The three "entangled relationships" have lost nearly a million followers.
"Genshin Impact" probably didn't expect that a simple version preview would cause its Douyin official account to lose nearly one million followers in just one week, and it is still on a downward trend.
In the Spring Festival version trailer, "Genshin Impact" proposed that "Genshin Impact" would give players three pieces of entanglement (game props, used to extract characters or weapons) as a "thank you for the players' support", which aroused the majority of players' "Genshin Impact" The dissatisfaction of "stingy" caused a series of fan-dropping reactions.
In the eyes of many old "Genshin Impact" players, this large-scale fan loss incident is more like an emotional tipping point. In the past year, players have accumulated a lot of dissatisfaction with "Genshin Impact". The version iterations are weak, the planning innovation is lacking, and the new characters are not as careful as before. Coupled with the aggressive launch of "Honkai: Star Rail" (hereinafter referred to as "Star Rail"), also produced by miHoYo, many old players feel a sense of "falling out of favor."
However, judging from MiHoYo’s reaction, it did not show enough importance to this incident. "As long as the core players are not lost, losing followers on the official account will at most be regarded as a player's 'coquettishness'." A game expert commented.
01. It’s not the fault of being stingy.
If you open the official account of “Genshin Impact” on station B, you will see that in the recently released videos, the barrage of “Entangled Fate” will appear repeatedly at the beginning. The density is so high that it even affects the viewing. Degree.
The Douyin account of "Genshin Impact" lost millions of fans in three days, and players' crusade against "entangled relationships" continued to appear in the comment area. One comment with 10,000 likes said, "Look, brothers, what does this mean? No. "Glass Heart", with an emoticon covering one's face and crying at the end, and finally a screenshot of three entangled stars.
"2234", a player who spent over 10,000 krypton dollars on "Genshin Impact", told "Shijie", "Looking at that sentence alone, it is actually in line with MiHoYo's usual stingy style, but combined with the time of the Spring Festival, (we "Feeling" means that during the Chinese New Year, I will give you three cigarettes for beggars. It means a lot."
What is the concept of three entangled relationships? In terms of RMB conversion, one entangling edge is equivalent to RMB 16, and three entangling edge is equivalent to 48 yuan, which is not low in terms of price. Moreover, entangled relationships often appear in event gift packs. Judging from the New Year event at the same time last year, "Genshin Impact" only gave out three entangled fates.
So, when the number of entangled relationships is the same as last year, why did "Genshin Impact", which has always been "stingy", cause public outrage this year?
"The benefits this year are the same as last year, but the players' attitudes are obviously different." Some players said, "The most critical reason is that "Star Iron" is online."
In early 2023, "Star Iron" was launched and swept the market. The refreshing world view construction, powerful character creation, exquisite character modeling, original painting level that far exceeds the level of the same industry, and the granular grasp of the game's fineness have made many "Genshin Impact" players attracted to "Star Iron" suck away. Some data show that the month when "Star Iron" was making great progress was exactly the month when the data of "Genshin Impact" continued to weaken. Compared with "Star Iron"'s generosity in welfare activities, "Genshin Impact" seems even more stingy.
"I didn't hold back after the three entangled fates came out." A player who also spent more than 10,000 krypton dollars said "Sister, who are you targeting?" said to "City Circle", "The main reason is that the official welfare announcement this time is a bit European. The Henry-style ending started with a seemingly solemn "Thank you for the support of the players" to raise the players' expectations. Later, as in previous years, only three entanglement coins were given out in the backhand, while next door "Star Iron" 》The strong contrast between the project team will inevitably trigger dissatisfaction among players.”
It is not uncommon in the gaming circle for game planning to conflict with the needs of players.Take "Genshin Impact" as an example, almost every year there will be one or two large-scale denunciation incidents. From the Zhongli intensity incident at the launch of the server, it directly forced the official to apologize and promised to strengthen the character Zhongli. The "Li Mengqian" incident, it was revealed that the planning of "Genshin Impact" has always been in line with players, and it has been collectively boycotted. There are also small-scale disputes over gameplay and characters from time to time, all of which have tested MiHoYo's operational capabilities. After the high-profile period of "Genshin Impact", which was launched three years ago by
, issues such as the gameplay and the review of new card pool characters have inevitably made current players show a long-standing attitude of resentment, and there are already signs of user loss.
The transaction amount of props can best reflect the popularity of a game.
Judging from the recycling of props by "Genshin Impact" players, the market price has shrunk significantly. “Previously, the recovery price for drawing a gold was 50 yuan, but now the price has dropped to 10 yuan,” a player said. “An account that seemed to cost more than 40,000 yuan to draw is now only 1,000 yuan.” Yuan, you can cut more."
even has a "surrogate liver" (a person who plays games on behalf of others) who said that after version 4.0 was launched, he felt that the work he received was significantly reduced. "Before 3.5, I casually took two or three orders, and it was no problem to earn two to three hundred yuan a day. From 3.5 to 4.0, it was basically cool, and every day was from a few dozen yuan to more than a hundred. After 4.0, it can be said to be completely cool. . The friends I added in the 2.0 era are basically not online now. Among the many people I have brought with me from 2.3 to now, there are no less than ten people who have exchanged contact information privately. Only one of them is still playing now. Among the groups I added, Hundreds of people don’t talk about Genshin Impact or other games on a daily basis.”
As of press time, the fan loss caused by the Tangled Fate incident is still continuing: the number of Douyin followers of “Genshin Impact” has dropped from 950 before the incident. million dropped to 8.35 million; the number of fans at station B also dropped by more than 200,000. In addition, at Station B, some people went to the comment area of bloggers who "counted the top users who lost followers the fastest every week", eagerly waiting for the follower loss situation of "Genshin Impact" in the new week.
