Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 53: Let the Bullet Fly for a While

Translator: 549690339

That’s right, NetDragon had a global distribution channel.

Both games and VR equipment were distributed globally. However, unlike in China, where blockbuster games were exclusive to their own equipment upon release.

NetDragon wasn’t as dominant in the global market, and some games would also be launched on other companies’ devices.

Especially in some relatively conservative countries, they directly stipulated that games could not be exclusive, and if they wanted to be launched, they must be compatible with other devices.

To achieve a great start, NetDragon didn’t even make “Blaze 3” exclusive to their own devices in China, but instead simultaneously launched it on the Flying Fox and Wild Island devices.

That was quite unprecedented.

Before that, leading companies had agreements on sharing games across all platforms, but the requirements in the agreement were not strict.

In the past, main titles were exclusive upon release and wouldn’t be available on other companies’ VR equipment until the second year.

This would maximize their own device’s market share while increasing game sales as much as possible without affecting market share.

The fact that “Blaze 3” directly launched on all three major platforms showed a great determination.

Players were naturally overjoyed, rubbing their hands in anticipation of a good battle.

Meanwhile, Randall was also looking forward to swinging his hoe and stealing NetDragon’s thunder.

Lincoln was also rubbing his hands, ready to stab a knife in at a crucial moment.

Of course, players wouldn’t see the behind-the-scenes conspiracies, they just place orders for games, download, and start playing.

The streamers, too, were indulging in the frenzy, with even greater momentum than “Traveler of the Wind.”

After all, there were only 200,000 units of the Cloud Dream console, so the players who managed to get one were ultimately few in number, and the streamers who got their hands on one were even scarcer.

On the other hand, NetDragon’s “Blaze 3” was different – as long as you had the VR equipment of the three leading companies, you could buy and download it immediately online.

How many VR units were there in China?

At least 20 million.

Which was 100 times the number of Cloud Dream consoles!

Not to mention the “Blaze” series, which had a good reputation from the first two games.

NetDragon even lowered the price from over 800 dollars to 648 dollars, aiming to grab all the players’ attention at once and completely obliterate the Cloud Dream console and “Traveler of the Wind” from players’ memories!

Lincoln didn’t pay much attention to the current public opinion, as the NetDragon game had just been released and players were still excited.

Moreover, with Randall leading an experienced team to polish “Blaze 3” in its early stages, the quality was beyond question.

The only problem was that earlier players would experience more and more pressure but also have clear battle goals. However, the biggest emotional explosion point had vanished and would only reappear after a few months when the DLC was released.

Now, players who reached the critical point under pressure, ready for an emotional explosion, would only find themselves in a small-scale battle before the game suddenly halted.

Players were left hanging, which was even worse than not allowing an explosion of emotions.

As for the big explosion a few months later? Who could wait that long? The yellow flower dish would be cold by then!

Lincoln, however, had the patience to wait.

At this time, Yue Pengju drove him to the Experience Store. Liang Tian had already purchased the materials and equipment, which were placed on the central display platform in the store.

Lincoln didn’t waste any time. He pulled out a curtain to project blueprints, put on headphones and, with Mavis’ help, began working on this special craftsmanship.

On the NetDragon side, Henry was thrilled to see the real-time sales numbers for “Blaze 3.”

The numbers were skyrocketing every minute and every second. Less than 20 minutes after the release, domestic sales had already broken one million.

After reaching millions of sales, the growth rate no longer showed explosive growth, but it was still very stable, with no signs of stagnation.

Lincoln couldn’t see overseas sales data, which was gathered by the overseas branch company.

But just looking at the domestic sales numbers made him feel breathless and excited!

Wasn’t this the result he had been working towards during this past half month? Getting the best-selling record-breaking numbers for the blockbuster game he planned, and naturally, fame and bonuses will follow.

He didn’t wait any longer and immediately printed out the sales data and walked briskly to his boss’s office, eager to report the good news.

“Boss! Good news! We’ve broken 1 million domestic sales in 20 minutes! The growth rate has not slowed down significantly, and according to this trend, monthly sales are expected to exceed 6 million copies, with the final domestic sales possibly reaching 10 million copies, setting a new record in the gaming industry! ”

Richard nodded in satisfaction, as he also had sales data from various global divisions.

He paid close attention to this game release, having requested various distribution channels and overseas postings in advance to provide data every five minutes for the first hour after the game was released.

Apart from some regions with drastic time differences, the data was generally very optimistic.

Not only was it about breaking domestic sales records, but also the global top ten sales were at stake.

The reason for only targeting the top ten was not that all global game companies were so strong that even the leading Chinese company NetDragon couldn’t keep up with them.

Rather, the top ten in sales were mostly home console and personal computer platform games, and VR platform games were difficult to catch up with in sales numbers because of their high prices, unless they were downwardly compatible with consoles and computers.

But once made compatible, without the support of VR equipment, these games did not have a significant advantage over native console and computer platform games, and the boost in sales was not significant.

It was only this violent explosion of sales that gave Richard hope.

However, contrary to his thoughts, the massive explosion of sales was not because “Blaze 3” was so powerful and invincible.

The real reason was completely different from what he imagined—

“Come on, your “Traveler of the Wind” already has a white robe and all patterns! You can’t keep playing until Lincoln releases a new game!”

Shuihua dragged Camille Victoria to an eSports club, where, thanks to having friends, they borrowed VR equipment and tried the popular VR game “Blaze 3”.

“I’m not interested in this kind of game,” Camille Victoria was a bit resistant.

“Besides, I’m enjoying playing ‘Traveler of the Wind’ and don’t feel bored at all.”

“We used to have no interest in all games! Didn’t ‘Traveler of the Wind’ give us a surprise? Maybe this one is the same? Give it a try-”

“Alright then…” Princess didn’t say anything else and followed Shuihua in.

At the same time, large internet cafes across the country discovered a strange phenomenon: a large number of people who had never been to an internet cafe before suddenly appeared, trying VR games for the first time.

A large number of people, whose curiosity was aroused by Princess’s gaming videos and further aroused by Lincoln’s “Traveler of the Wind,” have gradually been converted into new player groups.

But they couldn’t buy the Cloud Dream console now, so they couldn’t play the increasingly anticipated “Traveler of the Wind.” Instead, they started trying other games out of love for the Cloud Dream.

And that’s when “Blaze 3” caught the heat.

So the explosive growth of sales wasn’t due to any breakthroughs made by “Blaze 3” itself, but rather the rapid increase in the number of players in a short period of time.

However, Richard and Henry still didn’t know this, or they wouldn’t be so happy.

If they had known that the reason these people had no interest in the game, let alone taking a look, wasn’t groundless…

It’s just that it’s not clear whether NetDragon can withstand the backlash from this powerful force when it begins to backfire.

Lincoln was completely unaware of this, engrossed in cutting wood, completely oblivious to the outside world.

Since he could guess the general trend, he no longer bothered with too many details.

What was needed now was to wait for everything to ferment.

Let the bullets fly a little longer..