What did you do right?, The Genshin Impact are global | Games | Genshin Impact
The Miha You Guangqi Park located on Cangwu Road has long queues at the entrance during weekends. The "birthplace" of popular games such as Genshin Impact, Collapse: Star Dome Railway is the dream of many players.
According to the data from Sensor Tower, a market research organization, in 2022, Miha Tour "Genshin Impact" won the first place in annual revenue of outbound mobile tour. In May this year, the new work of Miha Tour, Collapse: Star Dome Railway, overtook Genshin Impact and topped the revenue list. In June, half of the top 10 global mobile game revenue was from Chinese games. Domestic game masterpieces with traditional Chinese cultural content adopt localization and regionalization strategies, enter mainstream overseas audiences, convey China's unique cultural charm and values to the world, and enhance the international influence of Chinese culture.
As one of the components of the upcoming ChinaJoy, the 2023 Game Business Conference held in Beihongqiao on the 26th will hold a special "Game Industry Overseas Development Forum", inviting multiple industry professionals to share. What did these successful Chinese boutique games go global and break through the waves do correctly?
Empathy with global players
"With the continuous growth of the industry, the boundaries of games are gradually expanding, and international development has become an undeniable topic." Ao Ran, Executive Vice Chairman and Secretary General of the China Audio Video and Digital Publishing Association, proposed that games, as a global cultural language and a new type of cultural carrier, have cross-border genes and internal driving forces for shared development.
Genshin Impact is undoubtedly a benchmark. "The multicultural creation mode of Genshin Impact has successfully opened the global market," said Ling Yu, senior director of global business development of Shanghai Mihayou Network Technology Co., Ltd.
The story background of the open world adventure game "Genshin Impact" is based on the setting of seven "countries". The design of each "country" is integrated with the cultural elements and civilization symbols of different regions of the world. For example, Monde is drawn from medieval Europe, integrating the natural scenery and cultural characteristics of the Netherlands, Germany, Britain, etc; The artistic style, plot, and culture of Liyue are full of Chinese cultural characteristics; The early trailer released by the upcoming fifth country, Maple Dan, has caused more resonance among players in France and Western Europe. "The diversified content enables Genshin Impact to successfully attract players from different cultural backgrounds around the world at the beginning of its launch. The beauty of each is the same as the beauty of the other. Genshin Impact's outstanding achievements in the global market well confirm this."
In the process of internationalization, challenges are inevitable. For example, how to convey the same context and information through different language texts, how to adapt game content to the needs of different players, and how to understand and comply with laws and regulations in different regions. Among them, the most important thing is to let players of different language systems "understand" the multicultural presentation of Genshin Impact. Ling Yu revealed that MiHoYou has built a language expert team consisting of multiple native speakers. They not only communicate and understand using the mother tongue of developers and copywriters, but also seek appropriate expressions in the target language and culture, accurately conveying information and its underlying context.
Genshin Impact is the most abundant localized game of Mihayou at present. It supports 15 different languages and has been popular for nearly three years - a long life cycle, which is the constant product feature of Mihayou from "waist" to "head".
"If 'localization' is done well, player interaction will be more enthusiastic. They will think that this game is' our game '. If the operator can continuously adjust according to community feedback, the product will be more playable," said Wang Sien, founder and CEO of Shanghai Lezuan Technology Co., Ltd.
The experience of miHoYo is to showcase the charm of the IP itself while also catering to the preferences of local players. For example, the offline art exhibition of Genshin Impact held in Paris, France, in January this year attracted tens of thousands of players to visit, and the queue even crossed three blocks. "In Paris, exhibition is a way of daily entertainment. We discussed with the R&D team and selected a batch of original game paintings, design drafts, notes, etc., to be displayed together with the works of outstanding local players in France. Among them, there is the very popular character" Mandrill "in the game. Through the exhibition, we can see how" Mandrill "gets inspiration from Chinese traditional folk customs and legends such as Nuo Opera, Golden winged Pengniao, etc., and becomes a role in the game. European players not only understand the Chinese cultural connotation behind the Genshin Impact IP, but also produce rich second creation works."
