After reading the discussions on the Internet about "Ink Clouds and Smoke" and "The Endless Project", Pei Qian finally understood why there were so many pre-orders.
Because Qiu Hong bundled "Ink Clouds and Smoke", "The Dead End Project" and "Survival Manual for Office Workers" together for promotion!
The promotional video of "The Endless Project" can arouse such a warm response. On the one hand, it touches the common memories of many players and arouses widespread resonance. On the other hand, it is also because of the high quality. Domestic independent games serve as an introduction.
If there was no game and only a promotional video, it would be impossible to trigger such a warm response.
"Ink Clouds and Smoke" is just a trial DEMO, and this DEMO alone is obviously not enough.
This is also the reason why Qiu Hong did not formulate a publicity plan at the beginning: without an opportunity, the best publicity effect will naturally not be achieved.
However, the unexpected popularity of "Survival Manual for Office Workers" provided such an opportunity for the promotion of the Endless Plan!
It is now before the Spring Festival, a time when companies of all sizes hold annual meetings and issue year-end bonuses.
The vast majority of office workers are not satisfied with the treatment provided by their companies. Many people are planning to find a new job after receiving their year-end bonus and annual leave.
The release of "Survival Manual for Office Workers" resonated very well with office workers and received a good response. It not only became popular in the circle of independent game enthusiasts, but also successfully "out of the circle". Office workers who play games also know about this game.
Leveraging on the success of "Survival Manual for Office Workers", Qiu Hong deeply tied "Ink Clouds and Smoke" and "Endless Project" with it to let players know: It turns out that "Survival Manual for Office Workers" can It was successfully produced because of the funding from the "Jiu Tu Project", which also funded many excellent independent game projects, such as "Ink Clouds and Smoke".
As a result, the popularity of "Survival Handbook for Office Workers" that has broken through the circle, the feelings of domestic independent game enthusiasts, and the players' expectations for domestic independent games are all integrated together, and this is how it works. Good publicity effect!
It can be said that without any of the "Survival Manual for Office Workers", the DEMO of "Ink Clouds and Smoke" and the promotional video of "The End of the Road Project", it would be impossible to achieve the current effect!
What a coincidence.
Looking at the growing number of pre-orders, Pei Qian felt a little dizzy.
In just one afternoon, the pre-sale sales of this game have exceeded 50,000 copies, and judging from the current popularity, it is very likely that it will increase tenfold within the next week!
Although independent game players in China are a minority group compared to mainstream players, in terms of volume, no matter how small they are, there are always millions of active players.
Moreover, the smaller the circle, the more focused attention is on outstanding domestic independent games, such as "Ink Clouds and Smoke"I'm afraid it will soon spark heated discussions in the independent game player circle like "Survival Manual for Office Workers"!
Pei Qian counted his fingers and felt something was wrong.
The official price of "Ink Clouds and Smoke" is 45 yuan, which is considered to be above the average level among domestic independent games. This pre-sale is not a full payment, but one-third, which is 15 yuan.
According to the current trend, if 500,000 copies are sold in the next week, the official platform's accounts will be available before settlement.
The only good news is that the game is not distributed in the name of Tenda, so it does not enjoy the privilege of Tenda’s high share. Even including the special preferential policies for independent games, it can only get 60%.
On this basis, Tenda will get 30%.
In other words, before the settlement, the pre-sale of "Ink Clouds and Smoke" alone will earn at least more than 1.3 million yuan!
And on top of that, there's the money from "The Salaryman's Survival Manual."
The money does not seem to be much, but Pei Qian feels like a camel carrying straw on its back now. When the time comes to settle the account, this nonsense of more than one million will probably come from heaven. Hell of a difference.
What if you make more than one million yuan? Then who are you going to talk to?
Pei Qian was so angry.
Why is this Qiu Hong looking for trouble for me at such a critical moment?
Can’t you just go home and celebrate the New Year honestly? Do you have to make a promotional video the day before the holiday to become popular? Then send a DEMO to earn some pre-sale money?
Too much!
Thinking of this, Pei Qian immediately called Qiu Hong.
......
At this time, Qiu Hongcai had just treated everyone in the incubation base to a big meal and returned to the house he rented in the imperial capital to pack up and prepare to catch a flight back early tomorrow morning. Home.
Qiu Hong couldn't help but be a little surprised when he received a call from Mr. Pei.
"Isn't Mr. Pei very happy after seeing the popularity of the video of the Qiutu Project and calling me specifically to confirm the results of my work?"
The entire incubation base had a total of Just two games were completed, and neither of them sold well, but even so, Mr. Pei still praised Qiu Hong, saying that the effect was remarkable and the progress was rapid, and asked him to keep up his efforts.
Qiu Hong thought, based on this criterion, there are now two games, "Salaryman's Survival Manual" and "Ink Clouds and Smoke", and the video response of "Endless Project" is also good. Mr. Pei also Are you so happy?
