Text | IQ Tax Research Center
In a subculture world where the chain of contempt is very strict and ordinary people rarely come into contact with it, music game players may be a group with a relatively low sense of existence.
On the one hand, as an "i-person project", music games do not need to compete with anyone (except for chart players), they only need to constantly break through themselves; on the other hand, because most of the tracks come from "two-dimensional games" such as animation and virtual idols, "ip" has a high degree of overlap with "otaku" in the usual sense.
Because of this, audio game geeks who are obsessed with their own territory usually don’t want their favorite games to “go out of the circle”. Because once it becomes a "prominent science", the originally "pure" small circle will be stained with other colors, and it is not something that a group of old players who "generate power for love" can control.
Recently, players of the free music game phigros have encountered a similar thing - because the UI and special effects of this game are very dynamic, and they unexpectedly fit in with the dance, all the ladies on Douyin have become The shape of the phigros. And this makes the original old players feel at a loss.
But the control over the traffic obviously does not lie with the veteran players, and even the decision-making power on how the traffic is ultimately monetized does not entirely rest with Douyin. It's the game manufacturers and distribution platforms behind it that are so stupid. In this traffic feast, they are the real players behind it.
When the "Renaissance" meets the music game player
How to test whether a niche thing is out of the circle? It's enough to see if the official account ends.
After phigros’ related second creation hit Douyin, Chengdu Mobile’s official video account also released the same click dance video, and even incorporated another Chinese girl element that hit the screen. This can be regarded as a "seal certification" for phigros.
So as the "source of all evil", how much attention has phigros received on Douyin?
So far, more than 252,000 people have participated, and a total of 2.12 billion views have been achieved. It is not an exaggeration to describe it with the most popular term "splashing the sky with wealth".
In terms of the content itself, the second creation of phigros on Douyin is not a "renovation" in itself, but a renaissance of "ancient materials" in different periods.
For example, as the main body of "Standard Dance", its better known name is social shake. This trend started with Kuaishou in 2015 and Douyin in 2017. Now, it has become a "living fossil" of the Internet with a history of 10 years.
Another example is phigros, which was passively out of the circle this time. Its first release was also in 2020. Even after 4-5 years of operation, it already has a group of loyal native players and community ecology, but the relatively more well-known "car, gun and ball" game type is even more out of the circle among the two-dimensional games. "Genshin Impact" is still a small and old niche music game.
Therefore, when the attention of more than one billion people is introduced into this circle by Douyin users who pay attention to copyrights, one can only imagine what kind of impact the originally encircled and cute audio game house will receive. The most intuitive reflection of
is the comments below the short video of phigros on Douyin.
It can also be seen from the comments that some native players of phigros love and cherish their own small circle. They are not cold to this wave of traffic and wealth, and are even a little repelled. The reason is not difficult to deduce - a game that was originally a subculture of the same kind was pushed into the spotlight by traffic. Regardless of the outcome, the circle will not be as pure and loving as before.
I believe no one would like this kind of feeling of being at a loss as to what to do when someone is suddenly "looked at".
traffic and traffic
Strictly speaking, the probability of being hit by Douyin’s traffic is about the same as buying a lottery ticket. However, whether it is an individual or a brand, if you want to successfully catch the wealth and wealth brought by the strong wind, you usually need to work harder than the average person.
If you filter according to this standard, phigros' production company Pigeon Games and its boss "cn115" obviously meet this definition.In the words of the game documentary director "Director bk", "This young man born in 1999, when he was under 20 years old, led a group of QQ group friends to create a purely free music game phigros." There are others. Core players point out that the first version of the game was even completed when the founder was a sophomore in high school.
However, unlike other independent games that focus on fans and emotions, phigros received a recommendation of 4.7 points in the Apple Store shortly after its release. It also received a high score of 9.7 points in more than 80,000 taptap reviews, and even Among the 1-star reviews, there are many positive comments such as the following.
