Can Houchangcun's "Goose Goose Duck" break the game with differentiation?

Text by Liu Shiwu

On September 28th, the Chinese mainland server of the mobile game Goose Goose Duck, which is licensed by Kingsoft World Games, officially launched a new round of testing.

This party game, which once set a record of 700,000 concurrent online players on the Steam platform, has finally entered the Chinese market with a new look and achieved 6 million pre - registrations across the internet.

It's worth noting that this Chinese mainland server is not a PC - ported version, but a deeply localized version that Kingsoft World Games developed based on code - level cooperation.

01

In the Houchangcun area in the northwest of Beijing, there used to be a group of early pioneers in the Chinese game industry. Not long ago, 36Kr Games met Liu Yi, the vice - president of Kingsoft World Games, at the company's headquarters located in the Xiaomi Science and Technology Park.

As a game company independent from the Kingsoft system, when talking about the company's positioning, Liu Yi admitted that this company with the characteristics of an "old team with a new brand" is striving to find its place in the new round of reshuffle in the game industry.

The Beijing game industry has gone through several distinct development stages. In the early days, Kingsoft Software became a flag - bearer for domestic games with products like Sword and Fairy. Later, companies such as Perfect World and Changyou rose with client - based games, making Beijing a major game industry hub on par with Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places.

However, with the advent of the mobile internet era, the Beijing game industry has faced fierce competition from southern companies. Against this backdrop, the Kingsoft Group reorganized its game business.

According to Liu Yi, in 2020, the group split and integrated studios across the country, forming two game - related companies: Xishanju and Kingsoft World Games. The latter focuses on "international or more trendy content".

The first key IP project that Kingsoft World Games chose is Goose Goose Duck, a game that was once popular in the global PC game market.

According to the 2024 Mobile Game Market Report released by data.ai, in 2023, party games saw growth in three indicators: user spending, downloads, and active users, with the revenue growth reaching as high as 84.4%. Big - company party mobile games such as Egg Party and Meta Dream Stars have long ranked high in major app stores.

Choosing Goose Goose Duck can save some market education costs. However, the original game is an overseas PC game that has been on the market for four years. It's not easy to cultivate a mobile - user group in the highly competitive domestic market.

02

When major domestic top - tier streamers started playing Goose Goose Duck in 2022, Kingsoft World Games began communicating with the Canadian studio Gaggle about IP licensing.

In terms of the IP cooperation model, Kingsoft World Games proposed a "code - level cooperation" plan. Different from ordinary licensing, Kingsoft World Games hopes to obtain the original code and art resources for in - depth localized development. Although this cooperation model increases the upfront investment, it lays the foundation for long - term operation.

In terms of the operation strategy, Kingsoft World Games has adopted a simultaneous promotion approach for game products, variety show content, and offline scenarios. Liu Yi said that the company started preparing a Goose Goose Duck - themed variety show called "Goose Awards" during the game's testing period to achieve differentiation in content - based operation and expand the influence of Goose Goose Duck beyond just playing the game.

"The main gameplay of Goose Goose Duck has actually been copied by many domestic sandbox games," Liu Yi said. "So we have to re - develop the product to adapt to the domestic market environment and meet the players after thorough preparation."

After obtaining the IP license and code - level cooperation permission, Kingsoft World Games spent nearly three years developing the mobile version, planning the variety show, and arranging offline scenarios. This is also one of the reasons why the game started large - scale testing this year.

In terms of the commercialization path, based on the above - mentioned content operation strategy, Kingsoft World Games has designed a three - stage development model: In the first stage, the core is game operation, with the goal of reaching one million DAU; in the second stage, derivative content such as variety shows and live - streaming content will be developed; in the third stage, offline scenarios and physical products will be expanded.

"This phased development strategy can help us control risks. Although our goal is still to make the IP last long, from a business perspective, it doesn't necessarily require high investment to achieve long - term success," Liu Yi said.

In addition to traditional indicators such as DAU and retention rate, Kingsoft World Games will also comprehensively assess the actual development and health of the Goose Goose Duck IP through indicators such as social communication index and content reproduction volume (P/UGC) to expand the IP's influence in a rhythmic manner with limited cost investment.

From the perspective of industry development trends, Kingsoft World Games' IP operation practice is not the first of its kind. In recent years, many game companies have been shifting from product operation to IP operation. For medium - sized companies like Kingsoft World Games, this may be an effective way to break through under the pressure of industry giants.

Against the backdrop of a saturated game user base and intensified market competition, deeply exploring user value through long - term IP operation may be more sustainable than pursuing short - term traffic.

At the Xiaomi press conference at the end of September, Lei Jun demonstrated playing classic mobile games on the back screen of the Xiaomi 17 Pro. Among them, Angry Birds is also one of the IPs fully licensed by Kingsoft World Games. Liu Yi said that IP operation will still be the main strategy for Kingsoft World Games in the future.

This article was first published on "36Kr Games".