As a business owner myself in the anime and video game industry and someone who has worked with multiple companies in said industry, moreso than revenue itself, customer retention and new customer acquisition are arguably the most important numbers that indiciate sustainability and growth of an IP or company.
It is extremely concerning to see that the amount of downloads for Love and Deepspace has gone from 50,000 or so at the time of Valko's announcement to under 20,000, even as low as 5,000 downloads a day. following his cancellation. Keep in mind these numbers are from the CN side, not even including global's numbers, which for some countries, the app isn't even in Top 100 or 200 or even ranking anymore.
Looking at the CN download data alone, that is almost a 90% decline in new downloads percentage, which is a huge warning regarding the game's player base and the game's sustainability.
In order for a live service gacha game to sustain and continue growth, they MUST find new ways to innovate and gain new players. This would have been possible with Valko as he is a new character that could attract customers who were previously not interested in the game to then compel them to download and try it out. It is especially important to note that releasing a new in-game character would be easy to garner audience adjacent players, aka, female players.
However, following the statement of no more new characters ever, it is going to be very difficult for the game to attract new customers with the remaining five characters. Why you ask? Well, if the current characters had not attracted new customers previously, what would they need to do to then attract more players?
I think that if Love and Deepspace chooses to not release Valko, the only way they can attract new customers is by doing collaborations with other IPs, such as Genshin Impact, Final Fantasy, Overwatch, Fortnite, etc.
However, the player base is extremely different and not always female oriented, hence why I mentioned the importance of audience adjacent female players above, so even doing collaborations will be a significant challenge for this game, especially with the current audience reception regarding the game's communication and reputation.
If they don't do new collaborations with other IPs, then they will have to push more for content creator marketing with large Vtubers or streamers, but that alone would not be enough to raise the game back to its previous numbers in the long run.
Another alternative will be to do more risque content, but seeing as China has strong censorship rules following their stick figure marketing campaigns for "Lingering Lust," even that will be difficult to push out more of that similar content. Also, they would want to avoid over saturating those types of risque content because it would feel stale after the same type of content is redone over and over.
Offering more in-game content, aside from a new character, could also possibly attract customers. However, they would have to really think about data optimization in this case because the game is simply far too large on phones. I personally think that having a console or PC version would be the easiest next step to get more customers to sign up.
If Papergames is comfortable with the current player base number and does not want to grow further, then continuing as is would be fine without Valko. But I doubt that is what they hope to achieve.
I hope they can figure out the current situation they're in and take the risk, re-release Valko, and see how much that will change in terms of revenue and new player acquisition. However, the decision ultimately lies with them.
#ValkoIsLoved #ValkoIsValuable
The good news we are seeing should serve only as hope. Keep pushing the boycott if you’re participating, keep posting about Valko, keep writing emails/tickets, keep pushing the trend. Make sure you spell the tags correctly & only use 3 to avoid spam filters!
#ValkoIsInnocent #ValkoIsLoved #ValkoIsValuable
The crash out over Taryn is good because he didn’t deserve this, but as you can see the trending has moved from Valko to other things . We keep derailing. you must always keep the topic on his cancellation while we discuss other things. don’t lose concentration. #ValkoIsLoved
this is a good read of a CN jiejie opinion regarding things surrounding Valko & infold silence on us. for those still holding on, thank you for your effort. there are still so much to do until infold address us again. keep fighting for Valko! #ValkoIsLoved #ValkoIsValuable #ValkoIs6thLI #BringValkoBack
@knightmary_ Just a few seconds of the trailer, and people are already jumping to conclusions. I think we should watch the whole thing before saying anything about it.
Sometimes it feels like our community is at each other’s throats, and it makes me sad.
Xavier. Rafayel. Zayne. Sylus. Caleb. Valko.
Every one of them resonates deeply with someone’s heart. Every one of them has fans who laugh, cry, save, and look forward to their stories.
We don’t have to choose between supporting one LI or another.
A healthier Love and Deepspace is one where every Love Interest receives care, investment, and the chance to shine.
I want all of them to succeed. Valko included. 🐺❤️
#ValkoIsLoved #ValkoIsValuable #BringBackValko
@leonohkennedy I don't think we should jump to conclusions based on just a few seconds of the trailer. We're doing exactly what the haters did when Valko was first revealed: making assumptions without knowing the full context
#ValkoIsLoved#BringBackValko#ValkoIsInnocent