What’s even more surprising is that as a music game with no in-app purchases and all “power generation for love”, Geyou’s daily source of revenue comes from donations from core players.
According to the founder of Geyou "cn115" in 2022, this kind of donation amount is usually not large, "sometimes it is a few thousand a month when it is large, and sometimes it is a few hundred a month when it is small", it is obviously impossible to support a game company. of the production team. Not to mention that the money was basically used to purchase music copyrights and pay server fees.
It can also be seen from the model of phigros that this is a niche game produced by core audio game players, relying on the gameplay and product quality to cultivate and operate another group of core players, whether it is team composition or "revenue" " has basically nothing to do with the traditional game production model. In the words of game chart designer "Chen", "What everyone invests in is pure love, and they rely on cooking power to operate this game."
Therefore, this kind of freedom from mainstream game products, or outside the mainstream vision For niche games and niche circles, whether it is for producers or game manufacturers, it is actually the most appropriate to maintain a state of "enclosure and self-cuteness".
The main reason is that, whether it is a music game or the game itself, as far as mainstream narratives are concerned, as long as they do not go overseas to make money like MiHoYo and do not "win glory for the country", they are "losing their ambitions with things" and will be severely punished. Critical.
Regarding phigros, the reaction of Pigeon Travel is also very revealing. As early as 2022, Geyou Company issued a statement hoping not to use phigros for excessive commercialization. In this traffic storm, the aforementioned statement also became a bullet for core players to hit the Douyin short video comment area.
It can also be found from the previous article that in the minds of phigros producers and players, this game has become a pure land in their hearts, and they do not want this game to become commercial and boring due to excessive commercialization, and become a satisfying investment "Assembly line products" required by the party or parent company.
Under such a production team's aesthetic, the KPI standards of general game companies such as "Liu Shui" do not exist in Geyou Company. For the same reason, they did not choose traditional game distribution channels like the Hardcore Alliance, and finally chose Taptap, which has a better community atmosphere and more core players, as its only distribution channel on the Android side.
More than one billion traffics, who ended up eating it?
traffic itself cannot be directly monetized, but game-related content may be an exception.
Lao Hu often views chess and card videos on Douyin. To be precise, they are about Sichuan and Ma games. There is usually a small red handle at the bottom of the screen of this type of short video or live broadcast. Click on it to see the mahjong game app recommended by the blogger.
Under the influence of algorithms, this type of games use short videos to find target users, and the effect is more accurate than traditional game purchase ads. This is also the case with Douyin Kuaishou’s information flow ads, where game ads occupy the top spot all year round. One of the reasons for big households.
However, Geyou itself is against commercialization, and Douyin itself does not have a download channel for phigros. The only way for users attracted by Kadianwu to play phigros is to become a new taptap user on Android, other than the app store on Apple.
Therefore, taptap, as the only distribution channel for phigros on Android, eventually became one of the beneficiaries because of this billion-level traffic storm.
It is understood that in the first quarter of this year, the number of active users of Taptap has successfully emerged from the temporary downturn last year and may reach a new high since the birth of the app. Taptap’s exclusive content and non-sharing strategy not only provide works like phigros with a touchstone to directly face the market, but its high-density community ecology also provides a pure community for player communication.
This is perhaps the most real place in the business world - regardless of whether the pigeon game company itself is willing or not, or whether the old phigros players are happy or not, these traffic will eventually turn into commercial returns.
Whether it is the new phigros players who are flocking to it, or the countless new taptap users, or the Douyin users who can’t get out of the dance video after entering it, they will flow to various apps or games in the form of traffic, eliminating duplication. Shape and change the user ecology of games and communities, and generate unpredictable business returns.
Although this kind of change is generally positive, for subculture groups or audio game players who are accustomed to encircling themselves, too drastic changes are not always a good thing. As for how this traffic will change Taptap and phigros can only be verified by time.
