The decline of two fiscal years makes it difficult for Genshin Impact fans to drain: Nintendo shed "tears of the kingdom"

This article is from WeChat official account: Prophet Youbao (ID: yuyanjiayoubao), author: Mao Lina, head picture from: Visual China

3 days, 10 million copies.

On the evening of May 17th, Nintendo announced through official Twitter that,The Legend of Zelda 2: Tears of the Kingdom, which went on sale on May 12th(hereinafter referred to as "Wang Tears")Within 3 days, the global sales exceeded 10 million copies, becoming the fastest selling game in the history of this series.

The sales of 'Wang Tears' were indeed expected. Legend of Zelda 1: Breath of the Wild "is already a masterpiece in the history of console games." Tears of the King "has been released and sold, surpassing the sales of the IP blockbuster" Hogwarts Legacy "in just two days in the UK; French media predict that the first week sales of 'Tears of the King' will exceed the annual sales of the hottest game in France in 2022, 'FIFA 2022'.

Japanese media reported that it has been a long time since Zelda's leave reappeared in the world. Due to the game's launch date being set on Friday, a large number of office workers choose to take leave and take three consecutive days off to play the game; Domestic sales are difficult to calculate due to external factors, but it is not difficult to find from discussions on social media and video platforms that "Wang Tears" can be considered the most popular console game in recent years.

But let's go back to the China region, how did 'Wang Tears' sell? If you just watch Bilibili, almost all game UP owners are broadcasting the live broadcast of "Wang Tears". "There is traffic tilt, and it is the most popular topic now. What should we not broadcast it?" someone said to the prophet.

Well, let's go back to a question that has haunted the two major fan camps of Genshin Impact and Selda for many years: it's not that Selda fans should be generous. After all, although the two styles are similar, the popularity of Genshin Impact can reverse the sales of Selda series - so does The Tears of the King really sell well?

For Nintendo, whose performance has declined for two consecutive fiscal years,If the Chinese region cannot sell well, then Nintendo may be the one who shed the tears of the kingdom.

Nintendo is a great company, "Nintendo fans will tell you. This company is not just for players, but only for itself, running wildly on the path of fun and innovation, bringing unimaginable new works to every gaming enthusiast.

Dreaming for players is indeed great, but opening doors for business still requires making money. For Zelda's sake, I bought a Switch, "many players describe their experience of entering the pit.Creating world-class IPs, ensuring exclusive gaming quality, and driving hardware sales with good gaming are Nintendo's consistent business practices.

The release of 'Tears of the King' is seen as a measure to stimulate another wave of console sales, especially in two consecutive fiscal years where performance has declined, especially at a time when consoles have become noticeably unsold (financial reports show Nintendo sold 17.98 million switches in the 2023 fiscal year, a year-on-year decrease of 22%).

Although the pricing for the digital version is as high as $69.99 (482 RMB), it sets a new high for the series of games. But those who have experienced 'Wang Tears' still find it worth the money.

Because I didn't want to wait for the cassette, I bought a digital version on the day of its release. After deducting more than 480 yuan, I was still scolding Lao Ren for being black in the heart, but as soon as the familiar music started playing, I instantly felt it was worth it

Unlike the previous work, the map design of 'Wang Tears' is more layered and three-dimensional, and the sky and underground are also included in the exploration scope. Continuing the tradition of the series, although "Wang Tears" has task prompts, it does not interfere with player behavior. Players who enjoy adventurous fights, prefer to explore different terrains, and those who have a cooking dream and focus on collecting can find their own fun in the game.

The addition of the "Ultimate Hand" function further enhances the playability and exploration of the game. Due to its high degree of freedom, the "ultimate hand" is also a direct source of material for online livestreaming videos. Some players even form competitions to share various exquisite or absurd products they have created using this feature.

This time 'Wang Tears' was released, the game itself sold well, and discussions on social media were hot,But Nintendo's hope for a strong boost in the sales of domestic consoles did not seem to have materialized as expected.

The Prophet Travel News learned from several video game stores that "Wang Tears" is indeed very popular, but most of the inquiries are from experienced players who already have consoles, asking when physical cassette players can arrive at the store. The shipment volume of Switch hosts has remained relatively stable compared to the previous few months.

There is a slight improvement, but not much. Personally, I think not everyone who comes to buy a new console is selling "Wang Tears". The owner of the video game store said that he thinks the people who come to buy a console are because of travel needs, "buying a console to pass the time. Moreover, some bosses believe that the sales situation of this wave of consoles is far less than during the period of "Motori".

