Noon.
Fat Sis called him.
Zhang Ye had just finished eating lunch at the cafeteria and was taking the elevator to go upstairs. In the face of several of his Central TV Department 1 colleagues who saw him as the god of plague while looking down and whispering to each other, Zhang Ye was not affected by it and did not bother them. When he reached his floor, he got out from the elevator alone and answered the call.
Zhang Ye: "Fat Sis."
The moment Fat Sis started to speak, she no longer addressed Zhang Ye the same as before. It was becoming even more casual now. "Zhang'er, the demo of our game has created a big splash!"
Zhang Ye laughed: "Haha, I saw it."
Fat Sis was very emotional. "Right now, the public media is promoting our game for free, I guess this is all down to your influence. Those reporters and media outlets all seem to shoot up whenever a story gets linked to you! The gamers are also giving you a lot of face. When they heard that you were the game's designer, they were all very supportive of it! In the past, Big Sis did not know how many fans you had, but looking at it now, it seems like you really have a lot of fans!"
Zhang Ye: "Everyone's just giving me a little face."
Fat Sis: "The game will officially be launched three days later!"
Zhang Ye: "OK. I'm just waiting for that day to come."
Fat Sis: "The entire company is looking forward to it as well! What are your expectations of the sales?"
Zhang Ye: "What is the distribution method?"
Fat Sis: "For the company's previous game, we did it the traditional way by distributing the game by physical CD-ROMs. As a result, we suffered a loss on our base costs, so let's not mention that anymore, fuck! This time around, we will definitely not do that again, since I can see that sales of physical media is just going to go downhill. This is the world of the Internet now, so the distribution of Plants vs. Zombies will be via Internet downloads. The download itself is free and will be free to play for three days, but after that, there will be a requirement to register to purchase a serial code. However, we've been thinking about what to set the price as for a long time now. We feel that a price between 5 and 15 RMB would be more suitable, but that has not been decided yet, so I would like to listen to your opinion about this."
Zhang Ye thought over it for a bit and replied: "Then let's set it at 5 RMB. A higher price would affect the popularity of the game, so why don't we go for quantity over profit margins? And lay the foundations for this game first? With a solid foundation for the game, there will be other ways to seek profit in the future."
"Eh, based on what you're saying, do you mean that there will be a Plants vs. Zombies 2?"
"That's a must."
"Hahaha! Good!"
"Let's not get too ahead of ourselves now. Nothing is confirmed as of now."
"I understand. We've already laid out all the preparations, so now, it all depends on this last step! The company has put everything on this; we even took out a loan for it. If Plants vs. Zombies does not sell well, then the company will have to be shuttered!"
"Damn, surely it won't come to that, Fat Sis!"
"I know, I'm just readying myself for the worst case scenario! But I, of course, have also made plans for the best case scenario, haha!"
After putting down the phone, Zhang Ye went back to his office and sat down, crossing his legs. In his mind, he went through the entire process once over. Generally speaking, he was quite optimistic and was full of confidence for this game, Plants vs. Zombies. He distinctly understood that this game had a good lead on all of this world's puzzle games, which had been verified by the video game market in his previous world. But even though the game was good, the sales figures definitely wouldn't mirror that of the original's. This world had its own rules and also slight differences.
For example, the distribution channels.
The debut country of the game's release.
The business model.
Both worlds had its differences and Zhang Ye could only guarantee a 95% similarity in game replication of Plants vs. Zombies from his previous world. But he could not dictate the distribution channels and regions in accordance to his previous world. He did not have the power to do so either. This was a game that was made by foreigners in his previous world, but he couldn't possibly choose to launch this game in an overseas market first, right? As such, Zhang Ye could only do his best and leave the rest to the market forces!
Have crossed into a new industry this time, Zhang Ye was undoubtedly placing great importance on this game, knowing that he couldn't afford to make a mistake. Having been put into the freezer for so many days now by Central TV Department 1, his popularity was already slipping. Right now, he could only depend on Plants vs. Zombies to help him achieve another rise in his popularity! In the B-list Celebrity Rankings, the competition at this level was so fierce that an industry outsider couldn't understand it. If a celebrity was a B-lister, their name would be very well-known to the people. Basically, more than half the country's people would have heard of or been able to say their names. This was a level of stardom that had an established fan base, so the unpredictability in standings was also greater. Who knew when one of these B-list celebrities might suddenly get a break in their acting career and star in a popular movie with a box office earnings of over 1 billion RMB? If that happens, their popularity would surely skyrocket. It wasn't an uncommon or unusual occurrence at all. Zhang Ye naturally knew this and understood the principle of not progressing but instead regressing in popularity. In the world of entertainment, what did people compete on? To put it bluntly, it was just a competition of popularity. Zhang Ye could not let himself have no progress at all!
...
On Weibo.
A group of haters suddenly appeared out of nowhere, discussing about things that were about Zhang Ye but were targeted at discrediting Plants vs. Zombies instead!
"Are you all blind? What's so fun about this game!"
"Just look at the graphics and you'll know. It's such a rubbish game!"
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