Chapter 19 The Overseas Release

Pei Qian froze completely.

He felt like he had spent ten seconds chanting a Pyroblast spell, only to have it hit the opponent's shield and reflect back, blasting him in the face.

But President Pei was a seasoned veteran; he quickly calmed down.

"An overseas distribution company..."

"As far as I know, domestic films aren't generally very popular in overseas markets, are they?"

"The box office is usually... one or two million dollars?"

Pei Qian had a little understanding of these basic facts.

Although many hugely popular domestic films would try overseas distribution, their results often weren't ideal due to cultural differences, language, and other issues. A film that could easily break a hundred million at home might only make one or two million US dollars abroad, and that depended on the genre.

Pei Qian did some mental calculations. If it was only one million US dollars, a simple calculation based on the split and exchange rate didn't seem like too heavy a burden.

He could easily handle a few million; that was a small scene.

His bigger concern now was, which clueless overseas distributor had taken a fancy to this film??

Huang Sibao said with a smile, "That's right."

"With the retirement of many Chinese movie stars who had a huge influence in Hollywood, the box office appeal of domestic films overseas is also constantly declining. At the same time, because the domestic market is developing faster and faster, and our national self-esteem and confidence are getting stronger and stronger, many films simply focus on the domestic market and no longer pursue overseas tastes."

"So, in recent years, many domestic blockbusters that easily grossed hundreds of millions at the box office could only cut down one or two million at the international box office, with few screenings, low popularity, and very limited influence."

"But it is precisely because of this reason that our film can stand out!"

"Although *Journey of the Stars* flopped all over the world, it is, after all, a big-budget overseas science fiction film. *A Beautiful Tomorrow* was able to get a similar box office with a very low investment and completely suppress it in terms of word-of-mouth, which gave overseas distribution companies great confidence!"

"Moreover, *A Beautiful Tomorrow* has a unique advantage: the entire film is in English, and the story is set in a future world, blurring national and ethnic concepts. It doesn't have overly obscure local culture, making it easier for foreign audiences to accept!"

"And the theme of the film mainly explores the gap between rich and poor, overconsumption, and the alienation of people by capital, which is more likely to resonate with overseas audiences!"

"So, President Pei, don't worry, our film will earn more than just one million dollars at the box office. It will definitely be higher than that!"

"..." For a moment, Pei Qian didn't know how to respond.

Zhu Xiaoce added, "By the way, President Pei, don't underestimate the English audio!"

"You know, foreigners are very, very resistant to subtitles. The reason is very simple: English is a relatively verbose language, and watching subtitles is very tiring."

"A strong piece of evidence is that both China and Japan have large-scale danmu (bullet screen) video websites, but foreign countries don't. This is because our characters are ideographic, and the information is highly condensed. We can understand the meaning of the danmu with a glance, but English is not like that."

"Adding subtitles is the same. Foreign audiences aren't as used to watching subtitles as we are. For them, whether or not there is English audio is a key factor in whether or not they watch it!"

"So, our movie being entirely in English is a huge advantage! Although all three main actors have a bit of an Asian accent, foreigners don't care about accents. On the contrary, they will think that this is more in line with the characters' settings and ethnic distinctions."

"In short, this film, from the script stage, is very much in line with the tastes of the overseas market!"

"President Pei, having everyone speak English was definitely farsighted!"

Zhu Xiaoce excitedly gave a thumbs up.

Pei Qian: "..."

He really wanted to say, no, you're wrong! I'm not farsighted at all. I'm shortsighted! I was only thinking about using all English to dissuade domestic audiences; I never thought that this film would even go to the overseas market one day!

However, looking at the admiring gazes of Zhu Xiaoce and Huang Sibao, Pei Qian could only sigh silently in his heart.

How uncomfortable!

...

...

March 30, Wednesday.

These past two days, GOG players welcomed the ultimate carnival.

Yesterday at dawn, GOG's first season of the Spring Tournament locked in its results.

And today, the prizes had all been distributed, pushing the event's heat to its peak!

Everywhere online, there were posts discussing the event.

Of course, some people questioned the real strength of the winners. After all, there are no absolutely fair rules in this world, and sour grapes always make people instinctively jealous of those lucky ones.

But this kind of noise only accounted for a very small part.

Because the competition rules were open, fair, and transparent, although there would definitely be situations where people queued with others to get a leg up, overall, players who could reach the top five hundred in such a short period of time had real skills.

Because the time was short, the actors and studios didn't react so quickly. Before they could form enough influence, the results were locked and the prizes distributed.

The players who received the prizes were all overjoyed, showing off their results, showing off their winnings, and accepting worship, further stimulating and boosting the heat of GOG.

In short, everyone was happy.

The players got the money, the GOG project team gained heat, and President Pei also scattered money.

It was just that everyone else's happiness was unconditional, while President Pei's happiness was mixed with deep concern.

Because he found that the game's popularity had risen far beyond his expectations...

In Pei Qian's view, this seemed to be a bit out of control!

So, the resourceful President Pei gave Hu Xianbin a task yesterday: to analyze the season's ranking event and then submit a detailed report.

On the surface, it was assigning homework, but in reality, President Pei wanted to know what was going on...

It must be said that Hu Xianbin's efficiency was indeed very high; Pei Qian received the analysis report today.

But after reading it, his heart grew even colder...

...

During the short and intense ranking process, the number of active players in the game GOG, whether on mobile or PC, was skyrocketing every day.

The lure of "100,000 a week" was irresistible to players. Even if some people's reason constantly told them that they couldn't get that 100,000, a sense of luck would still drive them to enter the game and try it out.

GOG's season rewards were so generous that they attracted a large number of newbies who had never played similar games before. In addition, the AI set up to protect the new players' game experience made the initial experience of most people very good. The game's positive feedback was strong, so most people would have the illusion that they were gifted.

