Chapter 495: A Salted Fish Flips Over, Still a Salted Fish |
"As of 8 PM last night, the second-week sales of 'Rainbow Six: Siege' exceeded 3 million units, with global sales surpassing 7.5 million units,"
"Compared to 'Alien: Endless Dark Tide', sales are approximately 43% higher..."
Golden Wind, President's Office.
Shen Miaomiao, slumped on the sofa to the side with a lollipop in her mouth, listened as Chu Qingzhou gave the report to Gu Sheng, her eyes carrying a hint of helplessness and a touch of dejection.
At this point, it had been two weeks since the release of Rainbow Six.
Regarding the sales figures reported by Chu Qingzhou, Shen Miaomiao, though feeling a sting in her heart, wasn't particularly surprised.
After all, she had already known last night—
Two weeks, yesterday was the single-item settlement day for 'Rainbow Six: Siege,' and she had already reviewed the project's data.
There was no chance of losing money, not a single bit.
Shen Miaomiao lamented inwardly.
If she couldn't find an alternative path to invest hundreds of millions of dollars, trying to earn some rebates from Old Gu was truly as difficult as climbing to the sky.
You have to understand!
The total production cost of 'Rainbow Six: Siege' was 202 million dollars, which was absolutely not low.
If you factor in the 25% platform cuts from Yiyou and XunTeng, just to break even on this cost alone, total sales would need to exceed 270 million dollars.
And on top of that, they had reached an industry alliance and technology-sharing cooperation with Aurora Games.
Both parties jointly invested in a technological upgrade of the Golden Engine, with a total investment exceeding 65 million dollars.
Sixty-five million dollars.
No matter how you look at it, this investment is not low.
If you calculate based on a game price of 60 dollars per unit, just to cover the cost of this engine upgrade, they would need to sell nearly an additional 1.1 million copies of the game.
Add to that the 270 million dollar development cost including the 25% platform cuts.
For 'Rainbow Six: Siege' to break even, it would need to achieve total sales of at least 335 million dollars within the stipulated two-week period, equivalent to nearly 5.6 million copies of the game!
Let's not even talk about others! Just look at our "old friend" CloudPower!
Their game 'Alien: Endless Dark Tide' is pretty solid overall, right?
It didn't step into pitfalls like 'Apex Prime,' nor was it as abstract as 'The Lord of the Rings: Gollum'!
Both in terms of gameplay and production quality, it was top-notch.
Moreover, it was the first to launch with the theoretically most advanced Phantom Dream VI engine currently on the market, also the only game globally made using the sixth-generation Phantom Dream.
Game quality, production quality, technical sophistication—it was far ahead in every aspect!
And they only sold a little over 4.2 million copies in two weeks!
Now look at our side?
7.5 million copies in two weeks!
Is this something a human would do?!
It's as if that 65 million dollar investment was thrown in without even making a splash.
Mr. Gu over here just casually sells a bit and easily crosses the line, exceeding the break-even point.
No chance of losing money.
Couldn't lose a single cent.
Even though she was mentally prepared, facing such an outrageous sales performance still left her feeling somewhat dejected.
All along, Old Gu had been a stumbling block on her path to rebates... no, more like a "stumbling mountain."
This guy was like an insurmountable mountain, always standing between her and the rebates.
Theoretically speaking, none of the projects he handled ever lost money.
Even 'Garden Warfare,' which was slightly weaker among the many games, did not incur losses from a sales perspective.
Four years, complete victories, not a single defeat.
God knows what kind of monster this guy is.
And!
Now, as Golden Wind's global fame grew higher and higher, and Yiyou and XunTeng motion-sensing pods occupied an increasingly larger market share worldwide.
Losing her money was becoming more and more difficult.
This point was evident from their latest release, 'Rainbow Six: Siege.'
You have to understand, the release of Rainbow Six was very sudden, almost like it was "streaking" onto the market without any warning.
But even so!
A large number of streamers purchased the game for live streaming the moment it launched, and masses of players spread the word on social platforms, experiencing it immediately.
It could be said that their influence was now globally top-tier, fully capable of standing toe-to-toe with top-tier giants like CloudPower that spanned the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
For Old Gu, and even for the entire Golden Wind, this situation was naturally good news.
But for her, Shen Miaomiao...
This money was really getting harder and harder to lose.
At this point, trying to achieve a loss purely through "game production costs" was completely impossible.
To get the rebates, it still had to be—
"...take down Phantom Dream, acquire their technology outright."
Gu Sheng took a sip of tea, pondering as he murmured.
7.5 million copies in two weeks, crushing CloudPower by forty-three percent year-on-year.
This result could be said to perfectly meet their previous expectations.
Now, CloudPower's stock price, which had just shown slight signs of recovery due to the early marketing of 'Endless Dark Tide,' was trending downward again following the competitive loss after release.
And the once highly anticipated Phantom Dream VI, which carried the banner of "redefining the new experience of next-gen motion-sensing games," was also severely affected. Its market value not only failed to rise with the Early Access release of the sixth-generation engine but actually fell faster than before.
