Quickshaka Ocean World (1)
Tory Setrick was a middle school student in Oregon, and not long ago he had switched smartphones.
Among American teenagers, the Enphone was overwhelmingly popular. Almost everyone around him used one, and the kids carrying anything else could be counted on one hand.
Recently, though, CosmicPhones had been steadily gaining ground.
The reason was Block Valley.
Where people used to meet friends through communities and social networks, now it was only natural to log into Block Valley and meet there instead.
And while the Enphone could only connect through the cloud, the CosmicPhone could actually install and run games as apps.
I heard there was some lawsuit involved.
He had never really considered anything other than the Enphone before, but if he wanted to use Block Valley comfortably, switching to a CosmicPhone was the only real option.
Tory made a cute little character that looked like him, and even after school he met his classmates in Block Valley and made friends from all over the world.
It was like gathering at an amusement park and arguing over which ride to try first. Friends would cluster together and discuss which game they wanted to play.
Block Valley had countless games, but the hottest one lately was Quickshaka Ocean World.
Among students, playing it had spread like a craze.
They competed for high scores, and classmates even held their own tournaments. If you won enough medals in competition, you could collect them and exchange them for new rewards.
Tory wandered through several games wearing the Quickshaka surf suit he had earned from completing a mission, surfboard in hand.
That immediately drew the attention of other players.
“That outfit’s cool. Where’d you buy it?”
“You get it for clearing missions in Quickshaka Ocean World.”
“So it’s a famous brand?”
“Yeah. And the game itself is insanely fun.”
“I should try it too.”
The rumor spread in an instant, and more and more people came flocking in.
One day, Tory’s uncle Joseph came by for a visit.
The whole family had gone to the beach together, and when Joseph saw his nephew’s swimsuit, he asked, “Did you buy that swimsuit recently?”
“Yeah. It’s from Quickshaka, this super-famous surfwear brand.”
“Quickshaka?”
“What? You don’t know it, Uncle? That company’s supposedly huge.”
Joseph tilted his head.
He was the chief marketing officer of Nike, the world’s largest sports brand, so he knew most sports labels inside and out.
And yet he had never heard the name Quickshaka before.
“It’s that famous?”
“Yeah. All the kids know it. There isn’t a single one who doesn’t. Everyone’s going crazy trying to buy swimsuits from there.”
“Where did you buy that swimsuit, then?”
Tory told him, “In a game.”
“Huh? You bought it in a game? What do you mean?”
“You know Block Valley?”
“I’ve heard the name.”
Joseph didn’t actually play games, but he couldn’t possibly be ignorant of Block Valley. After all, it was locked in a generational legal war with Enple and Guble alongside Legend Games.
Joseph grabbed his nephew and said, “Explain it to me properly.”
Tory described what Block Valley was like and how wildly popular it had become among students.
“There are even kids making money by designing and selling clothes inside the game.”
“Inside the game? How?”
“They design outfits for characters and sell them.”
“Ah...”
Even if you sold hamburgers or smartphones in a game, you couldn’t fully reproduce the taste, the smell, or the performance.
Clothes were different.
Apparel was a field where design mattered most. The satisfaction of wearing something beautiful could still be felt through a monitor.
“So Quickshaka became famous because the game got popular?”
Tory asked back, “Wasn’t it already a famous brand? That’s what everyone says.”
Joseph felt a cold sweat break out on his back.
The ocean sports market was growing sharply every year, especially in emerging countries.
Companies were fighting fiercely for that market, and the most famous brand among them was Hoolik in Australia.
And last year, Nike had acquired the company for a staggering one billion dollars and folded it into the group as a subsidiary.
Even after the acquisition, they had poured in massive advertising budgets to keep it growing, and now some brand he had never even heard of was suddenly surging ahead.
And all because of a single game, kids are treating Quickshaka like a famous brand?
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BlockCitizen.
This site was the largest community for Block Valley, created voluntarily by its users. News, tips, and all kinds of information about Block Valley games were exchanged there, and developers actively interacted with one another.
There were countless success stories from games made on Block Valley.
One 14-year-old boy had even verified that he made one million dollars, and developers who had started out building games as a hobby had hit it big enough to found proper game companies.
But among them, the popularity of Quickshaka Ocean World was exceptional.
It pushed aside every other game and came to be recognized as Block Valley’s flagship title. Thanks to that, even Block Valley’s download numbers and user count rose.
The community was overflowing with posts about it.
The most popular genres on Block Valley had originally been everyday life, horror, tycoon, RPG, FPS, and TPS, while rhythm games were a fringe genre.
There weren’t many of them, and maybe one or two would make the top fifty. But then, out of nowhere, a rhythm game shot up to number one.
As Quickshaka Ocean World became a hit, a few developers hastily released similar rhythm games of their own.
The game had been developed by a Korean studio.
At that point, curiosity alone made it impossible not to try it.
Charles Griffin, Ken Utley, and Rufus Bailey, the founders of Block Valley, gathered together and played the game themselves.
Pressing the buttons in time with the rhythm felt almost like riding a wave.
After a few rounds, the answer was obvious.
“No wonder it’s popular.”