02, MiHoYo is not in a hurry
Behind the emotional outburst of this fan-dropping incident is the players’ dissatisfaction with MiHoYo for favoring one over others.
After all, since the release of "Star Iron", MiHoYo's "left and right fight" has been reflected in the data.
According to the latest report from sensor tower, in May 2023, the revenue of "Star Iron" was 3.4 times that of April, surpassing "Genshin Impact" and becoming MiHoYo's highest-grossing mobile game product, starting MiHoYo's "" "Genshin Impact" + "Star Iron" twin star product layout.
According to the first survey report of "Honkai: Star Rail" released by the game research organization gameage, more than 30% of the players of "Genshin Impact" played "Star Rail" during the same period. The user overlap is high, but the essence is still Old users are contributing most of the revenue.
Some players believe that after the release of "Honkai Impact", some players who originally belonged to "Genshin Impact" were separated, and the versions after "Genshin Impact" 4.0 have reduced everyone's desire to explore. "The planner designed the desert to feel like a real desert, which brought a negative experience to the players, but they did not consider that the purpose of playing games is to relax." After the new version of
was updated, many players were complaining " Problems such as "the plot is lengthy" and "the task is too difficult to understand". Player Fengfeng also told "Shijie", "The entire Xumi version has persuaded many people to quit. The entire map is smelly and long. The exploration time is too long and the rewards are few. I feel that after the Xumi version, "Genshin Impact" "The production level of "Genshin Impact" has plummeted, and we don't like playing it much anymore. We just do basic tasks."
"Genshin Impact" has been online for three years. During the period of periodic burnout, it has gradually lost its freshness. Players with a sense of security will naturally put forward higher requirements for game operations.
"Although the quality of the activities of "Star Iron" is only at a satisfactory level, the funny game writing, relaxed game atmosphere and high welfare have made everyone ignore some of the shortcomings of the game. In contrast, the status of "Genshin Impact" will only It’s even more embarrassing.” A heavy Krypton player told “City World”.
Judging from the past publicity periods, Genshin Impact’s large-scale new attractions are concentrated in the three version stages: server opening, rice wife, and goddess Piguan.In 2022, the joint event between "Genshin Impact" and Pizza Hut became a hot search, setting a record of 15 crazy linkages within 30 days, targeting "quasi-traffic entrance" tool apps such as China Merchants Bank, Alipay, and Amap, etc. It has linked up with partners such as catering, scenic spots, retail and even automobiles and finance, with the intention of further attracting new customers offline.
But less than a year later, miHoYo’s “heavy focus” on “Genshin Impact” was transferred to the highly anticipated “Star Iron”.
According to previous reports by "City Circle", the global promotion cost of "Honkai: Star Rail" is approximately US$200 million, and the period of huge purchases is very long. "Generally speaking, the promotion period of two-dimensional mobile games is It will take 1-2 months, but the promotion period of "Collapse of Iron" is very long, starting from the beginning of 2023."
Various data prove that "Beng Tie" took away part of the popularity of "Genshin Impact".
For example, after the launch of "Collapse of Iron" at the end of April, the playback volume of the plot PV videos released by the "Genshin Impact" station B account in May were mostly in the range of 400,000-800,000, while the previous video playback volume of "Genshin Impact" on station B was It’s easy to start with a million dollars.
"Genshin Impact" also experienced a decline in both revenue and active players: "Genshin Impact" had a sluggish performance at the end of the Xumi major version, and it once fell out of the top ten of sensor tower's global popular mobile games in July and August. . With the major update of Fontainebleau version 4.0, the entry of new characters into the card pool, and the revival of popular characters, "Genshin Impact" has returned to the top ten in the revenue list since September. "Genshin Impact" ranked 7th and 8th respectively in the September and October lists. According to data from
mobilegamer.biz, the global revenue of "Genshin Impact" in February 2023 was US$112 million, which dropped to US$51.9 million in June. In just five months, the revenue shrank by more than half.
In addition to the "left-right competition" within MiHoYo, the competition from other manufacturers on the two-dimensional track is also fierce. Data shows that in August 2022 alone, 12 two-dimensional games have been officially announced or finalized. At the same time, MiHoYo’s new project “Zero Zero” waiting to be launched is still a two-dimensional game.
After "Star Iron" was launched and achieved success beyond expectations, miHoYo's former chairman also adjusted his work focus: Cai Haoyu, regarded as miHoYo's "soul helm", stepped back behind the scenes to explore the North American market and conduct personal research. ai, continue to explore the future of miHoYo; Liu Wei, the "best assistant" and "face", finally came to the stage. The organizational adjustment of
also means that miHoYo is entering the next stage of development after rapid expansion. To the outside world, "Original God" can no longer be completely equated with MiHoYo.
In recent years, miHoYo has made great efforts to expand overseas, calling out the development vision of "by 2030, creating a virtual world where one billion people around the world are willing to live in", and even launched a new brand hoyoverse and set up its headquarters in Singapore . Investments in cutting-edge fields such as large AI models, launch vehicles, and brain-computer interfaces also prove its ambition in technological exploration.
The user capacity of "1 billion people" in MiHoYo's imagination also means that it must not only be related to game players, but also further related to non-game users. MiHoYo will not only be a game company, but also be able to truly Construct the virtual world depicted in movies such as "The Matrix" and "Ready Player One".
However, the Metaverse concept, which requires long-term bets and waiting for the industry's turning point, is still mired in confusion. Keeping the reputation and sales of flagship products from declining is still the only solution for MiHoYo to maintain certainty at the moment.
(the players in the article are all pseudonyms)
author | Zhang Jikang Zhao Zikun
editor | Dong Yuqing
operator | Liu Shan
