Rebirth 08: Can a mobile game company also build a tech empire?

Susie acted quickly.

In less than an hour, the sales data for Fruit Swordsman over the past two weeks was displayed on Lu Chen's desk.

This time, Lu Chen wasn't as nervous as he was when he first learned about Angry Birds' sales figures.

This is not only because we are confident in the quality of Fruit Swordsman, but also because any player who has downloaded Angry Birds will receive a message about its release.

Players who have played Angry Birds will find it relatively easy to accept another game from the same company.

Angry Birds has been downloaded a whopping 32.6 times.

With the sales figures from the last month and a half added, the total number of downloads has exceeded 50!

These 50 players may not seem like a lot, but if even half of them try downloading the new game, Fruit Swordsman's sales will reach 25.

Don't underestimate these 25; that's only half a month's sales for Angry Birds.

However, Angry Birds only costs $0.99, while Fruit Swordsman costs $5.99.

If Fruit Swordsman's sales reach 25, it could bring ZhengTu Technology at least 1000 million in sales revenue!

This is several times more than Angry Birds.

Filled with anticipation, Lu Chen opened the data.

5.5……

Upon seeing this number, Lu Chen's breath almost stopped for a moment.

At this moment, Lu Chen was like someone standing in the freezing cold, wearing only a short-sleeved shirt and shorts in the dead of winter.

Why is this happening?

This question is now on Lu Chen's mind.

Then I began to question the meaning of life.

Is the game of poor quality?

Is the game not fun?

Did they change the game's style without authorization, turning the neon-style into a martial arts style?

impossible.

The core gameplay remains unchanged; can simply changing the art style really cause sales to plummet?

Perhaps it's because Fruit Ninja was released in 2010, while it's only 2008 now, so the powerful historical correction ability directly erased Fruit Ninja.

Lu Chen now wonders if it was just a gentle flap of his wings, the wings of this reborn butterfly, that wiped out the classic.

Otherwise, this logic simply doesn't make sense.

Take two deep breaths.

Lu Chen tried to calm himself down.

I took another look, and it was still 5.5.

This number deeply stung Lu Chen's heart.

If I had to say something, 5.5 units sold wouldn't be considered bad.

Based on this sales volume, the monthly sales should reach 10.

After deducting Apple's 30% cut, it can bring Journey Technology a net profit of 160 million yuan, which is about the same as Angry Birds did back then.

But that's failure!

A game priced at $5.99 can generate roughly the same revenue as a game priced at $0.99.

This indicates that sales of Fruit Swordsman have declined significantly.

It's not even half of the latter.

Lu Chen's brows were furrowed at this moment.

There's still a chance to salvage the game since it's only been out for half a month.

No matter where the problem lies, we need to find a solution now!

He couldn't let the company's second game fail!

"Susie".

Seeing that Boss Lu's eyebrows hadn't relaxed since he received the sales data, Susie knew something was terribly wrong.

She huddled to one side, barely daring to breathe.

Lu Chen suddenly called out to her, which startled her.

"Ah! Boss, I'm here!"

Susie said cautiously.

"You called everyone to the office? Fine, I'll just go over there myself."

As he spoke, Lu Chen stood up, holding the sales data in his hand, and strode out of the office.

Employee office area.

All seven members of ZhengTu Technology have arrived.

Since it was the first day back to work after the holiday, everyone was still getting into the swing of things.

Some had just arrived and were having breakfast; some hadn't even turned on their computers yet and looked sleepy; others were chatting and laughing together, talking about where they had gone on vacation.

Jiang Chang greeted Lu Chen when he came out.

"Boss, you're out here. Did you get tired of sitting in the office and wanted to take a walk?"

Susie, who was behind Lu Chen, knew what was going on.

He frantically winked at the others.

"Gentlemen, can't you see that Boss Lu's eyebrows are big enough to trap flies? Just shut up already!"

Seeing everyone's work attitude, Lu Chen didn't immediately fly into a rage.

After all, the company has been thriving in recent days, so everyone has lost their sense of crisis.

It's normal to relax when you have nothing to do.

"Hey everyone, how was your holiday?"

Lu Chen spoke up.

"OK."

"I played games at home for a few days."

"I also went on vacation during the holiday."

Everyone started talking at once about their holiday experiences.

"Yes, it's good that everyone has a fulfilling leisure time."

At this moment, Lu Chen changed the subject.

"But our company isn't doing too well."

"ah?!"

"They were perfectly fine just a few days ago!"

"Boss, what exactly happened?"

The laughter and chatter from before vanished, replaced by serious expressions.

"Our Fruit Swordsmen's sales have been poor for the past two weeks," Lu Chen said seriously. "You could say they've been terrible!"

"No way!"

"I've been playing it a lot lately, it's really fun."

"Yeah, I think it's even more fun than Angry Birds!"

Upon hearing this news, everyone found it hard to accept.

They gathered in Lu Chen's office.

Everyone marveled at Lu Chen's novel and unique creativity, wondering how he could come up with such an extraordinary game.

Moreover, each of them had an iPhone 3G that they had been awarded last time.

So after the game was released, they all played it. Although it was an internal version that didn't cost money, they still enjoyed the gameplay, art style, and background music.

It is truly perfect in every aspect, without any flaws.

This time, Lu Chen wasn't in the mood for any suspenseful games and directly told everyone the sales figures.

"Our Fruit Swordsman brand only sold 5.5 units in half a month, which is a very bad situation!"

Upon hearing these sales figures, Wu Zhixuan, who is most sensitive to numbers, also looked displeased.

Others were more or less affected by the environment, their faces blank and they dared not speak.

Only Tao Manwen was still completely bewildered and didn't understand what was going on.

Wu Zhixuan quickly calculated the meaning of 5.5 in his mind and asked first:

"Boss, do you know where the problem lies?"

Lu Chen shook his head.

"We don't know yet."

"what?"

Tao Manwen exclaimed in surprise.

In her view, if even the almost omnipotent Lu Chen couldn't find the problem, did that mean the Fruit Swordsman was doomed?

"So I came here to discuss with everyone and see where the problem lies." Lu Chen looked around and said, "Everyone, tell me, why are our game sales so low?"

With Lu Chen starting, everyone finally spoke.

"Is our game not fun?"

"Could it be that Western audiences don't accept the martial arts genre?"

"Now there are a lot of games in the App Store. Could it be because we haven't been featured by Apple, so players can't see them?"

"Or is the price too high?"

……

Everyone's opinions make sense, mainly regarding the gameplay, style, recommendations, and price.

Hearing the various directions the crowd was discussing, Lu Chen shook his head.

He had thought about all of these things, he had considered all the directions.

Lu Chen had absolute confidence in the game's quality; the problem wasn't there.

As for gameplay style, it varies from person to person, and Lu Chen can only do what he thinks is the best.

Regarding promotion, Lu Chen admitted that he did not spend money on promotion, but it had already been online for half a month, and it would be too late to do promotion now.

After much thought, it seems best to leave the problem to the players.