Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 432 Watching TV Together
If we were to name the most influential company in Japan this October, Hoshino would undoubtedly be number one; some media outlets have even described the "Hoshino craze" as a "social phenomenon."

The reason for this "discussion" is

This is because October is indeed the most "active" month for StarCraft games in Japan in the past two years.

Let's start with the core gameplay.

On October 18th, the same day that Azur Lane was launched.

There was a brief period on the Japanese game sales charts where Azur Lane was number one, FGO was number two, and Final Battle was number three, a bizarre situation where the top three spots were all occupied by one company.

Although this period did not last long, by the 19th, Monster Strike, which was ranked fourth, overtook Final Battle. After the new version of Puzzle & Dragons was released, it briefly climbed to fourth place again, pushing Final Battle to fifth place.

But no matter what.

It's an exaggeration to say that one company can dominate the top three spots on a country's best-selling game charts.

Even if we look at the entire rankings, Honkai Impact 3, which is ranked ninth in the top ten, is also a game distributed by Starry Sky.

It's no exaggeration to say that in Japan, StarCraft has gradually acquired the "semi-monopolistic" quality that Tencent has in China.

However, the feeling is actually quite different. After all, Tencent is still a Chinese company, and it is a local company in China.

For Japan, StarCraft is a genuine overseas company, and its influence extends beyond mobile games. By October of this year, Titok had been dominating the charts for several consecutive months.

A few days ago, Star Tap also released a poster, and its installation count in Japan has exceeded 20 million.

At this point, it's quite normal for the media to be "uneasy" every day, touting the "space threat theory" and claiming that "Japanese companies will be finished if they don't pull themselves together."

Especially after the huge success of the FGO remake and the subsequent rise of Azur Lane, titles such as "digital behemoth from China" have appeared in the media from time to time.

Some media outlets have directly compared StarCraft Games to Perry's fleet that opened Japan's doors more than a century ago, describing StarCraft Games' dominance on the bestseller list as "cultural colonization" of the Japanese game industry.

The article lamented that young people in Japan are becoming increasingly entangled in the gentle trap woven by "Chinese capital," losing their love and support for their own cultural products.

Between the lines, there is a sense of tragic grandeur, as if the nation is in peril.

The article concludes with a warning that if Japanese companies do not unite and learn this efficient business model, they will completely lose their qualification to compete with StarCraft in the future.

But the most absurd thing is that it's the same newspaper.

One second they were criticizing StarCraft in the business section, but when they flipped to the lifestyle and entertainment section, they published a special report on Azur Lane.

This week's hottest trends! Start your new shipgirl daily life with Azur Lane!

Such reports of schizophrenia are not unique to any particular media outlet.

In Japan, you can open any website at random.

The previous article was titled "The Star Empire's Overt Scheme: A 'Talent Black Hole' Beneath High Welfare."

This serious analysis reveals how StarCraft's Japanese branch offered generous salaries to poach local Japanese game talent "regardless of cost," causing many small and medium-sized enterprise projects to stall and issuing a warning that "the foundation of the industry is being shaken."

The next news item recommended by the system might be about Lenovo.

Exclusive Interview with Chu Chen, a Legendary Game Producer of the New Era

Chu Chen could completely understand the contradictory mindset of the Japanese media.

On the one hand, Xingchen's rapid rise in a short period of time has indeed impacted their inherent sense of superiority, triggering vigilance and unease among the local elite class.

Promoting the "Star Threat" theory certainly has a market, generates traffic, and attracts attention. On the other hand, Star Threat is also one of the most generous advertisers in the Japanese market today.

From game promotion to platform marketing and corporate image advertising, Starry Sky's budget is only slightly above average, but the money comes in quickly and the requirements are not too many.

In the face of commercial interests, the so-called "cultural dignity" and "industrial crisis" seem to have become less important.

Criticism aside, money still needs to be made.

This phenomenon actually proves that Xingchen's influence in the Japanese market has become so great that they can neither ignore it nor refuse it.

These seemingly negative "threats" actually confirmed StarCraft's success from another angle, and even became another form of "free advertising," making more Japanese people who originally didn't care about the gaming industry aware of this "digital behemoth from China."

This noise is not a bad thing for the stars; on the contrary, it is beneficial.

Even so, to be fair...

Japanese media have been reporting on and praising Hoshino for quite some time now.

They are the "atmosphere group," but they are not the core of the "Starry Night Fever" atmosphere that formed in October of this year.

What truly sparked the "Starry Night Craze" phenomenon in Japan was the official broadcast of the variety show of the same name as "FGO: Feast of the False Believers" last Saturday, the 19th.

Just like in the past, collaborations between anime and manga games could occasionally shake up the real-world industries.

The show premiered on TV Tokyo on Saturday night, garnering a staggering 12% viewership rating, leaving a huge number of people stunned.

What does this number mean?
In Japan today, prime-time television ratings generally hover between 11% and 14%, with well-known programs like "Chat 007" reaching 15% and "Ariyoshi Forum" at 13%.
Looking at it this way, it seems that FGO's 12% viewership rating isn't that great; it's just average for a prime-time show.

But the problem is, this is prime time on TV Tokyo!
Nowadays, TV Tokyo either shows anime or shopping commercials.

The highest-rated drama on TV Tokyo in 2017 was the New Year's Eve special of "The Solitary Gourmet," a fairly popular series, but it only achieved a 9% viewership rating.
In other words, not a single program on TV Tokyo has achieved a viewership rating of 10% since the beginning of the year.
And you are a “brand new” show.

It's no exaggeration to say that when people in the Japanese television industry received this ratings report, their first reaction was exactly the same as that of the top executives at TV Tokyo.

"Is there something wrong with this data?!"

It's not surprising that they think that way.

After all, TV Tokyo's prime time slot doesn't have much "popularity" to begin with (meaning not many people watch what's on TV Tokyo's prime time slot because they're all watching other TV stations' prime time slots).

Furthermore, this project isn't a super project featuring any national-level celebrities; it's merely a spin-off variety show based on a two-dimensional mobile game.

Even with the participation of the popular idol group Nogizaka46, it wouldn't be this exaggerated.

This mentality is not something Chu Chen can solve by throwing money at it. In their view, while Nogizaka46's popularity can certainly bring a certain base of viewers to the show, the appeal of variety shows is another matter.

If a group of idols collaborates with a game IP and achieves a 5% viewership rating, it would be considered a huge success.

A mere 12% viewership rating! ???
That's so weird!!

Soon, people began to study how Xingchen had done it. Once they started to study it, they quickly discovered that Xingchen had indeed put in a lot of effort and implemented many traffic-generating measures.

First of all, putting aside the usual publicity and promotion, in order to boost viewership, Starry Night delayed its online broadcast this time.

The program will be broadcast on Bilibili and the official Star Channel on YouTube two days after it airs on television, ensuring the maximum guarantee of the audience base of the television premiere.

Secondly, and most importantly, the Star Tap and the Japanese Titok, the official FGO account, launched the "Watch TV Together" event.

(End of this chapter)