Who would still start a business seriously after being reborn?

Chapter 449 The Year of the Game, 2003!

The news that the Windows version of "The Legend of the Primordial Era" was about to be released spread quickly.

Upon receiving the news, Chen Tianqiao sat in his chair in silence for a full minute, unable to tell whether he was happy or worried.

I'm happy because if Honghuang Zhanji launches a Windows version, Momo Internet Cafes, which rely entirely on Honghuang Zhanji, will definitely be greatly affected.

Now that everyone can play "Primordial Era," there's no need to queue up at Momo Internet Cafe.

The concern is whether the Legendary Chronicles can withstand this wave of attacks from the Primordial Era.

He tapped rhythmically on the table, muttering to himself, "Is Momo Group planning to give up the internet cafe business? This is a rare opportunity."

Chen Tianqiao picked up his phone and dialed the number of the Secretary-General of the National Internet Cafe Federation, saying, "Secretary-General Li, please send a notice to the internet cafes under our jurisdiction and tell them to refuse to install Honghuang Zhanji."

"President, I'm afraid we can't control this." A cautious voice came from the other end of the phone: "These internet cafes are ecstatic when they hear that Honghuang Zhanji is going to release a Windows version. The reason they are wary of Momo Internet Cafe is probably because this game is exclusive. Now that the game has finally released a Windows version, it's probably harder than climbing to heaven to get them to give up."

Chen Tianqiao's face darkened, and he scolded, "Those short-sighted fools! They installed Honghuang Zhanji, and every penny that Honghuang Zhanji earns will be used by internet cafes to squeeze their market share!"

Secretary-General Li said, "Chairman, that makes sense, but you can't have too high expectations for internet cafe owners. If they had vision and ambition, would they still be internet cafe owners?"

Secretary-General Li's words left Chen Tianqiao speechless.

This Secretary-General Li is named Li Shou, and he used to be a senior executive at the city's telecommunications company.

Li Shou's previous job was installing network cables for internet cafes. He was very experienced in understanding the personalities and temperaments of internet cafe owners and how to deal with them.

Li Shou said, "Chairman, these internet cafe owners have always been looking to make quick money. They never thought about developing the internet cafe industry. They just work as long as they can, and if they can't make it, they go to open a hair salon. It's useless to talk to them about grand principles."

Li Shou's words made a lot of sense, so Chen Tianqiao couldn't refute them.

Chen Tianqiao frowned and said, "Now our Shengda Legend 3, Bubble Fighter and NetEase's Westward Journey 2 are about to be released for closed beta. This Honghuang War Chronicle must have felt the pressure, so they opened a Windows version. If I'm not mistaken, they may only open it for a few months and then close it. It's just to disrupt our closed beta."

“President, you can’t explain these things to those internet cafe owners. They don’t care how long the game ‘Primordial War Chronicles’ runs. As long as one internet cafe nearby starts playing it, the others will definitely follow suit, otherwise all their users will be gone.” Li Shou said, “I think we should compete with games. For example, we can hold events in the internet cafes, offering discounts for playing Legend 3 and Bubble Fighter.”

Chen Tianqiao frowned slightly and said, "Then our investment will be too large."

Li Shou said, "That's for sure. Everyone is driven by profit. Prohibiting them from installing the Primordial War Chronicles would also harm their interests. Even if they really don't install it, we will still have to pay a price."

“You’re not wrong.” Chen Tianqiao is an academic, but he lacks some understanding of underlying logic.

However, the disruption caused by "The Legend of the Primordial Era" is equivalent to adding a zero to their originally planned promotion budget.

This directly caused a surge in promotion costs.

Even though the legendary man was making a fortune every day, Chen Tianqiao still felt a pang of regret.

Most importantly, their sales are now plummeting, and even their Nasdaq listing process has been forced to a halt.

Investors generally don't have much confidence in Shengda right now, and if they force an IPO, a drop in share price is inevitable.

Once their serve breaks, they'll be in the same situation as NetArts.

Compared to NetEase, whose revenue is a complete mess, they don't need to go to the capital market to raise money because their cash flow is very good.

What they need to do now is to boost sales as quickly as possible.

Chen Tianqiao is quite confident about the upcoming Legend 3 and Bubble Fighter. With the cooperation of NetEase's Westward Journey 2, the three games belong to different genres and have clearly defined user groups, which reduces the competition between them to a certain extent.

