Nezha's major collaboration: Why is the main character a directly sold legendary limited edition, while the supporting characters have to be obtained through a lottery?

The 5v5 Black Festival has a wildly imaginative theme: a collaboration with the long-awaited "Ne Zha" movie IP. Announced a year ago, the collaboration has only just begun. First came the characters, then the quality was officially announced. However, something strange happened: the supporting characters' skins were of higher quality than the main characters'. This makes one wonder, what's going on? What's their real intention?

There are too many factors to consider when planning and releasing skins.

The marketing methods of Honor of Kings are quite valuable for reference. Upon closer examination, it can be found that they are all well thought out. Generally speaking, the special effects of movie protagonists are naturally higher. As for Nezha and Ao Bing, I won't go into detail about their skins. These two characters are deeply rooted in people's hearts. Is the difference in quality unfair treatment, or is it due to considerations of the hero's popularity and player preference?

The collaboration with Legend is starting at a minimum price of 990 points, which is the standard price for Legend items in the current version, no longer starting at 1350 points. The package includes personalized buttons, and after the first week, it will return to the so-called "discount price". The quality is acceptable, featuring Nezha's various sizes and forms, Ao Yin's human and dragon forms. The characters, combat style, special effects, and all other elements are perfectly matched and reproduced. Basically, it's like playing with animated characters, providing an immersive experience.

Downgrading has many benefits; it's more approachable and appealing.

Selling them at a lower price point is, in a way, a benefit. If the two characters were priced at the most expensive level, consumers would hesitate. The Black Festival version seems to be for VIPs and whales, so it's not interesting to launch and would discourage ordinary players. Naturally, attention would shift to the cheaper supporting characters. How would the story unfold in the end? As expected, it became a dark horse and topped the charts.

Returning to the hero's inherent strength, Nezha is a heavy armored warrior who has received several buffs. He has a relatively high pick rate in mid-to-high ranks, around 15%, meaning he's not a top-tier hero, but he still has his own market and hasn't been completely ignored. His overall pick rate across all ranks is only 6%, indicating moderate popularity and not appealing to the general public, perhaps because he doesn't offer a particularly satisfying gameplay experience. Based on this data, choosing the price and quality of a collaboration skin becomes difficult. High-level players prefer it, resulting in a small market. Classifying it as a rare legendary skin means it's essentially a lottery for dedicated players. A downgraded release would seem unreasonable to casual players, as a limited-edition collaboration skin shouldn't be overlooked.

Image source: Internet