Aniimo is the prettiest game we've reviewed this year and Jakub spent a week waiting for it to catch him. It didn't, and the reason is the biggest hole we've ever found in a Chinese launch: there is no gacha. None. Everything you'd expect from a top-tier open-world RPG except the engine that pays for it. You catch your Aniimo in the world, grind the rare ones through long quest chains, and that's it. Jakub's verdict: "you build a beautiful car and you forgot to put in the engine."
Mobile revenue is around $200K a day, the cross-platform in-game spend chart suggests maybe $600K combined, and the audience is exactly who you'd want: Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Thailand with the US at just 16%. The people who, in Jakub's words, live and die by the gacha, handed a game with none.
Kudos to FunPlus for diversifying away from 4X. Now add the gacha.
⏱️ TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – Cold open: Honkai did $12M a day at launch, Aniimo doesn't have the engine for it
02:32 – Who made it: Paw Print Studio, FunPlus and why the 4X OGs need a way out
06:00 – The game: Genshin world, Pokémon catching, twining into your Aniimo, boss fights and rarities
15:00 – Energy, live ops and cosmetics: the only monetization that exists
18:24 – The elephant in the room: there is no gacha
23:30 – The numbers: 40M pre-regs, ~1M DAU, $200K/day mobile, Japan and Korea leading
34:11 – UA and creatives: 1,300 in-game cinematics, no AI, no playables, Kakao and Path of Exile YouTubers
43:23 – Category check: Genshin $30M, WuWa $10M, NTE $5M a month and the prediction
This episode is brought to you by Kinoa — the AI operating system for mobile game operations: flows, live segments, in-app messages, push notifications, and A/B testing in one place, run by the operators who own the numbers. Carry1st saw +43% ARPDAU; PlayStudios saw +31% revenue on Tetris Block Party. Learn more at Kinoa.
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This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let’s not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.
Panelists: Jakub Remiar, Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric
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Matej Lancaric
User Acquisition & Creatives Consultant
https://lancaric.me
Felix Braberg
Ad monetization consultant
https://www.felixbraberg.com
Jakub Remiar
Game design consultant
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar
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