Chapter 58: Good News and Bad News
The next day at noon!
Gu Sheng was in the office looking through information about the popular motion-sensing cabin shooting games in recent years.
As I was watching, I heard someone knocking on the office door.
Knock knock knock——
"Come in."
Gu Sheng put down the information and looked up.
As the door opened, Lu Bian and Dajiang appeared at the door, both of them looking mysterious.
"what?"
Gu Sheng frowned in confusion.
You know, these two guys never knock on the door when they come to visit him.
What's going on today? The sun is rising from the west?
Lu Bian walked into the office and gave Gu Sheng a professional smile, like a waiter:
"Good morning, dear Director Gu. I have good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?"
"...I would like to hear what your attending physician says first." Gu Sheng said speechlessly.
"Tsk, Old Gu, why are you so boring!" Lu Bian complained.
"Oh, okay, okay," Gu Sheng raised his hands in surrender and played along with the two brothers: "Then I'll listen to the bad news first, after all the hardship comes happiness."
Lu Bian immediately returned to his professional state and nodded:
"OK."
As he spoke, he handed over a document:
"The bad news is that our first-day sales results are out, 2,085 copies, which did not set a new first-day sales record for a game of this size."
"Yeah, it's OK, that's to be expected."
Gu Sheng was not too surprised or annoyed about this.
After all, the game type is here, and it is a rare one among the rare ones.
Even though many anchors experienced it personally yesterday, players' stereotypes about horror games cannot be changed in a day or two.
Gu Sheng was quite satisfied with the sales on the first day, which even exceeded 2,000 copies.
After all, this result may be a little mediocre compared to their previous performance, but for the entire market, it is already in the upper middle level.
If phasmophobia wants to explode, it will take time to develop.
"The bad news isn't that bad," Gu Sheng closed the sales report and continued to ask, "What about the good news?"
"Good news, hehehe, good news is so damn good--"
Lu Bian took out his cell phone from behind and handed it to Gu Sheng:
"Our weekly sales may explode!!!"
ha?!
Seeing Lu Bian's excited look, Gu Sheng was confused.
I took the phone and took a closer look, and couldn't help but take a breath of cold air -
"Black Box Review: Phasmophobia: A Ghost Card That Redefines Horror Games (9.8/10)"
"This is... a media review?!"
Gu Sheng was quite surprised when he saw the contents on his phone.
Media reviews are a form of media communication in which professional review teams on mainstream gaming websites or forums conduct systematic analysis and scoring of the most popular blockbusters.
To some extent, media reviews are also an important way to promote games.
In fact, its role is more prominent than general game news.
Because players have always been more convinced by this kind of professional evaluation, especially several mainstream domestic evaluation media, which can almost be said to be the weather vane of the game.
but!
According to Gu Sheng's understanding, in this world, media reviews and scoring of motion sensing cabin games are generally only conducted on those big-budget works.
Mainstream professional review teams like Black Box Games rarely pay attention to low-cost and small-scale games.
"We are so lucky..."
Gu Sheng muttered something, apparently a little surprised by this big pie that fell from the sky:
"I picked up a game review opportunity for nothing?"
However!
Regarding Gu Sheng's statement of being 'lucky', Lu Bian shook his head:
"Old Gu, if I had only picked up this one review, I wouldn't be so happy."
Talking!
Then Lu Bian waved his hand!
Behind him, Dajiang stepped forward and placed the prepared materials in front of Gu Sheng!
"Brother Sheng, we really exploded this time,"
"Eighty percent of the mainstream game review groups in China have reviewed and rated our game, all with scores above 9.5,"
“Even self-media reviewers with over a million followers on various platforms have been full of praise for our game!”
watt?!
Hearing this, Gu Sheng was shocked.
When I opened the document, I saw that it was filled with reviews and scores from no less than twenty gaming media outlets!
SNG review, 9.7 points: A creepy new form of horror masterpiece. Paraphobia uses its unique psychological fear therapy to cure my horror game aversion for many years!
Players' Bonfire, 9.6 points: The era of Jumpscare is over! The 'psychological horror style' pioneered by Phasmophobia is epoch-making! Of course, it would be better if their cost investment was higher...
Daily Game News, 9.8 points: Mind-blowing fear! If you ask me what the limit of Golden Wind's game creativity is, I will tell you that it is like the fear in phobia, which only exists in your mind. There is nothing they can't do except what you can't think of.
Feel the World, 9.7 points: Terror is coming! Dimensional strike from the supernova! A little blue pill that really cures horror game sheep impotence! Make sure you don’t have a history of heart disease before playing!
China Game Forum, 9.7 points!
Lao Sang talks about games, 9.5 points!
Slurp game, 9.6 points...
From game media to game forums, to video websites and online self-media.