To be honest, Momo Group's strategy of killing a thousand enemies while losing eight hundred of its own was beyond Chen Tianqiao's expectations.

Once other internet cafes have access to the game "Primordial War Chronicles," it will definitely affect the occupancy rate of Momo Internet Cafe.

“They must be getting desperate,” Chen Tianqiao said. “Let’s compete first and see how it goes. If that doesn’t work, we can talk to the internet cafe owners about discounts.”

Chen Tianqiao didn't want to open this door unless absolutely necessary.

Even if it's only a 50-cent discount, the combined number of these hundreds of thousands of internet cafes is still an extremely alarming figure.

By early June, the Chinese gaming market had become bustling.

More than a dozen low-cost online games, such as "The Legend of the Gods," "The Three Kingdoms Strategy," and "Heaven's Purgatory," took the lead and launched their closed beta tests. Just after they announced their closed beta tests, Shengda Group, a leading game company, announced the official closed beta tests of Legend 3 and Bubble Fighter.

Since its inception, Legend 3 has maintained a high level of popularity. Many media outlets have referred to Legend 3 as a high-definition version of Legend, and in some leaks, the graphics of Legend 3 have been frequently compared with those of Primordial War Chronicles.

It must be said that with the game "Primordial Era" as a template, the graphics of Legend 3 have obviously improved a lot.

At the same time, NetEase also announced the official closed beta test of "A Chinese Odyssey Part Two". On the day of the closed beta test launch, they even invited Hong Kong and Taiwan star Stephen Chow to the scene to help out, which brought the hype to the extreme.

The CD-ROM distribution channels for these three games are all handled by Shengda Point Card sales outlets, giving them a unique advantage over other games.

The three games, once released, instantly swallowed up the dozen or so low-cost online games. These games didn't even make a ripple before disappearing into the annals of history.

Having learned from its previous crushing defeat, NetEase's "A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella" has far surpassed "A Chinese Odyssey Part One" in both gameplay and quality.

Less than half a month after its closed beta test, the reputation of "Westward Journey 2" has soared, finally securing a place in the turn-based RPG genre.

The exquisite graphics and fun gameplay have attracted a large number of players of Magic Baby and Stone Age.

Since the nationwide plan to disconnect internet access in university dormitories was implemented, the number of online players for "Magic Baby" has dropped to 8. During the closed beta test of "Westward Journey 2", their online player count dropped by half again.

Compared to Magic Baby, Stone Age is in a much worse situation. Both games are far inferior to Westward Journey 2 in terms of graphics and gameplay. Their only advantage is their first-mover advantage, which gives them a number of hardcore fans.

At the same time, Legend 3 and Bubble Fighter also received a lot of positive reviews.

The exquisite graphics of Legend 3, along with the gameplay elements borrowed from Momo Legend, attracted many Legend players to participate in the closed beta of Legend 3.

However, compared to Legend 3, the popularity of Bubble Fighter exceeded Shengda's expectations.

Bubble Fighter is just a casual game. They only became distributors of Bubble Fighter to fill the gap in the casual game market. What they didn't expect was that such a simple casual game would attract such phenomenal popularity.

In the internet cafes that participated in the closed beta, nearly half the people were playing Bubble Fighter. Many players would choose to play a round or two of Bubble Fighter to relax after finishing CS and StarCraft.

This simple gameplay, combined with the cute graphics, has attracted countless girls.

These female gamers are precisely the group that Momo Group and Shengda Group most desire.

Whether it's Legend or Primordial Era, the percentage of female players is pitifully small.

In recent years, with the rise of the "simp culture," not only are there elements of simping in songs, but the consumer market has also been completely dominated by the simp culture.

For example, the game "Fantasy Westward Journey" quickly captured the market because of its large number of female players. Due to the large number of female players, many male players of "Fantasy Westward Journey" began to compete fiercely, working tirelessly to improve their strength and attract the attention of the girls they liked.

As a result, M-coins in Magic Baby have become the most stable in-game currency in the domestic game industry.

The exchange rate of 30 yuan = 60000 M coins lasted for more than a year.

Even the game market for "Primordial Era" cannot achieve such stability.

That's the charm of female gamers.

"This Legend 3 is really good. Let's switch to Legend 3. I heard that Legend 3 also has gold farming activities." In a hot pot restaurant in a small county town, two young men were drinking the soup base.

Because the hot pot broth was free, they always ordered one serving of broth and ate two bowls of rice to save money on internet access. [This is based on the author's personal experience...]

