Restart life

Chapter 322 0319 [Your son is awesome, but my son-in-law is just as good]

Looking solely at the data for "Future Era," 15 views in the first week and 35 views in the first month don't seem to be far ahead of the competition.

Summer vacation is always a peak season for the release of new games.

There are so many this year!
The first one is "QQ Three Kingdoms".

Just a few days after the National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao) ended, the game was launched for public testing. Its peak concurrent users reached 20 in the first week, 30 in the first month, and 25 in the second month.

It still uses QQ to drive traffic, just like other Tencent self-developed games. The data was incredibly impressive when it was first launched. But then it just couldn't keep up, or it would rise and then quickly fall back.

The second is "MechWarrior," developed by NetDragon and operated by Tianqing Digital.

To be honest, this game is of good quality and has attracted many die-hard sci-fi fans. However, mecha-themed games have always been a niche genre in China.

It earned 8 in the first week, 15 in the first month, and has since hovered between 10 and 15.

While its player base is difficult to increase, it has a group of die-hard fans supporting it. Its revenue can be said to be very stable, and it even operated for a long time until 2019.

The third one is "QQ Huaxia".

The data is even more frightening: 25 in the first week and 35 in the first month, breaking the first-week record for QQ series games.

However, similarly, prices began to decline the following month, falling all the way down to below 25.

The fourth is "A Chinese Odyssey Part Three".

15 in the first week, 25 in the first month.

Its reputation is polarized. Many long-time players of "Westward Journey 2" had been eagerly anticipating this game. However, their expectations were too high, and they were extremely disappointed with the final product, with significant controversy surrounding the game's storyline.

Once the player base stabilizes, it will be similar to that of "Super Robot Wars".

These four games stood out; the other games released during the summer were rather mediocre.

Two of them outperformed Future Age in their first week, while one was on par with Future Age. One of them was on par with Future Age in its first month.

But why does Popular Software only say that Future Era is a phenomenon-level game?

Because both QQ Three Kingdoms and QQ Huaxia relied on QQ for user acquisition, everyone is very familiar with Tencent Games' strategies. They can even predict when the user decline will begin.

"Westward Journey 3" relied on veteran players for support, but its controversial reputation clearly offended them. Its subsequent development will likely be mediocre at best.

Currently, the only new game that can rival "Future Era" is "Tian Long Ba Bu," which officially launched in April.

Even after its first month, the peak number of concurrent online users for "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils" continued to increase by 10,000 per day. It only slowed down after reaching 400,000, and then broke through the 500,000 mark during the summer vacation.

The highly anticipated Korean game "Miracle World" was immediately clashed with "Tian Long Ba Bu" upon its release. Then, when it tried to expand its influence with summer events, it ran into "Future Era".

This South Korean online game, which was heavily promoted and touted as a must-play, was completely crushed this year. By the time the school year started in September, its peak concurrent users had dropped to around 50,000.

An article by the deputy editor-in-chief of 17173 commented: "Korean games launched this year have generally performed poorly in the Chinese market. Meanwhile, domestically developed games are rapidly rising, especially 'Tian Long Ba Bu,' 'MechWarrior,' and 'Future Era.' These three domestic games are extremely impressive in terms of both quality and player numbers..."

……

Rongcheng.

A group of real estate developers are drinking.

Real estate developer Peng Guoquan was showered with compliments, not because of how much money he had made, but because... his son was successful!

His son's name is Peng Haitao, a dropout from the Computer Science Department of Sichuan University.

In the fall of 2002, his 18-year-old son told him, "Dad, Chen Tianqiao's 'Legend' is incredibly profitable. I can make a better game than 'Legend.' I want to drop out of school and start my own business!"

Peng Guoquan agreed and gave his son 100 million yuan as start-up capital.

The son then brought in three friends, and together they spent a year developing their own 3D game engine. They then spent another two years developing "Legend Online," and sold the nationwide distribution rights for the game for 20 million yuan.

Instead of running the business himself, the son used the 2000 million yuan to develop a second game, "Fengyun Online." This time, he completed the game in just six months.

Despite its poor operational capabilities, Fengyun OL still managed to reach a peak concurrent user count of over 10.

Two months ago, Chen Tianqiao invested 1 million yuan to acquire his son's company. He then named the game after it and launched the grand "Storm Project".

"Hey, Lao Peng. If my son were even half as good as your son, I'd be laughing in my sleep. That brat doesn't study hard or try to start a business; he just plays with cars all day."

One of the real estate developers at the banquet spoke with undisguised envy.

We're all in the real estate business in Chengdu, so why is it that other people's sons are so successful?

Peng Guoquan was quite reserved when he first sat down at the table, but after a few drinks, he became smug: "My son has started another company, a game development team. Shanda won't let him take it with him. But two people are willing to resign and follow him. They recently hired 50 programmers, and they estimate they'll be able to make their third game next year..."

"To be honest, selling it to Shanda for 1 million is still a huge loss. But I've always respected my son's choices and haven't interfered much with him since he was little. Other parents would definitely scold their kids for playing games. I'm different; I encourage him to play, but he has to manage his time reasonably..."

"He was only 18 years old back then, and he said he wanted to drop out of school to start a business. Wouldn't other parents have given him a good scolding? But I said, 'Okay, I'll give you 100 million yuan, but you can take a leave of absence from school. If the business fails, you can go back to school.' He wouldn't even listen to that. He insisted on dropping out of school instead of taking a leave of absence, saying he didn't want to leave himself any way out. I also said, 'Fine, drop out of school then. At worst, you can come and help me manage the company later...'"