He quickly picked up the phone and waited to receive Mr. Pei's praise.
However, Mr. Pei’s first sentence immediately stopped him.
"Who asked you to put the half-finished game on the official platform for pre-order?!"
Pei Qian's tone was a bit harsh, because he was really angry.
This game is obviously not finished yet. You should just release it in the next cycle.Don't affect my settlement this cycle!
As a result, Qiu Hong's pre-order caught Pei Qian off guard.
Qiu Hong was stunned for a moment and said in a daze: "Mr. Pei, isn't this kind of pre-sale very common in the independent game circle..."
Pei Qian He couldn't help but be silent for a moment: "Uh..."
He thought about it for a while, and found that what Qiu Hong said was indeed correct.
The official ESRO platform actually encourages pre-sales for independent games. The reason is very simple. It is similar to crowdfunding.
Independent game producers often need money but no resources, and there must be various compromises during the production process. If they want to achieve a high degree of completion of the game, various conditions must be met. In fact, it is not allowed.
Pre-sales allow independent games that are of good quality and loved by players to get some money in advance. On the one hand, they can maintain development costs, and on the other hand, they can also enhance the confidence of producers.
Of course, there may be some bad producers who are suspected of cheating money. For example, they update a very fun DEMO, get a large amount of pre-sale money, and then start developing the game slowly. It became a series in my lifetime, but it has not been released for a long time.
However, the official platform also has corresponding punishment measures for such producers, and such people are in the minority after all. This rule that is beneficial to all independent game producers cannot be canceled just because of a few bad apples.
So, Qiu Hong’s decision to pre-sell the DEMO of “Ink Clouds and Smoke” is indeed in line with the usual routine of independent games and is a behavior advocated by the official platform.
As a result, Pei Qian's question seemed a little unreasonable.
After a moment of silence, Pei Qian said confidently: "Why do other independent games like to do pre-sales? It's because those producers are short of money and can only obtain development funds through pre-sales! ”
“Does the producer of Qiutu Project lack development funds?”
Qiu Hong was asked: “Uh, this…”
Pei Qian Without giving him much time to react, he continued: "Since there is no shortage of money, why do we need to pre-sell?"
"Pre-sales are actually equivalent to taking advantage of the sympathy of players to sell subsequent games. The risk of development failure has been transferred from developers to players. "
"The main reason why the official platform supports this behavior is because the conditions of most independent game producers are so poor that they need players to contribute. , support.”
“Although this kind of behavior is willing to fight, in the final analysis, the interests of the players will be somewhat damaged. The best way is to pay one hand and pay the other hand. Delivery, the game is finished and released, and players will buy it if they like it."
"Since the independent game producers of Jiutu Project are not short of money, they should not do pre-sales and release the game directly after the development is completed. Is that enough?"
Qiu Hong was speechless for a moment: "This..."
He suddenly felt that what Mr. Pei said did make sense!
In fact, Qiu Hong just followed the conventional routine of independent games and conducted a pre-sale without thinking too much about it. But now that he takes a closer look, this kind of behavior is indeed inappropriate.
Qiu Hong quickly asked: "Mr. Pei, what should we do now?"
Pei Qian thought for a while and asked: "Can you change the pre-order payment to 0? ? Then refund those players who have paid."
Qiu Hong hesitated: "Uh... Mr. Pei, it won't work, the minimum is to change it to one-third of the current price. Five yuan; the refund procedure will be more troublesome, and the authority is not enough, and the ESRO official may not approve it."
"It is possible if you come forward in person as Tengda, but this will not work. It is equivalent to announcing the relationship between Tengda and Qitu Plan..."
Pei Qian immediately said: "That's definitely not possible, then let's change the pre-order price to 5 yuan, for those who have already spent 15 yuan. We will compensate players who have paid for pre-orders."
Qiu Hong added: "Also, Mr. Pei, the official does not support this kind of price change, because no matter whether it is a price increase. Either price reduction will actually affect the interests of players."
Pei Qian nodded: "Yes, that's understandable."
"This behavior of ours definitely affects the interests of players. You have to apologize and compensate!"
"Let's do this. As I said before, the pre-order price will be changed to 5 yuan. For those who have already paid, the game will be directly discounted, which is 36 yuan. money, and then issued an announcement to apologize, saying that we did not expect the players to be so enthusiastic. We felt that the pre-order price was set high before, and now we have lowered it. We hope the players will understand."
To Pei. For Qian Li, if the pre-order money is suddenly reduced from 15 yuan to 5 yuan, then the money earned by the "Ink, Ink, Clouds and Smoke" DEMO this week will be reduced by at least several hundred thousand.
It is also good to be able to take a handful of straw from the camel's back.
As for those players who have already spent 15 yuan to pre-order, Pei Qian just took this opportunity to give them a discount and make less money.
Qiu Hong hurriedly said: "Okay, Mr. Pei, I will communicate with the people on the official platform."