Restart life

Chapter 334 0331 [The Future Era is Really, Really Profitable]

Previously, Chen Guiliang posted on his personal account that he would give players a surprise if "Future Era" reached 100 million concurrent online users by the end of the year.

Unfortunately, the goal was not achieved.

Despite a major Christmas and New Year's Day promotion, the peak number of online users only reached 86.

But that's scary enough, considering that "Future Era" has only been open for registration for six months!
Since the emergence of online games in China, apart from "Future Era" and only "Fantasy Westward Journey", only one other game has been able to achieve this data in six months.

At the time, Zhang Chaoyang commented on the game, saying that among the new games launched this year, only "Tian Long Ba Bu" and "Future Era" were competitive.

"Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils" was indeed very popular; during its National Day event in October, its peak concurrent users reached 700,000. However, it quickly dropped back to 600,000, unable to maintain the same level of growth as "Future Era".

"How much revenue does 'Future Era' generate per month now?" Guo Feng asked curiously.

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "In the first two months after it went online, the monthly revenue was only 20 to 30 million. Now, the revenue in December alone is 1.02 million."

"Grass!"

Guo Feng was speechless for a moment.

Actually, Chen Guiliang was too conscientious; he didn't try to trick players into spending money. Otherwise, with a peak of 86 concurrent users, the monthly revenue would definitely be more than 1.02 million.

Of course, it can also be said in another way: Future Era is very restrained in its pricing, and free players have an excellent gaming experience.

Chen Guiliang said, "The main reason is that 'Future Era' has no competitors. Currently, there are only 'Future Era' and 'DNF' in the domestic side-scrolling fighting online game market. However, 'DNF' is plagued by rampant cheating and frequent disconnections, and CCTV.com failed to address the issue promptly, so it became almost dead shortly after its launch."

The main problem is that current MMO games are too homogenous, especially for veteran players who are starting to experience aesthetic fatigue. If a new game with novel gameplay emerges, unlike any other MMO, they flock to it.

Guo Feng asked, "Aren't other major game companies following suit?"

“Yes,” Chen Guiliang said. “Shanda has handed over the game development of ‘Ghost Blows Out the Light’ to a Chengdu-based game company they acquired. It’s also a side-scrolling fighting online game, and it’s estimated to be launched next year. Tencent has also announced the development of a side-scrolling fighting online game, called something like ‘QQ War Soul’.”

The domestic online game market is only so big; the number of players cannot increase indefinitely.

The meteoric rise of "Future Era" has had a significant impact on other online games.

The first to suffer was MapleStory, which is also a side-scrolling action MMORPG, but calling it a fighting game is a bit of a stretch.

MapleStory's peak concurrent online users this year was 70 (during the summer vacation). After the launch of Future Era's open beta, MapleStory's concurrent online users plummeted by 12%.

The price continued to fall until the end of the year, and even Christmas events couldn't boost it, leading to a large influx of MapleStory players to Future Era.

Many of the students from "Conquer Online" and "The Emperor's Reign" have also entered "Future Era".

Because of the "fragmented dungeons" in Future Era, a single playthrough takes at most 15 minutes, allowing students to quickly play a game before lunch break or evening self-study.

Many players of "KartRider" have also switched to playing "Future Era".

This trend continues as Future Age gains more and more popularity, while players of other games continue to leave.

Even World of Warcraft players sometimes log into Future Era after finishing guild activities to run a couple of dungeon runs and relax. It's like playing World of Warcraft is work, while playing Future Era is leisure and entertainment.

"Future Era" is like a "short video" in the online game industry. You can start playing anytime, have fun, and then leave without interrupting other things.

Currently, the peak concurrent online users of "Future Era" have reached 90, and it is not far from the goal of 100 million concurrent online users.

The gaming media outlets are full of praise for it.

Social media, however, has drawn criticism, with people labeling anyone who does anything.

It used to be "Legend of Mir," then "World of Warcraft," "Fantasy Westward Journey," and now "Future Era." Whichever game becomes the most popular inevitably becomes the target of newspaper criticism.

During the Christmas period, there was a report about two students in Guangzhou who arranged a fight, and one of them was seriously injured and died. Because they had both played the game "Future Era," the reporter portrayed it as an offline fight, claiming that "Future Era" promoted violence within the game.

Because of the huge public outcry, Game Science even sent people to investigate.

They are actually two children of migrant workers, living with their parents who work away from home, and attending a school for migrant workers' children in Guangzhou. Educational resources are scarce, the learning environment is poor, and skipping classes, spending time online, and fighting are common occurrences.

They had indeed played "Future Era" at an internet cafe before they fought. However, the reason for the fight was a real-life squabble over a girl, and had absolutely nothing to do with the game.

There was another murder case in Beijing in the first half of this year.

The sons of laid-off workers (twin brothers) dropped out of vocational school before finishing and spent their days wandering around Beijing. They and their girlfriends randomly chose an elderly man and brutally beat him, torturing him to death.

These four murderers hadn't even played games before the attack; they just frequented internet cafes. Yet, the newspapers labeled them as having committed murder influenced by online games.

Some reporters even went so far as to spread rumors, exaggerating the situation and claiming that the four murderers wanted to kill the old man to loot his equipment.

This issue caused a huge uproar this year, prompting newspapers across the country to condemn it and multiple media outlets to call for a complete ban on online games.

At the time, ByteDance had just completed its financial compliance process, and Chen Guiliang couldn't help but write an article titled "Don't Simply Blame Social Conflicts on Online Games." In the article, Chen Guiliang wrote: "The parents of those twin brothers who committed murder were laid-off workers receiving welfare. They hadn't even finished vocational school, and they wouldn't take the jobs their parents helped them find, spending their days aimlessly on the streets and in internet cafes..."

