also bound to amplify its casual content, so that users who just want to relax with fragmented time can also feel the fun of the game. And this may be the advantage that "Crystal World" can have.

Judging from the released PV, "Crystal World" has largely restored the "FF14" terminal game from the story plot, character setting, combat gameplay, and casual gameplay, which has won the recognition of many old players, and "FF14" has been able to operate for more than ten years "The Sword is not old", a big reason is that it has a clear positioning for itself.

The most special feature of FF14 is that it is a "play if you want to play", and its producers think that players can uninstall a version of the content after playing it, leaving time for more other good games. If players want to continue to play in the game, there are a variety of ways to play to support, "playing cards and fishing birds" is the summary of the player's joke, and the small games in the Kingdee playground also make new bean sprouts players addicted, and a variety of achievement systems and collection systems can become the driving force for playing.

In addition, the social nature of the orthodox MMO is also amplified in the RP shop that the player has opened in the home system. When you are tired of dungeons and battlefields, you can visit the RP store, walk into a "medieval tavern" and play a hunter to share your hunting experience, which is relatively rare in other MMOs, including some board games such as Monopoly, Turtle Soup, and Werewolf Kill, which also appear in the RP store, allowing players to have a unique and interesting game experience without playing PVE and PVP.

If Crystal World can truly inherit this quality of FF14, then its casual gameplay and social space may hit today's young users. You must know that the "FF14" terminal game is a point card game, and under such a commercial mechanism that hopes that players will be online for a long time, it can boldly and reassure players to "not play", which shows that the producer is confident enough in the playability of its own game.

Of course, "Crystal World" is not without challenges in the face of the current market. First of all, in terms of business model, the official said that it is a free game with a non-point card system, which means that it is likely to be an additional form of payment including passes and game stores, and fashion, mounts, pets, etc. may become selling points, but if it does not meet the player's taste, its revenue capacity will be greatly reduced; Secondly, in terms of community operation, Photon also needs to find an operation idea with a "baboon" flavor to differentiate itself from other similar games in the market.

It can be said that according to the underlying logic of "FF14", the "Crystal World" itself has a good foundation, but the key to the vitality of this kind of game lies in the operation, if you can't find the taste of Chinese players and young new players, it is likely to break a good hand.

3

Why is Tencent still moving towards MMOs?

Nowadays, the competition in the mobile game track has begun to diverge into more diverse genres, as exemplified by the shooting game craze some time ago, and in our opinion, MMORPGs may also become the next stage of competition.

One of the reasons is that MMO games have a strong ability to be inclusive, as long as they can be tolerated by the game's worldview, then any gameplay can be developed in them. As mentioned earlier, mahjong play, racing gameplay, and board games are all present in FF14, which makes the game itself more playable, which means that the potential audience it targets can be large and diverse.

Second, MMO has a high degree of adaptability to long-term operations, and the stickiness of good players in operation will become stronger and stronger. As long as the game operation does not make big mistakes and allows the story in the game to continue to be told, players may stay in the IP for a long time.

Whether it is the foundation for penetrating into the large market, or incubating classic IP through long-term operation, it has certain strategic significance for the current Tencent games, especially the projects that Tencent has not been able to get hold of in the MMO mobile game track, and the strength of self-developed games has yet to be recognized by the market, which makes Tencent have enough driving force to promote MMO with the help of well-known overseas IPs. You must know that Tencent has previously stopped the mobile game development of SE's "Nie", and the development of the mobile game "APEX" in cooperation with EA has also been terminated, perhaps it is the particularity of the MMO category that makes it choose to keep.

At the same time, judging from the direction revealed in the official video, if "Crystal World" is operating well in the national server, it may also launch an overseas version, allowing global players to play Tencent's self-developed "FF14" mobile game version, which should also be one of the reasons why Tencent is willing to keep "Crystal World" - let Tencent's self-developed mobile game not only serve domestic players, but also go global - overtaking in the curve of domestic MMO going overseas.

Of course, no matter how good our expectations are for Tencent to do MMO this time, it will ultimately fall on the results, and there are very few successful end sellers, and it will be interesting to see if Tencent can prove its R&D capabilities and insight into the market this time.

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