Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 188 Passion
Before its launch, Starry Night Games actually did a lot of promotional preparations, such as pushing Starry Night wallpapers, live streaming by voice actors, giving away Starry Night Tap coupons for playing, giving away Saint Quartz for sharing, and giving away gift packs for attracting new users.
These promotional campaigns were conducted sequentially according to time.

Among them, the promotion of the gift box was the earliest batch of pre-heating activities, and it was also the least impactful pre-heating activity in the eyes of Xingchen Games, targeting core fans.

Without considering skins and IP bonuses, the material cost for this set is around one hundred. Chu Chen's idea is to attract core FATE fans with relatively inexpensive yet high-quality merchandise.

After all, you've already bought the gift box. Even if it's just to redeem the skins inside, you'll definitely want to play the remastered version, right?
So why was this expected to be a low-impact promotional campaign?
Because this thing ultimately requires money to buy.

but.
Unexpectedly, before other events for the FGO remake had even been fully rolled out, a single piece of merchandise had already ignited the market's enthusiasm.

Li Mingzhe even saw an artist he really liked, who posted a rough black-and-white sketch on Twitter.

The drawing depicts a small figure kneeling on the ground in a tiger-landing pose, surrounded by a pile of merchandise from gift boxes, with the accompanying text:

【Lord Star! Please let me win one!】

Below this tweet, besides the fans celebrating, many other artists also left comments such as "Haha, you didn't win either?!" "I'm much relieved to see you didn't win." "I won!!" "Get lost!!"

In fact, things have developed to this point.

Just like the NS2 lottery in Japan in my previous life, this has become a "hot topic." And what exactly becomes a "hot topic" in Japan?

Even dogs would come up and rub against it.

While the FGO lottery was still relatively calm in China, it even made it onto the morning news of TV Tokyo, and it was even more exaggerated on the internet.

This is no longer just a simple sale of game merchandise; it has become a social event sweeping across the entire Japanese anime and manga community.

Actually, many people didn't care that much about whether they could win the lottery for in-stock items at first.

After all, Starry Sky Games provided a pre-registration link.

But once this thing becomes a matter of whoever wins the lottery is the most awesome.
The nature of the matter has completely changed.

The herd mentality and the irrepressible urge to show off will influence this event, causing the news of the FGO remake to spread throughout almost all of Japan.

Not only FATE fans, but even ordinary anime and manga players already know about it.

You can't even mention the Japanese...
After reading these posts, Li Mingzhe, who originally had absolutely no interest in FGO, found himself itching to try it out that afternoon.
But now.

"Let's buy the gift box for Old Wang first."

~~~
That's how people are. When you're not really interested in something, you subconsciously feel that it's easy and that you can buy it whenever you want.

But when you're actually ready to pay and place an order, you'll find that the world isn't always as simple as you think.

Although the domestic market does not use a lottery system and has a larger quantity of available stock, the domestic player base is larger and there are more scalpers. After browsing around, Li Mingzhe switched back to the shopping website page.

When he selected to purchase, a red prompt box popped up.

[Current stock is sold out. The next stock will be available in one hour. Orders placed after this time will be considered pre-orders.]

"Um!???"

"No, I'm flying to Japan in a few days, what's the point of making a reservation..."

Cancel
[Current reservation ranking: 245821. If you cancel your order and then place another order, the ranking will be recalculated. Do you want to cancel your order?]

Li Mingzhe's fingertip hovered in mid-air as he stared at the string of numbers, thinking he was seeing things.

Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands... one hundred thousand. Two hundred and forty thousand?

He subconsciously canceled the order and placed it again. This time, he received the same message. The number not only did not decrease, but it jumped up by two digits to 245913.

A sense of absurdity arises spontaneously.

"Holy crap, what the hell is going on?"

"Are there really that many rich people in China? So many people are buying this?"

At this moment, Li Mingzhe had the same expression as people in later generations when they saw Xiaomi cars selling two or three hundred thousand units in an hour.
Everyone's wondering, "Damn, are there really that many rich people in China?"
Am I the only poor person?
A game merchandise gift box costing 300 yuan is neither a daily necessity nor an investment product; it's simply a collectible for fans.

In his limited understanding, it was somewhat understandable that this kind of product sold well in Japan.

The Japanese version of FGO has been running for over a year. When it launched in July 2015, there were over 7 pre-registrations. Even at its worst, it still had over 70 monthly active users.

After the announcement of the remake by StarCraft, especially after the remake was announced on July 20, the number of players in the Japanese version of FGO has been slowly recovering. The number of pre-registrations for the FGO remake in Japan is close to two million.

In addition, it inexplicably became a hot topic, attracting many people to join the fun, so it's normal for it to sell well; selling 30 sets is quite reasonable.
In China, over 200,000 copies of a game that hasn't even been released yet? Isn't that purchasing power a bit too exaggerated?

Do these anime fans get their money from thin air?
Driven by curiosity, he clicked on the "discussion area" next to the product review section to see who was buying it. But he wished he hadn't looked; he couldn't hold back his excitement after just one day of reading the comments.

[Official announcement! Pre-registrations for the Japanese server have reached 300,000! We can't fall behind! Let's go, brothers!]

What are you talking about?! What kind of comparison is this?!

[I've been trying to buy all morning, and every time they release stock, it's gone in seconds! Guys, don't bother with in-stock items, just pre-order!!]

[Hey upstairs, you've got a ridiculous idea! We're not going to fight over it, so you're the only one who gets to do it?!]

[Holy crap, I haven't watched it for just one day, and it already has over 200,000 pre-registrations!!? Are all the fans of "Moonlight Chronicles" this rich?!]

I'll pay 30 for that Saber quicksand display piece!

[You're dreaming, upstairs. These days on Xianyu (a second-hand marketplace), a single glittery display stand costs over 100 yuan...]

Holy crap, that's expensive?

[Bullshit, it's because your wife's Excalibur glows.]

Li Mingzhe scrolled through the comments one by one, feeling increasingly disheartened with each reading.

The proportion of FATE fans in the Chinese server may not be as high as in Japan, but the player base in the Chinese server is much larger!

I checked the estimated delivery time again, and it's already two months from now. I was just thinking this would be easy, just a few clicks away.

In hindsight, he had underestimated the situation.
Moreover, even if he manages to snag one, it'll only be one set. Wang Lei wants six sets! Six collector's edition sets!
"Damn it, I guess I'll have to check Xianyu (a second-hand marketplace app)."

Li Mingzhe opened Xianyu (a second-hand marketplace app). Fortunately, the price wasn't too expensive; the item was 299 yuan, and the price had "only" increased by 100 yuan. However, after clicking in to inquire, he learned that it was the price increase for reselling pre-ordered items.
For in-stock items, add another 100.
"No way, you bunch of scalpers!! Holy crap!!"

Based on the current situation, he and Wang Lei discussed it and decided to buy it first, since even if the price increased by 200, it would still be cheaper than the Japanese version.

Moreover, Wang Lei felt that once the official version went live at 1 p.m., this crazy gift box might become even crazier.

Considering that I had already agreed to it, if I didn't do it well, I would not only lose favor, but I might also be in a bad position. So, I gritted my teeth and decided to buy it anyway.

(End of this chapter)