Without exception, everyone gave this game extremely high praise!
It seems that the only downside to this game is the slightly lower investment, which results in the game hardware performance level not being perfect.
As he watched, Gu Sheng couldn't help but open his mouth wide.
"This is... not right?!"
Logically speaking, a motion sensing cabin game of their size is not worthy of being reviewed and rated by mainstream media.
Even if we take a step back and assume that some media outlets saw the quality of their game and thought that the psychological horror gameplay was indeed groundbreaking.
That should have been a result of a review by a mainstream media, which caused widespread response in the market and fermented for a period of time.
Then, other media outlets began to review the product.
Instead of what is happening now, a large number of media outlets are rushing in, as if they had agreed beforehand, to launch extensive reviews and promotions for this game at the same time!
"Someone is doing publicity for us?!"
Gu Sheng immediately realized that this was definitely not just an ordinary stroke of luck.
Many gaming media outlets have all agreed that there must be someone behind the scenes fanning the flames and helping them!
“That’s right!”
Lu Bian snapped his fingers, then raised his eyebrows and asked:
"Then do you know who operated this?"
Of course, Gu Sheng’s first reaction was little Nezha.
After all, their company is only that big.
If he, the game director, didn't do the promotion, it must have been Nezha, the president, who did the promotion.
But on second thought, he shook his head.
It shouldn't be.
Little Nezha has always told him repeatedly not to do any publicity and promotion, and to put all his efforts into game development, just like a tough guy who believes that good wine needs no bush.
What's more, with little Nezha's understanding of the gaming industry, she couldn't think of a form of promotion like evaluation.
Who could that be?
For a moment, Gu Sheng was at a loss and shook his head: "It can't be Little Nezha, right?"
Hearing this, Lu Bian pulled up his trouser legs and sat on the sofa, pretending to be mysterious:
"Yes and no,"
"No, and yes,"
"I can only say that this matter is very complicated, and little Nezha is not as stupid and innocent as we think."
"How can I put it? Those who understand will understand, I can only say this much."
Gu Sheng: ...
"If you keep being a Riddler, get the hell out of Riverside City."
"Don't, don't, don't joke around, brother,"
Seeing that Gu Sheng was about to stand up and demand justice from him, Lu Bian quickly smiled and waved his hand:
"Sit down, sit down, can't I just talk to you nicely..."
Talking about it!
Lu Bian then told him everything he had seen, heard, and analyzed.
After listening to Lu Bian’s story!
Gu Sheng folded his arms and frowned in thought:
"...In other words, the extra 80,000 yuan in landing fees that Little Nezha paid was actually a hint for Yiyou to give us the green light and provide policy support for in-depth cooperation?"
"I also listened to Secretary Chu's analysis,"
Lu Bian shrugged and said:
"Don't talk about us. Little Nezha didn't even tell Secretary Chu. She was so distressed at the time. She thought that Little Nezha had too much money and was wasting it on purpose."
"Um--"
Hearing this, Gu Sheng nodded.
Awesome.
Little Nezha has a very flexible brain to be able to come up with this business operation.
It not only avoided the embarrassment of not having a professional publicity and promotion team, but also made full use of Yiyou's favor and goodwill towards them.
Play to your strengths, avoid your weaknesses, use other people's strengths to your advantage, and be well versed in the unspoken rules of business.
It is true that a good father will have a good daughter.
Gu Sheng sighed in his heart.
After all, little Nezha is a top student from a key university and comes from a merchant family. He may not understand games, but he definitely knows about business.
"Besides that? Does Yiyou have any other promotional activities?"
Gu Sheng asked.
"Of course."
Lu Bian nodded:
"To support the sales of our game, Yiyou announced this morning that it will launch a phobia cabin theme, which will be given to all players who purchase the game,"
"In addition, they also held a lucky draw event on Weibo to share the game results."
"As long as players participate in Weibo, use the hashtag #Phasmophobia#, and share game clips, screenshots, jokes, etc.,"
"You will have a chance to win a brand new Yiyou x1."
Good job.
Hearing this, Gu Sheng was secretly surprised.
What Yan Sheng has achieved can basically be said to be a mad test of the bottom line.
After all, theoretically speaking, Golden Wind has not yet reached the standard for in-depth cooperation with Yiyou.
Even if Yan Sheng gave them the green light, it would be impossible for them to really carry out the promotion and publicity according to the standards of in-depth cooperation.
They helped find reviews, launched themes, and held sweepstakes to build up momentum for them.
Yiyou is already very nice.
In fact, the total publicity and promotion costs have already exceeded 80,000 yuan.
"Yan Sheng is a good comrade." Gu Sheng nodded.
"Indeed," Lu Bian also said sincerely, "It's just that Yiyou has a big reputation and a high status. If it were us who went out to find media to do reviews, let alone so many, it would be difficult to get just one with 80,000 yuan."
