With the gradual decline of the incremental dividend in the domestic game market, overseas distribution has gradually become a major trend in China's gaming industry. But going out to sea is not easy, even for big companies, for which domestic and overseas distributions are two very different things.

At home, head game companies have years of experience and resources, but in overseas markets, they do not have the same conditions. This makes overseas distribution more difficult, especially in more mature markets such as Japan, whose domestic markets have been well developed, and which are always harder for overseas companies to gain a place. As a result, it has been difficult for domestic factories to make a difference in Japan for quite some time, even in the more adept field of hand-traveling.

This has changed markedly in recent years. As more and more manufacturers began to pay attention to the sea, after the exploration period, domestic hand tours have gradually become Japan's list of regular visitors. In this regard, Tencent's game has changed particularly this year: they are not pioneers, but they have a lot of momentum.

"Dragon Fantasy" and "Sacred Warrior Star" have been successful

In April 2020, the Japanese version of Dragon Fantasy, which is run by Tencent's overseas distribution team, was officially launched in Japan. On the day of the download of the first results, and in the data than the second place has a greater advantage, in the best-selling list, "Dragon Fantasy" that month also entered the top 10 best-selling list.

The success of dragon fantasy's Japanese release has attracted attention from the domestic and Japanese gaming industries, especially since the release of Dragon Fantasy was Tencent's first overseas distribution team's debut in Japan. At that time, we also did an analysis of the release of this product, mentioned the special features of the Japanese gaming industry: the development of the game industry mature, the ACG field of cultural accumulation, social animal commute time long real environment. In addition to the game itself, the strategy of announcing the local conditions is also indispensable to the achievements made in the distribution of Dragon Fantasy.

However, "success" is often divided into "replicable success" and "non-replicable success", with the former being a flash in the pan and the latter proving to be sustainable. The same is true of Tencent's ability to issue overseas in Japan, where the success of a product can be interpreted as an isolated case, and no one can guarantee that success can be replicated until a second example is seen.

Somewhat surprisingly, the second example came quickly. Just five months after Dragon Fantasy launched in Japan, "Sacred Warrior Star" was launched in Japan on September 17th by Tencent's Tianmei Studios. Online a week exceeded 1 million downloads, in the Japanese download list (double list) for 6 consecutive days first. In the face of fierce competition, 12 days after the online, "Sacred Warrior Star" hand tour is still firmly in the top three download list (double list).

"Sacred Warrior Star" hand tour achieved a free list of double top results

Is it natural that "Sacred Warrior Star" will succeed in Japan?

It doesn't seem surprising that a game called "Sacred Warrior Star" has achieved so much.

"Sacred Warrior Star" was born more than 30 years ago, in 1985, Masada Zhengmei in the Collection of British Society "Weekly Junior Jump" began a series of comics, in 1990 in "V Jump" published the finale, a single book a total of 28 volumes. Combined with subsequent sequels, the comic book series "Sacred Warrior" alone has been released in more than 35 million volumes.

The weight of "Sacred Warrior Star" in people's hearts need not be said. In the touch music editing department to discuss the "Sacred Warrior Star" hand tour, my two post-80s and nearly 80-year-old colleagues - left wheel teacher and Qian teacher, somehow turned the topic to the comic book set and plot discussion, and then argued. Left-wheel teachers think that no sacrament can not play must kill skills, Qian teacher believes that the sacrament is only a qualification, as long as through, with the sacrament qualification can be played out ... Their argument ended with "I have to go home and turn over the comics."

Later, they talked about the original performance style, including the animation that will emerge behind the scenes, such as "Tianma Meteor Fist" will really appear a horse, and "Yushan Ascending Dragon Bar" will indeed come out a dragon ... This makes the comics extremely bloody. Pictured is a severed platform that impressed Mr. Qian

You see, "Sacred Warrior Star" is such a work: one day when you bring up a topic, you still think of the details you saw 20 years ago, and argue with people about right and wrong... It certainly has a vivid memory. There are many fans like the two teachers in China, and certainly in Japan. However, due to the lack of new works, in recent years, "Sacred Warrior Star" this IP's influence in Japan has declined, even if there is no domestic influence is mostly difficult to say.

Therefore, despite IP's glorious past, this does not provide any guarantee for the future. If a "Sacred Fighter" game was successful in Japan in 2020, it's not just its name, "Sacred Fighter Star."

Many classic bridge sections, always see can think of the plot of the time

It's not just IP

That's true. Classics have always been there, and adapted games have always been. But for an adapted game, IP is not enough. In Japan, there is more than one "Sacred Warrior Star" game, but a total of 4 models, there are still two still in operation, they are somewhat edoter, and, obviously, in terms of the subject matter and Tencent's "Sacred Warrior Star" hand tour constitutes a direct competitive relationship.

But Tencent's "Sacred Warrior Star" is the best-performing, and even, in less than half a month, it has surpassed its competitors' accumulation for years in many ways. The two games still in operation in the Japanese market are "Sacred Warrior Star: Little Universe Fantasy" and "Sacred Warrior Star: Shining Fighter". Historically, the former had 107,000 total downloads (iOS and Android) in the first month, 700,000 in the history (the game has been in operation for three years), and 52,000 downloads in the first month and less than 200,000 in the history.

As mentioned earlier, Tencent's "Sacred Warrior Star" has been downloaded more than 1 million times in a week - surpassing the three-year total for the best-performing "Sacred Fighter" IP game in japan.

