Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 128: A Miracle for the National Singles Players?

Bai Qixian, the blogger behind "Bai Talks About Games," is currently staring blankly at the Excel spreadsheet on his screen.

Baishuo Games.

This channel analyzes domestic single-player game sales and focuses on recommending Chinese-made single-player games. In addition to posting on Baidu's Chinese single-player game forum, it also posts videos on Bilibili.

Bai Qixian, the creator of the "Bai Talks Games" channel, is scratching his head at this moment.

On his computer screen was a huge list of data.

The table shows the sales ranking of domestically produced single-player games up to July 2016. Next to the table is a blank document with only one title: "[Summary of Domestic Single-Player Games as of July 2016]"

This is what he is preparing to do.

To be honest, creating this kind of sales ranking content is much more work than you might imagine. From collecting data and verifying sales figures to writing copy and recording/editing, it takes a lot of effort to do it.

Moreover, even if it were made, hardly anyone would look at it.

On a good day, a video on Baidu Tieba can get a few thousand views and dozens of replies. Bilibili is similar; on a bad day, the number of views is only a few thousand, and on a good day, it's only tens of thousands.

There was no way around it... At this point, domestically produced single-player games were in the deepest darkness before dawn.

The "engine" of domestic single-player games in the previous generation, namely Steam, did not have much influence in China at that time.

For players who enjoy domestically produced single-player games, the real glimmer of hope didn't come until the global explosion of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) in 17, which led to a surge in Steam's user base in China.

With the spread of the Steam platform in China, starting in 17, single-player games like "ICEY" and "Lost Castle" gradually boosted the sales of domestic single-player games to around 50.

By 18, games like "The Scroll of Taiwu" and "Chinese Parents" had sold over a million copies.

This marked the beginning of a promising development environment for standalone PC games in China.

Currently, the best-selling single-player game in the first half of this year is "The Legend of Luochuan", with total sales of approximately 35 copies.

While it's considered good for a single-player game, it's not great compared to the entire Chinese gaming industry.
Sales of 35 units were barely a ripple.

Even so, Pai Chi-Hsien still enjoys making videos.

Because he genuinely loves it, he always feels that since there are still people making domestically produced single-player games, they should be able to be seen by more people, even if his videos can only bring a tiny bit of traffic to the market, that's still good.

Just as Lao Bai sighed and began to carefully consider his words to write the copy, his phone suddenly received a message from Bilibili, followed by another, and then yet another.

A series of notifications startled Lao Bai.

It's strange. He rarely receives private messages, given his large fan base; most interactions happen in the comments section. What's going on today? Did he get a virus?

Unlock and open.

The content of all the private messages was almost identical; they were all screenshots and reposts of the same news link.

[Xinhua News Agency Brief] The domestically produced single-player game "Final Front: Origins" surpassed one million units sold globally on its first day of pre-orders, with overseas markets contributing over 55%.
WTF? !
Old Bai's first reaction was that some unscrupulous editor was using clickbait headlines to grab attention. Millions of sales? First day? Global sales? None of these three words have anything to do with current domestic single-player games.

But then I looked again.

"Xinhua News Agency!???" "Is it real?"

Clicking the link, it really was Xinhua News Agency...
"Recently, the Chinese-developed single-player game 'Final Front: Origins' launched its global pre-sale, and achieved a sales miracle in just three days."

According to the latest data from the publisher, the game sold over 130 million copies worldwide within 72 hours, with overseas markets accounting for 55%. The Japanese market performed particularly well, becoming the main force in overseas sales with 55 copies sold, accounting for 42%. The European and American markets accounted for 5%, and there were also some sales in Southeast Asian markets such as South Korea.

"This pre-sale result has broken the record for domestic single-player games going overseas, marking a new stage in the recognition of Chinese self-developed games in the international market."

"It is understood that Final Battlefront is set against the backdrop of a near-future global crisis, blending Chinese science fiction aesthetics with the popular anime style favored by young players."

Industry analysts point out that this is not the group's first success in overseas markets; its online game, *Final Battlefront*, also achieved this.

The old white man was dumbfounded when he saw the words in the article.
What the hell? ? ?
Is this actually true?

Although I don't play "Final Frontline," I still know about it.

As a single-player game, I've seen the trailer for *Final Front: Origins*, but I haven't looked into the details.
When writing the article, I didn't include "Final Front: Origins," since the game hasn't been officially released yet.

If it's just a pre-order, I doubt I can buy many...
But looking at it from another angle now, those 130 million sales are a resounding slap in the face to him.

only!!
How did you do that?!
That's 130 million copies! Priced at 38, that's 5000 million in revenue. Keep in mind, at that time, *Final Battlefront*'s global monthly revenue was only around 2 million.
This is only the sales figure for 72 hours.
Bai Qixian immediately switched pages, skillfully opening several game data websites and industry forums to cross-verify the information. As a result, every information source he trusted told him in the most conspicuous way that this matter was true.

The discussion on Tieba has exploded.

Not only did Lao Bai not understand, but many players who follow the single-player game market also did not understand, at this point, without the previous demo.

Then the overall direction of public opinion is very likely to deviate.

For example, right now, many "players" believe that "Final Front: Origins" should be kicked out of the single-player game community.

"Is this considered a single-player game?? Isn't this a pay-to-win event?"

"Definitely not. If it were, would DNF (Dungeon Fighter Online) be considered a single-player game if it released two separate maps and sold them as individual packages?"

"Exactly! He's even offering a 1.5x discount; isn't that pure inflated sales figures?"

Similar opinions are not uncommon.

The saying goes that fame brings trouble, but this kind of opinion has not become mainstream.

Because there is a demo available for playing "Final Front: Origins", a large number of players can truly experience the quality of the game.

Therefore, these comments are often met with rebuttals as soon as they appear.

"Fake sales? Find another country's order and fake 130 million sales."

"You probably don't know, but 70 of these sales came from overseas revenue. Can you find a game that can generate 70 sales overseas and see what happens???"

Leaving aside these "flame wars"

The discussion among mainstream domestic gamers focused on two main aspects: the event itself and why Japanese gamers were acting so crazy!
That's 55 units sold!
(End of this chapter)