Restart life

Chapter 320, March 0317th: [Breaking 10 in Three Days]

With "Future Era" about to be released, the overseas distribution agreement for "Plants vs. Zombies" has finally been partially finalized.

The European distribution rights were granted to Focus Multimedia in the UK.

This company not only has an online platform, but also partners with 2.3 supermarkets to sell CDs. They even have distribution channels in Eastern European countries, so Youke doesn't need to worry about various Eastern European languages.

The distribution rights for Little Days were given to Nintendo.

The agency rights for South Korea have been granted to NCsoft.

Since they couldn't agree on a buyout price, all the above companies' agency agreements adopted a "prepayment + revenue sharing" model. Youke also wanted a guaranteed minimum payment, but the companies were unwilling to provide it because they didn't know if Plants vs. Zombies would sell well.

The revenue sharing ratios are roughly the same, but the upfront payments vary depending on the market size.

The advance payment from South Korea was only $1, while the advance payment from the European market was $30.

The collaboration with the American company Big Fish is still under discussion. The distribution of one game is secondary; the main focus is on whether the two parties can establish a long-term partnership.

In any case, the release of a series of overseas agency announcements has indeed stimulated the currently sluggish Chinese single-player game market.

But this thing is very difficult to replicate!
Plants vs. Zombies has a unique gameplay style, making it very suitable for overseas sales.

Other domestically produced single-player games, however, are mainly martial arts-themed and are not very popular in overseas markets, especially in Europe and America.

Around the time when "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" won an Oscar, domestically produced martial arts single-player games sold slightly better overseas.

……

Shanghai, Xuhui District, Giant Interactive.

Shi Yuzhu walked back and forth with a glass of red wine in his hand.

Giant Interactive's registration statement for its US IPO has been formally accepted by the Americans, who are about to question Shih Yu-chu.

He didn't care at all because the Giants were in such a healthy financial position.

He didn't even go public on Nasdaq, opting instead for the NYSE, which has a higher revenue threshold.

Although "Conquer Online" attracted more players in this timeline, resulting in slightly lower revenue for "Conquer Online," it achieved a record-breaking monthly revenue of 1.16 million RMB last month – thanks to the large number of players during the summer vacation.

The revenue of "The Emperor's Reign" last month also exceeded 9000 million RMB.

The two games are quite similar.

However, the operating costs of "Zhengtu" are much higher, and its net profit is actually lower than that of "Quan Yu Tian Xia". The main reason is that the promotion costs are too high. "Zhengtu" has too many on-the-ground promotion personnel and also advertises heavily on TV.

From last year to now, Shi Yuzhu has spent nearly 2 million RMB on advertising on CCTV-1 alone—the 15-second ad next to "Focus Interview" has been running for more than half a year.

He also placed advertisements on more than 20 provincial satellite TV channels!

Because of the fierce competition between "Quan Yu Tian Xia" and "Zheng Tu" for players, other free-to-play MMOs have been severely hampered. "Yulgang" has long been completely wiped out, and "Eudemons Online" only generated a little over 2000 million yuan in revenue last month.

Having been dealt such a terrible blow, it's uncertain whether NetDragon, the operator of "Eudemons Online," will still be able to list normally on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange this year.

The impact on "Legend" and "Legend of Mir" is not significant; those who want to play will continue to play, and those who don't want to play are not attracted by other games.

QQ Fantasy, on the other hand, self-destructed, clinging to life only because of its QQ user base. However, the game experience was extremely poor, resulting in a steady loss of tens of thousands of users every month. No amount of promotional activities could bring them back.

It's troublesome enough that Tao Chenggang is stealing business, and now Chen Guiliang is getting involved too.

Therefore, Shih Yu-chu must target "Future Era"!
He improved the player salary plan: as long as the game character reaches a certain level and has a certain amount of online time each month, the user can receive a monthly salary of 150 yuan, regardless of whether the user has recharged.

Although it's issued using in-game currency, that currency can also be converted into real money.

Especially for veteran players who play multiple accounts simultaneously, they can earn several hundred yuan per month. Even if they need to sell at a discount, they can still earn three or four hundred yuan a month.

This guy may seem crazy, but he actually had an economist carefully design it.

No matter how much in-game currency is given to players, it will be used up after a few events. The complex game economy model can also prevent short-term inflation.

Undeniably, although the methods are simple and crude, throwing money at it really works.

During the official launch of "Future Era", "Conquer Online" finally broke through 100 million peak concurrent users by paying players' salaries!
The games "Fantasy Westward Journey" and "Westward Journey Online II" are also running events, not only to target Chen Guiliang, but also because summer vacation is almost over. They need to hold another round of events to make some money before school starts.

World of Warcraft has a ton of summer events to keep veteran players who have been waiting for updates.

"Peak concurrent users have exceeded one million!" the operations staff shouted.

The entire team was instantly energized.

Shi Yuzhu smiled, took a sip of his red wine, and walked leisurely towards his office.

For an MMO game, 30,000 to 50,000 concurrent online players is a significant hurdle. 100,000, 200,000, and 300,000 are even more significant hurdles.

Many once-popular games have peak concurrent player counts stuck between 10 and 30. New players keep joining, while old players keep leaving, and the concurrent player count just won't go up.

After that, increasing the population by 10 became incredibly difficult.

It gets harder as you go on.

Among MMOs that have reached a peak of 100 million concurrent online users, *Fantasy Westward Journey* was the first, and *Conquer Online* is now the second. There isn't a third yet!
Even World of Warcraft won't work.

