Chapter 502: The End of the Big Gamble! The Darkest Hour!

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[According to statistics, as of 20:00 yesterday, GTFO has been online for 7 days]

【Total number of game sets sold: 4,079,527】

Average game time: 212 minutes

[A1-A3 clearance rate: 50.5%]

[B1-B3 clearance rate: 20.66%]

【C1-C3 clearance rate: 9.08%】

【D1-D2 clearance rate: 1.95%】

One week!

Total global sales exceed four million sets!

You know, GTFO has absolutely no publicity or pre-production process.

In order to ensure a fatal blow and defeat Huanmeng in the shortest possible time, GTFO was almost a race against time from project establishment to game launch.

The purpose is to give "Endless Dark Tide" another blow when it suffers heavy damage from Rainbow Six, so that it will be completely destroyed.

Once the decision is made, do it and publish it when it’s finished!

There is no promotional link at all!

After all, for GTFO, having a label of "benchmarking "Endless Tide"" is enough.

And in this case!

GTFO, which had no prior promotion or publicity, still achieved sales of over four million in the first week!

This sales data itself is crazy enough.

but!

What’s even crazier than the sales volume is the difficulty of the game and the jaw-dropping game completion rate!

The first level of the game alone has eliminated half of the players, and only 50% of the players have completed it!

In the next three levels, the number of players who can pass the level decreases rapidly!

As a result, by the D level, only one in ten players can pass the level, and the pass rate is only 1.95 percent!

Among a hundred players, less than two can walk through the D floor!

and!

This is not over yet!

Looking down again——

[Number of people who cleared E1 level: 202]

That’s right! Number of people!

Because the number of players who have passed the last level is so small, even less than 0.01%!

Golden Wind simply changed the unit of measurement for game clearance, replacing percentages with specific numbers!

A game!

Over four million people worldwide have purchased the game!

There are 168 hours in a week!

Five continents, seven oceans, and 233 countries and regions around the world!

The number of players who were able to completely clear the game barely reached two hundred!

And among these two hundred people!

As developers, Golden Wind’s “Bandit President Group” also occupies four!

There are a total of 198 players who completed the game purely naturally!

You know, generally speaking, the difficulty of a game is often proportional to its sales.

The more difficult the game is, the higher the negative feedback is, the lower the players' patience is, and the worse the sales are.

Even a gaming company like Golden Wind, which is good at providing high positive feedback to players in high-difficulty games, cannot escape this rule.

For example, Sekiro and Dark Souls released .

One of them is the pioneer of "wolf games" and a milestone in the creation of the precedent.

One is the Super 3S, which integrates the essence of "wolf games" and the top rendering industry level.

In terms of game quality and innovative gameplay, it is one of the best even among Golden Wind's own games.

But in fact, the first-week sales of these two games still did not exceed the famous "Resident Evil 7", nor did they surpass the family-friendly "It Takes Two", let alone "Minecraft", which can be said to be "a copy in everyone's hands".

And the reason.

Is it because Wolf and Soul aren’t fun?

The answer is of course no.

No one can deny their playability, and those who love them even love them to death. They still have a lot of fun playing the seventh and eighth rounds, and there are countless wolf experts and soul experts.

To put it bluntly, it is because of the "high difficulty" or the poor "universality".

The extremely high difficulty level has discouraged many players with poor skills from the beginning, and the repeated frustration has made many players ask themselves soul-searching questions like “Aren’t games supposed to bring happiness?”

Therefore, the market and sales of this type of game have always been slightly inferior to games of the same level.

Take this year's Dark Souls for example.

Phoenix provided strong support for the global promotion at GDC, and it is undoubtedly the king of games of the year so far.

With the support of various top external channels and impeccable game quality, Dark Souls' monthly sales barely exceeded 10 million.

But now!

A "GTFO" without any publicity preparation!

With its "super high difficulty" of 198 people worldwide completing the game, and the relatively niche game type of "horror online".

Four million units sold in one week!

Although the price of $40 per set played a significant role in this.

However, Golden Wind's ultimate control over gameplay, the balance of positive and negative feedback, and the emotions of online players is enough to cause an uproar in the gaming community!

For a while, from the media to players, and then to friendly companies and peers, discussions about GTFO were endless and came one after another -!

