Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 559: Blocked at Both Ends

For Xu Menglu, his attitude towards "Star Ring Route" was even more subtle. On the one hand, while "Star Ring Route" was a minor hit, "Steel Rider Girls," which was also first revealed before the new year, had a disastrous first test.

It didn't even cause a stir, let alone attract much criticism.

Actually, this result is not surprising, because at that time, the distributor and investor of "Steel Rider Girls" was 360 Games.

The largest traffic entry point is the pop-up window in the lower right corner of 360 Antivirus software.

This simplistic and crude approach to user acquisition attracted users who were completely different from the target audience of "Steel Rider Girls". Coupled with the lack of polish in the game itself, the test data was naturally dismal.

The only thing that brought him comfort was the extremely high praise from the core players who played for more than an hour, who left comments like "The future looks promising."

The problem is, capital doesn't believe in a "promising future."

After the test ended, Xu Menglu only had two options: either launch the game as a hardcore, small-scale production and let it fend for itself.

They could either rework it, adding more market-friendly elements, and aiming to emulate products like Starship Troopers.

Xu Menglu naturally couldn't choose the former, so he had to work overtime before the Spring Festival and finally managed to finish a remastered demo before the Spring Festival.

This new demo significantly enhances the anime art style, and the characters are more appealing.

To avoid being dragged down by the poor reception of the closed beta of "Steel Rider Girls," Xu Menglu even changed the game's name to "Mobile Suit Girls" in the new demo.

After reviewing the demo, 360 expressed great satisfaction, and then...

They decided to sell all of their shares in Flashwing Games.

Yes, the dismal test last time not only made Xu Menglu realize that 360 couldn't do well in the ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) industry, but 360 itself also realized this.

Instead of continuing to burn money in a field they're not good at, they should take advantage of the current booming popularity of the anime and manga concept and package the project to sell for a good price.

In their previous life, they successfully sold Flashwing to Bilibili at a high price.

In this timeline, due to the existence of Star Games and the explosive popularity of "Star Ring Route," investors wouldn't understand that "Star Ring Route" is a space opera while "Mobile Suit Girl" is a mecha anime.
For investors, both of these are science fiction games, and there is a lack of science fiction games on the market. So when 360 released the news, major companies such as Bilibili, NetEase, Tencent, and Perfect World came one after another to offer their services.

Among them, Bilibili offered the most outrageous price—80 million yuan, in cash.

~~~
In March, Shanghai was still chilly.

Inside the conference room at Bilibili's headquarters, the atmosphere was even more oppressive than the weather outside. On the projection screen, the mechanically beautiful demo of "Mobile Suit Girl" had been played on a loop three times.

"Eighty million, cash acquisition."

Chen Rui broke the silence by tapping his fingers lightly on the conference table.

“I even wrote a letter myself, promising not to interfere with the development and that there would be enough funding. What exactly is Xu Menglu hesitating about?”

"Mr. Chen, could it be... that our previous projects have affected our reputation?"

A vice president spoke cautiously, and before he finished speaking, the air in the conference room became even more tense.

At that time, Bilibili was still very wealthy.

While expanding the ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) market, StarCraft also brought a huge influx of new users to Bilibili, which in turn boosted Bilibili's valuation.

In addition, Bilibili owns the agency rights for the Chinese version of FGO. Although Bilibili has to give up a portion of its equity every year for this agency, it doesn't stop Bilibili from making a fortune from FGO.

As a result, Chen Rui has made up his mind to go public this year.

Logically, given Bilibili's size, going public shouldn't be difficult. However, during the drafting of its IPO documents, Bilibili was repeatedly criticized for its simplistic profit model.
For a company looking to go public, the phrase "single profit model" is like a Damocles' sword hanging over Bilibili's head and over Chen Rui's mind.

In its previous life, Bilibili was heavily criticized by the capital market because its revenue was extremely dependent on the game FGO.

In this lifetime, the problems have only intensified.

The developer of FGO has changed from Aniplex in Japan to StarCraft in China.

Many things that are not problems become problems.

The securities firm that provided IPO guidance for them clearly stated in its report that Bilibili's current profitability heavily relies on StarCraft Games.
Simply put, if your very lifeline is in someone else's hands, what's the point of talking about going public?
Analysts at the brokerage firm offered two suggestions in response.

"Mr. Chen, you must understand that the capital market values ​​certainty. In the current Chinese gaming industry, what is more certain than the name 'Chu Chen'?"

“We suggest that you try to establish a deeper strategic partnership with Xingchen, or even… invite Mr. Chu Chen to join the board of directors.”

The analyst said this with an air of complete self-assurance.

"As long as President Chen joins the board of directors, let alone going public, it's not impossible for the stock price to double on the spot."

These words made Chen Rui's teeth ache.

Yes, having Chu Chen on the board of directors would certainly make the IPO easier.

A person's name is like a tree's shadow; Chu Chen, relying on the stars, certainly possesses that power.

The problem is, if Chu Chen really gets into the board of directors, will Bilibili belong to Chen or Chu?
You should know that even though Chu Chen isn't on the board of directors now, he already has a very high level of prestige at Bilibili, especially after he presided over the removal of registration barriers, which led Bilibili into a period of rapid development.

And more importantly.

Chen Rui strongly suspects that Chu Chen isn't entirely without ideas about Bilibili.

One major factor is that Xingchen has been continuously buying Bilibili shares recently. Occasionally, during conversations, Chu Chen would say that if Chen Rui wanted to quit or felt he couldn't handle the situation, it would be better to let him join the board of directors.
Therefore, although this suggestion was simple and blunt, Chen Rui really didn't dare to choose it.

"That only proves that Bilibili has the ability to generate its own revenue and find a second growth point besides FGO."

Chen Rui made many efforts to find this second growth point, but all of these efforts failed.

From "Puella Magi Madoka Magica" to "Kamiyo Yumekatan", and countless other games that were distributed by other companies, none of them made a splash.

After a series of failures, Bilibili switched to becoming a distribution channel and began to focus on "emphasizing distribution and neglecting self-developed products".

In this timeline, however, the distribution channels for domestic games are undergoing an unprecedented transformation, evolving from a multipolar world into one dominated by two and a half giants.

Stars, Tencent, plus half of the internet.

Even the games that Bilibili itself distributes are released on the Starry Night Games platform.
Now that you've switched to channel management, you'll have to compete with Starry Sky, but the problem is, your lifeline is being held by someone else, so how can you compete?

(End of this chapter)