Player Aken told the prophet,Although everyone on the internet is chatting about 'Wang Tears', half or even more of them are cloud players.After watching the clearance video and listening to a few more explanations from the up host, you can pretend to have played it yourself

This situation does exist. Due to the large amount of content related to 'King's Tears' appearing on social media, it has become a social currency to some extent.' In order to keep up with popular topics, I spent the weekend watching the 15 hour live plot posted by Up, and many players may not be as familiar with the plot as I am, 'one cloud player admitted to the prophet.

Wang Tears "is a good game that has always been highly rated by strict gaming media. In the gaming community, players who always argue over various trivial matters rarely reach a consensus. The second creations based on "Wang Tears" on the internet are rich in themes and have high content quality. These overwhelming related content failed to transform cloud players into real players.

I don't think it's necessary to buy a console for a game. Moreover, I feel like I need to have certain requirements for the operation when playing up. What if I spend thousands of yuan on a console and end up at home

As shown in the figure below, Selda's only major discussion peaks in China (from point F to point I) are all not the time points for the internal or public test of Genshin Impact. From encountering multiple encirclements while playing "Salute to Zelda", to now growing into a behemoth. From 2020 to now, the collision of player groups again and again has formed a strong binding relationship between Genshin Impact and Zelda.

"Genshin Impact" takes advantage of the open world to seize cities and territories around the world, and the amount of krypton gold of players has reached new highs. The players of "Zelda" said that all this was nothing more than the wisdom of Miha You. "When" Picnic 2 "(Zelda's nickname) comes on, your group of OPs will surely fall into the pit." However, some Genshin Impact fans are better at comforting people: "Although the two styles are similar, the popularity of" Genshin Impact "can reverse the popularity of" Zelda "series -?"

But now the "benchmarking version" has come, and Genshin Impact is in the long grass period of the big version update, but Genshin Impact players have not "defected" to Hailaru in a large scale.

On the one hand, as cloud players mentioned earlier, in order to experience 'Wang Tears' without a host, one must first spend several thousand yuan to buy a machine, which is a bit expensive.

On the other hand, the pleasure mechanism of console games and mobile games is different. Players who have been "trained" by mobile games will inevitably become "acclimatized" when switching to console games.

"It's too difficult, too difficult". At the full level of "Genshin Impact", Xiao Wei, who can hit all the stars in the abyss (monthly change copy), knows how to operate, and has a hand riding area. But she, who borrowed a host from a friend to experience "Wang Tears," had already started to withdraw before she had even passed the novice village.

"I was exploring the map from the novice village in Genshin Impact. There was a transmission point in Liyue that was very high on the mountain. I relied on my limited physical strength to find a foothold to recover while slowly climbing up and driving." Xiao Wei, who thought she had rich experience in map opening, suffered a lot in Chushi Island.

As in the previous work, the actions of the characters in 'Wang Tears' are subject to the influence of weather and environment. Xiaowei wanted to go to the Snow Mountain Map to open a temple, but was trapped in front of a low mountain. "That mountain has a waterfall, and the character will automatically slide down when they climb it. I tried many times but couldn't get up. Because it's on the Snow Mountain, it will also automatically lose blood. I've finished my cold resistance food and I don't know how to get out of that broken snow mountain

Xiao Wei, who repeatedly stumbled at the foot of the mountain, was half angry, and her link remained on the Snow Mountain map forever. "After watching other people's videos, I feel like I will continue to suffer, so I just gave the machine back to my friend

This may be due to the sales model of both:Mobile games rely on internal purchases to make money. What it needs to do is to increase player stickiness. When the stickiness is high enough, Krypton gold becomes a natural thing, so it won't make the gaming experience difficult for players. Essentially, it is still a feeding style exploration; Host games, on the other hand, rely on playability and exploration to retain players. They encourage players to make wild attempts in the game, and successful attempts can generate a great sense of achievement.

This is why Wei Xiaowei, who also played the open world game and was invincible in Genshin Impact, suffered frequently in Wang Lei and even abandoned the game altogether.

In addition, console games do not have social attributes and rely solely on selling games and DLC to make money. The production team will invest a lot of effort in content volume, striving to provide players with a game that can be played repeatedly for a long time. Mobile game players, on the other hand, are accustomed to a fast-paced gaming experience.

"It takes about 7 to 8 hours to update the version of Genshin Impact every time, and it takes nearly 200 hours to collect the whole version of Wang Lei, which is too long."

