Working in game media often brings us into contact with many game merchandise items—but honestly, our attitude towards most of them is indifferent. Because in most cases, these items are either "fashionable trash" or just ordinary daily goods printed with game artwork or logos, barely escaping the realm of "Is that it?"
"Is that it?" is a subtle emotion. It's not necessarily dislike, nor is it appreciation; it sits uncomfortably in between, largely representing a nuanced sense of disappointment. It stems from a conflict between the norm and the ideal.
Purchasing game merchandise is a highly targeted form of consumption. We place greater emphasis on the elements and design carried by the merchandise. Whether it's daily necessities or badges, these items should serve as carriers for game elements, rather than being the sole noteworthy aspect of the product itself.
Of course, if you take absurdity to this extreme, that's another story.
However, everyone understands the reality: game merchandise is primarily an IP-derived product, with its greatest value lying in the IP itself. When IP comes first, further design is often relegated to a secondary position. This is not just an issue with merchandise; almost all IP-related derivative works face this problem.
Perhaps precisely because such issues exist, manufacturers willing to put effort into merchandise design are considered valuable. For instance, it is hard to deny that Nintendo's amiibo line is a series filled with ingenious concepts.
A few years ago, at the Ubisoft booth during the WePlay Cultural Expo, I bought a figurine from the Assassin's Creed series. That purchase was quite decisive, differing significantly from my usual behavior; I decided to buy it almost immediately upon seeing it. The reason was simple: compared to the serious or playful impressions Assassin's Creed usually gives, this figurine was unexpectedly cute—they designed Ezio as a Ragdoll cat, replacing the Hidden Blade, which represents the "Creed of the Assassins," with two small dried fish. Transforming "Assassin's Creed" into "Assassin Meow Creed," the entire design was filled with the creator's unique whimsy, making this figurine series exceptionally distinctive.
I am not someone who typically pays close attention to new products in the merchandise market. I remembered the name "Assassin Meow Creed," but I didn't know that this series was one of the most successful Assassin's Creed merchandise lines in recent years, nor did I know that the company behind its design was called "Wuliu Culture."
Coincidentally, the moment I truly understood what kind of company this was happened to be during our formal meeting.
Recently, Wuliu Culture reached a significant milestone in its corporate journey, completing a financing round worth hundreds of millions, led by Cathay Capital and Five Source Capital, with strategic investment from Lemonade Pictures.
At this critical juncture, we had the opportunity to interview the company's two founders, Li Siyun and Zhang Jieli—though they prefer we use their nicknames, Miaomiao and Baobao. Carrying the serendipitous connection formed earlier through "Assassin Meow Creed," I met this particularly special "post-85s couple" in the cultural and creative industry at Wuliu Culture's office.
I originally wanted formal photos of the founder couple, but what they sent over was... let's just say it very much reflects Wuliu's style.
Frankly speaking, this investment is "big news" both for them and the entire cultural and creative industry. The investment structure of two lead investors plus one strategic investor is rare, and even the identity of the investors was somewhat surprising.
Lemonade Pictures, a leading domestic producer of Chinese dramas, had already established long-term, deep cooperation with Wuliu. The other two lead investment funds and capital firms also have "significant backgrounds."
Cathay Capital is a well-known large fund in the consumer goods sector. You can see their presence in the financing of many cultural and creative enterprises. For instance, they previously invested in Flash Soul, the company that collaborated with Riot Games to publish the Chinese version of Legends of Runeterra.
Therefore, the first question after meeting inevitably pointed to the reasons behind their successful fundraising.
They discussed this issue extensively, mentioning points such as Miaomiao being a rare female founder and product leader in the industry, their distinct product style accumulated over years that differs from other companies, and their outstanding product quality. However, I feel the most critical point in their discussion is that they are a company "capable of transcending cycles." They achieve this through their affirmation, persistence, and love for the value of consumer goods, as well as their gamified product thinking and respect for their customer base.