After all, before the release, Phantom Dream had hyped this new engine to the skies, with claims of "redefinition" and "revolutionizing the era."
Investors were hoping that Phantom Dream V would come out and dominate all sides, that CloudPower with its Early Access would dominate all sides, creating a new myth for motion-sensing pod games.
In two weeks, it got beaten by Rainbow Six until it looked like a baked sweet potato that had fallen on the ground and been run over by a dump truck.
You have to understand, although Phantom Dream was a company in the gaming tech field, not all investors had a deep understanding of this industry.
In fact, many investors knew less about this industry than they did about fishing baiting techniques.
Most of the time, investors judged investment prospects based on profit and loss situations.
If your new technology comes out and dominates, then you're awesome, I'll increase investment, seize the opportunity.
If your new technology comes out and makes no splash, then you're trash, I'll reduce investment, or even decisively withdraw.
Stock prices affect market value, investor confidence affects stock prices.
Investors originally hoped you'd turn things around like a salted fish flipping over.
But then they discovered that a salted fish flipping over is still a salted fish.
The accelerated decline in market value was naturally within expectations.
Perhaps given time, waiting for public opinion to further ferment, as more investors hesitantly gave up hope, Phantom Dream's market value would eventually hit rock bottom one day and be acquired by them.
But for Gu Sheng.
Time was money.
He couldn't wait that long.
Because in another four months.
The Higashitsu Neon Gaming Festival would open.
Although theoretically, he had already experienced all of the global Big Four Exhibitions and could now be considered a regular at the Big Four Exhibitions, attending the Neon Gaming Festival wasn't particularly surprising.
The Yiyou x3 was expected to be officially released at this Higashitsu Gaming Festival.
And their Golden Wind was naturally the primary supplier of flagship titles.
After all, Yiyou was an old loyalist.
From the Mini Game Festival to now, over four years had passed, and the cooperation between Golden Wind and Yiyou had always been extremely pleasant, with the relationship between Gu Sheng and Yan Sheng always being very good.
So both publicly and privately, for the November Neon Gaming Festival, their Golden Wind had to join hands with Yiyou and march into Higashitsu.
If by then, they could use Phantom Dream's "Reality Augmentation" technology in their flagship titles.
Combined with Yiyou's all-new generation "Full Sensory Assist Pro" technology.
A second life in the virtual world would no longer be just imagination.
"Need to speed things up for Phantom Dream..."
Gu Sheng murmured to himself.
Accelerate its demise.
The current situation was obvious.
Under the blow from 'Rainbow Six: Siege,' Phantom Dream's poor performance in the market had already mired them in quicksand.
But it was undeniable that there were still many investors hesitating, after all, Phantom Dream V hadn't been officially launched yet, and some still held hope for Phantom Dream's last-ditch comeback.
And this was the fundamental reason why Phantom Dream's stock price hadn't completely collapsed yet.
So looking at it this way!
The situation was very clear.
Although Gu Sheng knew very well that if they continued to wait, waiting for Phantom Dream's market value to keep falling, they would eventually be the winners.
But he didn't have that much time to spend dawdling with Phantom Dream.
Now, another work was needed, to take over the spear from Rainbow Six and deliver the final fatal blow to Phantom Dream.
"...we might as well use the same trick again, give them another lesson with a forehand and backhand combo."
Shen Miaomiao took the lollipop out of her mouth, a sly look appearing on her little face.
Great!
There's a new project again!
Hearing Gu Sheng's analysis and plan, the previously uninterested Shen Miaomiao couldn't help but perk up.
Nothing else was important.
For her, the two most valuable pieces of information from Gu Sheng's words were "take down Phantom Dream and buy their Reality Augmentation technology" and "use money to buy time to accelerate Phantom Dream's collapse."
And if successful, in another three or four months, those 2.7 billion in her hands would finally have a use!
Opportunity knocks but once!
So, Shen Miaomiao had a flash of inspiration, preparing to give CloudPower and Phantom Dream another lesson with a forehand and backhand combo!
Well watch closely, I'll only demonstrate this once.
Same genre, same format, I'll show you exactly how this type of game should be made!
Only such a direct comparison could most effectively kill the competition!
Hearing this!
Gu Sheng couldn't help but have his eyes light up.
Indeed.
If at this moment, they could release a game that was very similar in genre and form to 'Alien: Endless Dark Tide' but completely crush it in terms of gameplay creativity, supplemented with public opinion guidance, it would surely utterly shatter the fantasies of those investors still watching Phantom Dream, thereby utterly killing the competition and knocking Phantom Dream down to the bottom.
If at this moment, they could release a game that was very similar in genre and form to 'Alien: Endless Dark Tide' but completely crush it in terms of gameplay creativity, supplemented with public opinion guidance, it would surely completely shatter the fantasies of those investors still watching Phantom Dream, thereby utterly killing the competition and knocking Phantom Dream down to the bottom.
At this point, Shen Miaomiao had another clever plan:
"In addition, there's another point we need to pay special attention to..."