"So..."
Finally, Gu Sheng concluded:
"Little Nezha, don't look at him as a heartless person,"
"At the critical moment, he is really a talent!!!"
…
As expected, Phasmophobia became a hit.
Just like a person's success requires strength and luck.
The success of a game also requires two elements: quality and promotion.
There is no doubt that the quality of Paraphobia is able to beat other horror games in this world.
Coupled with the strong support of good comrade Yan Sheng, they promoted the product as hard as a bootlicker.
In just half a day, Phasmophobia became the hottest game among players!
When the clock hands once again point to eight o'clock in the evening!
Along with the night comes the baptism of terror from phobia and the tragic screams of countless anchors!
“…WDNMD Dongguaqiang, is this the picture you picked?!”
In the early hours of the morning, in the midst of cold wind, four people stood in front of an old house, looking at the paper figures and paper horses lined up on both sides of the scarlet gate.
Along with a sound like a woman's sobbing, the two rows of wreaths close to the wall rustled, and the big word "甸" fluttered in the wind.
Liu Peijia, Donggua, Liu Di and Teacher Ma, the four of them were standing in front of the gate of the gloomy ancient house, unable to move a step no matter what.
Originally, Liu Peijia just saw that this game had high reviews and was very popular, so he wanted to give it a try.
But who would have thought that after Donggua saw the barrage saying that all the anchors in their FPS area were timid and lustful, he developed hyperthyroidism on the spot.
He insisted on choosing an expert-level map, saying that he wanted to prove himself.
So.
So they came here.
Ancient house.
A map added by Gu Sheng, full of Chinese horror elements.
Liu Peiqia regretted it as soon as he came in. He really shouldn't have listened to Donggua and randomly selected the pictures.
This game itself is hellish enough.
He was so scared when he watched Lao Piao’s live broadcast just now.
As a result, Donggua chose a Chinese horror map.
Nothing else to say.
Just the pair of paper people and paper horses standing at the door were enough to scare him to death!
I don’t know if it was because of the night or because he was so nervous.
He always felt that the two paper figures of the boy and girl were staring at him.
In fear, Liu Peiqia was furious:
"This is the picture you chose! Winter melon! Don't be afraid of pinching the horse later!"
"I... cough!"
Donggua was originally quite arrogant, thinking that horror games were just so-so, and the worst that could happen was just getting scared.
But when he came in, he realized that he had no weapon in his hands and saw the gloomy and terrifying gate of the mansion, he panicked instantly.
But as the saying goes, the road you choose must be walked even if you have to kneel down, so I cleared my throat and pretended to be calm:
"That's it! What are you afraid of? They say that we are all timid and lustful! Can you tolerate this? Brother Qie, are you afraid? Can you be afraid?"
Upon hearing this, Liu Peijia naturally could not admit defeat:
"I'm scared? How could I be scared? Are you kidding me! Are you scared, Mr. Di?!"
"Wow! I'm scared? I've seen everything!"
Liu Di did not lose face:
"I'm really not afraid at all! Are you afraid, Old Ma?"
Lao Ma was actually a little scared.
But seeing that everyone said so, he could only grin and say, "If I say I'm not afraid, that would seem too much, so... I'm not afraid either."
Before he finished speaking!
Then the three anchors in the FPS area stepped back together!
"Teacher Ma said he's not afraid!"
"Wow, Teacher Ma is awesome!"
"It still has to be Lao Ma. Then Lao Ma, you go first!"
"Teacher Ma, go ahead. We'll cover you..."
This outrageous scene made the comments on the video unable to hold back -
"What kind of trick is this?"
"I put my brother in my pocket, and he kicked me into the ditch?"
'Pass it on, the big FPS anchors are collectively suppressing the gold medal lecturer in the alliance area'
"You three are such bastards!"
'Is this something a human would do ?'
'Lao Ma: I need a word that is more aggressive than the word 'newborn''
'Hahahahahaha that's too crude...'
The netizens laughed, and Lao Ma was also confused!
"Oh, you're trying to trick me, right? The boss is really shameless..."
However, although surprised by the shamelessness of Liu Peijia and the other two, the usually generous Teacher Ma still took the first step.
A group of people crowded together and slowly moved up the bluestone steps, and bravely pushed open the vermilion lacquered door of the ancient house.
This is a three-story house.
As soon as they stepped over the threshold, the scene in front of them made the four people feel horrified!
However, on the first flower-covered gate leading to the courtyard, there were two red lanterns flashing with a deep glow.
On the lantern, the word "囍" is vaguely visible.
“Oh my god—”
When Liu Peijia saw this scene, she felt terrible:
"Is this... a ghost marriage?!"