"No? Are you crazy? A game with a global clearance rate of less than 0.01% sold four million copies? I don't even know how to write the news!"

"Don't worry, if nothing unexpected happens, GTFO's next wave of power will be coming soon (dog head)"

"Indeed, there must be many players who, after seeing the report, will buy the game out of curiosity of "let me see what's going on"."

"This sales volume is unstoppable, maybe it will exceed 4.5 million next week."

"The key is that the price of forty dollars is too brutal. This is really a pinch on the crotch of Endless Dark Tide."

"Didn't many people say that GW chose to remain silent and retreat in the face of the endless dark tide? How is it now..."

"I can only say that Yunwei was wrong to copy L4D's idea from the beginning. For such an important engine innovation as Dream VI, the first show was to remake an old game of Golden Wind in high definition. It's really like sticking a straw in the mouth..."

'How do you say that?'

'To commit suicide'

"... My friend, your joke just silenced me."

"What a weird idiom!"

"Fuck! I'm having lunch! You deserve to die!!!"

'Hahahahahahahahaha, this allegorical saying is really witty WDNMD...'

"It was originally a technological innovation with high expectations, but now it has been completely shattered by GW."

'Natural advantage. There is no other way. Xiao Huang has Yiyou's full sense of support, which is equivalent to mastering a certain level of reality enhancement technology to some extent. But Yunwei created it from scratch, which is equivalent to Yunwei + Huanmeng = 1+1, and Golden Wind + Yiyou = 1+0.5, with a difference of 0.5. The advantage of Endless Dark Tide is actually not that big...'

"Don't be so mean. Apart from its size, Golden Wind can't be compared to Yunwei Painting."

"I want to know how Huan Meng and Yun Wei will react now."

"Hey - what else could it be? It must be -"

…

Exploded!!!

Just a few days!

American Dream Engine R&D company!

CEO Carter Walker was sitting behind his desk, staring blankly at the darkened tablet screen in front of him.

"It's hard to recover! The performance of the Dream VI engine is poor! Players are very disappointed!"

《SNG Review Editor Simon's Comments: What really conquers players is never just showing off skills》

"Market value evaporated by 3 billion in a single day! Following the announcement of the price adjustment policy, Huanmeng's market value fell by more than 20% in a single day for the first time!"

"The bubble of fantasy dreams will eventually burst! Where should the fantasy dream go when it is on the brink of a total collapse?"

"Disastrous performance! The Atlantic Financial Times comments on the "high-profile publicity" trap of Huanmeng!"

"Supporting a collapsing building? The previously highly anticipated Dream VI may be the "last straw that broke the camel's back"

《……》

Exploded.

All exploded.

The reputation of the company exploded, the stock price exploded, and the market value exploded.

With the release of Golden Wind, the sales of "GTFO" exceeded four million copies in a single week.

The debut work of Synaptics VI, Dark Tides, which was originally overshadowed by Rainbow Six , finally encountered its darkest moment.

You said that Rainbow Six had a high investment, with Aurora Games participating in the technical support, and the development cost exceeded 200 million. Like Dark Tides, it is a 3S-level multiplayer game. It completely relied on the latecomer advantage and caught them off guard. That's right.

But what about GTFO?

Lower cost, less publicity and promotion, and higher difficulty than Endless Tide.

Same subject matter, same genre, same multiplayer collaboration.

However, in terms of physical sensation, effect presentation, game sales and many other aspects, it completely crushed your Endless Dark Tide.

What will the players think?

What will investors think?

A new generation engine built at a huge cost!

I originally wanted to make a great debut, lead a new trend, regain my market share, and become the leader in the game engine industry!

But it has become a joke in the industry!

No improvement! No features! No meaning!

"The Golden Wind itself, combined with Yiyou's external omni-sensory assistance, is not inferior to the Dream VI..."

"I thought Huan Meng was going to do something extreme, but I didn't expect it to be a big shit..."

"It was promoted so vigorously in the early stage, it was unprecedented and leading the times, but in the end it was nothing special, and it was not even as good as GW's non-3S GTFO..."

"It would be better if we didn't release this new engine. If we did, we would die faster..."

"They just want to raise the price of the game and make some extra money..."

