Agreeing to Create Bad Games, What the Hell Is ‘Titanfall’? Chapter 485: Cut in Half! The Poor Man’s Joy Mod!

Panda ordered takeout.

It must be said, Gu Sheng was unbelievably sharp.

His precise understanding of the ga market and player psychology allowed him to craft the most targeted counterasure against CloudPower’s “major title.”

This was practically a tailor-made strategy aid straight at CloudPower.

After all, it’s not uncommon in the ga market for one title to spawn lower-tier substitutes.

Even so of Golden Wind’s own works have been cheaply replicated by small and mid-sized studios before.

For example, the recently released Battlefield Winds now has a pixel-art battlefield version on PC selling for just ten dollars.

So why didn’t pixel Battlefield affect Golden Wind at all?

Different platforms are only part of the reason.

A bigger reason is that Battlefield Winds itself was developed and released by Golden Wind.

Any other so-called “lower-tier substitutes” are essentially “homages” or “copies” of Golden Wind’s original.

The origin of “Battlefield” is Golden Wind.

So no matter how many similar gas appear in the market, Golden Wind can still stand proudly at the top.

But Endless Dark Tide is different!

It deliberately imitates Golden Wind’s Left 4 Dead ga model, and many skills and items were stripped directly from Golden Wind’s other multiplayer competitive titles!

Frankly, every design choice in Endless Dark Tide originated from Golden Wind!

And now Golden Wind suddenly turned around and used the “original” of Endless Dark Tide to deliver a raw, authentic backstab!

Konik tasted the bitter pill soon enough….

...

Right after the first-day sales numbers for Alien: Endless Dark Tide were released!

All the gaming review dia rushed to publish their scores!

Sites like SLGars, Player Campfire, and Hummingbird Gas gave it scores around 9.3–9.5 out of 10 and offered balanced comntary:

“As a tribute to classic ga modes combined with a brand-new generation of engine technology, Alien: Endless Dark Tide clearly achieves everything a co-op multiplayer FPS should. If you chase technical gaplay, this title is a must-try this year. That said, the $80 price per copy is indeed a test for so regular players….”

And Simon from SNG, editor-in-chief of the world’s largest gaming community, also gave a candid personal review:

“9.6/10: A solid ga that successfully absorbs the strengths of predecessors like Left 4 Dead and Overwatch. Its exclusive early integration of Reality Augntation Technology delivers an incredibly imrsive experience in CloudPower’s motion-sensing pods. From a quality standpoint it probably deserves 9.5, but to reward it for not repeating Gollum’s mistakes, I’m willing to add 0.1 personally as encouragent….

Even Tian Tian’s Daily Gaming News, a Huaguo gaming outlet, held a fair stance and scored Endless Dark Tide a 9.4!

For a mont, CloudPower seed to sweep away past shadows with Endless Dark Tide, completely dispelling the negative fallout brought by The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.

dia recognition, excellent first-day sales, and praise from Vivendi’s upper echelons.

A flood of good news left Konik elated, his whole deanor glowing with pride!

He imdiately decided: Keep increasing marketing! Pour more resources into Endless Dark Tide!

No guts, no glory; he wouldn’t get the wolf without risking the child, he wouldn’t catch the scoundrel without risking the wife!

As a pure businessman, Konik still had a lot of savvy.

Clearly, this move showed he wasn’t treating Endless Dark Tide as a pure profit project anymore.

In fact, for him and for CloudPower, the symbolic value of this title had beco greater than profit.

At this mont, reclaiming dominance mattered above all else.

And this would be a victory over Golden Wind.

Although it sounded a bit humiliating to admit, this was an unprecedented big win!

So Konik hesitated almost not at all. The mont the first-day sales ca out, he ordered a full set of follow-up marketing asures.

The mission was simple:

Smash it with money.

Blow up the numbers, reclaim the summit, make Golden Wind left speechless, and turn industry discourse in our favor.

After all!

This was only the beginning!

CloudPower and Phantom Dream VI, launching together!

If this step succeeded, enormous amounts of money would be waiting to be scooped up later!

The marketing plan was finalized quickly!

He poured in an amount 150% higher than the initial promotion budget—three hundred fifty million dollars in follow-up marketing investnt—an amount already higher than developnt costs for ninety percent of gas on the market!

At the sa ti, the total investnt in Alien: Endless Dark Tide had reached a terrifying nine hundred million dollars!

So it was no surprise Konik abandoned thoughts of imdiate profitability.

With such enormous costs, profit truly seed like a distant dream.

But!

Thinking about turning things around, regaining the peak, and possibly generating five million copies in a single week made Konik thrilled and satisfied!