“Children shouldn’t be controlled too strictly; they need to be given the freedom to develop. In the past, you either didn’t care or you controlled them to death. Now that they’re older, you can’t control them even if you want to!” After hearing this, the other real estate developers were full of admiration.

Bian Jingsong was a little annoyed and couldn't help but say, "Actually, there's another young man who's not bad either. He's also from Sichuan, named Chen Guiliang. Several of his games sell well. He used to have 'Three Kingdoms Kill,' and recently 'Future Era' was released."

A real estate developer laughed and said, "We're talking about Lao Peng's son, what are you talking about Chen Guiliang? Is he your illegitimate son?"

Bian Jingsong had also drunk quite a bit of alcohol by this time, and said something he would never normally say: "A son-in-law is also like half a son."

"Chen Guiliang is your son-in-law? No, he's not married." The others became interested.

Bian Jingsong said, "He's my daughter's boyfriend. The two of them, a young couple, have already bought a house together in Beijing. During the Spring Festival, Xiao Chen visited my home. My daughter also went to Xiao Chen's home to pay her respects to the elders."

Peng Guoquan was bragging about his son when this happened, and he was a little annoyed, but he still said, "Not bad, Lao Bian, your future son-in-law is really awesome. I heard from my son the other day that 'Future Era' is on a roll and is definitely the most profitable new domestic game this year."

Bian Jingsong laughed and said, "Not bad. Young people should be allowed to explore more. But Lao Peng, you're really good at raising sons. I have to admire you."

“Hahaha,” Peng Guoquan said smugly, “Doing real estate is not what I’m most proud of. Raising my son to be successful is the most successful thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

A real estate developer who wasn't very familiar with online games asked, "How much money can that game called 'Future Era' make in a year?"

Bian Jinsong smiled but didn't reply, because he didn't know either.

Because of his son, Peng Guoquan was very clear: "Based on the performance of 'Future Era' in its first month, the revenue in the first year is estimated to be several hundred million. This is a conservative estimate. If the subsequent operation is good, it is possible to exceed 10 billion in a year. As for the net profit, it will probably be several hundred million."

The real estate developers were quite surprised to hear this.

"Damn it, this is almost like robbing a bank, and it's even more profitable than our real estate business."

"Exactly. We real estate people may seem like we're throwing money around, but aren't we all drowning in debt to the banks?"

"You two are really something, a son and a son-in-law. You're going to be eating numb food from now on!"

"..."

……

Nine Cities.

"Mr. Zhu, 'The Burning Crusade' has finally passed the review. Should we still release it as originally planned? Time is a bit tight."

How are the preparations going?

"It's been ready for a long time, just waiting for approval. I was talking about publicity, there wasn't much time allotted for it."

"What's the point of advertising? Players have been waiting for half a year!"

On September 6th, as new students returned to school, the Chinese version of World of Warcraft finally received an update.

At this point, Future Era had been online for 36 days.

Many veteran World of Warcraft players have chosen to temporarily leave Future Age and are eager to experience the new Warcraft expansion.

The operations manager for "Future Era" is He Zhichuan, a graduate of Peking University.

During his senior year of college, he and Ao Yanzhen went to Tsinghua University to promote the physical cards of "Three Kingdoms Kill". After the launch of "Three Kingdoms Kill Online", He Zhichuan was also in charge of its operation.

At the time, I didn't know anything and learned as I went, making a few embarrassing mistakes along the way. Each time, Chen Guiliang was the one who cleaned up my messes.

In order to operate an online game like "Future Era", He Zhichuan went to Tao Chenggang at the beginning of this year to learn how to operate "Quan Yu Tian Xia".

"Since the Warcraft update, the growth of players in Future Era has slowed down significantly in the past few days."

何智川说出一组数据：“9月1号到5号，《未来纪元》每日新增注册用户10万左右、每日峰值在线增涨6千左右。到了魔兽更新的6号以后，新增注册用户波动不大，但峰值在线增涨却跌到5千以下！”

Chen Guiliang said, "It's not necessarily due to World of Warcraft; it's more likely because of the start of the new school year. The drop in growth data is already quite impressive for the new school season. We've been consistently growing, while many games have experienced negative growth after the summer break."

He Zhichuan thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "That's possible."

He Zhichuan had been running the game "Three Kingdoms Kill" for a long time, and summer and winter vacations didn't have much impact on it. He didn't have much experience in this area.

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "Don't be scared by World of Warcraft. It just has a huge reputation and a lot of die-hard fans, but the actual number of players is far less than that of Fantasy Westward Journey. Because it hasn't been updated with expansion packs, World of Warcraft's peak online player count has long been surpassed by games like 'The Legend of Conqueror' and 'Conquer Online'."

Chen Guiliang added, "In the coming period, our peak concurrent users may not increase rapidly, but the number of newly registered users is expected to surge. Players of *Future Era* will definitely bring their classmates to play after their summer vacation ends and they'll be going back to school!"

He Zhichuan is under immense pressure.

He's too young; he graduated from Peking University less than two years ago and has been learning and working in game operations at the same time.

Without Chen Guiliang's help to steer the ship, he would have crashed countless times already.

He Zhichuan said, "With the increasing number of players, the operations team is becoming insufficient. I hope to recruit 15 new people. With experienced staff mentoring new ones, progress will be rapid."

"You're in charge of the specific operational matters," Chen Guiliang immediately agreed.

(End of this chapter)