If you observe the development history of Wuliu Culture, you will find it is a company with "complex components." They started with blind box figurines, later achieving one of their biggest hits with merchandise bracelets for the TV drama "Till The End Of The Moon." To date, one of their main businesses is producing "collectible cards" for various TV dramas and celebrities. For instance, the popular "Frozen Fish" pillow from the hit series "The Knockout" a few years ago was their product. Simultaneously, they have extensive game-related merchandise collaborations, working deeply with IPs such as Naraka: Bladepoint and the Assassin's Creed series.
Their fields of expertise cover many different mediums and types of entertainment works, and the merchandise they design targets vastly different demographics. Previously, the cultural and creative industry was quite vertical, with many companies choosing to focus deeply on specific niche areas. Wuliu Culture, with its broad interests, stands out as an anomaly in this landscape.
This characteristic stems from the personal interests of the two founders. Miaomiao and Baobao originally came from the gaming industry. Around the 2010s, they were already a director and assistant to the chairman at Kingnet Holdings, possessing deep insights into the domestic gaming industry. Both shared a pure love for games, which is the most direct source of Wuliu Culture's game-related products.
As for products related to TV dramas, this is mainly because Miaomiao herself is a fan of celebrities and has always been a heavy consumer of cultural and creative merchandise. She understands well what enthusiasts like her need. When these needs were not met, she chose to create solutions herself.
For Wuliu Culture, passion is the source of their intuitive drive and meticulous attitude.
They discussed some of the ideas and thoughts behind the initial design of the "Assassin Meow Creed" series, which intuitively demonstrate this attitude.
For Ubisoft, turning protagonists into cats was an unprecedented attempt. However, Ubisoft itself is quite fond of cats, having incorporated various cat-petting scenes into their games. Additionally, within the Assassin's Creed player community, there is a trend of fan-created content featuring cat versions of the assassin protagonists. Therefore, Miaomiao wanted to create a project combining cats and assassins, stating, "Because assassins and cats naturally share common traits."
Starting from this point, they began a series of related designs. Each cat in the "Assassin Meow Creed" series hides quite a few Easter eggs. For instance, the reason Ezio is a Ragdoll cat is that Ragdolls are considered the "masters among cats," naturally possessing elegance and nobility, which matches Ezio well. For Arno, the protagonist of Assassin's Creed Unity, they chose the image of a British Shorthair with a baguette on his back, posing for a "Leap of Faith." As for why a British Shorthair, Miaomiao explained it was because "England and France are inseparable."
The most special cat in this series is Shao Jun. As an assassin from China, her image is represented by a Chinese Li Hua Mao (Dragon Li) cat. Additionally, the rope dart she carries has been replaced by Miaomiao with a Chinese goldfish. These special designs make Shao Jun one of the most popular cats in the series.
Cat breeds, accessories, temperament, and regional elements were all incorporated into the design considerations for "Assassin Meow Creed." Miaomiao stated, "Every detail must be explored deeply." This makes the series not just a gimmick-driven work, but a derivative product that closely aligns with the original's atmosphere.
Miaomiao said that this approach ensures each of their works is presented with substantial quality, but this work model inevitably prevents rapid expansion.
Throughout the interview, Miaomiao and Baobao gave the impression of being similar to independent game studios in the gaming industry. They understand market trends and gameplay evolution. Although their work involves IP-derived cultural and creative products in the "trendy toy" direction, their attitude towards their products remains firmly rooted in a "work-of-art" mentality.
I asked them, "Do people prioritize the product itself or the IP when buying merchandise?"
They candidly stated, "Currently, it is still IP-driven."
However, despite knowing this, when discussing their works, they still say: "Although many people believe that creating cultural products is just a process of monetizing IP traffic, in our view, we are creating 'artworks.'"
Compared to many brands in the cultural and creative industry, "Wuliu Culture" received investment relatively late. Before them, many brands in the sector were backed by significant capital. It was only recently that they secured their first round of financing. Their ability to establish a foothold in the industry and gradually grow stronger without relying on major capital backing was due to the quality and design sense of their works, supported by their attitude towards treating products as "artworks."
Miaomiao has precise judgments regarding the cultural and creative industry. She believes that trendy toys, trading cards, and other merchandise are forms of emotional consumption, just like video games themselves. Since customer purchasing behavior is driven by emotions, the products they design should strive to respond to those emotions as much as possible.
