This article comes from the official account of Wechat: Internet Theft Corps (ID:TMTphantom). Author: Pei Pei
Mihayou and Lilis (probably the two best unlisted game companies in China) also announced that their latest blockbuster products, "original God" and "Universal Awakening", will not be listed in Huawei Game App Store. "original God" also announced that it will not be on the XIAOMI App Store.
In fact, I don't think the original God will be listed on any of the hardcore alliance app stores, or even through any channel except the official website, Bilibili Inc. and Apple Inc App Store. I don't know what will happen to the "Universal Awakening", but I guess: domestic Android manufacturers need to make big concessions in sharing accounts to prove their sincerity.
Why are the two most popular novice games on National Day this year reluctant to go to the domestic Android app store? There are two reasons: the first is that Android phone makers charge too much, up to 50% of the total flow (plus a few percentage points of paid drainage fees), which is appalling. By contrast, iOS App Store, Google Play and Steam all charge 30% and 12% for Epic Game Store.
The second is that Android channels give CP many restrictions, such as using the channel account system, which prevents CP from getting first-hand user information in a timely manner, and drives CP to do more activities so that CP can't go at its own pace. If Android app stores are just willing to be "channels", that's fine; the problem now is that they often interfere with CP, and CP, which has the slightest pursuit of its own, is unwilling to put up with it.
The refusal of the original God and the Awakening of all Nations to go online on mainstream Android channels means that the evil theory of "channel is king" has ushered in a general bankruptcy in the game industry. In fact, the game industry has already entered the era of "quality content is king", but investors and onlookers do not realize it.
In the cultural content industry, "channel is king" is a very evil theory, which will lead to worse content quality, worse user experience, and smaller plates in the whole industry."Channel is king" is not only bad for CP, bad for publishers, but also bad for the channel itself-because no one can benefit from the decline in the quality of the content. Therefore, the general disillusionment of the concept of "channel is king" in broad daylight and the widespread recognition of the concept of "high-quality content as king" are the great benefits of China's game industry, which will drive the whole industry to continue to develop healthily.
I remember that in 2014, when the Chinese film industry was still developing at a high speed, there was an extremely wrong theory circulating in the market: the content is not important, and the audience does not care whether they are watching "bad movies" or "good movies". The most important thing is to master the channel (that is, the production rate). This argument is particularly popular in the investment community, so the capital markets give cinema companies the highest valuations, followed by issuers; the quality of the work is unconcerned.
I remember that in a WeChat group, I even quarreled with an investor over the topic of "bad movies" and "good movies". He insists that China's film industry can grow at a high speed by making bad films such as "Fuchun Mountain" and "tiny Times". He insists that cinemas can master the arrangement of films and occupy the minds of users through advertising bombardment. You can make a blockbuster with a box office of $5 billion.I think this is insane. I can't imagine that in a content industry, the quality of the content itself is unimportant. Is it possible to infer from common sense?
At this point, I no longer need to defend my point of view-the history of the past few years has proved me right. The Chinese film industry has paid a heavy price to eliminate the destructive evil idea of "channel is king", but now it is back on the right track. To my relief, the Chinese game industry has not made the same mistake.
Even without the blessing of the hard core alliance, even without landing on any of the mainstream Android app stores, the original God and the Awakening of all Nations can still achieve commercial success. You may hear some dubious news that the performance of the "original god" PC is not good; this kind of news is wrong, because as far as I know, the performance is very good.
That's not enough! From now on, content should not only get rid of the control of the channel, but also determine the fate of the channel. Because the content is the king, the king is the ruler, the ruler should decide the fate of others. What we see now are excellent channels for selecting mobile games products and actively refusing to cooperate with channels; in the future, we may see channels pleading for mobile games products to cooperate with us, so that we can survive. This has happened more than once in history!
At the "Millennium Conference" in Yokohama, Japan, Skwell released three products, "final Fantasy 10", "final Fantasy 11" and "final Fantasy 12", all of which are exclusive to Sony Group Corp's PlayStation platform (the former PS1, the latter two PS2). The event completely determined the game console market over the next five years-mainstream players in Europe, the United States and Japan could not accept a console that could not play the "final Fantasy" series, so Sega DreamCast was out, while Sony Group Corp PlayStation 2 was at its peak.
In 2008, the final Fantasy series was already in decline, but when the media asked Skwell which platforms final Fantasy 13 would be released on, Skwell replied: "We don't want PS3 to lose so badly, so it's definitely going to be released on PS3, and we don't want PS3 to win, so it's definitely not going to be PS3."
In another two or three years, perhaps excellent CP such as Miha you, Lilith, Zulong, Xin Xin, and paper folding can also say to the channel neither humbly nor arrogantly: "the reason why I chose to go on the shelf with you is because I don't want you to die, because without me, you will really die." And the channel will say respectfully with great sincerity, "you are right, we will try our best to serve you." "
Isn't this what the cultural content industry should look like? Don't you want to play the game product itself? Don't you like playing, art, plot and IP? The channel is just a bridge between you and the product. In 2016, I bought PS4; 2018 for Goddess Strange 5, and Switch for Legend of Zelda: the breath of the Wilderness.
A mature content market should be determined by high-quality content. If your content is good enough, you are the king, and the channel is your servant; if your content is not good enough, the channel is your king, and you must eat their leftover soup carefully. The market should be a hundred flowers blossom, everyone has their own world, but excellent people should get a bigger world, right?
I don't know why investors and outsiders are so addicted to the illusion that channels are king-maybe they think channels are easier to study and more certain. That's not a reason. To be exact, this is laziness. Of course, I know that the content is not easy to study, and it is not easy to judge high-quality content. Then we should pay more energy and do more homework in order to reach a reasonable judgment. This is like students need to learn a difficult course, can not stop just because it is difficult to learn, right?
I hope that the reasonable and restrained attitude taken by "the original God" and "the Awakening of all Nations" towards the channel will become a bright light for the Chinese game industry and even the entire content industry. This light will shatter the erroneous and evil idea of "channel is king" and bring a new wave of real growth. In this process, the most beneficial will be the users. After all, all normal industries make money by providing users with utility and enjoyment.
This article has not been funded or endorsed by Mihayou, Lilith or any other game company.
For the sake of clarification, it is stated here that Tencent is a game content company. It does not belong to the "game channel" defined in this article, although it has its own channel business.
Edit / Ray