Agreeing to Create Bad Games, What the Hell Is ‘Titanfall’? Chapter 303: The Summer That Once Was Has Returned

As Konik had said, Apex Pri’s reputation exploded.

But it wasn’t quite the way he had imagined.

It truly exploded.

Almost overnight!

The hype for Apex Pri soared even higher on the back of the massive anticipation that had built up before its release.

After all, this ti, even the previously silent player base began to voice their opinions.

And when they did, their critiques were sharp and direct!

It was as if, alongside Apex Pri’s rapidly plumting reputation, Konik’s ancestral grave was about to be cursed to pieces.

“Raising a Konik here? Spit and move on.”

“It’s really great that you personally ca to deliver your mother.”

Now, opinions on Apex Pri were split between two extres: the radical faction launched fierce verbal attacks at CloudPower and Konik, while the moderate faction felt the radicals weren’t extre enough.

“I ate a very sweet waterlon today, so here’s a bad review.”

“I don’t approve of spending 75 bucks to buy a coffin for Konik. Luckily, I wasn’t dissatisfied for more than two hours. Leaving a negative review here first, then requesting a refund.”

“Refund now!”

“The ti is up, but it doesn’t matter. That $75 is basically a contribution to all the top executives at CloudPower-Vivendi and the ga’s designers.”

“Special groups? Why can’t I see a single Pride flag in the comnt section?”

“There is one—a colorful flag below, but the person says he’s with the Beiyang governnt...”

...

In just twelve short hours!

On the CloudPower gaming platform, tens of thousands of player comnts flooded the Apex Pri review section, with positive reviews accounting for only 9%.

A ga that sold three million copies in two weeks, with promotional spending exceeding $300 million, had been t with overwhelmingly positive pre-sale reviews and glowing dia praise, even breaking through to wider audiences.

Globally, it’s extrely rare for a ga to cause such a sensation during the pre-sale phase.

And now!

Due to multiple factors including negative player experiences, loot box chanics, forced “correctness,” and the ELO matchmaking system,

Apex Pri has finally erged from the rarefied ranks to beco an unprecedented piece of utter garbage in gaming history.

“91% negative reviews within twenty-four hours!”

“Players refunded over 1.98 million copies!”

“Is this what you call booming success?!”

The next morning!

Konik slamd the heart-stopping data on the table, his face flushed red with eyes glaring fiercely!

Veins bulged on his forehead, his heart pounding violently, blood pressure and pulse skyrocketing—as if about to be driven mad by rage.

Across from him, Yamamoto Tsunashiro’s head buzzed.

He couldn’t understand where he had gone wrong.

This proposal was an exact replica of Golden Wind’s!

And it was personally led by Gu Sheng.

Plus, it was developed by Golden Experience Studio, the veteran team that pioneered the second-generation FPS system and had nearly undefeated records.

Even more!

To avoid a fiasco, he had ticulously studied every detail of the proposal and data, striving for a perfect 1:1 reproduction!

It could be said that apart from so character designs, dialogue, and hero nas, Apex Pri was completely a Golden Wind ga!

It’s not that they couldn’t fail—Gu Sheng wasn’t a god.

But it couldn’t fall so painfully all at once!

This wasn’t just painful; it was catastrophic!

From pre-sale launch to now, fifteen days had passed.

In the first fourteen days, sales hit three million copies, $225 million.

On the fifteenth day, sales dropped to 1.02 million copies, $76.5 million.

Usually, official releases sell better than pre-sales, but here, sales plunged within 24 hours of launch, dying at birth!

No wonder Konik had gone completely insane, his eyes bloodshot.

Losing nearly $150 million in one day—anyone would go mad.

“This thing... listen...”

Yamamoto Tsunashiro licked his lips, fingers tingling, looking terrified:

“We’ve coordinated with the platform departnt to urgently disable the comnt function and hide the review system.”

“Then, we notified dia partners and rallied authoritative social group representatives to speak on our behalf.”

“Next...”

What the hell good would that do?!

Konik slamd the data files out with a crash, his enraged roar shaking his bloated face:

“The problem now is refunds! We’re suffering massive losses from widespread refunding! Do you understand?!”

Who the hell cares about reputation?

I care about the money!

Those group representatives did help the ga break out.

But what was the result?

They just talked big but didn’t actually buy the ga!

“A bunch of trash! Trash people! Trash organizations! Trash representatives!”

Konik roared furiously at Yamamoto Tsunashiro:

“By the end of this month, I want to see your plan and a stabilized situation!”

This...

Yamamoto Tsunashiro was dumbfounded, mind a tangled ss, blank.

It wasn’t really his fault. After all, he had once been chief ga director at Kora, one of the Big Three. Since becoming director, he’d never faced a losing streak. Kora lavished him with resources—money, people—everything. He was always in the lilight.

The only losing streak was the Silent Hill fiasco against Golden Wind.

But he never handled that defeat.

Or rather, before he could, Kora cut him loose.

So now his mind was a bit numb, and he subconsciously asked:

“So, President, from which angle do you think we should approach this...”

“You’re director? I’m director?!”

Before he could finish stamring, Konik rudely cut him off:

“What the hell do you want to ask for?!”

“I don’t care how you do it! Just get those sales up! Promotions, discounts, anything!”

...

“But the only unacceptable thing is discount sales.”

After speaking, Gu Sheng slowly sipped his tea.

Opposite him, Shen Miaomiao was busy jotting notes, then set down her pen:

“So that’s why we’ve always had the rule that newly released gas do not participate in any events or promotions within the first year, right?”

The catastrophic crash of Apex Pri shocked the gaming world, and shocked Shen Miaomiao as well.

It was brutal!

