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

Chapter 25 Next Step

Ren Yuxin's theory of free-to-play plus in-app purchases will continue to be practiced in Tencent Games.

And as it turns out, this method does make money, it's just not very friendly to players' wallets.

But who cares?

Let's take Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja as examples again.

Why did both games fall out of favor after the first few years?

It's not like after a game becomes free-to-play, it either rehashs old content or forces players to spend excessive amounts of money.

Players don't see the game company's proactive attitude towards maintaining the game.

The company focuses all its efforts on getting players to spend money on in-game purchases.

Later on, you couldn't pass some levels even without spending money.

This resulted in a significant loss of players.

What players find even harder to tolerate than rehashing old content and forcing players to spend money is the addition of GG (Goblind) in the game!

GG is as ubiquitous as psoriasis, and there's a shut-off button as small as a pinhead.

This completely broke the players' patience, and they all chose to quit the game.

Game developers are happy, as they can generate revenue from both microtransactions and game crashes, essentially getting two sources of income from one game.

But this is tough on players who want to play for a long time.

of course,

ZhengTu Technology plans to bring its future games to the Chinese market.

Or the Apple Store may support in-app purchases in the future.

Lu Chen would not hesitate to choose the free-to-play model with in-app purchases.

Because this model is the most conducive to dissemination.

Only after the game is installed on players' phones can we talk about making money from it.

However, what Lu Chen can do is to not behave too badly when the time comes.

They won't deliberately place annoying levels in the game that you can't pass without spending money.

……

Lu Chen had no way of knowing about the meeting at Tencent Games.

He's in his office now, looking worried as he holds a notebook filled with writing.

Lu Chen is struggling to determine the next development direction for ZhengTu Technology.

To be honest, the huge profits brought by the high price and high sales volume of Fruit Swordsman made him tempted.

Ten million.

This is the amount of money you'd need to make to earn how many Angry Birds.

But Fruit Swordsman not only did it, he also went beyond it.

Lu Chen quickly listed several games on his laptop.

But then they were all crossed out.

Because these games don't fit his current thinking.

Lu Chen sat alone in his office, biting his pen, his brows furrowed.

Fruit Swordsman's sales have reached the ceiling for Apple mobile phone apps.

Taking it a step further is too difficult.

The true power of mobile games will only be revealed after the release of the iPhone 4.

That was the true pinnacle of mobile games.

Several games that sold over 100 million copies were also achieved during that period.

But time waits for no one.

Lu Chen also wants to enter other industries such as the Internet and technology products in advance.

One step at a time, one step at a time.

If we really have to wait a few years...

The daylily buds were already cold.

Lu Chen tapped his fingers on the table, lost in thought.

He believes that the new game must maintain its high price!

This is how Journey Technology can generate substantial revenue.

This laid the foundation for the company's future development.

The previous incident where Fruit Swordsman rashly raised prices caused a business failure.

Fortunately, Lu Chenjian took an unconventional approach, which prevented the Fruit Swordsman from failing.

However, Lu Chen didn't want to go through that experience again.

Therefore,

This time, we're going to make a game that truly lives up to the high price standard.

To meet this requirement.

Every single one of them is a large-scale game.

Otherwise, players would have paid a high price.

As a result, I completed the game in a very short time.

This inevitably leads to a psychological imbalance.

They felt the game's name didn't do it justice.

However, this is limited by the performance of current smartphones.

If it's really going to be a big production.

The phone simply can't handle it.

To this end, Lu Chen wrote down almost every game he could think of.

After much thought, he finally wrote down a game name in his notebook.

"I've decided on you."

Plants vs. Zombies!

Lu Chen drew two heavy horizontal lines under the name of Plants vs. Zombies.

Plants vs. Zombies was developed by PopCap Games.

PopCap was founded in 2000 in Seattle, America by three college students.

In its early days, the company produced several games that had an audience, but none of them became big hits.

It wasn't until Plants vs. Zombies was released in May 2009 that PopCap firmly established its position in the casual game market.

Of course, Plants vs. Zombies only sold a paltry less than 500,000 units in its first year after its release.

The main reason was that it was only available on PC at the time.

And it costs a whopping $19.95!

Such a high price tag means that not many players are willing to buy a casual tower defense game.

This situation persisted until the first iPad appeared.

Yes, Apple has once again saved a classic game.

Plants vs. Zombies is now available on the App Store for $6.99.

In just nine days since its launch, sales have exceeded 300,000!

It became the best-selling game on the App Store in 2010!

By early 2011, Plants vs. Zombies had accumulated sales of over ten million on the App Store, successfully becoming a phenomenon.

PopCap was acquired by EA (Electronic Arts) for $750 million in July 2011.

And then...

As is well known, the companies acquired by Electronic Arts have basically followed the same path.

That's a dead end.

Regardless of Westwood Studios, the studio that produced "Red Alert".

It's Maxis, the studio that developed the famous games such as The Sims, SimCity, and Spore.

All gone...

Even Baokai could not escape this fate.

The upcoming Plants vs. Zombies 2 has already seen a decline in reputation and user experience among players.

Moreover, later on, they released endless versions, Great Wall versions, Journey to the West versions, and so on.

It's basically the same old thing with a different name; it's just another rehash of old ideas.

Indeed, countless classic games have ultimately died from excessive commercialization.

Until 2024, a Bilibili user created a fan-made derivative work of Plants vs. Zombies – Plants vs. Zombies Hybrid Edition.

This has given the Plants vs. Zombies IP a new lease on life.

The next game has been decided.

Lu Chen's brows did not relax.

Because Lu Chen is currently troubled by something.

That is, how to enter the technology field.

The sales of Fruit Swordsmen skyrocketed, bringing in tens of millions of yuan in revenue, which gave Lu Chen some new ideas.

Just talk and don't practice fake grips.

He repeatedly made empty promises to his employees.

Moreover, the word "technology" in the name of the game "Zhengtu Technology" has never been used yet.

You can't just make two games and call yourself a tech company.

So shouldn't we take some action now?

At this moment, Lu Chen was pondering what kind of technological product he should create to lay the foundation for the future.

He turned to a new page in his notebook.

I quickly wrote down a few products that will become well-known to the public in the future.

Lu Chen's pen hovered over the first name.

Smartphone?

We're just a small business owner, but we've made some money.

However, throwing ten million into the mobile phone manufacturing industry wouldn't even make a sound.

Crossed out...

flat?

It was only 2008, and the only manufacturers capable of producing capacitive touchscreens larger than 10 inches were basically Japanese and American companies.

At the same time, the yield rate is shockingly low.

And the same problem, I'm just a small karaomi.

Why would they want to cooperate with Journey Technology?

Crossed out...

WeChat?

It's still a bit early; most people don't have smartphones yet.

Moreover, there's also the chat software giant QQ eyeing the market.

You might easily get slapped to death by a penguin.

Crossed out...

live streaming?

It's too early; 3G has only just been commercialized.

4G is still a baby in the laboratory.