"Our self-developed games should leverage the strong inclusiveness of Chinese culture and the natural landing attributes and advantages of online games. We should seek a deep integration with Chinese culture in terms of theme, plot, art, and music, and also pay attention to the localized expression of our works, striving to form sustainable operations in overseas markets." Ao Ran observed.
Ling Yu believes that the lasting vitality of an IP comes from an open content ecosystem and a player ecosystem. "The player ecology of Genshin Impact can be analyzed from the three perspectives of people, content and community relations. The official community of Genshin Impact maintains a large fan group and tens of thousands of creators, and the secondary creative content with Genshin Impact game topics has reached 12.6 billion players on YouTube video platform; Genshin Impact is also the game with the highest degree of discussion on Twitter topics in 2021 and 2022, and the communication between players is frequent. We can feel that global users have a strong desire to express and participate in the face of their favorite IP. We should leave them sufficient creative space, provide a large number of secondary creative inspiration and materials, and further activate the use of IP It is the center of co creating content ecology, and at the same time, it strives to serve and maintain this huge, active and creative player ecosystem."
Standing on the shoulders of traditional culture
"The commercial success of 'Eternal Sorrow' is based on the 'shoulder' of traditional culture," said Huang Zhuo, Marketing Director of NetEase Games' Lei Huo Business Unit.
NetEase's independently developed Chinese style martial arts game "Eternal Sorrow" has created a martial arts world, restoring ancient Chinese weapons and martial arts in one move. Since its launch in 2021, it has gained over 20 million users worldwide, setting a new record for domestic buyout game sales. For two consecutive years, it has been selected as the best-selling game and hottest new product list on the well-known game platform Steam, with over 240000 concurrent online users on Steam. On July 14th, this game was opened for free to global users. Huang Zhuo said that as the producer, they hope to allow more domestic and foreign users to experience excellent game content and the unique charm of Chinese culture, attracting more young people to be interested in China's history and culture through the game.
Upon entering "Eternal Sorrow", players can immediately perceive a strong sense of Chinese aesthetics and Eastern charm, such as the historical "Tang'an Ancient City", the Chinese style gardens with bamboo sea twists and turns, the Chinese style architectural design with mortise and tenon bricks and tiles, and the world view design under the Chinese mythological system. The blank spaces and freehand brushwork in the game's graphics are also intentionally created. For example, the Paper Cuttings animation and the promotional video of ink and wash smudge in cooperation with the Chengdu Jinsha Heritage Museum... Huang Zhuo said that many players understand and like this game because of its unique artistic effect, and then "enter the pit" of national culture. "Oriental aesthetics can make players around the world curious and attracted by Chinese culture. To make players deeply understand Chinese culture and continue to love it, there is no lack of blessing in playing methods."
"A research report from the China Foreign Languages and Culture Bureau shows that among the residents of English speaking countries, vocabulary such as martial arts, yin and yang, and kung fu rank among the top in their understanding of Chinese language." Eternal Sorrow "chooses to deeply showcase Chinese martial arts culture, allowing players to experience the" eighteen types of martial arts "in the game. Huang Zhuo introduced that the development team invited Shaolin monks to capture movements and also collaborated with martial arts master Bruce Lee's IP. On Bilibili, a university student UP host conducted in-depth research on these moves, produced science popularization videos, and received a lot of likes.". The player "Zai" from the Netherlands studied Chinese Kung Fu at a local martial arts school for six years. After becoming obsessed with "Eternal Sorrow", he became a professional esports player. "Eternal Sorrow" has attracted more than ten overseas teams in five global competition regions, and the realistic game effects have made overseas players the "tap water" of Chinese martial arts culture.
"In the past few years, digital technology has developed rapidly, and the digital world is no longer a replica of real life, but an extension of human imagination. How to precipitate new mechanisms in the digital world, promote the prosperity of traditional culture, and become a new topic in the digital cultural economy." Huang Zhuo said that "Eternal Sorrow" is not only an online game product, but also hopes to innovate a mechanism to deeply empower cultural inheritance. The traditional cultural brand "Jinwuji" developed based on this game reproduces museum artifacts such as Zeng Houyi's chimes, which has been recognized by young players.
