Event

On April 11, Tencent's first AR mobile game "Zhuoyao" opened a dual-platform non-deletion test, which topped the App Store free list on the same day and is still at the top of the list. In the App Store best-seller list, "Zhuoyao" also stunned, ranked 62nd on the day of launch, and entered the App Store best-seller list TOP5 on the 4th day after launch.

Comment

Looking at the global game market, AR mobile games are nothing new, but they are one of the rarest categories.

In July 2016, Niantic launched "Pok é mon GO", which became an instant hit and has generated more than $2.5 billion in revenue in less than three yearsThe running water exceeded 500 million yuan in both September and October 2018, of which the running water in September reached 84.8 million US dollars.

In May 2018, Jurassic World Alive was launched, with revenue of $25 million in three months. In July 2018, the Walking Dead: our World was launched, earning more than $8 million in two months.

Before the release of "Zhuoyao", the revenue of these three AR mobile games was basically equal to the volume of the global AR mobile game market, of which "Pok é mon GO" monopolized about 90% of the AR mobile game market.In 2019, Niantic also plans to launch a new AR mobile game, Harry Potter: the Wizarding Alliance.

In contrast, the domestic game market, due to the regulatory authorities' very strict review of AR+LBS play, not only leads to the "Pok é mon GO" national service agent far away, but also causes the number of domestic AR mobile games to be less than 10, and these reviewed products, in addition to the "demon catching mobile phone" of spades interaction, are only AR versions of online games, or the product awareness is very low.

Alipay launched the AR mobile game "cute Big Bang" at the end of 2016, but the product quickly died down because of a single channel and Alipay's intention to cut into the social field.

Various factors make the domestic AR mobile game market bleak. The amazing performance of "Zhuoyao" online has not only directly brought income and AR mobile game operation experience to Tencent, but also has great significance in cultivating the domestic AR mobile game market and educating AR mobile game players.

As we all know, the domestic game market has entered a bottleneck period of growth after experiencing the era of PC-end games, page games and mobile games, and the whole industry is striving for new growth points.

But so far, almost all ideas are only related to content, not to the change of platform and interaction."Zhuoyao" makes everyone see the infinite possibilities of AR mobile games in the future.

Although strictly speaking, "Zhuoyao" is only a primary application of AR technology, there is no innovation in playing, and there is still a long way to go from the real AR game, but its enlightening significance can not be ignored.

For a long time after the release of "Pok é mon GO", the prevailing view was that the product became popular not because of AR, but because of the blockbuster IP, Pok é mon, which seemed to be in decline for some time.

But then, Niantic accelerated the frequency of content updates, launched new games, new sprites, and worked with offline merchants to successfully turn the product into an evergreen tree.This shows that the AR+LBS-based play of "Pok é mon GO" does attract players to retain for a long time, because it is difficult for any manufacturer to achieve long-term boutique with IP alone.This is also enough to explain why "Zhuoyao", which borrows heavily from "Pok é mon GO", can be a blockbuster without any top IP endorsement.

Taking "Pok é mon GO" as a lesson, "Zhuoyao" also has the potential to become a long-term boutique, as long as it can solve many existing problems in iteration and operation, such as BUG such as stutter and flicker, more and more rampant plug-ins, too few stalls seriously affecting transactions, lack of PVP, single game, and so on.

Based on the performance of Zhuoyao on the listWe judge that the current user retention rate of this game is high, new users are still entering steadily, and the running water will reach 200-300 million yuan in the first month.