Shi Yuzhu dialed Chen Guiliang's number: "Mr. Chen, what's the peak number of concurrent users for 'Future Era'? It just broke 100 million here."

"Congratulations!" Chen Guiliang exclaimed. "I'm not doing so well here. I just broke the 10 mark today."

"Damn it!" Shi Yuzhu couldn't help but curse.

The peak number of concurrent users of "Future Era" exceeded 10 in just three days after its launch!

In the past two years, a total of six games have achieved this feat, all of which were extremely popular even before their official release.

World of Warcraft was the most popular, with 12 players online within just 48 hours of its launch. This was despite limited server capacity, resulting in many players queuing up and unable to log in.

Shi Yuzhu cursed and then said, "Congratulations, 10 people in three days, another phenomenal game."

Chen Guiliang complained, "Sigh, the server costs are still too high. One server for 'Zhengtu' can accommodate nearly 10,000 people, while one server for 'Future Era' can only accommodate 2000 people."

“Why… I understand now.” Shi Yuzhu was also a programmer.

Future Era is a fighting game, placing a huge burden on its physics engine. Each skill requires real-time calculations of hit rate, aerial combos, collision volume, and so on, putting immense pressure on the server's CPU. Furthermore, it demands high network speeds, necessitating communication optimization during game development.

Do you think the name "DNF Disconnect City" came from?

Chen Guiliang conducted a six-month internal test of "Future Era" primarily to perform server stress testing.

We started with 1000 players, increased to 3000 after the Spring Festival, and then to 5000 before the summer vacation. We gradually increased the number of players, making continuous adjustments to avoid various problems that might arise from a direct launch.

To avoid players feeling it's too shabby, *Future Era* doesn't strictly divide servers into zones. Instead, it's directly divided into "Region 1" and "Region 2," with each zone actually subdivided into dozens of channels.

……

The fourth day since the release of "Future Era".

It was nearly midnight, and Chen Guiliang was still awake, lying in bed calling the staff on duty: "How much has the peak online traffic increased today?"

The staff member on duty replied, "Today's increase is significantly smaller, with only a little over 20,000 more people added."

That's just like Versailles!

The peak concurrent users increased by 2 per day, but the actual increase in users was two to three times that number. Because it was a new game and the gaming experience was amazing, the peak concurrent users accounted for a very high percentage of the total number of players.

Many players don't log off even after their fatigue points have been depleted; they just stand in the city chatting with people or fighting in the arena.

"Wow, this game is so much fun, it's unlike any other online game. I watched the opening and cutscenes carefully, it felt like I was experiencing a story."

"Don't be surprised. The storyline of World of Warcraft is even more amazing."

"Can World of Warcraft players just shut up? I see you guys bragging everywhere, I'm so fed up!"

"Telling the truth is considered bragging?"

"If Warcraft is so fun, go play Warcraft! Why play Future Era? Warcraft, players and NPCs alike, are all hideous! Couldn't they at least make them look good?"

"Hey, you guys are using so many asterisks in your typing."

"After this year's ChinaJoy electronics show, all games have to implement anti-addiction systems, and the restrictions on sensitive words in speech have become much stricter. I can't even type out any swear words anymore."

"I went to the State Administration of Press and Publication, and all they did all day was censor. They made World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade look incredibly late."

"Let's team up and run the Water Purification Plant Abyss. We're missing a tank, join now if you want!"

"Newbie looking for guys to mentor me."

Are you a man or a transvestite?

"I'm a woman!"

"Goodbye, ladyboy."

Countless students about to start school, as well as many working professionals entering the workforce, have been logging into the game in the days since its official launch.

Some players who didn't have their own computers, or whose computers were left at school, even stormed into internet cafes and demanded that the manager install "Future Era".

In fact, if a game is popular enough, the webmaster will download and install it himself.

Shi Yuzhu, Tao Chenggang, and their ground promotion team swept through city after city, promoting their game to any internet cafe that didn't have it installed. They'd also pay the cafe managers a small fee to put up game posters.

Shi Yuzhu later became completely obsessed. Local internet cafes had already installed "Zhengtu" (a popular online game), and he even advertised it to lure passersby in. He even went to rural areas to paint walls with slogans like "Play games, get free fertilizer," targeting left-behind children and unemployed rural residents.

They even gave it the fancy name of "Internet Games Connecting Every Village".

On the morning of the eighth day after the launch of "Future Era", the official website posted a celebratory message: "Warm congratulations to 'Future Era' for surpassing 15 peak concurrent users in its first week of launch."

This news has caused a slight shock in the gaming industry.

This is the seventh time such a shock has occurred in the past two years. Previous instances included *World of Warcraft*, *Fantasy Westward Journey: War of Destiny*, *Yulgang*, *Audition Online*, *Perfect World*, and *Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils*...

The data for "Future Era" is very similar to that of "Yulgang," both exceeding 10 views in three days and 15 views in the first week.

However, "Yulgang" is now completely dead.

We'll have to see how it performs in the long run.

Everyone in the industry knows that another giant is about to rise. This isn't a casual game like "Three Kingdoms Kill," but a MOAG game that can rake in massive profits!

Zhongshi Wangyuan, which "snatched up" the agency rights for "DNF," kept urging the Korean team to speed up the technology handover. They wanted to take advantage of the popularity of "Future Era" to rehash the plagiarism of that game and launch "DNF" to ride the wave of popularity and make a fortune.

On the 17173 Weekly Game Chart, "Future Era" jumped straight to seventh place!

(End of this chapter)