Monotonous forms resulting from path dependence, and reskinned replicas that chase whatever is popular, do not satisfy this emotion but rather deplete it. This is not what their expression aims to achieve. They hope their designed products can more precisely hit the customers' sweet spots.
Achieving such expression is not only a complex process but also one that constantly changes depending on the work and the target audience.
Although "liking it" seems like the simplest and most straightforward reason, satisfying this requirement involves multiple layers of judgment. Especially in the domestic market, attitudes towards cultural and creative merchandise differ from overseas. Whether it's collectible cards, figurines, or other cultural products, people generally do not pursue specific items with the same utilitarian mindset as "sports star cards." Instead, they seek rich emotional value. This requires creators not only to incorporate IP elements but also to deeply integrate them with user experiences and community culture, something that is difficult to fully template.
Naraka: Bladepoint, on the other hand, represents a completely different style. Wuliu Culture's creations in this area are much bolder. Due to the competitive nature of Naraka: Bladepoint and its character customization features, players' recognition and sense of belonging to specific characters are not particularly strong. Meanwhile, meme culture within the community is extremely prevalent. Consequently, when creating merchandise for Naraka: Bladepoint, Wuliu Culture adopts a more "unhinged" tone.
For example, their first hit product for Naraka: Bladepoint was a set of hospital gown-style mahjong tile headgear. At the time, Wuliu Culture felt the outfit resembled "dried rat meat," so they turned the costume into a dried rat plush toy. They even enlisted Guan Lei for voice acting, allowing the plush to make sounds when pressed, which proved to be hugely popular.
In addition, they created a "dried rat" plush of Hadi, the "King of Curlers." This doll also originates from an in-game costume, featuring a figure wrapped entirely in bandages with a small tag reading "Confidential Shipping," mimicking the style of an "adult novelty doll."
Image source: Bilibili @Songzi Jie
According to Miaomiao, the designer responsible for creating artwork related to Naraka: Bladepoint is also a dedicated player of the game. As a result, he continuously produces numerous illustrations related to the game's culture. In Miaomiao's view, this type of product design, built on a comprehensive understanding of both the game and player culture, is essential work.
Therefore, across Wuliu Culture's product lines, whether for Naraka: Bladepoint or the Assassin's Creed series, there is a crucial premise: the designers themselves must approve of the content. Both Miaomiao and Baobao believe that they are consumers too. They love these cultures and understand what fans of these IPs desire. If they produce something they wouldn't want to buy themselves, it would undoubtedly be a failure. They do not wish to create products that merely exploit people's enthusiasm.
Respecting the IP, respecting the users, and most importantly, respecting what they love—this respect has earned Wuliu Culture respect from users in return.
In the cultural and creative sector, Wuliu Culture is a company that has led trends multiple times. Besides their success in game merchandise, they excel in TV drama merchandise as well. Their co-branded bracelets for TV dramas broke records on the Tmall platform, directly driving the emergence of a new category of cultural products. In the realm of TV drama collectible cards, their work has achieved significant breakthroughs, with many products delivering impressive commercial results, establishing TV drama collectible cards as a standard form of merchandise.
Meanwhile, the universally acclaimed quality of their works has allowed Wuliu Culture to gradually build a foundation, gaining favor from an increasing number of partners.
Within the industry, due to the complexity of merchandise licensing processes and the uncertainty of final products, reputation and experience are highly valued. Consequently, many manufacturers' relationships with copyright holders rely heavily on referrals. Through successive successful collaborations, Wuliu Culture's partners have expanded from Ubisoft to Krafton, and then to NetEase Thunder Fire, Universal Pictures, and other companies.
Recently, they reached a collaboration with Netflix, becoming the first company in China to obtain licensing for Stranger Things collectible cards.
Meanwhile, they also obtained licensing for the CCTV version of the "Four Great Classical Novels," planning to release products related to Journey to the West and Dream of the Red Chamber this year. Additionally, they secured licensing for the live-action version of My Own Swordsman, through which they will launch high-end collectible cards.
