The turmoil between the hip-hop and otaku circles continues to escalate. Hip-hop singer Boss Pili, at the center of the storm, apologized twice today, and official accounts of many otaku circles have responded one after another. Tencent, NetEase, and other major game companies have also been involved.
Clash between two circles: Boss Pili apologizes, multiple game companies respond
How did these two seemingly unrelated circles end up in conflict? The spark of the conflict can be traced back to the 21st of this month when hip-hop singer Naiwan shared content of his participation in otaku activities on social media. Conflicts quietly escalated during the exchange with otaku players in the comments section.
Otaku games, abbreviated as &#34;otaku,&#34; are a type of love simulation game developed for female players, originally introduced to the domestic market from Japan. &#34;Love and Producer,&#34; &#34;Love and Deep Space,&#34; and others are representative works in the domestic otaku game market.
On August 26th, the head of the label where Naiwan is located, Parker, released a song criticizing otaku games, using footage from &#34;Love and Deep Space&#34; in the music video. The lyrics mentioned, &#34;You game companies dare to blatantly poison the next generation,&#34; &#34;It's all edgy and greasy, letting children who are not yet adults play adult games.&#34;
Faced with dissing from the hip-hop circle, the otaku circle directly responded with a lawyer's letter. On the same evening, the game involved, &#34;Love and Deep Space,&#34; issued a stern statement, stating that evidence collection had been completed and they would get to the bottom of it. As of the time of writing, the statement has received 2.75 million likes.
Although Parker deleted the relevant Weibo post in the early hours of the next day, the conflict had already escalated beyond the circles, with hip-hop singers and music critics including Boss Pili, Liang Yuan, and Buzzy joining the fray. On the 29th, hip-hop singer Boss Pili released a song dissing the otaku circle, further intensifying the conflict.
However, Boss Pili's &#34;Otaku Freestyle&#34; was removed from NetEase Cloud Music on the same day. Since NetEase itself is one of the players in the otaku game track, a game under NetEase, &#34;Traveler in Time and Space,&#34; responded to Boss Pili's diss, saying, &#34;Accidentally heard it, too disgusting, removed it.&#34;
Similarly, Tencent, a major company operating otaku games, did not miss out on the big battle. The variety show &#34;Meeting Hip-hop,&#34; originally scheduled to be released on Tencent Video on the 29th, announced a delay in airing due to technical reasons. Speculation in the industry suggests that the delay of the hip-hop program may be influenced by the aforementioned turmoil.
Thus, a seemingly ordinary Weibo post has developed into a battle between two circles.
As of the time of writing, official statements have been made by otaku games such as &#34;Love and Deep Space,&#34; &#34;Traveler in Time and Space,&#34; &#34;Love of Light and Night,&#34; &#34;Eternal Thought,&#34; and others, involving game companies such as Tencent, NetEase, and Diezhi.
On August 30th, Boss Pili posted two Weibo posts apologizing to otaku players and the public. He stated that he was not targeting all otaku players, only those who were unreasonable and brainless. &#34;This is my lack of understanding. I belittled myself before understanding a game. This is my problem, I sincerely apologize again, I'm sorry.&#34;
The intense battle between the two circles has temporarily eased, but discussions about otaku games continue.
From &#34;Love and Producer&#34; to &#34;Love and Deep Space,&#34; how big is the otaku game market?
In fact, although otome games may still be a relatively unfamiliar concept to many people, in the gaming industry, the money-making ability and player base of otome games should not be underestimated.
The term &#34;otome&#34; originates from Japan, meaning young girl. Otome games feature female characters as the main protagonists, weaving various stories that simulate real-life romantic interactions, focusing on emotional interactions with male characters and developing storylines. Otome games, which serve as a &#34;dream-making&#34; function, create an &#34;emotional utopia&#34; for players. Some scholars point out that the essence of romance games is &#34;daydreaming,&#34; reflecting players' needs for constructing idealized virtual selves and expectations for ideal romantic partners. The high game consumption market reflects young people's high demand for emotional experiences in real life and low satisfaction levels.
Since the emergence of &#34;Love and Producer&#34; in 2017, the development of domestic otome games has been rapid.
According to a survey by Aurora Big Data, the proportion of female players in &#34;Love and Producer&#34; is as high as 94.2%, with over 90% of players under the age of 30; and players from first and second-tier cities account for 57%, with Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou ranking in the top three. According to relevant statistics, as of December 2023, the number of female game players in China has exceeded 300 million.
The profit model of otome games mainly includes player spending, peripheral sales, and IP collaborations.
According to Southern Metropolis Daily, in December 2017, within a month of the launch of &#34;Love and Producer,&#34; the installation reached 7.113 million, with over 4 million daily active users, and the total platform revenue exceeded 300 million RMB.
Following &#34;Love and Producer,&#34; major domestic game companies have been actively expanding, with Tencent's &#34;Love and Night&#34; and NetEase's &#34;Travelers in Time and Space&#34; and &#34;Beyond the World,&#34; as well as miHoYo's &#34;Undecided Events Book,&#34; all being popular otome mobile games in the market.
Among them, &#34;Love and Deep Space,&#34; produced by the same company as &#34;Love and Producer,&#34; quickly gained popularity upon its release. According to Sensor Tower data, &#34;Love and Deep Space&#34; received over 5.4 million downloads in less than two weeks after its launch, ranking among the top 30 global revenue list of Chinese mobile game publishers. Data from Qimai shows that by mid-August, the estimated total revenue of &#34;Love and Deep Space&#34; in the past three months reached 36.4 million RMB, leading by a large margin.
In addition to in-game purchases, otome games are also popular in collaborations, with several instances of server crashes due to well-known otome game collaboration events.
On White Valentine's Day this year, HEYTEA collaborated with the otome game &#34;Love and Night&#34; to release a limited edition &#34;marriage certificate&#34; peripheral. Consumers could combine their own photos and character transparent cards to create marriage certificate photos to put in the HEYTEA certificate, along with character signature stickers, customizing exclusive HEYTEA certificates. On the day of the event, HEYTEA sold over 1.38 million units of the collaborative themed certificates, and at the same time, many stores experienced overwhelming orders, with some stores selling nearly 3,000 cups of collaborative drinks.
Since its launch on January 18th, &#34;Beyond the World&#34; has collaborated with nine brands, including QuDuoduo, Safeguard, KFC, and other well-known brands
Not long ago, the collaboration between Rosen convenience store and the mobile game &#34;Love and Deep Space&#34; went live, which also caused the WeChat mini-program &#34;Rosen IP Purchase&#34; system to malfunction.
Whether in the gaming field or cultural field, Aito has become a hot cultural symbol. Through this incident, otome games will further break through boundaries. How to withstand the scrutiny of both &#34;insiders&#34; and &#34;outsiders&#34; will be an important issue for gaming companies in the future

