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MiHoYo, which just launched "Zero Zone" at the beginning of the month, received good news again yesterday. In the latest version number approval information, MiHoYo's simulation management product "Star Cuckoo Land", which was leaked as early as last year, was listed. MiHoYo players who have just played the new game now have new products to look forward to.

Although this is undoubtedly very good news for miHoYo, but with the approval of "Star Cuckoo Land", for its peers, as GameLook previously reported, as miHoYo becomes more and more like an "annual game company", miHoYo's schedule is getting fuller and fuller, which means that the domestic second-tier game manufacturers' "avoiding MiHoYo" may have become a thing of the past. Now, no matter how other manufacturers arrange the update schedule of their own games, miHoYo may be unable to avoid it.

Of course, players don’t care about these things. It’s good to have new games to play. And as the most successful domestic brand to go overseas, the news that “Star Cuckoo Land” obtained the version number also attracted attention and discussion in some overseas communities at the first time. Even because “Star Cuckoo Land” does not have an official English name this time, the players who forwarded the version number news directly translated the game into “Star (星) Cuckoo (布谷) Land (地)” and created a community with the same name.

It is worth mentioning that miHoYo actually registered a game called "Astaweave Heaven" overseas. Many netizens in the overseas community currently believe that this product is most likely "Astaweave Heaven", but miHoYo has not made any official statement yet.

As a gaming media, GameLook is actually looking forward to seeing what kind of innovations and attempts miHoYo will make to the "simulation business" gameplay after Star Cuckoo Land passed the review. Will it continue the tradition of Mijia games with constellations and relics, or will it step out of its comfort zone for the first time and pursue new product directions? We are even curious about whether miHoYo was jealous of the success of Animal Crossing on Nintendo Switch during the epidemic and made this dumpling for this market.

In short, apart from the leaked content, "Star Cuckoo Land", which currently has no official information, is too mysterious and too worth looking forward to.

"I can't imagine a life sim with microtransactions".

I am actually quite troubled to write about a non-existent game, after all, apart from various leaked information (which we are not convenient to show), miHoYo has not yet released any official content about Star Cuckoo Land. So for this product, GameLook can only verbally introduce some of the contents of the suspected game.

First of all, in terms of art, according to the information leaked online, the general style of the scenes in the game is very similar to that of typical simulation games.Genshin Impact》《Star Cuckoo Land》, the game art style in the screenshots appears to be more cartoon-like for younger players, or in other words, the style is more "Animal Crossing". According to the game screenshots and test videos previously circulated on the Internet, "Star Cuckoo Land" has classic life simulation game elements such as markets and homes, as well as classic systems such as fishing, crafting, mining, and chopping trees.

As for the character design, "Star Cuckoo Land" is very different from some of MiHoYo's previous products. The characters are Q-version figurines with a head-to-body ratio close to 1:2.

You can go to the Reddit section as shown in the picture to view related content

On the one hand, the excellent performance of Animal Crossing shows that Switch has indeed gathered a large number of core players who are willing to pay for simulation business gameplay. On the other hand, considering the previous good performance of Mijia Games on the Sony platform, Nintendo naturally does not have many reasons to refuse to cooperate with miHoYo.

In terms of platforms, in addition to the usual console (PS), PC, and mobile coverage of Mijia games, GameLook is actually boldly looking forward to whether Star Cuckoo Land can become the first Mijia game launched on the Nintendo platform compared to Genshin Impact. As for whether it will wait for the release of Switch 2 to start adapting, or is currently working with Nintendo to launch a Switch version, that is not certain.

Of course, it’s not just GameLook. For Star Cuckoo, most players at home and abroad are looking forward to products similar to Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

"When will Star Cuckoo Land be released? I really want to play a farming game", "If it comes out, I'll fucking have fun with it. I love business simulations the most and I never get tired of playing them."

"If you've never played Animal Crossing and are thinking there's no way I could possibly like this game, there's a good chance you've suddenly woken up from a coma after spending four months catching bugs, arranging furniture, and doing chores for animals to simulate friendship. There's a reason this genre has maintained strong sales momentum for so long, and don't underestimate the demand for relaxing time-wasting games, that's what gaming is all about."

"Yeah, my wife will love this game, I'm tired of hearing her talk about her husband in Stardew Valley, it's annoying."

MiHoYo's attempt to enter the business simulation market through "Star Cuckoo" also made netizens exclaim: "MiHoYo wants to dominate the game market by turning all types of games into card-drawing games."

However, in addition to the expectations of players, netizens at home and abroad have their own expectations or "fears" about whether the classic "special weapon, constellation, and holy relic" three-piece set of Xiaomi will appear in "Star Cuckoo Land" and how it will appear in "Star Cuckoo Land". After all, the casual gameplay and experience core of life simulation games can be said to be completely different from second-hand games that sell plots and characters.

"I'm curious about how the business simulation can be combined with the card drawing constellation."

"I can't hold it any longer. I'm waiting for a new islander with a guaranteed S-level bonus after 90 draws, a tool with 6 inlay slots, different inlay sets that can give tools different functional attributes, and a pigeon mine that refreshes once a week."

"For Mi's farming, there's no need to worry about the quality of the art, but first question whether it's fun. I don't want to go through Mi's training again."