“Didn’t you say the person who made this game was Representative Han’s acquaintance?”
“Yeah. Supposedly a friend he lives with.”
Charles clicked his tongue in admiration.
“I thought it would be an obby just because it’s called a surfing game.”
Obby, also known as a jump map or parkour, was a genre built around running past obstacles with precise controls and reaching the finish line.
But this had been turned into a rhythm game where you pressed buttons to the flow of the waves.
It was different from the genre they had expected, but the game didn’t feel awkward at all. No, once they actually played it, rhythm mechanics felt more natural than anything else.
The difficulty was pitch-perfect, and the rewards were well calibrated.
It was neither too hard nor too easy, which only sharpened players’ urge to challenge themselves.
It was a simple game—no, because it was simple, the developer’s skill stood out all the more clearly.
Charles said, “This person’s a genius.”
Ken nodded in admiration.
“Looks like Representative Han didn’t invest in them for nothing.”
Rufus added his own verdict.
“Man, there really are geniuses like this in the world.”
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After hearing about it from his nephew, Joseph Setrick immediately looked into Quickshaka.
The result was startling.
Among people in their twenties and older, Hoolik was well known, but among teenagers, Quickshaka had greater recognition. The reason was nothing but the game on Block Valley.
He made his own Block Valley character and entered Quickshaka Ocean World.
Once he logged in, he didn’t start the game right away. Instead, he entered a space with a beach and the sea.
Along the shoreline stood surf shops, cafés, and more.
Players could go into the shops, buy clothes they liked, and dress up their characters.
The interesting thing was that, besides character skins, you could also buy the actual clothes in real life. They even sold character outfits and physical clothing as a one-plus-one bundle.
Joseph was impressed.
“That’s impressive.”
It wasn’t unusual for a fashion brand to collaborate with a popular game. Nike, too, had signed contracts and promoted itself through sports games like FIFA and MLB.
But to actually make a game, use it for promotion, and sell through it too?
Who had even thought of something like that?
There was even a café where surfers gathered, so you could learn about surf culture and enjoy talking with other people.
Even if you didn’t bother playing the game, just wandering around the beach, meeting friends, and hanging out was fun in itself.
No wonder teenagers are going crazy over it.
If you kept playing this game, you would naturally become familiar with the Quickshaka brand, and you’d probably end up wanting to wear it in real life too.
Sensing that a new current was emerging, Joseph announced the matter at a meeting of the chairman and executives.
Chairman Bruno leaned back in his chair and said, “You said it was urgent. I’m curious what this is about.”
Joseph first explained Block Valley to the chairman and the executives.
“Block Valley now has over 100 million registered users, and more than 20 million people log in every day. More than half of them are teenagers.”
Teenagers had weaker buying power right now, but they were future customers. That was why companies competed so hard to appeal to them.
Then he brought up the success story of Quickshaka Ocean World. But everyone still looked confused.
“You mean people pay money for clothes to dress up a character?”
“They’re selling things you can’t even actually wear?”
“Why would anyone spend money buying sneakers in a game?”
Joseph explained the reason.
“Outside of school, teenagers today spend more time in internet spaces than anywhere else. Think about it. If they spend an hour or two out in the real world, but three or four hours wandering around in games, and if they meet one or two people outside but dozens inside the game, then which is the more rational purchase: real clothes or character clothes?”
Only then did the others seem to understand, nodding to themselves.
“Hmm, I suppose so.”
“My son is glued to his smartphone all day anyway.”
“Are they trying to stand out from everyone else even inside the game?”
Joseph kept going.
“In the past, we advertised on TV, in magazines, and in newspapers. Then we advertised on the internet, and now mobile and social media have the largest share. But in the future, games will also emerge as a major advertising platform. A new channel has opened up, so we need to respond quickly.”
Chairman Bruno asked, “How?”
“We need to strengthen our game-side marketing. We should collaborate with Nightrite and create a game in Block Valley that can advertise Nike’s identity.”
He brought up a presentation.
“Using Nike’s headquarters as the model, we can build office buildings, sports fields, and arenas, and in a digital showroom we can rent or sell exact replicas of real Nike products. On the sports fields and in the arenas, players can enjoy a variety of sports games.”
In other words, they would create a virtual space that combined sports and games.
“Students are Nike’s current customers, and also its potential ones. If they wear Nike clothing in-game and play sports games with Nike equipment, their familiarity with the brand will increase, and they’ll want to wear it in real life too. We can also sell products directly inside the game, and it could even become a place to test new products before launch.”
He backed the idea with data and projections, trying to persuade the executives.
“Hmm, a game for kids...”
“If we handle it badly, it could damage the brand image instead.”
“This is something we’d need to consider carefully...”
Unfortunately, the reaction was lukewarm. They all seemed to think Nike was already doing well enough, so there was no need to take unnecessary risks.
But the moment Joseph added one more thing, the atmosphere changed completely.
“Adidas is also considering it.”
That set everyone off.
“What? Adidas?”
“Is that really true?”
Of all things, they could not tolerate a rival moving first.
Chairman Bruno issued the order at once.
“Get it moving immediately!”