Chapter 151: Chapter 150: Harvest Time
Early in the morning in the experience store.
Wen Lingwei was on the ma.s.sage chair, saying as she yawned, “Mr heartless manager, when are you going to update I Am MT? I feel that the players are leaving.”
Chen Mo was shocked, “Huh? You’re still playing I Am MT?”
“Yeah, I’m shocked at how long senior has persevered, I ditched the game a long time ago…” said Jia Peng.
Wen Lingwei glanced at him, “Unlucky people like you will never understand the fun of this game.
“Although Warcraft and Wulin Legend were both really fun, I still don’t think it’s as fun as I Am MT.”
“Yeah manager, just look at how many card games there are on the market. All of them copied off I Am MT, and the worst part is that they are doing quite well!” added Qian Kun.
Jia Peng nodded, “Yeah, the players were angry at the start, but as more and more games appeared, high quality ones also appeared. Combined with the fact that there hasn’t been an update for I Am MT for so long, the players are all gone.”
“It can’t be helped, the manager has been working on new games, he didn’t have the time to update I Am MT. The most he could do is add a few cards to make it seem richer. It’s not surprising that the players are sick of it,” added Qian Kun.
“I think it’s a bit sad, and I feel kind of angry that the style of game was developed by the manager first, and the others are having such an easy time making money by copying it!” said Wen Lingwei.
Chen Mo laughed, asking, “The currently most profitable one is Emperor Dynasty Entertainment’s Demon Slayers right? I think it has around forty million RMB in revenue per month.”
“And that’s a lot, way more than I Am MT!” said Qian Kun.
Jia Peng also added, “That can’t be helped, although Demon Slayers were released layer, Emperor Dynasty Entertainment has much better distribution, much better art, and most importantly they update the game much more frequently. They’d push updates every two weeks or so, I Am MT won’t be able to keep up.”
Chen Mo laughed, “Isn’t that just forty million RMB? That isn’t much.”
Qian Kun was shocked, “Huh? Manger, just forty million? I’m really learning how the world works by working with the manager…”
Wen Lingwei got up, “What are you suggesting? Are you saying that you’re about to head back into mobile games and tell these guys how it’s done?”
Chen Mo laughed, “Heh, you think I actually left the mobile game industry? Ain’t happening. I’ll remind them of the terror of scammy mobile games.”
“Wow, the manager is heading back into mobile games? Hurray!”
Su Jinyu couldn’t take it, “Oh no, we’re making scammy games again!”
—
It has been more than a month since I Am MT was released. Chen Mo never paid attention to the mobile mobile game industry in this as he focused all his attention onto the PC market.
Warcraft in particular took a lot out of Chen Mo, taking the better half of a year just in the development. He also spent time in promoting Warcraft and developing Wulin Legend, and the best he could do was to make a few new cards, add a few events here and there.
Of course, the players of I Am MT understood, but they still eventually got bored of it, switching to other card games.
I Am MT’s monthly income had fallen to around three million RMB. It had fewer active players, but the ones who played were all hardcore fans and incorporated daily quests into their daily routines.
Games similar to I Am MT were also appearing much more often on the mobile game leaderboards, occupying almost half of the leaderboards..
The first four places of the mobile game best sellers were card games.
The other videogame designers didn’t copy the game exactly either. Games like Demon Slayers made by a big company had made some improvements on the game.
There were more and more different types of artworks with cooler effects. There were even games that made cards into 2D models.
At the same time, designers were also constantly adding to the gameplay. Card games that are new on the market are much more rich in content than I Am MT.
Moreover, Demon Slayers have realised the importance of IP and updating frequently, and through these points, Demon Slayers were able to rise to the top, taking the first place of the mobile best sellers leaderboard.
It had been so long since I Am MT was released, and developers had examined every inch of it, and now understood fully why the game was so profitable.
Moreover, card games were easy to make. A big company like Emperor Dynasty Entertainment could make a new one every two to three months without much effort. And if they listen to the feedback of the players and make changes accordingly, it wouldn’t be hard to make a successful card game.
Many video game designers especially B and C-grade designers of some of the larger companies were having the of their life making huge sums of money through these card games.
“I heard your card game is about to launch? How is it, did you get the IP?”
“Yeah, we got it. It’s an anime IP, although it’s not particularly famous, it isn’t bad.”
“It’s fine as long as you got an IP. Just you wait, the monthly revenue is sure to surpa.s.s five million. It might even have a chance at breaking ten million if you get Emperor Dynasty Gaming Platform’s promotional spot.
“It’s in the talks, but Emperor Dynasty Gaming Platform wants eighty percent of the revenue. I’m still thinking about it.”
“What’s there to think about, you’re still earning even if it’s just twenty percent when the Emperor Dynasty Gaming Platform is promoting your game!”
“It’s true, but it still hurts.”
“Why are you hurting. You don’t even have to do anything to make money through a game like this, you should be happy! By the way, we should probably all thank Chen Mo. I Am MT was indeed revolutionary. Video game designers like us who struggle to make ends meet finally found a way out, and look at where we are now.”
“We really do need to thank him for providing guidance through I Am MT. He then left to the PC market. Is this what they call doing good deeds without the credit?”
“To be honest, he really is a genius. All his PC games are really successful too, I can’t help but be impressed. But it’s great that he left the mobile game industry, leaving some for the rest of us.”
“Yeah, we can do it! When I make back my money from this game, I plan to get the IP of a popular novel, making it into another card game to make more money!”
—
I Am MT’s release was good news for these video game designers.
Before this, B and C-grade designers had to think hard and understand what the players thought when they made a game. And even when it was released, it had a high chance of failing.
But now, with the help of card games, the designers can make good money as long as they have a good IP and put some effort into copying other successful card games.
Even if it was just five million RMB a month, giving the distributors seventy to eighty percent, they would still get seven to eight hundred thousand each money, more than enough to make them happy.
And the designers who couldn’t secure a good IP would try and make their own IP or use another one as reference, trying their hardest to get the game to be popular outside of the game itself.
There were also designers who would make changes to the gameplay by including different playstyles. n.o.body dared to make changes to the core gameplay of I Am MT.
These video game designers had no drive to innovate as they could make money just by copying afterall. Wouldn’t it suck if they made a change and their game stopped being profitable?
What they didn’t know was that the reason Chen Mo stopped making pay to win games after I Am MT was because he was waiting for the right opportunity.
The card game industry needed time to mature just like in his previous world, I Am MT had a monthly income of fifty five million, Junior Three Kingdom had two hundred million, and Soul Hunters had three million.
This wasn’t just because of improvements in gameplay, but also had to do with the expanding playerbase.
As the number of card games increase, the number of players would also increase. Many players who never played card games would be drawn into the genre by an IP they liked and be converted into a card game player.
This was a long process. It is only when the time was right and there was a sufficiently big player base that these card games could do the unthinkable.
Which was why Chen Mo was alright with the other video game companies copying I Am MT and making huge profits, hoping that they could expand the players of the genre.
Now the time has come, and he could finally be behind his harvest.