Chapter 69: Chapter 68: Free to Play Game?
Qiu Bin didn’t expect to sell this many copies. Why? Because the target audience for this game had significant overlap with Plants vs Zombies, and the fans of Plants vs Zombies would be on Chen Mo’s side!
It might not have mattered so much if there wasn’t a bet, but now that there is one, the fans of Plants vs Zombies who wanted to play Guardian of the Holy Spring would wait until next month before purchasing the game.
Of course this meant that Qiu Bin would lose a portion of his players.
Luckily, Emperor Dynasty Entertainment was very supportive. Under the various methods of advertising, Guardian of the Holy Spring managed to capture the attention of players who haven’t played Plants vs Zombies. This allowed Guardian of the Holy Spring to double the performance of Plants vs Zombies.
However, Qiu Bin couldn’t say that he had this in the bag, as he had yet to check out Chen Mo’s game.
It didn’t take long before Qiu Bin found Chem Mo’s new game, I Am MT.
“He really did use the animated series to advertise for his game. However, how does the game play? Did it really recreate the vast universe?”
Filled with his own suspicions, Qiu Bin clicked the download b.u.t.ton.
“Hmm? That can’t be right!”
Qiu Bin was shocked.
He realised that the game was free!
If it was a game that required purchase, the b.u.t.ton wouldn’t be download, but purchase instead.
Chen Mo wanted to bet on the first month’s profits, and he decided to make a free to play game?
Qiu Bin was shocked as to what Chen Mo was planning.
The a.s.sistant asked, “What’s wrong? Why are you so shocked?”
Qiu Bin replied with disbelief, “Chen Mo’s new game is free to play! Free!”
The a.s.sistant was also shocked, “It can’t be! That would make sense if the bet was on downloads, but the bet is on the income of the first month!”
Qiu Bin scowled, “Free to play games can only rely on buying credits and selling ads. But you can’t make good money off that!”
The a.s.sistant didn’t say anything in reply, there was nothing to say that could explain the situation!
Qiu Bin looked back to his phone while trying to figure out the situation, but was met with something else he didn’t expect.
The game finished downloading in the time of that short exchange?
Qiu Bin took a deeper look to find out that the game was only about a hundred a seventy megabytes, not much bigger than Plants vs Zombies!
All the artwork for Guardian of the Holy Spring were rendered in HD, and the entire installer was about four hundred megabytes, much bigger than I am MT.
Qiu Bin was stunned. How could Chen Mo reproduce that enormous world with one hundred and seventy megabytes? It couldn’t be a bait and switch!
Full of suspicions, Qiu Bin tapped on the icon and launched the game.
After I am MT went online, despite not having a promoted spot like on the Emperor Dynasty gaming platform, it still recieved a good amount of attention.
The first players of I am MT consisted of the players from Plants vs Zombies, viewers of I am MT, as well as the bystanders wanting to see the end of the bet.
These people were coming either based on Chen Mo’s reputation from the last game, coming from the story of I am MT, or just trying to stay on top of the drama.
In the end, they were met with the same thoughts Qiu Bin had.
A free to play game?!
Only one hundred and seventy megabytes?!
At first, a large portion of players were contemplating if they should purchase the game. But after noticing it was free, they downloaded the game before asking any further questions.
The game was free to play anyways, and one hundred and seventy megabytes wasn’t much. It’s for the better to download first and talk later. The game can be deleted if it wasn’t fun, and they wouldn’t lose anything in the process.
Chen Mo had made his own preparations, advertising the mobile game on his Weibo as well as at the end of the most recent I am MT episode.
“The mobile game by the same name is now live! Battle alongside MT and Shaman! Completely free, with no ads!”
Of course, these were just buzzwords to get the game out there. In the previous world, upon seeing the word “free”, most players would mutter the words, “Another pay to win game!”
But it wasn’t the same in this world. Most players in this world were still quite innocent, and were shocked upon seeing the word “free” while promising no ads.
“Free? The game is free to download? With no ads? How is he going to make money?”
“Probably in app purchases!”
“How much money can you get from in-app purchases? Moreover, the players would decide if they would spend money in game, what if the players aren’t spending any money?”
“Yeah, and Chen Mo is betting over income in the first month, isn’t this suicidal?”
“We shall see, it’s a free game anyways.”
After the bet on Weibo and the hyping up via the animations, all the gamers were shocked upon seeing the word “free”.
Some were worried that Chen Mo would lose the bet.
Some didn’t understand why Chen Mo would be so “charitable” to take a bet that he would most definitely lose.
And others were just there for the drama.
And based on that, almost everyone who had some concern in the matter downloaded the game to find out how this “free” game would work.
Inside the experience store.
“In the first hour of going live, there’s nearly four thousand downloads, about three times more than Guardian of the Holy Spring. Yep, acceptable.”
Chen Mo was quite happy after looking at the download statistics for I am MT.
In terms of downloads, of course a free game would have an advantage over games that required to be purchased. Afterall, players would have some hesitation when buying a game, even if it was only ten RMB. The players are given an option for a refund too, but that process took effort and would be quite troublesome to go through.
Free games were different, downloading and deleting the game was easy and didn’t require any hesitation.
Under the same amount of advertis.e.m.e.nt, a free to play game would easily surpa.s.s a game that required purchase by over ten times. However, Guardian of the Holy Spring had the support of the Emperor Dynasty gaming platform, being able to maintain a third of I am MT’s numbers was already quite good.
Su Jinyu, Wen Lingwei and the others had their eyes on the statistics as well.
Jia Peng said, “There are so many downloads! Oh my, it’s much higher than the ones promoted by the big platforms.”
Wen Lingwei said, “Of course. It’s a free game. Downloading it doesn’t cost anything. Furthermore it’s only one hundred and seventy megabytes, it would take no more than two minute to download even under free wifi, of course the downloads are high.”
Chang Xiuya said, “Mmm, so the key point still depends on how many people are willing to spend money in game.”
Su Jinyu was also there, and asked Chen Mo about a few numbers on the screen, “Boss, what do these numbers mean?”
These were backend management features Chen Mo implemented. In app announcements, balance changes, as well as giving out runes would be done using this system.
On the data query page, there were a few numbers, all of which were english abbreviations, such as DNU, ARPI, ARPPU, LTV, and so on.
To anyone else other than Chen Mo, these letters bore no significance. They could only guess as to what these letters meant.
Chen Mo said, “It’s not easy to explain. All you need to know is that once the numbers reach the target, this game would start making money.”
Everyone looked at each other.
Really? Is it that incredible?