"Has it been confirmed that Star Cuckoo Land is a card-drawing game? To be honest, I can't imagine a life simulation game with microtransactions. I've had enough of The Sims mobile version and Restaurant City."

Interestingly, at the same time that Star Cuckoo received its version number, the news that the developer of Stardew Valley announced that all subsequent updates of the game would be free was once again dug out by players. Although there may not be any strong connection between the two, it is a good thing to buy a copy of Stardew Valley to experience what this type of game will feel like before Star Cuckoo is launched next year.

At least in this case, players who are not familiar with business simulation can also control their expectations for "Star Cuckoo Land" within a relatively reasonable range, so as to avoid the situation where the community praises the game mindlessly before the launch and then the game's reputation is damaged due to various reasons after the launch.

Stardew Valley has always valued the opinions of Chinese players.

How miHoYo avoided the "lessons from the past"

However, no matter what form miHoYo's "Star Cuckoo" will eventually take, among the many game tracks, the life simulation track is indeed a track with high commercial potential. The game type of simulation business can not only carry a high enough content depth and cultivate long-term user stickiness, but also has successful products in various segments of the entire platform as verification.

The independent game "Stardew Valley" with sales of over 20 million copies across all platforms, the "Sims" series with total sales of over 200 million copies, and Supercell's mobile game "Hay Day"... From consoles to PCs to mobile games, from service-oriented blockbusters to independent small-scale games, from casual players to hardcore player groups, simulation games are one of the few game categories that can gain unanimous favor from users from all circles.

For miHoYo, whose vision is to create a "virtual world for one billion people", only this category can carry miHoYo's commercial ambitions.

But the problem is that due to the large proportion of casual players and general Internet users in simulation management products, their ability to spend real money is certainly not as good as that of second-tier games that draw cards and sell characters.

For example, there are two simulation mobile games recently launched in China, namely Pop Mart's "Dream Home" and Xindong's "Heart-beating Town". Both games have once topped the free game list of the App Store in China, proving that the two products have indeed attracted a lot of players, but in terms of the performance on the best-selling list, the performance of the two games cannot be compared with some of this year's second-tier games. As of the time of writing this article, the best results of the two products on the best-selling list did not enter the top 30.

Not to mention the simulation game "Life By You" that was just canceled by Paradox overseas. Although miHoYo may have stronger brand and consumer appeal in the domestic game market, the player ecology in the simulation management track is like this, and it is probably difficult for miHoYo to change it.

In GameLook's opinion, if miHoYo must make big money in the business simulation track, it must attract paying users with high spending power. This means that the core mechanism of the game cannot just be a life simulation, but must have combat gameplay, similar to "Phantom Beast Palu". Life is for fighting, and fighting is also for a better life.

The experience of competition or cooperation brought by battles will attract a group of users who are more willing to pay for numerical values. Compared with life simulation and the long-term "paying for love" that goes with it, the former can naturally push the game to the top of the best-selling list.

Even considering that the game will inevitably be released globally in the future, and that an important group of users of simulation products overseas are middle-aged and elderly casual players, the game may need to make some adjustments in art, plot, etc., and add some popular and melodramatic elements to attract wealthy and free elderly users to consume in the game.

But for MiHoYo, which has plenty of money now, even if the ultimate goal of the company is to make money, does it really need to be so eager for quick success?

Long-term goals may be more valuable than short-term gains

In GameLook's view, the most important significance of "Star Cuckoo Land" for miHoYo is not making money, but that as a world-leading game company, it has finally stepped out of the comfort zone of the two-dimensional world and is looking for a new direction.

What’s even more rare is that based on the core gameplay of the business simulation, the game can be upgraded in many ways, such as turning the game into a platform similar to Roblox through UGC and social systems. Or by adding various mini-games and gameplays that miHoYo likes the most, turning the game into a platform similar to “The Legend of Zelda: Reborn”.Egg Party》party game.

In short, the simulation gameplay of "Star Cuckoo Land" is better than the plot and character-selling "Collapse: Skyrail》and other products have the potential to develop into a platform-level product.

Even after developing into a platform, Star Cuckoo Land can remain active on various platforms such as consoles, handhelds, PCs, and mobile terminals, just like games such as Fortnite. Many people may not know that Fortnite is actually the most experienced game by young players in Japan and other regions on Switch, rather than a first-party product of Nintendo.

The reason why Gamelook expects to see miHoYo's greater goals and determination in "Star Cuckoo Land" and subsequent products is because we believe that as a gaming company that says "tech geeks save the world" and aims to be a technology company, it can love the two-dimensional world, but it cannot stay in the two-dimensional world forever.

After all, the history of the rise of companies at home and abroad, including Tencent, Microsoft, Google, etc., actually has a very simple truth, that is, if you want to achieve great things, goals are often more important than short-term interests. I personally think this is why Microsoft, Google and other companies have a better reputation for "cutting whatever users like" than their various great achievements in recent years.

Considering that miHoYo has already carved out a niche in the global gaming industry, has more money than it can spend, is not listed on the stock market, and has achieved almost zero failures in its launched products, if it doesn't start looking for new directions to push the company further now, then when will it start?

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