Recently, Tencent announced that DNF mobile games will no longer be available on some Android app stores. DNF is one of Tencent's highest-grossing games, with estimates that it attracted 5 billion yuan in the first month of its launch. At the same time, "50% of Android channel games are on the shelves" on the hot search. An investigation by a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily found that at present, the download of games no longer relies on the app store, and the proportion of short videos, official websites and other channels is increasing. Industry insiders believe that the game industry is transforming from channel to product, but at present, games that have the ability to negotiate prices separately or even without Android channels are still rare, but this will guide the industry to better product content, not just marketing.
Android's share ratio is as high as 50%
According to the announcement released by Tencent Games, "due to the expiration of the contract, from June 20, DNF mobile games will no longer be available on some Android app stores". According to the announcement, subsequent players can still complete the update in the game, which means that there is no need to go to other channels to download it again. In addition, if the update is abnormal, you can go to the official website of the game to complete the download or update. "Due to the cooperation adjustment of some app stores, we recommend new players on Android to go to the official website of the game to download."
DNF stands for Dungeons & Warriors: Origins is a newbie game that has only been launched for a month. "Contract expiration" is not the real reason, although the announcement did not explain the real reason for the removal, but industry insiders generally believe that this is related to the higher commission of the Android mall, and a number of Tencent insiders also recognized this statement to the reporter of Beiqing Daily.
Huang Yimeng, CEO of XD Company and founder of TapTap, spoke out on his personal social media to support this approach, he said: "The domestic Android channel is really disgusting, not only will the shelf be divided into half of the income, but the official website package will also be replaced by various civet cats when it is installed, and it will be secretly replaced with a channel package that needs to be shared, so it is better to directly remove it from the shelves and only do the official website." Our company's "Let's Go Muffin" can run to the fourth best-selling without going to the channel, and DNF, which ranks first in the best-selling position, will not have pressure, and there is no need for the glory of kings and peace elites to go to the channel, and there is no reason to share the channel. ”
"Channel sharing" is a cliché, but the 50% figure still surprises many users. In other words, if you recharge a game downloaded from your own mobile app store, you need to be intercepted by 50% of the channel, and only give the other 50% to the game developer. Some developers said: "Because we rely on the amount given by the channel, otherwise the new game will not be able to run."
Some users said: "No wonder when the game is refunded, the game will let you find the app store, I thought before, what does it have to do with the app store, didn't I charge you all the money?" Now it seems that I was naïve. ”
Is channel king or product king?
In fact, DNF is not the first app to dare to say "no" to the channel.
In 2020, major game companies set off a round of revolt. At the beginning of 2021, Huawei Game Center issued an announcement, "Due to Tencent Games' unilateral major changes to the cooperation between the two parties at 17:57 on December 31, 2020, resulting in major obstacles to the continued cooperation between the two parties, after a cautious assessment by our judicial affairs, we had to suspend the relevant cooperation in accordance with Tencent's unilateral request and remove Tencent Games from the Huawei platform." In this regard, Tencent said: "Due to the failure to renew the agreement between Huawei's mobile game platform and our "Mobile Game Promotion Project Agreement" as scheduled, Tencent Games' related products were suddenly removed from the shelves in the early hours of this morning. At present, we are actively communicating and negotiating with Huawei's mobile game platform to restore it as soon as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience caused. ”
However, after negotiations between the two parties, Tencent's game-related products have soon been restored to the shelves of Huawei Game Center. It is reported that the two sides continued to maintain a 55-5 ratio at that time, and the contract period was 3 years.
In February 2021, in a conference call after the release of the 2020 financial report, NetEase CEO Ding Lei talked about the game share bluntly: "China's Android channel share is as high as 50%, and it is even about 20% more expensive than Apple, which is the most expensive and unhealthy in the world." ”
A number of games have bypassed the channel side
It's worth noting that there are already a number of games that have bypassed the Android channel. For example, the Android version of "Genshin Impact" is only downloaded on the official website, Bilibili and other channels, and is not available in app stores such as Huawei. "Awakening of Kingdoms" also said that because it could not reach an agreement on the terms of cooperation with Huawei and Xiaomi, it could not be launched on Huawei Game Center, Xiaomi Games and other channels.
According to incomplete statistics, the apps that currently publicly choose to bypass the Android app market include: "Ark of Tomorrow", "The Strongest Snail", "Singing Tide", "All-Star Street Ball Party", "Honkai: Star Dome Railway", "Xiaoice Ice Legend Nostalgic Clothes", "Sword of the Lily of the Valley", "In the Name of Shining", "Let's Go Muffin" and so on, all of which have chosen not to cooperate with channels.