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NTES

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In the battle between the hip-hop circle and the otome game circle, hip-hop singer Boss Pi has apologized multiple times, while the official account of the otome game and major game companies Tencent and NetEase have intervened one after another. The incident originated from hip-hop singer Naiwan exposing the event content with the otome game, triggering conflicts between the two parties. Despite Boss Pi deleting relevant Weibo posts, the conflict has escalated, with both sides responding to each other and taking legal actions, leading to the postponement of NetEase's variety show

- A conflict between the hip-hop and otaku circles is escalating, with rapper Pi San issuing two apologies amidst official otaku responses. The dispute originated from rapper Nai Wan sharing otaku event content, leading to escalating tensions. Otaku games, aimed at female players, faced criticism in Pi San's song, triggering legal actions and involvement from major gaming companies like Tencent and NetEase.
- The clash expanded to involve more hip-hop artists and critics, with Pi San releasing a diss track against the otaku circle, further intensifying the conflict. Major players like NetEase swiftly responded by removing the track due to their involvement in otaku games. Tencent also delayed a hip-hop show, possibly due to the ongoing feud.
- Pi San later apologized to otaku players and the public, clarifying his criticism was aimed at unreasonable players. Despite temporary easing of tensions, discussions on otaku games continue, highlighting the significant market size and cultural impact of these games in China, attracting attention from both within and outside the gaming community.

China Finance Online

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NetEase

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Engaging in a fierce battle with the hip-hop scene, otome games are back in the spotlight: with astonishing monetization capabilities, major players such as Tencent and NetEase have long been laying the groundwork