Their rich reserve of film, game, and anime IPs stems from their attitude towards IPs. In Baobao's view, they are building a branded IP commercialization company. While an IP can license many companies to produce products, doing it well requires their own thinking. Although IP is an indispensable boost for merchandise, it certainly cannot be Everythinggj.
Baobao hopes that Wuliu Culture will ultimately reconstruct the commercial value system of IPs through their own methods, changing people's perceptions of IP merchandise.
He mentioned some experiences interacting with copyright holders, noting that when these holders saw their products or past cases, they mostly chose Wuliu Culture without hesitation. In the eyes of many copyright holders, what Wuliu Culture does helps IPs move upward and enriches their value, demonstrating their professionalism as an IP commercialization company.
To some extent, this professionalism can be viewed as Wuliu Culture's effort towards their ultimate goal of "branding," or as their resistance against the current consumer market environment.
The consumer goods market, also known as the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) market, changes at a very fast pace, and market sentiment is quite anxious. Alongside the trends led by Wuliu Culture, rapid replication driven by large capital and the gradual muddying of the market have emerged. Whether in terms of product standards or reputation, the current merchandise market remains steadily in a state of "mixed quality, with both good and bad elements."
Our stereotypical impression of game merchandise stems from this perception. It feels like a black box constantly spewing out "fashionable trash." You don't understand the internal mechanisms, nor do you comprehend why these items dominate the market, ultimately leaving you with no choice but to keep your distance.
From Wuliu Culture's perspective, this situation is not beneficial for either manufacturers or consumers. This volume-driven approach, reliant on rapid replication and horizontal expansion, struggles to truly match user needs. Products fail to bring joy to users and instead become a form of waste. Miaomiao noted that the current consumer goods market is very similar to her early days working on "Legend of Mir." During the economic upturn back then, "Legend of Mir" similarly allowed many participants to profit through cycles of rapid replication and consumption. However, this method is no longer viable in the current economic downturn, much like how user acquisition strategies are no longer effective.
During an economic downturn, expectations for content will inevitably rise. Whether driven by emotional choices or practical considerations, people demand richer expressions from products. Such products cannot rely on simple replication.
Baobao said, "Only within a reasonable range where everyone can achieve a win-win situation does a product have scalability. Relying solely on rapid replication is a method of draining the pond to catch all the fish; once you've harvested Everythinggj in one go, the market disappears."
Therefore, in such a market, Baobao believes that only by maintaining their own principles, ensuring users have clear preferences, and gaining user recognition can manufacturers secure a stable space for survival.
This is also why they believe Wuliu Culture can transcend economic cycles. Their development is somewhat independent of trendy toy fads; they have always driven company growth in a way that aligns with their own tone. According to Baobao, in the early years, investors in the domestic consumer sector completely misunderstood IP merchandise, trendy toys, and cards. They didn't understand what Wuliu Culture was actually doing, assuming that cultural and creative companies could only produce products within a single vertical field.
But Baobao believes that each IP presents different challenges, and the final product form suitable for each IP varies. IP commercialization is destined to be a creativity-driven model. They will persist with this model, refusing to fixate on a specific format. Instead, they aim to continuously broaden the possibilities of IP-derived merchandise through existing products, seeking diverse forms of expression.
In recent years, the cultural and creative industry has seen a steady stream of emerging talents. The entire sector is undergoing constant bursts of growth and reshuffling, with many companies making only fleeting appearances. In response to this situation, Baobao stated: "We adhere to the principle that 'slow is fast.' We don't want to be a company that chases trends; instead, we aim to be one that can transcend economic cycles. By settling down and clarifying our goals, we believe we will eventually achieve a breakthrough."
Nowadays, his statement has been perfectly validated. The co-leadership investment by Cathay Capital and Five Source Capital, along with strategic investment from Lemonade Pictures, will undoubtedly provide Wuliu Culture with the strongest support. Next, having basically overcome survival difficulties, Wuliu Culture should be able to act more freely to accomplish what they set out to do.
Of course, what we hope to see even more is that the philosophy upheld by Wuliu Culture becomes mainstream in the entire merchandise market. That would undoubtedly be a true "win-win."
