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Text / Jiang Jiang
Source: bad review (ID: chaping321)
Just a few days ago, “Candy Bliss” (belonging to the “Candy Legend” series) officially ceased operations due to the expiration of the agency contract.
The game’s server and official website are also officially closed.
Because it only entered China in 2014, and it is not very popular, so for our domestic players, this game is somewhat unfamiliar.
But in fact, compared with major IPs such as “World of Warcraft” and “Call of Duty”, which are also owned by Activision Blizzard, no matter whether you are the world’s first MMORPG or North American CF, it is hard to say that you can do this mobile game.
How explosive is this game?
Let’s just say, the “Candy Crush Saga” franchise has topped the US App Store grossing charts for 19 consecutive quarters.
Take the recent first-quarter earnings report from Activision Blizzard as an example.
Among them, Blizzard’s revenue was $274 million, and Activision’s revenue was $453 million. The main game is King, a subsidiary of the Candy Crush franchise, with $682 million in revenue.
Therefore, in terms of revenue, Blizzard + Activision can barely match the mobile game of Xiaoxiaole.
And because this game is very popular among middle-aged and elderly people.
Many reddit brothers will also go on Crazy Match Mom and show off their mom’s “Candy Crush Saga” level.
All kinds of memes are also full.
But it is such a match-3 game that is popular all over the world, but it has not tasted much sweetness in China, and has encountered some difficulties.
However, the suspension of the national service of “Candy Fun” does not mean that this type of match-3 game is not popular in China.
But the domestically produced Xiao Xiao Le, such as “Happy Xiao Xiaole” and “Everyday Love Elimination”, which have similar gameplays, have become more popular.
For example, “Happy Xiaoxiaole” has been launched for 8 years, and there are still about 100 million monthly active users. And now that Xiaofa is writing the manuscript, some colleagues are secretly playing match-3 games, catching fish under everyone’s noses.
In addition, maybe the same world, the same mother, like the mother of the reddit buddies, the mothers of most colleagues in the editorial department are also deeply attracted by the madness of match-3 games.
Xiaofa’s mother even used to play Xiaoxiaoxiao in the quilt, and was found playing until the early hours of the morning. . . It can only be said that humans cannot live without match 3 games, just as the West cannot live without Jerusalem.
But in fact, the addictive match-3 game is not a new type of game that has only appeared in the past few years.
In the beginning, it was not what it is now.
Because since its birth, it has actually been secretly evolving for twenty or thirty years.
Just looking at the age, it is not an exaggeration to call it a living fossil in the video game world.
The story goes back to the game “Tetris” designed by Soviet engineers in 1984.
I won’t say much about this game. As one of the greatest video games in the world, the title of “the originator of the elimination game” must be his.
With the gameplay mechanism of Tetris in the past, all kinds of magic modified Tetris appeared soon after.
In 1989, a game called Columns came out, which made the blocks of Tetris have different colors.
Other gameplay and operations are similar to Tetris, but it needs to be connected to three of the same color before it can be eliminated.
The concept of “match three” finally appeared in video games.
A few years later, a real veteran of the match-3 game world, Shariki, was born.
Seeing the interface below, the gameplay of the game should not need to be introduced by Xiaofa. The real match-3 fans should already be swiping the screen.
It can be said that in terms of core gameplay and operation, it is no different from the match-3 games on the market today.
But as the saying goes, one step ahead is a pioneer, and two steps ahead is a martyr.
Although Shariki has a wide-ranging influence in the game industry, it was not the match-3 game that finally brought the match-3 game to the world.
It was the Baokai company established in 2001. Yes, it was the Baokai company that later made Zuma and Plants vs. Zombies.
At that time, Baokai planned to carry out micro-innovation on Shariki’s game, plus the special effect of explosion when eliminating.
But because they are all the same shape, the special effects are even more dazzling.
They had an idea and replaced the monotonous circles with gems of different shapes and colors.
Bejeweled, the epoch-making match-3 game, was born.
Although in the early days, Bejeweled was almost sold to Microsoft by Popeye for $50,000.
But fortunately, Microsoft did not know the goods and refused the deal. Finally in a decade or so, the Bejeweled series easily sold over 50 million copies.
Bejeweled also caught up with the smartphone era, and around 2007, it became one of the first games to be downloaded on the Apple App Store.
A few years later, the number of downloads on the entire network easily exceeded 100 million.
Interestingly, in 2011, just after Microsoft turned down a $50,000 order, EA paid $1.3 billion to acquire Podcast.
And “Bejeweled” was also successfully inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame, known by everyone as “Gone with the Wind” in the video game industry
In the post “Bejeweled” era, the “Candy Crush Saga”, “Happy Xiaoxiaole”, “Everyday Love Elimination”, etc. mentioned by Xiaofa earlier took over the big stick of match-3 games.
They add various elements of adventure, decryption, collection, role-playing, etc., and match-3 games with simple rules are instantly more playable.
In addition, the game flow of each level is very short now, and you can start a game at any time and pause at any time.
So squatting on the toilet, taking a bus, and playing fragmented time anytime, anywhere can be well used.
In addition, in terms of krypton gold, compared with some games that have to rush to 648 at every turn, these match 3 games have lower payment thresholds.
There is really no way to pass the level, simply buy a prop and buy some steps, generally only less than 30 yuan. (These games are literally thousands of levels)
In general, these match-3 games are simple and addictive, with low payment thresholds, and can be played anytime, anywhere, and huge numbers of users and countless tickets flock to them.
OPPO also announced an interesting statistic, saying that players over the age of 30 in “Happy Xiaoxiaole” account for the majority.
Moreover, the recharge amount of the post-60s is actually 3 times that of the post-00s.
Of course, these data do not mean that match-3 games are only suitable for middle-aged and elderly people.
Xiaofa thinks it shows that middle-aged and elderly people actually have the need to play games. The fun and low threshold of match-3 games just satisfy them.
Another digression, after Activision Blizzard’s “Candy Bliss” national service closed.
Instead, it is a group of Hearthstone players who are reluctant to bear it.
Because Activision Blizzard was promoting “Candy Bliss” and Hearthstone in a linkage.
The content is probably that after clearing the 15th level of “Candy Fun”, you can get 6 gold card packs.
Because the rewards are really rich and the linkage activities don’t last long, Hearthstone players who are afraid of missing out, directly sent “Candy Fun” to the top of the list of multiple app stores on the same day.
There are still some people who have entered the pit of candy because of this event of Hearthstone.
In his mouth, he was also muttering “confused words” such as “playing Hearthstone is fun, but if you really want to play Candy Fun”.
This time the Candy Blossoms National Service was closed, and this group of people was blown out, recalling their youth.
This may be the charm of match-3 games.
In addition to the match-3 games mentioned above, there are actually many “match-3+” games on the market.
For example, the combination of match-3 and dress-up.
There is a combination of match-3 and doomsday survival.
There are also match 3 + text adventures. . . .
As a living fossil of the video game circle, match-3 games are now taking root and spreading, with many descendants.
I probably won’t be surprised if there are some strange things like Match 3 + MOBA and Match 3 + FPS in the future.
In the end, let’s not say anything, just hope that more excellent match-3 games can continue to overcome difficulties and pass the test.
Of course, it would be even better if three misspelled words in a row can be automatically eliminated when writing an article.
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