"Don't rush, haven't you heard? Momo Group's Honghuang Zhanji is about to be released. I heard that all computers will be able to play Honghuang Zhanji in the future," said a blond young man.

"We've only heard of this game, we have no idea whether it's fun or not," said the crew-cut guy opposite the blond youth.

"I often visit their forum, it's much more fun than Legend of Mir, but I don't know how it compares to Legend of Mir 3," said the blond-haired youth.

The crew-cut guy said, "I think it's just so-so. These days, all these games get people to hype them up."

As the two were chatting, the TV show on the hot pot restaurant's television finished airing, and commercials started playing right after the show ended.

Upon seeing the person in the advertisement, the crew-cut guy patted the blond-haired youth and said, "Damn, look, my idol got an ad!"

In the advertisement, Jay Chou is walking down a street, and as he walks, his casual clothes suddenly transform into a suit of armor.

Immediately afterwards, countless monsters rushed in from all directions.

Jay Chou picked up the Dragon Slayer Sword and killed all the monsters around him. Immediately afterwards, countless glowing treasures flew out from the monsters' bodies.

He stared arrogantly at the audience in front of the TV, raised his head and shouted loudly: "Loyalty and brotherhood are key! Come to 'The Legend of the Primordial Era'! Start with a watermelon knife, and divine equipment will drop for you! I'm Jay Chou, and I'm waiting for you in 'The Legend of the Primordial Era'!"

"???" The crew-cut guy was completely stunned.

This is this...

This "Primordial Era" is too powerful! They actually managed to get Jay Chou to participate?

And it even made Jay Chou strike such a low-class pose.

At the same time, the advertisements featuring the spokesperson for "The Legend of the Primordial Era" began airing on all television stations.

This period coincided with CCTV's vigorous promotion of video games. With CCTV taking the lead, other television stations also stopped restraining themselves.

Game ads? Let's put them on first and see what happens.

A game show? Let's start it first and then talk about it.

Get the money first, and we'll figure out a way to rectify it later if required.

At this time, Jay Chou's popularity had surpassed that of Andy Lau. His works had been viewed 8 million times across the internet, and he was chosen as the spokesperson by China Mobile and China Unicom.

Getting Jay Chou to endorse a game is almost an impossible task.

What's more, they filmed so many.

It seems that the advertisements broadcast on each TV station are different.

How many commercials has Jay Chou filmed for The Legend of the Primordial Era?
In addition to television commercials, major computer magazines also published news about Honghuang Zhanji, and even Popular Software devoted a full six pages to the popular gameplay of Honghuang Zhanji.

During this period, truck after truck drove to the Momo Virtual Equipment Trading Network service centers across the country.

The truck was carrying game guides published by Momo Games, along with installation discs.

The game guide isn't expensive either, selling for only 16.8 yuan. After deducting printing and CD production costs, Momo Games can barely make ten yuan.

Despite the high price of the guides, many people flocked to the local Momo Virtual Equipment Trading Network service centers, drawn by television and media advertisements.

The rapidly soaring sales even made the head of the sales office consider switching careers and opening a bookstore.

As the only game that can rival the legendary games, Honghuang Chronicles has long aroused the curiosity and anticipation of countless game fans. However, there are no Momo Internet cafes in their districts and counties, so they can't play it even if they want to.

Now that they see that the Primordial Era Chronicles is open to the public, they naturally bought it without hesitation.

This is what you call scarcity marketing.

The opening of "The Legend of the Primordial Era" was so spectacular that it instantly overshadowed "Legend of Mir 3" and "Westward Journey 2".

Internet cafe owners across the country bought the CDs and installed the game in their cafes without hesitation. Since game cards for "Honghuang Zhanji" could be purchased at local Momo virtual equipment trading centers, they could install the game with peace of mind.

"The way this 'Primordial Era' is advertising is outrageous." At this moment, in a clubhouse in Zhonghai City, Chen Tianqiao looked at the "Primordial Era" game advertisement on TV and couldn't help but say in a deep voice, "Although the State Administration of Radio and Television has gradually relaxed its restrictions on games, isn't 'Primordial Era' advertising so blatantly cutting off our escape route?"

“Yeah.” Ding Sanshi, sitting opposite Chen Tianqiao, also said unhappily, “They really have gone too far. As soon as you turn on the TV, there are ads for ‘Primordial War Chronicles’ everywhere.”

(End of this chapter)