IP adaptation becomes a gimmick, and the cold winter of TV games has not yet dissipated

Shi Yuzhu once said: In the Internet era, there is no industry more profitable than games.

This is indeed the case. In the past decade, games have become the most profitable industry on the Chinese Internet. In 2015, the actual sales revenue of the Chinese game market (including client games, web games, social games, mobile games, stand-alone games, and TV games, etc.) reached RMB 140.7 billion. However, in this dazzling data, the Chinese TV game industry has always been at the bottom, with negligible industry presence. It has never experienced the endless expansion process from zero to one like the mobile games of the past, and has always been in a tepid standby state.

Originally, with the lifting of the domestic ban on game consoles in 2014, many entrepreneurs wanted to make something of themselves in this blue ocean. However, after a year of hard work and struggle, they withdrew from this market one after another with reluctance and disappointment. Video games also gradually turned from the previous blue ocean into a dead sea.

However, this is not a problem with Android smart TVs themselves. What deviation has caused the industry, which was once expected to flourish, to become so lifeless?

IP adaptation becomes a gimmick

In recent years, the linkage between film and games has been sought after by many game companies. Well-known IPs are adapted into games. TV game manufacturers will naturally not give up this money-making model, and some players are particularly looking forward to their favorite IPs being reproduced in TV games as soon as possible. But when the TV game manufacturers finished the reproduction, they surprised everyone. "Ultraman", you thought it was a game about beating monsters to save humans, but they made a parkour game with robots riding skateboards. Such a weird way of thinking in making games is really puzzling. Don't game planners ever follow the routine when making games?

In fact, anyone with a discerning eye can see that in this game of exchange, it is more about encouraging fans to repeat consumption than expanding the market and entertaining the public. The domestic TV game market always likes to go from one extreme to another. Just as we didn't pay attention to IP before, now major companies are frantically snatching and hoarding IP. Once the "concept" is hyped up, everyone is excited. As for the question of "good IP does not equal good game", no one will consider it at all.

In addition to this strange game thinking, the monotonous game mode is also one of the reasons. The current types of TV games are basically dominated by chess and card games and parkour games, and the game mode is too monotonous. Take parkour games as an example. Parkour games on TV are almost the same. Players can get in-game currency every time they run, and use these currencies to enhance player attributes or unlock new characters. But TV games do not focus on using players' fragmented time like mobile games, so long-term overly monotonous game content can easily make players bored with the game, which will make players less and less interested in TV games.

Although the above two problems have caused some loss of users for TV games, they have not caused any serious damage. The real culprit that has caused TV games to stagnate is the lack of content.

The transplant was a failure, and there was a serious lack of high-quality content

In 2014, as TV games were just emerging and content was relatively scarce, the few TV game production teams in China began to be favored by investors, and there was a phenomenon of queuing up to grab game teams. At that time, there was even a rumor that an excellent TV game team could be valued at 200 million US dollars.

Behind this madness, the industry's early restlessness and unrealistic expectations of monetization are reflected. From enthusiasm to disappointment. Because of the restlessness, the pursuit of "efficiency" has led almost all game developers to compete to port mobile games to large-screen TVs. Undoubtedly, porting is the fastest way to reopen the large-screen TVs. However, the so-called "efficiency" is actually a kind of rapid decay.

As the porting progressed smoothly, the content of TV games increased instantly and became more and more substantial, but for users, the ported game products were not attractive at all. From this perspective, after the great leap forward in porting, there was still a lack of truly interesting content in TV games, but this fatal lack was covered up by the massive amount of ported products. The real crisis of the industry was selectively ignored.

Although porting mobile games played a role in filling the content in the early days of the TV game industry, as time went on, problems such as excessive mobile game porting, homogenized products, and declining experience gradually emerged, so slowly, the enthusiasm of players also faded. The high development cost of real TV games, complex adaptation, and large packages have led to a serious shortage of TV game content at this stage. The scarcity of content has caused the market to stagnate, becoming a vicious circle, and the real breakthrough point is still the game content itself.

How can video games break the ice and be reborn?

After the capital boom in 2014-2015, and the reshuffle and capital winter in the first half of 2016, many TV game manufacturers have withdrawn, but a small number of TV game manufacturers still stick to the TV game camp. They believe that this is just a reshuffle in the industry and that TV games still have hope to rise. And with their continuous efforts, the quality of some TV games is constantly improving, and the frequency of porting mobile games is gradually decreasing, but even so, it still cannot save the public's view of TV games. To put it bluntly, the quality of TV games still has not reached the quality that players can recognize.

In this case, we can change our strategy and make some games with unique gameplay. As we all know, there are many games on Steam that succeeded with unique gameplay and creativity, such as Shovel Knight, Don't Starve, Stardew Valley, etc., with sales of tens of thousands and popularity not lower than 3A masterpieces. Or we can cater to the needs of the market and make some heavy games suitable for teenagers and children's games for early childhood education, which are ways to make TV games start again.

In addition, the development of TV game platforms is another area that needs to be strengthened urgently. After all, most manufacturers still focus on mobile game transplantation, which cannot fully reflect the living room, family and entertainment characteristics of TV games. Therefore, some games that can be tailored for family interactive entertainment can be participated by all family members. If the end game attracts gamers who are obsessed with games, and the mobile game attracts casual players who are bored and have low attention, the TV game carries all "players" who seek scenario-based and fun game experience. It can be embedded in everyone's life and become an indispensable part of the living room entertainment for men, women, young and old.

Although the current environment of TV games is not as good as expected, the lack of content and the gimmick of IP adaptation have slowed down the development of TV games. However, if TV game manufacturers can completely change their previous strategies and make conscientious games step by step, the future may change in the hands of these TV game manufacturers, but how to change depends on their understanding of the industry.

For the current video game industry, the cold winter has not yet dissipated, and whether it can no longer be idle is still an unknown, but if it wants to be reborn, it still needs the encouragement of many parties.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.