And when they really realized that they couldn't get the prize money at all, they had often played intensely for two or three days, were already very familiar with the game, and had experienced the fun of the game, so they were unlikely to drop out.

Not only that, but the players' lucky mentality would also drive them to "jump back and forth."

Those who were confident in swiping the screen went to play the mobile version.

Those who were confident in operating the mouse and keyboard went to play the PC version.

Those who were crushed in the PC version thought that the mobile version players were worse and considered switching to the mobile version.

Those who found it uncomfortable to swipe the screen in the mobile version felt that the mouse and keyboard operation of the PC version was more convenient and accurate and considered switching to the PC version.

The setting of cross-platform data sharing made players not at all repulsed by switching between the two platforms, but instead, they enjoyed it and even stimulated their desire to buy skins.

After all, skins are shared on both platforms: one purchase, double the joy.

Going back and forth, when the players realized that they were very bad at the game whether they played on PC or mobile, their gaming habits had already been formed.

In short, this event can be said to have been stable, accurate, and ruthless, not only capturing all the veteran players in one fell swoop but also winning over a large number of new players. In a short period of time, it used high prize money to pull GOG's popularity to a very high level and ended the event before the studios and directors had time to react, maximizing fairness.

Next were some mindless praises for President Pei.

...

After reading the report, Pei Qian was silent.

He finally understood the reason for the abnormal data.

In this way, he did lose money, but the cost seemed to be a bit too high, completely exceeding his original expectations...

"Whatever."

"In short, it's enough to lose money this cycle. We'll talk about the future later."

"However, the current state of GOG seems to have exposed my huge problems in understanding games..."

"No, I must change this situation in the next game. I can't make money again!"

"Summarize the experience, learn the lessons, and definitely make a failed game!"

After these few days of closed-door brainstorming, Pei Qian had already thought of a very good idea for a flop game.

Next cycle, he would definitely arrange both game departments in a clear and orderly manner!

...

...

March 31, Thursday.

Before Pei Qian's eyes, the system light screen automatically appeared.

[Wealth Conversion System 2.0]

[Host: Pei Qian]

[Surplus Conversion Ratio 1000:1, Loss Conversion Ratio 10:1]

[Settlement Pending...]

[System Funds: 3.77 Million + 860,000 (↓5.37 Million)]

[Fixed Assets: Ming Yun Mountain Villa Commercial and Residential Villa (8.61 Million)]

[Personal Assets: 340,000]

[Settling...]

[Performing Wealth Conversion...]

[System Funds: 3.77 Million + 860,000 (↓5.37 Million)]

[Personal Assets: 920,000 (↑530,000 x 110%)]

[The current cycle's Wealth Conversion Value has reached above 200,000, and you will receive a mysterious reward within the system rules. (Claimable)]

[Currently Unfinished Project: Thrill Horror House. Must be officially opened for business before the next settlement.]

Seeing this, Pei Qian finally breathed a sigh of relief.

How comfortable!

After buying the house, Pei Qian had about 180,000 left, earned 100,000 writing the movie script, and received several tens of thousands in red envelopes during the Chinese New Year.

Most of his usual daily expenses were reimbursed by the company, so he didn't spend much of this money and saved it all up.

After converting more than 580,000 this time, Pei Qian's personal assets returned to 920,000.

Although it was hard work, it was still worth it!

Relatively speaking, it was obviously more worthwhile to lose money. To convert the same 530,000, he had to earn 500 million.

Moreover, these 500 million had to lie in the company's account at the time of settlement and could not be taken out for investment in order to achieve conversion. But if all this money was piled up in the company's account and not invested, how would he earn more money?

So, no matter what, losing money was the correct way to use this system.

Pei Qian noticed that after the system entered 2.0, although the ratio was lowered due to the Matthew effect, it seemed that the difficulty of achieving a loss was also correspondingly reduced.

In the past, Pei Qian was exhausted, and it took three settlements to lose money once.

But now, it seemed that he could stably lose money.

This was partly because Pei Qian became more and more clear about the system's temperament after repeated failures and developed more tricks, such as opening up some industries that allowed him to quench his thirst with poison and exchange money for word-of-mouth.

On the other hand, it was because the system gave more convenient conditions after the upgrade, such as a charitable quota for each cycle and allowing a project to be extended to two cycles to complete.

The tens of millions thrown out by the Thrill Horror House were crucial to being able to lose this time.

Calculated, he converted 600,000 in personal assets in five months, which could be considered a monthly income of 100,000!

Well, congratulations!

With this money, it would be completely fine to buy furniture and appliances for the new house and get good soft furnishings.

Of course, he had to continue his efforts.

In addition, Pei Qian also discovered a small hidden danger: the villa in Ming Yun Private Kitchen had increased in price by more than 200,000 again...

Buying fixed assets in the name of the company for business activities could indeed spend a lot of money at once, but Pei Qian had been afraid to buy too much because this thing would affect the settlement.

The biggest problem with fixed assets was that they occupied system funds after converting 10%, and when calculating losses, loss = initial system funds - current system funds - 10% of fixed assets, which was very painful.

If the system's initial funds were only 10 million, and the company's total fixed assets were worth 100 million, then there would be an awkward situation where even if Pei Qian spent all the system funds, it still wouldn't be considered a loss.

However, this was, after all, the first settlement of the 2.0 system, and the initial system funds would continue to increase in the future.

As long as the initial system funds became 20 million, 30 million, or even 50 million, then Pei Qian could consider buying more fixed assets in the name of the company for production and business activities.

And the more system funds there were, the more he could lose, and the more money he could convert.

"I hope the system funds will be high next cycle..." Pei Qian prayed silently.