Chapter 34 Monday, Noon

The team-building event last Friday had most people completely hyped, and the two days of rest on Saturday and Sunday allowed them to relax completely.

Except for Bao Xu, who still came to the office on Sunday, everyone else didn't work overtime and enjoyed the weekend to the fullest.

After all, the game had already been developed, and there was no reason to work overtime anymore!

Although there would be overtime pay for working overtime, a leisurely and comfortable vacation was much more attractive.

On Monday, many people were still immersed in this joy.

But Huang Sibuo wasn't blindly optimistic; his expression was a bit serious.

"You've noticed the data for *Fortress at Sea*, right?" Huang Sibuo came to Bao Xu's workstation and found that Bao Xu was also paying attention to the background data of *Fortress at Sea*.

In short, it was a disaster!

The game was submitted for review on Friday, passed the review on Saturday night, and as a result, only a few hundred downloads were achieved after Sunday.

Too few!

FPS games are different from other games; they can be seen as competitive online games, and they can only be played if there are enough people.

The basic gameplay of FPS games is player-versus-player combat, but with only a few hundred downloads and only a few dozen active players, how can you even have a match? Forget about matching equally matched opponents; it's hard to say if you can even match with a living person!

You can't have all the players fighting computers, right? That's absurd.

Of course, one difference between *Fortress at Sea* and other FPS games like *Bullet Marks* is that it has a story mode that can be played as a single-player game.

But the story mode can't support a long enough playtime; players will quickly get bored.

Moreover, most players who like *Terrorist Plan* prefer the combat mode and aren't too interested in the story mode.

In short, the situation is quite pessimistic!

These few hundred downloads were achieved under the premise that *Fortress at Sea* was a free download. If *Fortress at Sea* were priced according to the standard of a single-player game, it would cost at least thirty or fifty yuan, and the number of downloads would probably continue to plummet.

As for why *Fortress at Sea* was set as a free game...

It was because Pei Qian learned a lesson from *Ghost General*.

*Ghost General*, due to its very conscientious features, led to a sharp expansion of its user base, with hundreds of thousands of new active players every month!

And each new active player brought Pei Qian 10 yuan in revenue, which caught Pei Qian off guard...

Originally, the 10-yuan price was just a threshold to block free players, but he didn't expect to tie his own hands and feet, achieving a "small profits, quick turnover" effect...

So, Pei Qian made up his mind and completely reversed the pricing strategy of *Fortress at Sea*.

The game was completely free, so even if there were some accidents and the game had a certain number of downloads, Pei Qian wouldn't get a penny from these ordinary players!

And the 888 epic weapon threshold was high enough to attract scolding, damage the reputation of *Fortress at Sea*, dissuade general players, and make it unaffordable for most players.

As for why not make it completely free...

Didn't Pei Qian want to?

The key is that the system wouldn't allow it!

If the game itself is free and there are no in-app purchases or advertising, it is inherently unreasonable. It would be equivalent to Pei Qian paying for the production of a product and then giving it all away for free.

This kind of obvious loophole-drilling and malicious loss-making behavior is strictly prohibited by the system.

Otherwise, it would be too easy for Pei Qian to lose money. As long as he bought a batch of goods at the original price and then sold them at a low price, he could lose as much as he wanted.

The system wouldn't leave such an obvious loophole for Pei Qian to exploit.

Therefore, Pei Qian had to design a good profit model for the game, whether it was selling copies or adding in-app purchases, he had to ensure that there was a profit point to avoid being warned by the system.

In short, so far, the situation of *Fortress at Sea* is still under Pei Qian's control.

Pei Qian set up three lines of defense for *Fortress at Sea*.

First, without early promotion, the game would be unknown.

Second, the game's pricing strategy would be a big failure, and the 888 epic weapons would ruin the game's reputation and cause *Fortress at Sea*'s reputation to collapse.

Third, there would be *Bullet Marks*, an excellent competing game, to fully suppress *Fortress at Sea*.

Now, the first line of defense has worked.

And Huang Sibuo and Bao Xu are also worried about this.

These two are also paying attention to the performance of *Fortress at Sea*, after all, this is the result of their hard work for a long time, and this game is also entrusted with President Pei's heavy trust.

If the game flops, wouldn't that be letting down President Pei's trust?

Absolutely not!

Huang Sibuo hesitated, as if he didn't know whether to say the next words or not.

However, after hesitating again and again, he finally spoke.

"Brother Bao, do you think President Pei didn't promote *Fortress at Sea* at all? No matter what, the download data shouldn't be so miserable, right?"

Although saying this is a bit disrespectful to President Pei, from all aspects, that's what it looks like...

These days, whether a domestic game can succeed largely depends on marketing and channels.

Many garbage games have also tricked a large number of players in with brainwashing marketing.

Of course, as for whether the tricked-in players can be retained, that's another matter.

But at least, no matter how garbage the game is, as long as the promotion is proper and you are willing to burn money to promote it, it won't be unknown.

Only a few hundred downloads after being online for a day is simply unreasonable!

Bao Xu looked at Huang Sibuo: "Brother Huang, don't question President Pei. President Pei, who came up with the idea of using Weibo marketing to promote *Ghost General*, is a master in this field, how could he not know the importance of promotion?"

Huang Sibuo scratched his head.

That's the way it is.

But the current half-dead state of *Fortress at Sea* is obviously without any promotion...

Huang Sibuo specifically searched, and *Fortress at Sea* was not on any other game platforms, nor was it advertised or promoted in other ways.

Could it be that President Pei is silently brewing a big move?

Seeming to see Huang Sibuo's doubts, Bao Xu said: "I think it's best to completely trust President Pei. President Pei didn't tell us to worry about publicity, so we shouldn't worry about it."

"Yeah, you're right." Huang Sibuo thought for a while, and that's what it was.

What kind of genius is President Pei, is it my turn to worry?

So, Huang Sibuo turned around and left.

However, after ten minutes, Huang Sibuo came back again.

"This time it's not about promoting the game," Huang Sibuo explained, "It's about modifying the subsequent versions."

"Oh? Brother Huang, please speak." Bao Xu nodded.

Huang Sibuo paused slightly: "It's like this. The official version of *Fortress at Sea* has been developed, and according to the general development process, we should now prepare to formulate the development plan for the next version."

"Um, um, so?" Bao Xu seemed to understand.

At present, he is still in a state of half-understanding about the game development process. Anyway, he will cooperate with whatever Huang Sibuo arranges.
作者：青衫取醉
Qing Shan Qu Zui