Why do they have such confidence? Taking DNF as an example, it has continued to dominate the best-selling list for 26 days since it was launched on May 21, and a month after its launch, it has launched the super popular new classes "Sword Soul" and "Asura", and the first group book has also been officially launched. However, before such "commercialization has not really taken effect", the analysis of the "domestic two-dimensional mobile game observation" of the UP master of station B believes that the first-month turnover of DNF mobile games in the domestic market is predicted to reach more than 5 billion, almost locking in the most popular new games this year in advance. This number has almost caught up with Tencent's most popular mobile game "Glory of Kings" in history. According to the latest data released by Sensor Tower, "Rising Tide" ranked in the top 10 best-selling iPhone mobile games in China, Japan and South Korea, and "Let's Go Muffin" ranked 5th in the revenue growth list. In 2023, NetEase's "All-Star Street Ball Party" will choose to abandon traditional channels and only launch official servers, and also launch a "channel subsidy that is not on the shelves", giving "1.5 billion yuan" rebates to players.
It can be seen that at present, there are only a few games that are among the top in terms of downloads and revenue, and they have the confidence to call for the channel.
A person from a well-known domestic game company told a reporter from Beiqing Daily that at present, they choose not to put games on the channel, but will put traffic on the short video platform. "It's a small amount of money, and it's very accurate. We will take the initiative to cast to target customers, because we can choose the customer's age group, gender, region, and device when casting. The most important thing is to choose the range of interests, such as those who have clicked on relevant videos, or want to play games, almost all of them are target groups. ”
Xiao Rui, a user from Beijing, told a reporter from Beiqing Daily: "At present, a game I play every day is downloaded when I watch short videos. At that time, the broadcaster taught how to play this game in the video, which was very fun, and there was a link directly below to download. ”
The commission on the Android platform is higher than the "Apple tax"
Previously, the iOS in-app share known as the "Apple tax" has been complained about by many developers. It is understood that in the Apple App Store, most game apps are divided into "37 shares", that is, Apple charges 30% of the commission, and the developer takes 70%. Many leading developers think that the share is high, but in the Apple ecosystem, because downloads and recharges must go through Apple's App Store, this channel cannot be bypassed, so they "dare to be angry but dare not speak".
Previously, some consumers took Apple to court, arguing that Apple charged a high Apple tax when it had a dominant market position, which made most developers helpless to "different prices for the same product" and pass on the commission costs they bear to consumers, resulting in consumers buying the same kind of digital goods in the App Store at a significantly higher price than other app stores, seriously damaging the interests of Chinese consumers.
In this regard, Apple also said in court that Apple's commission is a reasonable compensation for the economic value that developers receive from the store on the shelves, and Apple does not charge Apple tax for all developers, only 15% commission for small businesses (with a total annual revenue of less than $1 million), and no commission for service products such as free downloads and free in-app purchases.
Apple also revealed that "charging commissions is a common practice in the industry, and the proportion of commissions charged by Apple is even lower than the proportion of joint operating expenses of platforms such as Huawei."
From this point of view, the commission of the domestic Android platform is higher than Apple's commission. It is understood that Tencent's own app treasure APP has a maximum of 55%, which is nearly 2 times Apple's share.
Due to Apple's download system, these vendors can't bypass Apple's App Store. Many manufacturers have also expressed their reluctance to pay the "apple tax".
More game makers may follow
"DNF removed from some Android platforms, marking the contradiction between the head game company and mobile phone manufacturers is completely table-topped, which is essentially a conflict of interests", TMT observer Gong Jinhui believes that in the past, the game industry presented a situation where CP (content provider) was weak and channel was strong, that is, the channel was king, and the game manufacturer Kuhuami OV and other "hard-core alliances" have been around for a long time, and the latter has taken up to half of the revenue.
Industry insiders said that the status of the channel was self-evident many years ago, in the era of mobile Internet, due to the single promotion channel, all kinds of mobile games are very dependent on the channel of the app store, and the app store has indeed become popular with many mobile games. Especially for some small games with serious homogenization, it can be said that whichever game is recommended by the app store is likely to live longer and better.
Gong Jinhui said that now, Tencent has openly fired a gun against the "hardcore alliance", and more game manufacturers may follow up in the future. First, the game industry is transforming from channel to product, as long as the product is good enough, even if it does not cooperate with the "hardcore alliance", it will not have much impact; Second, the emergence of new distribution platforms, the rise of super App platforms such as Douyin, WeChat and Kuaishou, so that many game companies see new distribution opportunities, Android app stores are no longer a rigid need for users to download games, adding more confidence to game companies to resist the "hardcore alliance".
The analysis said, "At this stage, if you want to imitate Genshin Impact and DNF and fly solo by yourself, there is a prerequisite that cannot be ignored - your game is good enough and your wings are hard enough. This brings everyone back to the same starting line, and that's the 'content is king' race.
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Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Wen Jing
Editor/Fan Hongwei