CloudPower had actually created an unprecedented loss path of over $150 million in refunds after release!

Shen Miaomiao was deeply shaken!

At the sa ti, she had to admit Gu Sheng’s grasp of the gaming market and his accurate foresight of major pitfalls.

So, after dinner, she humbly sought advice from Gu Sheng on the deeper reasons behind CloudPower’s brutal failure and the crisis managent strategies that must never be used after a ga’s release.

Outwardly, she said: learning market rules to help the company stabilize and grow.

Inwardly, she thought: collecting every way to incur losses, maybe useful later.

“Yes,” Gu Sheng nodded:

“Players hate being betrayed, especially within a short ti.”

“Although the saying ‘early buyers enjoy first’ applies everywhere, the problem is first, your product must bring players enjoynt and make them truly believe in that saying.”

“Not all players need to feel this, but at least most must.”

“Only then can our ga consider participating in events.”

“After all, to so extent, this is also a form of respect toward players...”

Gu Sheng’s words rang true.

Any mature ga developer who respects players treats discounting strategies with extre caution.

However, CloudPower was obviously not in that category.

By the second weekend after Apex Pri’s sales plunge, even more explosive news rocked the gaming community—

“Apex Pri announces a 25% discount promotion just 15 days after launch!”

“Price drop imdiately after release? Can lowering the sales price save Apex Pri’s declining montum?”

“Was the original price too high? Or is this an ergency response? Apex Pri may beco the shortest-priced ga in gaming history!”

“Players express widespread dissatisfaction; massive refunds cause CloudPower to fumble.”

“Price cut just 15 days after launch! CloudPower may be preparing to fully abandon Apex Pri.”

...

Indeed!

Just two weeks after the refund frenzy, CloudPower, like a shell corporation working in tandem with Gu Sheng, demonstrated to Shen Miaomiao exactly why launching promotions shortly after a ga’s release is a fatal mistake!

If players who had played over two hours without refunding were rely angry and felt betrayed,

then after CloudPower announced the 25% discount, players’ fury reached its boiling peak!

One widely shared player review sumd it up:

“Konik first scamd by selling a pile of garbage, and when I found out I couldn’t refund it, he publicly mocked us by dropping the price: ‘Look at these fools who paid top dollar for garbage; they can’t do anything to us!’”

Players were enraged.

Truly enraged.

The ga’s abysmal quality was frustrating enough, but the subsequent price drop and promotion crushed the hearts of those who had paid full price.

In no ti, a fierce wave of denunciation against all CloudPower gas swept through the gaming community!

Perhaps before, player anger targeted only Apex Pri.

But now!

CloudPower’s terrible ga experiences, excessive pandering to a vocal minority, and arrogant, shaless price slashing utterly shattered the players’ bottom line!

So, within just a few days!

Nearly every ga produced by CloudPower faced attacks to varying degrees; so players even jointly sued CloudPower in their local state courts for fraud.

anwhile, those dia outlets that had previously praised Apex Pri were imdiately roasted, turning against CloudPower to join the players in fierce verbal assault.

As for the “magician leaders” who had championed CloudPower before release...

They did whatever they were paid to do. They weren’t the core player base anyway and never faced losing streaks.

This comprehensive reputation explosion plunged CloudPower into an unprecedented public relations crisis.

Even CloudPower’s motion-sensing pod sales—the fundantal pillar of their gaming business—suffered severe blows!

And now—

...

“This is exactly our best ti to strike!”

Inside Golden Wind’s conference room, Gu Sheng looked across at Yan Sheng and Chen Guangde sitting shoulder to shoulder, looking excited and expectant, their expressions complex.

Seeing Gu Sheng hesitate, unsure what to say, Chen Guangde spoke:

“President Gu, before coming, Old Yan and I briefly discussed the current market situation.”

“As you said before,”

“Although the dostic and even Asian markets form our foundation, they are far less urgent than capturing the international market.”

“Right now, CloudPower holds almost the entire global motion-sensing pod market share.”

“With this situation unfolding, everyone is on edge.”

“Not just our own products.”

“From what we understand, Kora has been researching a new generation of motion-sensing pods and plans to seize this opportunity to increase publicity and snatch CloudPower’s market share.”

At this point, Yan Sheng took over:

“That’s right, President Gu. We might not care much about other companies,”

“But Kora is still a giant cal, no matter how thin, bigger than a horse. Despite several setbacks, their international market share remains higher than ours combined.”

“If this huge windfall goes to them...”

The two exchanged a glance.

Then both fixed their eyes on Gu Sheng:

“That’s bad news for us.”

Gu Sheng: ...

Wait a minute, I’m a bit confused.

What drugs did these two take today?

The sun rising in the west?

Chen Guangde calls Yan Sheng “Old Yan,” and Yan Sheng calls Chen Guangde “Old Chen.”

They keep saying “our family.”

Am I ti traveling?

If I rember correctly... when making Sekiro last year, you two were prickly rivals, constantly butting heads.

But now, seeing CloudPower implode and the market gap open, after eight years of fighting in the motion-sensing pod market, you two have suddenly beco damn brothers-in-arms?

And you keep saying “our family.”

No, who the hell is “our family”?!

Especially you, Chen Guangde! How could words like that co out of your mouth?

Look outside at the sun.

Yes, it’s rising in the east.

Look at the two sitting shoulder to shoulder opposite .

Yes, they really have beco brothers-in-arms.

Gu Sheng chuckled helplessly and slowly said:

“Actually, you two didn’t need to co all the way from Zhongjing and Shenzhou. We just finished the executive eting and planned to notify you after it ended.”

“On May 5th, Overwatch will be officially released.”

Yes, May 5th.

The sumr solstice.

That sumr will return in a parallel world.