Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 495 Bait
To promote such a large project, bait is naturally very important, which is why Starcraft directly announced a 1 billion yuan prize, including 500 million yuan in virtual items and 500 million yuan in physical gifts.

The actual internal budget was approved at a full 200 million.

The event quickly attracted the attention of Starry Sky fans, and the first thing that caught their attention was the 10 prize figures.

This figurine is priced at 259 yuan on the Starry Sky official website.

This item alone is worth nearly 20 million on the surface, not to mention the million sets of skins. Although they are virtual items, their appeal to players is no less than that of physical merchandise.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg of the billion-dollar gift.

Therefore, almost at the same time that Starry Sky released the event announcement, the discussion on major game forums, online communities, and social media instantly surged to its peak.

"Holy crap! Am I seeing things? Pre-register and get a free skin? And a million sets at that?"

"Look closely, upstairs, it's a lottery! But with a million sets... the odds of winning seem pretty high!"

"It's not just high-end, it's practically free! I've already made a reservation and am waiting to be a part of it!"

"The key thing is that Type 95 figure, the one that sells for 259 on the official website! There are a total of 100,000 units! Guys, if you win one of these, you can resell it for 200 yuan!"

Humans are such strange creatures.

If the lottery only offers a few hundred prizes, most people will subconsciously think, "I'm unlikely to win anyway," and thus won't bother participating.

However, when the number of prizes increases to the level of "tens of thousands" or even "hundreds of thousands", the situation is completely different.

A sense of wishful thinking, "Maybe I'm the chosen one," can instantly take hold.

And as soon as you start having this idea.

When the thought arises that you can't win with just one ticket, do you think you can't win even with a dozen tickets? That's when you've taken the bait.

~~~
Besides using events, they also use gimmicks.

In addition to conducting comprehensive promotion for the entire Starry Sky product line.

The second purpose of this Starry Night event was also to promote the Starry Night merchandise store.

Since the collaboration with Xiaomi phones confirmed that Xingchen Peripheral Mall would take the path of vertical e-commerce, Yue Xiuyuan has been quite busy in the past six months.

On one hand, in September, Xingchen and VIVO reached a cooperation agreement to produce Xingchen's second co-branded phone, the X20. On the other hand, in October, Xingchen and Huawei reached a co-branded agreement for the Mate10.

Both co-branded phones sold quite well, and interestingly, many digital media bloggers found something quite remarkable when reviewing the history of mobile phones in 17.

The phones co-branded with Starry Sky generally have a good reputation and sell very well.

Leaving aside the Xiaomi 6 from the first half of the year, Huawei, which wasn't expected to do well in the second half, actually sold out online. Originally, it was thought that the anime and manga fandom and Huawei were completely incompatible.

As a result, the co-branded version of the Mate 10 also sold very well.

That's quite mysterious.

There are even rumors that Starry Sky has its own mobile phone laboratory, and only those that pass the tests and meet all the requirements can join the Starry Sky Alliance.

This is clearly nonsense.

While Starry Sky does have a mobile phone lab, it's used to research how to use two-dimensional processing techniques on phone cases made of different materials.

However, many self-media outlets, including mobile phone manufacturers themselves, treat "collaboration with Xingchen" as a "gimmick" in their subsequent promotions.

It's safe to say that this is indeed an era where traffic is king. The truth is completely unimportant; what users believe is the only truth.

Of course, on the other hand, Chu Chen's vision of the future did play a role in this process; phones with poor reputations naturally wouldn't pass the joint application with him.

In summary, if we consider Xingchen as a mobile phone distributor, it sold nearly 200 million mobile phones throughout the year.

Considering that Starry Sky only has three collaborative models this year, it's remarkable that they were able to sell this many units.

It can be described as quite exaggerated.
As a result, Yue Xiuyuan has been muttering to himself lately.

They want to select a mature model from China, organize a three-way collaboration, have a domestic brand manufacture the product, put a Sony label on it, and then have Starry Sky sell the co-branded version in Japan.

Yue Xiuyuan took this matter very seriously, but Sony was undergoing a power transition at the time, and with Sony's mobile phone division strongly opposing it, the plan was shelved.

However, recently, with the huge success of the Starry Sky co-branded mobile phone and the explosive sales of Starry Sky games such as FGO on PS4, Yue Xiuyuan has been thinking about sending Chu Chen to Japan to get some fresh air.

Besides mobile phones, another major product from Xingchen's peripheral products has also made progress.

Those are figurines.

Prior to June 2017, Starry Sky's figures were all produced in collaboration with Japanese figure manufacturers, such as Good Smile Company, Max Factory, and Alta.

Actually, the collaboration was quite pleasant.

These three companies really know their stuff when it comes to making figurines.

However, the problem is that the figures from these three companies are both "too expensive" and "too slow to arrive."

Take the Type 95 figure of the mascot of "Final Battlefront" that was developed in collaboration with Alta as an example. In May 2016, when "Final Battlefront" entered the Japanese market, the two parties finalized the collaboration.

However, it didn't officially go on sale until June of this year.

The figure is quite beautiful. The figure stands in a relaxed posture, with long black hair tied back with an exquisite butterfly hair accessory, and a few strands hanging down in front of the chest.

She was wearing a pleated skirt and a long robe draped over her back, and her long legs were encased in black stockings. The lace trim at the top of the stockings and the details of the suspenders were also meticulously crafted.

And there was the Type 95 automatic rifle in her hand.

The metallic texture of the gun, its mechanical structure, and the details of the scope have all been accurately reproduced. The cold weapon and the gentle beauty combine to create a wonderful sense of balance, perfectly interpreting the core charm of the game "Final Front".

However, the price that embodies the "core charm" is also "charming": the "standard version" is priced at 22880 yen, while the Chinese version is priced at 1999 yuan.

The version with metal accessories and a cape is priced at 31880 yen, while the domestic price is 2999 yuan.

Don't ask why such a small gun and a cape cost an extra 1. It's just a matter of faith in the world of anime and manga.

Such a price is clearly "extremely" unrealistic.

Furthermore, because it's a licensed sale, even if it sells for 2999, Xingchen will only receive about 20%.
That’s less than 600 yuan.

Although producing such high-quality figures requires costs such as sculpting, mold making, and manufacturing, the profit margin is still too low.

Moreover, the price is too high and completely contradicts the concept of Starry Sky.

So in July, Yue Xiuyuan did something big: he directly acquired Furyu for a hefty sum.

(End of this chapter)