Creating more diverse social values
"Currently, online game users are concentrated in the new generation of post-90s and post-2000s. Digital cultural products such as games, anime, and music have also become the core channels for them to obtain information and understand society." Deng Shuhui, Vice President of Shanghai Yishijie Information Technology Group Co., Ltd., believes that the social value of games should be valued.
Established in 2012, Yishijie has established an integrated business model that includes global distribution, independent research and development, intermodal services, and team incubation. It has deeply cultivated the simulation of business segmentation and has launched multiple games such as "Master of Business", "I am the Big Boss", and "There is Good Field in This City". The distinctive feature of these games is to try various ways to present traditional culture under the trend of digitization and strengthen the connection between new generation users and traditional culture.
At the end of 2022, "I am the Big Boss" will release the eponymous Chinese style theme song. The player community has developed a second creation based on "resonance", with original ancient style choreography, Cantonese opera performance, and traditional Chinese instrument performances such as erhu, pipa, and guzheng. UGC related to Chinese style has been published on social media platforms both domestically and internationally. The collision between online games and traditional culture creates a digital connection between the new generation and traditional culture, establishing cultural identity and making these new forces "new inheritors", promoting the innovation and dissemination of traditional culture.
The gaming world of the new generation not only travels through ancient and modern times, but also connects urban and rural areas. "Home Life" is a new era rural life simulation single player game currently being developed by Yishijie. In the game, there are typical Huizhou style buildings that incorporate traditional cultural elements such as horse head walls, lanterns, canopies, and couplets, allowing the culture and vitality of the new countryside to be digitally expressed and disseminated through the game. The game also collaborates with the "Hundred Beautiful Villages" project of the China Rural Development Foundation to restore representative rural scenes and symbolic cultural characteristics in the game, allowing players to form emotional interactions with traditional culture online while moving game levels offline, allowing players to "transition" from virtual online scenes to real scenes, and transforming the traditional rural culture presented in the game into rural "new cultural and tourism" resources.
The consensus in the industry is that games have evolved from isolated entertainment products to a "toolbox" that can provide assistance to multiple social sectors.
"In addition to the textual research and innovation of traditional culture, we hope to assume more social responsibilities." Huang Zhuo introduced that the development team of "Forever Unlimited" went to Taishun, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province to investigate and collect styles, presented in digital form the She ethnic costume Phoenix in Taishun, telling about the "Phoenix Spirit" that shows the strength of ethnic minority women, and at the same time giving play to its advantages in the field of Internet live goods, to create a special event for Jinwu to select Taishun. This live broadcast attracted tens of thousands of players. Next month, there will also be a special event for Jinwu to select Fuchun, which will be linked with the "Fuchun Mountain Residence Map" to implant popular science elements in the game, so that young players can integrate into the activities and appreciate the charm of "national treasure" more carefully.
"From the perspective of content, Genshin Impact IP is not only presented as a game, but also extends to music, comics, animation, light fiction and other cultural fields," said Ling Yu.
Lin Bin, Deputy General Manager of Kaiying Network and Senior Vice President of Game Distribution Business Group, who operates multiple popular games such as "Skyscraper", "Legend of Shushan", and "National Miracle", analyzed that the current game market is a highly competitive "red ocean" field, and more excellent domestic products are seeking larger markets, making "going global" inevitable. "There is still some room for breakthrough in overseas markets, and some emerging markets such as Latin America and the Middle East have great potential. Currently, the domestic game live streaming field is hot, and this market trend has also spread overseas. Overseas game live streaming may be a new market space."
"As a new cultural form closely integrated with technology, the high-quality development of games is rapidly advancing. From market data, in the first half of this year, China's gaming industry gradually entered a rebound stage after being under pressure, with a stable increase in the number of new game releases, and the approval and development of domestic game new products often simultaneously targeting multiple markets at home and abroad." Ao Ran said that with technological progress and changes in people's ideological concepts, it is more important to recognize the value and potential of games in "cultural globalization". "Through education and cooperation, we can achieve resource sharing and win-win, integrate global wisdom and strength, promote the development and progress of the gaming industry, and enhance the influence of Chinese games on the world stage."
The inclusiveness and innovation of Chinese civilization are leaping in the gaming world.