Slurp—exhale—

With that thought, Konik took a sip of coffee, sat behind the massive floor-to-ceiling window at his desk, calmly opened his personal computer, and prepared to check today’s sales statistics.

Now it had been three days since Endless Dark Tide launched.

Undoubtedly, CloudPower’s spendthrift marketing had been effective.

After selling 700,000 copies on day one, Endless Dark Tide perford well over the next two days, bringing total sales in three days to nearly 1.8 million copies.

At this rate, four million copies in a single week seed guaranteed, and if things went well, they could even hope for five million!

Five million copies!

No one had ever achieved that in the motion-sensing pod ga history!

Golden Wind’s It Takes Two did surpass five million total sales, but rember, that was a dual-platform release, not exclusive to motion-sensing pods.

If such a record could be made....

Konik could barely imagine it!!

He set down his coffee and opened the webpage:

“Co on, let see how far we are from our little five-million goal—how many more do we need?!”

Before he even finished speaking, the numbers on the screen made him cry out in disbelief!

This…

He was stunned for a full three seconds!

Not trusting his eyes, Konik refreshed the statistics backend again.

Click.

The page reloaded, identical to before, with no change—

[370,000 copies]

Three hundred seventy thousand copies?!

Three hundred seventy thousand?!

Whaaaaaaaaaat? ??

Konik stared at the numbers, his expression shifting from incredulity to a flicker of panic!

What the hell was happening?!

Was the data wrong? Was there an error?

Judging by the marketing deploynt, today should be the day when promotion kicked in and sales surged.

Why did sales drop instead, even halved compared to day one?!

Click.

He froze for nearly half a minute!

The proud look on Konik’s face vanished. He snatched up the phone and was about to call the secretary line to patch through Vice President Betang to ask what was going on!

Knock knock knock—

Suddenly soone knocked on the office door from the outside!

Konik frowned and set the phone down. “Co in!”

The door opened and Betang actually entered on his own.

His face looked awful.

“Sothing’s wrong…President—”

Betang’s gaunt face was knitted with worry; he looked flustered and asked anxiously,

“Is now a good ti…”

“Say it inside!”

Konik waved him in, wanting him to hurry up and report!

What the hell did “good ti” even an? Was anything more important than this collapse right now?

Hearing that, Betang hurriedly shut the door behind him, strode to Konik’s side, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he forced a grim smile and asked, “Have you…seen our sales data for today?”

“Cut the crap!”

Before Betang could finish, Konik interrupted him roughly.

Wasn’t it obvious from my expression that I’m furious? Don’t waste ti filling with more annoyance!

“All I want to know now is why, and how to fix it!”

Konik lowered his voice, like a volcano about to erupt; his fat face flushed red.

Three hundred fifty million dollars!

They had poured three hundred fifty million dollars into follow-up promotion!

Yet instead of boosting sales, the project got halved?

Headquarters had only endorsed and praised forty-eight hours earlier! Am I supposed to slap Vivendi’s board in the face now?

Konik was on the verge of madness:

“What exactly is the reason? Is it a data aggregation error?!”

“I sure wish it was just a data aggregation error,”

Faced with Konik’s aggressive questioning, Betang’s face showed nothing but misery.

“But the fact is—”

As he spoke, Betang carefully pushed a tablet toward Konik.

On the tablet, prominently displayed, was a pinned post on the SNG player forum—

Is $80 Too Expensive? The Poor Man’s Joy Mod! How to Enjoy Alien: Endless Dark Tide for $0.50!

Whoa! The headline slamd into Konik’s head like a bell!

As he scrolled further, wave after wave of posts hit him like sledgehamrs, delivering fatal blows to his inflated pride!

“With Endless Dark Tide’s release, many players are interested in this Left 4 Dead-style co-op shooter that borrows skills from Overwatch and others.”

“But $80 per copy is indeed a burden for average players. The ga has a lot of repetition, and without Workshop support, enthusiasm will fade fast. After the thrill, players will enter downti; that price isn’t worth it. Just wait for a sale.”

“Now, poor players’ salvation is here! If you own Yiyou X2 and Left 4 Dead, search ‘Alien Tide’ in the Workshop and you can enjoy virtually the sa ga content inside Left 4 Dead! Yiyou X2’s Full Sensory Assistance Technology even compensates for Reality Augntation to so extent! Unless you’re a demanding high-skill or wealthy player chasing extre imrsion, Endless Dark Tide will satisfy your experience. Tested personally, a perfect lower-tier substitute!”

“And this MOD is highly compatible; so far no conflicts preventing operation have been found. Poor players can use it with confidence!”

“Keywords and link attached—”