After a year of brutal trials and tribulations, how can video games break the ice and be reborn in the cold winter?

After a year of rapid development, TV games have also planted many hidden dangers. Factors such as crude games without substantial content, uncontrolled charging nodes and an immature market environment have caused the TV game industry to enter a cold winter period.

At the beginning of last year, there were 110 third-party TV game halls, just like the overwhelming P2P and O2O projects at that time. By the end of the year, P2P competitions ran away, O2O fell one after another, and there were only about 20 third-party TV game halls left. Similarly, after a year of brutal reshuffle, a large number of CPs disappeared. Any CP who entered the TV game industry with the idea of ​​making a quick buck without carefulness and patience will inevitably fail to adapt to this environment.

However, for those who still want to try their luck in this industry, after a year of exploration, 2016 will surely be a watershed year for changes in TV games if they want to move forward smoothly.

High-quality content remains the primary development

By the end of 2015, TV games had been subdivided into five major categories: "client games, web games, mobile games, stand-alone games, and TV games." However, after a year of development, TV game content has become a mixed bag, with low-quality mobile game ports and plagiarized foreign games becoming common.

Looking back at 2015, the industry launched 60 TV games developed for large screens, and there were countless low-quality mobile games adapted and ported, but they still could not meet the needs of users. For users, overly crude games seem to be less effective than mobile games. From the platform's annual performance, content above A level is less than 5%, and AAA-level games are even missing, and the range of user choices has become very narrow.

Under such circumstances, Liu Yudong, CEO of Jixiangniao, believes that Android TV games cannot be compared with consoles, and should focus on leisure and entertainment in terms of content, vigorously develop high-quality games, and win over mass users. TV games are different from consoles. Although heavy games are favored by many players, they are limited by the average hardware processing power and the ability and experience of developers. Therefore, it is best to satisfy the tastes of the public with high-quality content.

At this stage, except for a few players who still support heavy games, TV games are mostly aimed at families with elderly and young children. The level is already very clear. Therefore, the demand for games related to children's education and film, television and animation on large-screen smart TVs has increased. Using well-known IPs and high-quality games as core content to attract users may become the primary goal of current game manufacturers.

Video games are still exploring

The growing living room economy has made video games a popular target for many people. However, the process of exploring this unclear virgin land is still bumpy.

For most people, smart TVs are the continuation of Android phones, and Android TV games are the ported versions of mobile games. This has caused manufacturers who have just entered this field to take a big detour. At the same time, after a year of reshuffle, many channels and platforms have withdrawn one after another, and with the emergence of problems such as the popularization of hardware peripherals, the development of TV games has gradually entered a bottleneck period.

According to Shengjian Network, TV games have not entered a real cold winter period. Valuable distributors still exist and user activity has not decreased. It is understood that the daily user activity of Shengjian Network was as high as 260,000 last year, and it has risen to about 300,000 this year. The game's next-day retention rate has reached 40%. But why is the development of TV games so difficult? The problem is that there is a deviation in user perception and development strategy.

At this stage, Android TV games are still downloaded for free, and users do not have a strong concept of payment. When hardware manufacturers like LeTV talk about TV games, although they are proud to have 1.43 million game users, paying users only account for 1.47%. This is also the sequelae caused by many manufacturers copying the "free + props fee" payment method of mobile games and forcibly adding many unreasonable charging points.

In response to this, many operators and platforms have begun to adopt new payment methods. For example, the monthly subscription model and membership system of the Aiyouxi platform. Shengjian Network has also added a "free + advertising" mechanism on the basis of "paid props". Whether such changes can truly affect users' payment concepts remains to be seen, but it can be said that today's TV game manufacturers are indeed beginning to change.

In terms of hardware peripherals, TV game manufacturers currently adopt two adaptation modes: one is simple operation adaptation of remote controllers, and the other is fine adaptation of game controllers. Although many manufacturers believe that game controllers, as standard products for TV games, will inevitably be valued by players as TV games become popular, the penetration rate of hardware peripherals in 2015 is only about 7%, of which game controllers only account for 3%.

However, Xu Jianjiong, vice president of Huanzhong Technology, said that with the continuous upgrade of hardware devices such as TVs, the game content and difficulty will gradually increase, and the operation of the game will also drive the sales of controllers. Therefore, Huanzhong will give priority to controller operation while promoting heavy games. Huanzhong also stated that it will make multiple changes in payment to adapt to the development of TV games at this stage.

At the same time, hardware manufacturers such as LeEco and Xiaomi have also expressed their willingness to give profits to TV game developers to stimulate their enthusiasm for TV game development, and models such as first-release exclusivity, which are common in mature markets, have also begun to be adopted by TV games. To be fair, TV games seem to have gone out of a stage of aimless exploration, and a planned and methodical development concept has gradually taken shape in the industry.

VR is a good thing but it is not considered at this stage

2016 is considered the first year of VR. With the emergence of the three major VR devices, many game manufacturers have joined the VR army. For TV game manufacturers, after the fierce competition, can the transformation to VR bring a glimmer of hope?

Among them, Liu Yudong, CEO of Jixiangniao, said that although VR can drive the development of the gaming industry, VR games are not the direction that TV games are considering at this stage.

From the perspective of TV games, there are not too many technical difficulties. Hardware is not a limiting factor for TV games. After all, many domestic manufacturers have made considerable achievements in hardware. The main reason is that CPs and operators do not have a good business operation model at this stage. Without reaching a mature condition, VR will not bring much benefits to the TV game industry. Many game manufacturers such as Shengjian and Huanzhong have expressed great interest in this and have plans, but they have no intention of considering it now.

Today, although the development of the TV game industry is not as hot as in early 2015, after a year of adjustment and refinement, the TV game market has gradually stabilized. With the joint efforts of many people, perhaps TV games have already laid a solid foundation, waiting for an opportunity to move forward quickly.

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.