In fact, I believe change is already underway. When discussing collaborations with copyright holders, Miaomiao mentioned some unique initiatives related to public welfare. Just as they approach their products, they do not treat charity as a mere formality or a perfunctory "social responsibility" by simply donating money or goods.
They have engaged in in-depth collaborations around various public welfare projects and designed comprehensive plans.
For example, they have a long-term project with the Shanghai Foundation and an autism care organization in Minhang. In addition to material and financial donations, they have been incorporating artworks by children with autism into their products. Another partner in this product line, Lemonade Pictures, contributed their flagship IP, Under the Skin. In this series, one of the protagonists is a sketch artist, and painting happens to be an important therapeutic method for children with autism. This unique combination of "Flagship IP + Charity Derivatives + Art" provided an excellent foundation for collaboration between Lemonade Pictures (the IP holder of Under the Skin), Wuliu Culture, and autism charities.
Additionally, earlier this month, Wuliu Culture, as the project initiator, hosted a charity concert for autism awareness at the Jaguar Shanghai Symphony Hall. Titled "Star Sounds Accompany, Time Shines with Light," the event featured children with autism, known as "Star Babies," performing the theme song "Time Shines with Light" from Under the Skin 2.
Wuliu Culture has been promoting the organic combination of IP copyright holders and social activities. In addition to their collaboration with Under the Skin, they have partnered with Fu Shan Hai for the promotion, inheritance, and protection of the national intangible cultural heritage "Mian Quan" (Cotton Fist). They also developed an initiative where discarded cards from customers are recycled and converted into resources and funds donated to the Dunhuang Windbreak Forest Planting Charity Organization.
Whether in their self-designed products or public welfare projects, Wuliu Culture has effectively demonstrated their philosophy: presenting the possibilities of IPs in as diverse ways as possible, and creating works with greater design sense and quality. Moreover, through these successive collaborative projects, it is evident that Wuliu Culture is also influencing many partners, bringing about changes to the environment to varying degrees.
Listening to Miaomiao and Baobao explain their product design philosophy and elaborate on the details, I thought about my own collection of "treasures."
Having worked as a game editor for so long, even though I'm not particularly enthusiastic about it, I've accumulated various small and large items over time. I've met many people who are passionate about collecting these things, always trying to snag some freebies from me at major conventions, but I never really understood their enthusiasm.
I used to think my mindset was that I only accepted merchandise with practical utility. For example, I have an umbrella from Elden Ring: Nightreign that I really like. It aligns with the game's core theme of "night rain," features thoughtful design (it changes color when wet), and most importantly, it's actually a functional umbrella.
Later, after Teacher Ito gifted me a foldable metal brooch shaped like the Saw Cleaver from Bloodborne, I realized my perspective on game merchandise wasn't entirely accurate. Even though I lost one of its clasps and one of the pins occasionally pricked my finger, I still stubbornly pinned it to my bag.
There has always been only one factor determining my attitude toward these merchandise items, which is exactly what Miaomiao mentioned: "Game merchandise is an emotional purchase."
The things I love truly resonate with my emotions for those IPs. For instance, my Malenia figurine—this guy has claimed countless lives; the T-shirt with the Bull Demon King printed on the back, one of the most moving characters in Black MYTH - Steam Edition: Wukong and one of Game Science's best-designed merchandise items; and Bayonetta's amiibo, one of my favorite game characters.
Game merchandise embodies very personal elements—a moment, a character's pose, or even a vague feeling. Only manufacturers who truly understand these aspects can transform them into tangible items you can hold in your hands.
And this is precisely what Miaomiao and Baobao have been repeatedly emphasizing.
At this point, the interview was nearing its end. I asked Miaomiao and Baobao one final question, a rather formulaic one that serves as the standard conclusion to almost every interview:
"Is there anything you'd like to say to everyone?"
But Miaomiao's answer was brilliant—
"I wish everyone enjoys increasingly better experiences.
"Many people have asked me why I chose this line of work. For me, the reason is quite simple: I believe that players and fans in our country deserve better quality products.
"Enjoy something good."