"Sacred Warrior Star" also showed up at this year's TGS

It's also an adaptation of the game, but the difference is huge. In fact, for classic adaptations of the game, with the original benchmark as a reference, the difference in game quality is more intuitive, and the players are not difficult to choose. After all, if you just want to look back at classics, comics are always there, you want to see them all the time. The attraction of adapting games is that people see familiar things in a different way.

China's gaming industry lags behind in console and stand-alone games, often leading the world in hand-game production. This lead is not an exception to one or two vendors, but has a very high average level. In the global market, "Jedi Life" hand tour, "Call of Duty" hand tour are extremely popular, specifically to the Japanese market, the previous entry of "Wild Action" "Tomorrow's Ark" "Awakening of the Nation" "Blue Route" and other games are also regulars on the list.

What did the Japanese release of "Sacred Warrior Star" do right?

Discussing the distribution of a game, the quality of the work is naturally the first. By fan standards, the production level of "Sacred Warrior Star" is really good. Hand Tours was developed by Tianmei Studio Group, and their experience in hand-travel development is self-needless, and Tencent's overseas distribution department is also very sincere in its investment in Localization in Japan. The game selects the sound line-up of the original "Sacred Warrior Star" animation for dubbing, and all the plot of the game has a voiceover.

This image is competitive in the hand tour of "Sacred Warrior Star"

High-quality portrait and modeling, original plot, provide new plot, original sound excellent, plot full voice, which is basically a fan to the game's highest configuration. Before launching in Japan, the game has been launched in China and many countries and regions around the world, the market feedback is excellent, from Tencent games released data, the number of users of the game before the launch in Japan has exceeded 20 million. Japan is the hometown of the "Sacred Warrior Star", but the evening line, need to consider the issue of localization.

The collection and cultivation of characters is also an important part of the "Sacred Warrior Star" hand tour

"Sacred Warrior Star" is originally a Japanese work, for localization, this is both an opportunity and a challenge. On the good side, Japanese players are familiar with the subject matter and don't need ads to tell them what "Sacred Warrior Star" is;

This co-existing opportunity and challenge determines what localization does. For the "Sacred Warrior Star" hand tour of this game, in a market that is already very familiar with IP to do product publicity, the focus is naturally to let players feel the game's restoration of the original. In this regard, the game itself has been from the plot, original painting, voice-over and so on to the original close, in the announcement, only need to highlight the "restore" part, naturally can attract attention to the original people. At this point, a simple, 18-CV campaign is itself a very tempting advertisement.

For the adaptation of the game, the sound excellent line-up luxury is not as good as the sound-excellent line-up "accurate"

In addition, it is important to raise nostalgia through propaganda. Tencent has brought in highly popular entertainer Tanaka Nashi, who has filmed a promotional video focusing on the core fans of "Sacred Warrior Star." Lines such as "Your little universe, please don't stop evolving" have a japanese-style, blood-sucking sense of the middle two, but they do bring back something - and in many cases, blood is better for young people, who are no longer young, but still have memories of youth. Perhaps now, another work like "Sacred Warrior Star" is no longer an audience, but recalling the old work itself, no matter how many anachronistic secondary, can still remind people of the young years.

Tanaka's career has also been interesting. In her early years on TBS television, people set more in favor of selling, which accumulated a lot of male fans at the same time also suffered a lot of people's disgust and criticism, after leaving TBS, her people set to mature change, while in the fashion field is welcome, word-of-mouth has also been reversed, but accumulated a large number of female fans

In terms of social platforms, Tencent Games also actively operates official accounts on Twitter, Line, Discord and other social platforms, providing publicity while also providing answers to player feedback and questions, and this main social media promotion strategy is also very much in line with the environment in the Japanese market - compared to simple advertising, activities aimed at followers can create a good atmosphere within a small circle, can better maintain community activity, attract more players to join the circle.

Activities to celebrate the life of the character

The winner of the question-and-answer contest "Sacred Warrior Star" will present the signature color paper of Yoshida Zhengmei

Thanks to this model, the official Twitter feed of the Sacred Warrior Star has gained 97,000 followers - a remarkable number for a new game's Twitter account. You know, tens of thousands of followers on Twitter have a lot of influence, and in the game, the official account level of a series like "Legends of Zelda" has only 240,000 followers.

The advantage of operational outreach around the community is that, after accumulating enough foundation, the subsequent costs are minimal, and information can be effectively reached by game-watching players

Just get started

It's not hard to notice "once" success, but what really matters may be "second time". After all, the difference between "once" and "again" can be between "accidental" and "inevitable".

Tencent's overseas distribution team has successfully released two works in Japan this year, and while there is no reason to say that the next one will be equally successful, a "greater than 1" figure at least shows that Tencent's overseas distribution team relies not on luck, but on more insight and understanding of users in the Japanese market, and ultimately brings off-site success in a different style from home.

More crucially, the distribution job is the kind of work that is "always easier after one walk". On the one hand, it relies on experience, whether it is to choose the right game, in the right way to do local promotion, are traceable to make good decisions. "On the other hand, the resources required for target marketing and partners are not one-off at all, which, empirically, means that the next one tends to be smoother."

Whether it's Marvel, Hollywood or Japanese anime, the future of any cultural industry is going global. Going to the world means being out of your comfort zone, which is certainly risky, but it's also full of new opportunities. For China's gaming industry, the most likely thing to "go global" at the moment is mobile products, which are at least the beginning, although we are not yet able to compete overseas in console gaming. Let Japanese players play the Chinese-made "Sacred Warrior Star" this matter, also let me think of chinese players to play the Japanese-made "Three Nations", but of course it is not enough.

Hope that in the future, domestic games in the world to achieve their own place.