Over the past few years, Hyper-casual games have dominated the game market, experiencing rapid growth and capturing a substantial share. Its low user bundling, low difficulty in getting started and wide audience have become the necessary factors for the rise of Hyper-casual games. However, as the genre has matured and progressed, it has now embarked on a new phase since 2022—the latter half. This transition has not gone unnoticed by numerous game publishers who are acutely aware of this shifting landscape.
Hyper-casual Games Facing Dominance: Are Leading Publishers Taking a Slice of the Pie?
In May 2023, Sunday Games, a prominent publisher specializing in Hyper-casual games, hosted an insightful speech titled Unraveling the Dilemma of Hyper-casuals delivered by their esteemed co-founder, Christoph Sachsenhausen. The address provided a comprehensive analysis of the evolving trends within the Hyper-casual genre. It showed that in the first quarter of 2022, the number of new games into Top 100 decreased by 36%, the total downloads of new games decreased by 57%, and the average number of downloads per new game saw a decline of 33%. From the data, we can gather insights indicating that a number of renowned games launched by prominent publishers have consistently dominated the charts, capturing a significant portion of the market share within this particular category. This trend further implies the entry of Hyper-casual games into the stock market, resulting in heightened competition for newly released games.
During the latter half of the established pattern of hyper-casual games, game publishers' business strategies started to undergo a silent transformation. Kwalee, a renowned British game publisher that has long focused on Hyper-casual games and reaped substantial profits from its successful title "Go Fish," is now shifting away from this category. The company believes that the cost of acquiring traffic for Hyper-casual games has been steadily increasing, making it economically unviable to continue their development.
Notably, Voodoo, coinciding with the rapid surge of Hyper-casual games, has also formally announced its departure from the research, development, acquisition, and distribution of such games. Instead, they plan to allocate a significant portion of their resources towards mixed-genre games in order to mitigate the competitive risks associated with Hyper-casuals. In the past, Voodoo achieved considerable success in the Hyper-casual market by acquiring exceptional games from individual developers. However, even with minimal investment requirements, Voodoo is no longer willing to remain involved in this domain.
Nevertheless, the low development and acquisition costs associated with Hyper-casual games no longer guarantee an easy influx of traffic in the stock market. The strategy of launching numerous games with the hope that one would become a blockbuster has now evolved into a high-stakes gamble for game publishers.
Heynext Shuns Conventional Methods: Forging Ahead on the Boutique Path of the Hyper-casual Stock Market
The ease of generating profits from Hyper-casual games has emerged as the primary incentive for numerous game publishers to enter this arena. However, when considering the cost aspect, the simplified operation of rapid creation and release grants Hyper-casual games the distinct advantage of low expenses minimal production efforts, and substantial profitability.
Similar to all stock markets, Contrary to popular belief, the Hyper-casual game market is not stagnating; Instead, it is transitioning towards a more refined trajectory. Amidst the flood of thousands or even millions of game releases each day, Hyper-casual games are relying on users' preferences to identify and choose high-quality products that offer superior creativity, graphics, design, and gameplay mechanics. In essence, these premium Hyper-casual games possess the inherent qualities of blockbusters within this category. Unfortunately, many publishers misconstrue this shift as a decline and hastily abandon their efforts within this specific sphere.
In contrast to other publishers, Heynext, a company specializing in boutique game development, has not relinquished its position in this fiercely competitive market. Heynext does not associate Hyper-casual games solely with low costs or minimal production. In terms of artistic design, creativity, and gameplay mechanics, Heynext willingly allocates significant resources comparable to those invested in large-scale games. Their approach involves high input and output, aiming to create a series of timeless classics.
As a fast-growing global interactive entertainment game company with boutique game development as the core, Heynext seamlessly integrates creative planning, art design, technology research and development, product development, global game promotion, and operation and maintenance. At the R&D level, Heynext allocates a significant proportion of its investment, allowing for the swift establishment of an experienced and skilled R&D team. In terms of strategic positioning, Heynext has devised an efficient approach to concurrently pursue multiple R&D projects, thereby ensuring its competitive edge in terms of efficiency.
Based on the creative basis of “Big IP”, it also makes Heynext more attractive and aesthetic in terms of creativity and art design.Naturally, leveraging "Big IP" also imposes higher expectations on Heynext's art design capabilities. The picture quality and character dynamic effects are comparable to the high-level UI design of Hollywood blockbusters, distinguishing it as a prominent characteristic of their gaming experiences.
Regardless of the investment cost in R&D, art design and other aspects, Heynext has gained the love of 100 million players around the world. Up to now, Heynext has successfully developed hundreds of online games, encompassing various genres such as role-playing, simulation, war strategy, casual competition, and more. Through the dual support of artistic style and a commitment to delivering high-quality products, Heynext’s business scope covers Greater China and extends to North America, Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia and other regions. By maintaining a steadfast dedication to cultivating Hyper-casual games while expanding their presence, Heynext is poised to become a key player in the global game production field in the near future.