On August 6th, John Schulman, co-founder of OpenAI and long-time leader of the OpenAI reinforcement learning team and alignment research, announced his departure from OpenAI on Twitter and stated that he would be joining Anthropic, a competitor to OpenAI.

At the same time, Greg Brockman, co-founder and president of OpenAI, announced that he would be on leave until the end of the year.

According to TechCrunch, Peter Deng, vice president of product at OpenAI, has also reportedly resigned.

The departure of multiple executives and co-founders from OpenAI in less than a year has raised concerns about the company's future. This shakeup is drawing parallels to the challenges faced by companies in other sectors, including mobile marketing examples, where leadership changes can impact overall strategy and market positioning.

01. Regarding "Mini Games Going Overseas"

The rise of the mini games going overseas phenomenon is essentially the game industry's response and adaptation to the market's segmented demands. The concept of mini games refers to those game products that are designed to be simple, convenient, and provide a quick experience. They possess the following core characteristics:

1. Lightweight Design: Mini games typically have small installation packages, making them quick to download and install without taking up too much storage space.

2. Easy to Learn: These games often come with intuitive interfaces and simple rules, allowing new players to quickly get the hang of them without a lengthy learning curve.

3. Quick Experience: Mini games focus on providing a fast-paced gaming rhythm and instant gratification, allowing players to complete a game in a short amount of time, suitable for the fast-paced modern lifestyle.

4. Social Features: Many mini games have built-in social functions, supporting players to share their scores and invite friends via social platforms, thus achieving viral spread.

5. Instant Play: Mini games usually support the feature of instant play, allowing players to start their gaming experience without the need for long loading times.

From the operational perspective, overseas mini games can mainly be divided into the following two types:

1. Native APPs: Domestic mini-program games go overseas by being listed in app stores as independent apps. Compared to native mini games, they offer richer gameplay content and provide a smoother user experience and better game performance. (Representative products include "Legend of Mushroom", "The Little Demon Asks", "Xiu Xiu Three Kingdoms", "Rampage Little Shrimp", "Fat Goose Gym", "Bacon's Revenge" etc.)

2. H5 Games: Developed based on HTML5 technology, these can be run directly in browsers or on social platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, etc. They feature instant play, no need for installation, and cross-platform compatibility, which facilitates sharing and spreading across different platforms. (Representative products include "Barricade Yourself Inside", "Beauty Salon," etc.)

Currently, mini games that transition from domestic apps to "APPs" and are published on both iOS and Google platforms are the main force in the overseas market.

02. Why the Japanese and Korean Markets

The first wave of the mini games going overseas trend can be traced back to 2022, with representative products like "Landlord's Super", "My Hot Pot Story" and "The Marvelous Snail". Among them, "Landlord's Super" topped the South Korean App Store's free games chart in its first month of release. By the second half of 2023, "Legend of Mushroom" had pushed this trend to its peak, raising the ceiling for mini games going overseas from monthly revenues of millions to tens of millions.

Compared to other overseas markets, Japan and Korea share closer geographic, cultural, and aesthetic preferences with China, and popular mobile game genres are concentrated in casual, RPG, and strategy categories. Therefore, when mini games go overseas to the Japanese and Korean markets, they don't need to make significant adjustments to gameplay mechanics or art styles, and even in terms of marketing and promotion, there is no need for excessive intensity. The competition is not as fierce as in Europe and America.

On the other hand, the current major direction for mini games going overseas uses China's Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan as springboards to radiate to Europe, America, Japan, and Korea. However, data shows that the Japanese and Korean markets have a higher acceptance of mini games going overseas, as well as a larger number of high-net-worth players compared to other overseas markets. Taking a recent example, "Shoot Shoot Hero" (the European and American version: "Zombie.io"), a RPG mini game going overseas also featuring "contrast cute" and published by 4399, chose to launch first in Europe and America. However, its performance did not match the "instant bestseller" success that "Legend of Mushroom" achieved upon its release in Japan and Korea. Nowadays, it can only maintain a position around 150 to 200 on the bestseller charts.

According to data released by Sensor Tower, from January to April 2024, in the top 10 revenue chart for mobile games in Japan and Korea, the most numerous were light casual, puzzle-solving, and simulation management games. This also verifies the strong ability of these types of games to attract revenue in Japan and Korea. Therefore, both from the perspective of developers and players, Japan and Korea are currently the optimal destinations for mini games going overseas.

03. Observations on Mini Games Going Overseas to Japan and Korea

Looking at the mini games currently entering the Japanese and Korean markets, they exhibit some regional characteristics.

First is the preference for integrated light to medium casual game products, which is particularly evident in the RPG genre. Main representatives include "Legend of Mushroom", "Fat Goose Gym", and "The Little Demon Asks". These products, by combining light gameplay with medium-level strategy, have successfully attracted a large number of users, especially achieving notable success in the Japanese and Korean markets.

Take "Legend of Mushroom" as an example. This mobile game's core gameplay is "idle + cultivation," and it cleverly integrates mid-to-late game side-play similar to MMOs, such as pet cultivation, dungeon challenges, clan systems, and character job changes, successfully drawing in a large player base. Additionally, "Fat Goose Gym" employs a "synthesis + simulation management" gameplay where players act as the manager of a gym, attracting customers by synthesizing different levels of facilities and introducing a card collection element, adding to the game's fun and depth.

Additionally, in terms of art style, the Japanese and Korean markets favor mobile games with cartoonish, chibi, and cute IP styles. These are especially popular among female players. Apart from the aforementioned games, the otome game "Love and the Vast Sky" exported to Japan and Korea has also garnered a lot of affection from players. Therefore, for mini games going overseas, it is particularly important to understand and grasp the preferences of local players to achieve success in the Japanese and Korean markets.

04. How to Grow Mini Games in Japan and Korea

A deeper analysis of mini games entering the Japanese and Korean markets reveals that "localized promotion + long-term operation" is the key to success.

In terms of localized creative materials, integrating popular local "memes" and culture into the creative process can quickly establish an emotional connection with local players, which is crucial for the product to break out of its niche. For example, "Legend of Mushroom" in its promotion in Japan, made extensive use of well-known local elements such as "office workers", "variety show feels", "comic styles" and "apologies at the opening", successfully attracting the attention of a large number of players.

On the other hand, the mini game player community is characterized by its breadth and dispersion. First, this category of players is vast, offering economies of scale. Second, players encounter mini games through a variety of channels such as social platforms, websites, smartphone manufacturers, and in-app promotions, among others. Therefore, during product promotion, in addition to positioning in mainstream media, selecting appropriate local traffic media for promotion is also crucial.

Furthermore, long-term operation is the core strategy to ensure the product's continual profitability. This requires not only regularly releasing new content to maintain the game's vitality but also enhancing user stickiness by maintaining VIP users and continuous community content output, to ensure the long-term success of the product and steady growth in ROI. For instance, "Legend of Mushroom," after launching in Japan and Korea, maintained high player engagement and retention rates through continuous content updates and community interaction.

In summary, the current trend of mini games going overseas has shown strong vitality, and Japan and Korea, as the most core revenue-generating markets, are worthy of game developers' attention. Implementing effective Mini Games Operations strategies in these regions will be key to sustaining this growth and ensuring ongoing success.