As a "double burden" player, YOYO said that she feels that the current domestic player community has a special sense of eager for quick success and instant benefits. "In 2017, when I played picnics, there were no online strategies, and everyone was exploring on their own. It was indeed a bit difficult for beginners, but as I explored, I found joy

Perhaps due to the influence of mobile games, players now have a feeling of playing games in the form of homework. It is important to have all the treasure boxes, all the collections, and all the branches, and there will be a leader feeding video online as soon as possible. After running around, you will get the props or something, but the fun of the game will also disappear

Handover based gaming has little impact on mobile games that have version changes every other time. But for console games, it is deadly.The original process of discovering fun in slow exploration was compressed, and it was difficult to have any feelings for game IP after the task was completed after the anchor went through all the way.

Although when it comes to "money," Nintendo fans always resent it and argue that "Ren Ren is not a company that only wants to make money. But it must be admitted that, according to the financial reports, Nintendo, founded in 1889, has reached a critical moment again.

Just three days before the release of 'Wang Tears', on May 9th, Nintendo released its annual financial report for the fiscal years 2022 to 2023, with a revenue of 1601.6 billion yen (currently approximately 82.162 billion yuan), a year-on-year decrease of 5.5%; The operating profit was 504.3 billion yen (currently approximately 25.871 billion yuan), a year-on-year decrease of 14.9%. Nintendo's explanation for this is that the decline in software and hardware sales of its flagship product Switch is a result.

Although Switch is one of the world's best-selling consoles, it has sold 115.62 million units so far. But the two consecutive years of declining sales have proven that this console has reached the end of its lifecycle.Its inherent performance lags behind, and even to some extent affects the performance of exclusive games on the console.

I can't bear it anymore, it just drops frames and the picture makes me blind. If there are any flaws in 'Wang Tears', then the quality of the picture is just a slight flaw in the white jade.

As the ninth generation Nintendo game console, compared to its old rivals Sony and Microsoft, Switch's performance is clearly lagging behind the times. The TegraX1SoC chipset carried by the Switch is an old guy almost 10 years ago, with a 720P/1080P graphics quality, which is obviously a bit sorry for monopolizing the quality of the game.

As mentioned earlier, Nintendo's sales logic is to create high-quality gaming IPs and leverage games to drive sales of consoles and other hardware. However, based on the performance of Nintendo's series of exclusive games in recent years and the stimulation of hardware sales, it can be seen that there are not many trumps in the hands of Mr. Ren.

In 2020, there was a wave of Switch console sales that was boosted by the release of "Moto Sen" and "Fitness Adventure". But these two games have a special background in driving console sales.

At that time, due to the impact of the epidemic, most people could only stay indoors, and the simple and easy game content of "Moto Sen" was like a soothing breeze, and it hardly required any operation, making it easy to get started. Therefore, the sales of the Switch increased; The popularity of "Fitness Ring" is directly related to home exercise.

Considering the difficulty of getting started and the requirements for operation, the advantages of "Wang Tears" are not even as good as these two games, which focus on a relaxed and family friendly atmosphere. In addition, with the current home ban no longer in place, many people no longer need to rely on rich console games to pass the time.

Nintendo is not without considering other ways to make money. In 2016, "Father of Mario" Miyamoto made a high-profile appearance at Apple's press conference, stating that Ren would enter the mobile gaming industry, with his first game being "Mario World: Parkour". After this game was launched, it became the most popular mobile game among believers.

Perhaps the host manufacturer does not have the so-called mobile game genes, and Nintendo's subsequent mobile games are mostly thunderous, with little impact, and continue the old Ren's consistent philosophy. Nintendo mobile games do not set gold points, and they want to stand up and earn this money. Interestingly, Nintendo collaborated with mobile gaming giant Cygames to create 'Lost Dragon Covenant'. Due to player feedback forcing Krypton, Old Ren even came forward to find Cygames and proposed to increase the drop rate.

Abandoning mobile games, Nintendo can only play the exclusive game IP in its hands. However, it is not difficult to find from market feedback that,The sales of hardware that ace IP can leverage are limited, especially when Switch, an old horse, is almost unable to pull a new car.

However, Nintendo itself does not feel that it is time for Switch to change its generation, even if its performance declines,President Gu Chuan still insists that "there will be no hardware upgrades in the new fiscal year, and the Switch is still in the middle of its lifecycle, and there will be no new hardware plans".

At that time, Nintendo's console sales were poor, and the Switch, which focused on the whole family, broke through, opening up a new situation for the incumbent. The exclusive game led by 'Zelda' makes this story for consumers fuller and more attractive.

Now that Nintendo has reached a critical moment, when can we come up with a new story?

This article is from WeChat official account: Prophet Youbao (ID: yuyanjiayoubao), written by Mao Lina

This content is the author's independent viewpoint and does not represent the Tiger Smell stance. Reproduction is not allowed without permission. For authorization matters, please contact [email protected]