Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 168 Getting into Tsinghua University
Just as Leng Zefeng was checking WeChat.

On the other side, Chen Fan slammed the door of the black minivan shut.

The world quieted down. Chen Fan casually loosened his tie, told the driver to go back to the company, and then took out his phone to call Huang Jintao, the producer of "Onmyoji".

The call was answered almost instantly.

"Mr. Chen!"

Huang Jintao's voice on the other end of the line was noticeably excited.

"it's me."

"President Chen! It's done! Your extreme pressure was a stroke of genius! As for Xingchen..."

"Stop flattering me, get down to business," Chen Fan interrupted him calmly. "Just tell me about that betting agreement you sent on WeChat. What exactly does the betting work?"

"It's General Manager Chen."

The matter that Huang Jintao was going to report was actually not complicated; it was the marketing and distribution agreement between Xingchen Games and Onmyoji.

In fact, since the beginning of July, after Xingchen Tap was launched, Chu Chen from Xingchen Games had called him directly, and the two sides had communicated about the promotion of "Onmyoji".

However, at the time, NetEase was somewhat unsure about the Star Tap channel.

Unlike Tencent, NetEase's own promotional capabilities are actually quite limited. In addition to websites and buying advertorials, their promotional channels are mainly to find hard-sell alliances to buy traffic.

It's not just about channel revenue sharing; the cost of acquiring users is also very high.

This is why, when the Hardcore Alliance was about to "collapse" in the previous life, Boss Ding of NetEase was the first to come out and curse, calling the Hardcore Alliance an industry bloodsucker.

But then again, in 16, NetEase didn't have a choice. At least the Hardcore Alliance was a channel that NetEase could use by spending money. Other channels like QQ and WeChat... you couldn't use them even if you spent money, right?

Therefore, even if one cannot tolerate it, one can only tolerate it.

However, the situation seems to have changed somewhat now.

"Starry Games promised that if we agreed to an exclusive deal with their Android app on Starry Tap, they would offer us a two-year marketing and distribution contract."

"Speak to the important points"

"Yes, that's right. Simply put, this performance-based agreement means that if the monthly revenue exceeds 100 million during the promotional period thanks to the other party's efforts, Xingchen will receive 3% of the revenue. For every additional 100 million thereafter, they will receive an extra 3% of the revenue. The contract can be signed for two years, or up to five years if we wish."

"Furthermore, if their promotional activities fail to generate 200 million yuan in revenue in the first month, we can terminate the promotional contract without any cost."

"Wait a moment.."

Chen Fan interrupted Huang Jintao.

"Two hundred million? Is Chu Chen that confident in Onmyoji?"

As the president of NetEase Interactive Entertainment, he is well aware of the details of "Onmyoji".

When this project started, the team consisted of only 9 people. In 2015, when it was first promoted to the public, it was only given two and a half minutes of publicity.

From the very beginning, Onmyoji was positioned as a "trial project". Even in 16, when the ACG market was booming, within NetEase, this game was still only a second-tier project.

According to calculations by NetEase's internal actuaries, the most optimistic revenue estimate is around 5000 million to 1 million RMB, taking into account that the auto chess gameplay is still relatively popular.

Onmyoji also drew on the conclusions drawn from the improved gameplay of auto chess.

Now, Starry Sky Games' initial assessment of this game is 200 million?
Chen Fan's mind raced. He didn't think the actuaries at NetEase would make a mistake. The game "Onmyoji" had too many "Japanese" elements.

It's almost impossible for it to become a huge hit, since no game in China has ever succeeded using Japanese cultural elements.
Chu Chen couldn't possibly make such a basic mistake.

Based on this understanding, the only possible explanation for the other party's pricing is this.

It can only be that Starry Games is in a hurry. They urgently need a big company to take charge of Starry Tap and monetize the traffic. So even if the other party doesn't make money, they still want to bring NetEase on board.

Moreover, the contract format provided by the other party was quite interesting.

Essentially, NetEase has outsourced some of its marketing channels to Xingchen Tap.
From a purely marketing and promotional cost perspective, this is definitely worthwhile, even if the final revenue exceeds expectations, such as 2 million or even 3 million.
It's only 9% of the diverted water.
It can't be a billion, right? We'll have to take 30% of Starry Sky's revenue, won't we?
No, no, no... how could that be?
5 million is the absolute maximum, and even if we take a step back and split it 30%, it's still lower than the 40% cut offered by the hard alliance.
Of course, Starry Sky Games receives revenue sharing from all Android channels.

In other words, a portion of the traffic generated from the promotional efforts invested by the company itself should also be shared. However, this is based on the premise that, even if the final revenue reaches 5 million, it's still a possibility.
The other party only gets 15%, which isn't a high cost.
Having discussed the costs, what about the benefits?
The biggest benefit, of course, is that it saves NetEase from the channel revenue sharing of the Hard Union Alliance and the cost of buying users.

Besides lower costs, there is an additional benefit: reputation.

Onmyoji did indeed plagiarize Auto Chess. Although such "borrowing" is common in the gaming industry, it is ultimately not something to be proud of.

If Xingchen is the agent for publicity and promotion, the impact of this plagiarism will naturally be much smaller.

Of course, the most crucial element is the performance-based agreement itself.

They only charge for publicity and promotion if the revenue reaches 100 million, with a minimum guaranteed revenue of 200 million. If the revenue doesn't reach that, they even allow the website owner to unilaterally terminate the contract.

Chen Fan had lived half his life, struggling in the business world. He had seen people make empty promises and issue worthless checks, but he had never seen anyone hand a knife to someone and say, "If you think I'm lying to you, you can stab me anytime."

It's like a top-tier college entrance exam tutor confidently telling parents, "Hand over your child to me, and I guarantee they'll get into Tsinghua or Peking University. If they don't get in? I won't charge you a penny of tuition, and I'll even compensate you for emotional distress."

this.
No parent could resist such an offer.

Chen Fan was also tempted. To him, taking advantage of StarTap's urgent need to attract manufacturers and getting this deal was indeed a good opportunity.
Since it's free anyway, I'm not afraid to give it a try.

Thinking of this, Chen Fan didn't even ask about publicity anymore, but instead asked about something else.

"What about overseas channels? What did they say...?"

For the current online community, in addition to the domestic market, overseas markets are also a weakness.

Although NetEase has tried to go overseas in the past two years, the results have mostly been unsatisfactory, let alone establishing a systematic distribution network.

The studio I set up in North America a few years ago at great expense is still burning through cash and hasn't made a single profit.

In China, at least there's the Hardcore Alliance, but overseas, you can't even buy traffic if you want to.

In the previous life, this situation only occurred after games like Onmyoji and Knives Out became wildly popular in Japan, allowing NetEase to gain some basic traffic overseas, or more accurately, in Japan.

However, at present, NetEase, the second largest domestic player, is not even as good as Xingchen.
(End of this chapter)