"I was quite hesitant at first, but they ended up presenting something like this. It's simply the biggest scam of the year..."

"Cherish life and stay away from illusions..."

“…”

All-round sales crush!

Just as the media said, at this point, after the last glimmer of hope for a comeback was shattered, Huanmeng finally encountered the most deadly dark moment in the company's history!

Carter Walker could have foreseen it without much thought!

Next!

What they are about to face, besides a large number of investors completely losing confidence in them and leaving the market, is the abandonment of more manufacturers who were originally barely maintaining cooperation, as well as even more frantic market encroachment by their peers!

Looking back on this turbulent year!

Since the price adjustment policy was announced at the beginning of the year!

Nine months so far!

The Golden Wind engine was launched, producing Battlefield: Rising;

Golden Wind announced that it would jointly develop Dark Souls with the Phenix engine;

Golden Wind announced a collaboration with Aurora Games to develop and produce Rainbow Six;

Three major works! Three major milestones!

Each node is a direct factor that causes the fluctuation and decline of their Huanmeng’s market value!

And with the arrival of this moment!

Golden Wind competes with Yunwei and launches the first-person thriller FPS work "GTFO"!

The fatal blow finally landed on their hearts!

The already shaky building finally collapsed, and the already fragile and morbid bubble finally burst.

The short-term revenue increase brought about by the price adjustment policy will ultimately not be able to escape the subsequent fatal side effects.

Returning to the top of the industry and becoming the leader is just a dream.

Their final fate is to be abandoned by the gaming industry on which they depend for survival.

"... President? President!"

"ah?!"

With a shout, Carterwalker slowly woke up from his daze.

Looking at the assistant who had opened the door and entered the office at some point, Carter Walker paused for three seconds before he trembled his lips and asked:

"How is it going?"

"The situation... uh..."

The assistant looked embarrassed, and after a moment's silence, he sighed and said:

"Yunwei said that President Codick was out for a meeting and would contact us later. It was said that... he was heading to Japan."

"oh oh……"

Carter Walker nodded slowly, as if he had anticipated this result:

"As for Vivendi..."

But before he could finish.

I saw the assistant slowly shaking his head.

Everything is implied.

“Okay… okay… okay…”

After saying hello three times in a row, Carter Walker picked up the coffee drink on the desk.

I wanted to take a sip, but I couldn't pour out a drop for a long time.

"you--"

The assistant walked over, took the bottle, unscrewed the cap, and handed it back to him:

"alright."

"Thank you, um, thank you..."

Carter Walker took the cappuccino and took a sip, only to find that today's coffee was particularly bitter.

it's over.

There is nothing more to say.

Kotick would not meet them "later" either.

If the news is correct, Cotick may really go to Japan this time.

Go to Japan to meet with Konami's chief executive, Itosuke, to discuss the introduction of Konami's self-developed engine.

There are not many gaming groups in the world that have their own self-developed engines, and Konami is one of them.

Needless to say, why it is necessary to connect to Konami's self-developed engine.

As for Vivendi...

Carter Walker took a deep breath and exhaled in despair.

Kotick is Vivendi's voice and minion in the gaming industry, and naturally represents Vivendi's attitude.

Too.

A company that went from being a flagship in the global game engine industry with a market value of 20 billion to having a market value of barely 10 billion in just nine months.

What conditions do I have that would make Vivendi worthy of their full support?

Indeed.

At this moment, restricted by the contract, their Fantasy Dreams is still the exclusive strategic partner of Vivendi and a member of the United Group, which occupies half of the global gaming industry.

But Fantasy is not a company group under Vivendi after all.

It's an outsider.

From the beginning to the end, Huanmeng was just a pawn, a sharp knife, and a way for Vivendi to punish GW.

That's all.

In fact, Carter Walker had already anticipated this before reaching a "cooperation" with Yunwei.

To put it bluntly, this was a gamble for him.

The bet was won.

Huanmeng holds the top spot in the game engine industry, has the final say and is free to set prices.

With Yunwei on the left hand and Konami on the right hand, and Vivendi at the back, they can do whatever they want.

But unfortunately, he lost the bet.

"well--"

Carter Walker knew that the exodus of investors and the plunge in market value would not stop there.