"This belongs to a marginalized group, and it's caused by a series of complex factors. We should pay attention to and help marginalized groups get back on the right track, rather than banning online games. Didn't China have marginalized groups before online games existed? Were there no thugs on the streets?"

"Now people think of internet cafes as dens of iniquity. Before that, they were arcades, and before that, nightclubs. Going back to the 70s, they were even ice rinks. Were ice rinks built specifically for thugs? No, neither were nightclubs, arcades, or internet cafes. Social problems arose first, leading to marginalized groups who then sought out places to congregate. It wasn't the ice rinks, nightclubs, arcades, or internet cafes that corrupted them..."

This article, posted by Chen Guiliang on his personal account, was quickly reprinted by game channels and game publications.

But it was all for naught; traditional newspapers continued to criticize.

Because criticizing online games can attract attention and boost newspaper sales.

……

Thanks to the outstanding performance of "Future Era", it swept 10 awards at the Golden Feather Awards at the end of this year.

Chen Guiliang was also selected as one of the "2007 Game Personality of the Year" at the Golden Feather Awards. Hmm, there are quite a few Game Personalities of the Year.

Next up is the China Game Industry Annual Conference and Golden Phoenix Awards Ceremony, held in Suzhou in January 2008.

Chen Guiliang was too lazy to travel and asked Qu Guohao, the vice president of Youke, to accept the award.

Of course, I also had to call the two directors of the State Administration of Press and Publication and the Ministry of Information Industry to apologize and explain how busy I had been lately and couldn't get away.

By the way, Shanda is still the leader in China's online game industry!

Within six months of announcing that "Legend of Mir" and "Legend of Mir 2" would be free to play, the revenue of these two games was halved.

Now, Shanda has gradually returned to the free-to-play model, and with the addition of revenue from a series of games and payment channels, Shanda's revenue surpassed NetEase's in the first half of the year, and in the second half of the year, it completely crushed NetEase.

A few days later.

Hangcheng.

At the China Game Industry Annual Conference, Qu Guohao, Vice President of Youke, took the stage to speak: "On New Year's Day, 'Future Era' updated its expansion pack, raising the maximum character level to 60, adding four new levels, fifteen new dungeons, and a new pet system... The number of players has increased rapidly, reaching a peak of 100 million concurrent online players two days ago..."

A group of game industry leaders in the audience had complex expressions upon hearing this news.

Another game with millions of online players has emerged!

After the industry conference and awards ceremony ended, Chen Tianqiao called his subordinates: "Try to urge the studio in Chengdu to speed up the development of 'Ghost Blows Out the Light.' Of course, the game quality must also be good."

You want to make games quickly and well, right?
The person on the other end of the phone was speechless and could only guarantee that the task would be completed.

Upon returning to the company, Zhu Jun immediately convened a meeting with senior management: "Our heavily invested game, *Granado Espada*, can be declared a failure. The9 can't rely solely on *World of Warcraft*, but distributing Korean games isn't reliable either. I plan to bet heavily on developing our own *Dynasty Warriors*, using a side-scrolling fighting game to break through the competition..."

The game "Granado Espada," which was launched in October, was heavily promoted by The10 six months in advance, with all sorts of exaggerated hype.

As a result, during the public beta test, only 8 people were online at the same time...

What a loss!
Because the agency fee for "Granado Espada" was very expensive, the Korean companies squeezed Nine City hard.

Now, The9 is going to develop its own side-scrolling fighting online game, claiming it is in response to the State Administration of Press and Publication's call to increase the development of its own games and to promote traditional Chinese culture.

It's basically just following the trend of "Future Era" and taking the opportunity to repair the relationship with the State Administration of Press and Publication.

Moreover, the name even veers off the classic game "Dynasty Warriors: Three Kingdoms," without paying any copyright fees, in an attempt to attract arcade players back then.

In another time and space, the marketing of "Famous Generals of the Three Kingdoms" takes a darker approach.

At the time, Tencent's "DNF" was far ahead of the competition, and The9 actually offered 200 million Q coins to attract "DNF" players, with the slogan "Play 'Dynasty Warriors: Three Kingdoms' and get free Q coins".

This move has left Tencent speechless. What's with The9 giving away Q coins in their games? Are you competing with Tencent, or trying to promote QQ for Tencent?

Zhu Jun now instructed: "Before our 'Dynasty Warriors: Three Kingdoms' launches, register accounts on HaiNei.com, Youke platform, and Future Era Tieba. Whether it's giving away U-coins (Youke coins) or Bytecoins, try your best to attract players from 'Future Era'!"

A group of executives from Nine City were stunned. Why did this operation seem so unreliable?
Zhu Jun said, "Traditional online games have reached a bottleneck. World of Warcraft has already reached the limit for this genre. Next, we must focus on making a breakthrough in side-scrolling fighting online games!"

Side-scrolling fighting online games are currently in high demand, and a large number of game companies are following suit and developing them.

Shanda has "Ghost Blows Out the Light: Side Story", Tencent has "QQ War Souls", The9 has "Dynasty Warriors", Perfect World has "Gods and Demons", 9Game has "Warriors", Kunlun Games has "Journey to the East", Kingsoft has "Fighting Era"...

These are just the major game companies; dozens of other small and medium-sized game companies have also flocked to develop side-scrolling fighting online games.

It is estimated that 20 to 30 similar games will be launched in the next year.

The more copycat games there are, the more it proves that Future Era has made a lot of money!
(End of this chapter)