Chapter 56
anwhile…
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that everyone at Nebula has been closely following the news and progress of Outlast.
After all, this was their first major release as a studio, their first group project.
The budget wasn’t a trivial amount either—with developnt and advertising fees rounded out to a hefty 7 million yuan.
Sure, this was peanuts to the larger gaming companies dominating the market right now, but it was an amount that surpassed the typical spending of most indie gas.
With great spending cos great need for returns. So it was natural that the team was highly focused on the performance of the ga.
“Bossman, how is it so far?”
“Yeah, it’s been a few days since launch. I’m dying to know.”
Within the first week of launch, Yang Xin, Ruan Ningxue, Qin Yi and a few others were gathered around Chen Xu, who was sinking deeply into a fancy massage chair (company benefits), asking him about the status of the ga.
While the reviews and buzz around the ga were all well and good, what truly determined their future as a ga studio were the sales.
What did word-of-mouth or cult classic status matter to a ga that didn’t sell well? If the sales were bad, the project had no future.
The first ga that ca to Chen Xu’s mind along this line of thinking was ‘Bayonetta’ in his previous life. A ga that was near and dear to his heart.
It was one of the three best action gas of its ti, standing alongside other hits like ‘Ninja Gaiden’ and ‘Devil May Cry’. ‘Bayonetta’ was celebrated for its gaplay and character design, with loyal fans that begged for more.
Yet it suffered a lukewarm fate, having the IP traded off repeatedly. The fans had to wait 8 years between the 2nd and 3rd installnts.
Despite its critical acclaim and cult classic status, it did not sell well. In fact, if you added up the first and second gas, both the original releases and HD remasters, the total sales would still be mogged by ‘Devil May Cry V’ alone.
It was that bad. The industry could be brutal like that.
“Not bad at all. We’ve hit 130k copies sold in just under 2 days, and this is after factoring in the refunds. So we should break even within 3 days,” Chen Xu answered with a smile.
Compared to many other gas, ‘Outlast’ had a noticeably higher refund rate. But this was within Chen Xu’s expectations.
After all, it was a horror ga. An exceptionally terrifying one, even by his previous world’s standards. So it was only natural that many players would be too frightened to continue playing.
“Aww… looks like only 2000 copies were sold on our own platform…” Yang Xin said regretfully while peeking at Chen Xu’s personal computer.
While Chen Xu hadn’t been explicitly ntioning his intentions with the Nebula Gas official launcher / storefront, the internal resource allocation provided towards it made things rather clear.
“Our discounts aren’t competitive and the platform still lacks recognition. Plus, our gas catalog isn’t at a level to draw people in yet, we currently only have ‘Outlast’ as a major title,” Chen Xu replied in a calming tone, his lips curling slightly upwards, “It’s a gradual process, our ti will co.”
In the current era of the parallel world, internet culture was in full swing, there were tons of companies and tons of platforms out there. Building up your own would be an uphill battle.
In his previous life, Chen Xu witnessed the battle between Microsoft and Sony during the peak of the console wars. Both sides had wins and losses over 3 generations of consoles.
But while Microsoft achieved so notable successes, it lost a critical battle while transitioning to the internet era, resulting in the reign of the PS4.
Sony pivoted more quickly to embrace digital gas and social gaming, allowing the company to dominate the market.
And even after Microsoft leveraged its vast resources, acquiring studios left and right, launching several subscription services, it still ended up lagging behind Sony for a long ti.
Similarly in the PC market, Epic Gas tried to leverage its breakout hit ‘Fortnite’ to establish its own platform, aggressively spending money to secure users even while operating at a loss.
But Steam was an industry titan, boasting a massive catalog of gas and a suite of convenient services to complint its platform.
Thinking back, Chen Xu was reminded of Tencent as well. It managed to get a leg up on older giants such as NetEase and Shanda largely due to being the first to establish instant ssaging.
Wouldn’t it be great to build a company that could rival those titans one day? Chen Xu mused inwardly, having high goals was nice, but it was ti to focus on matters at hand and deal with things as they co.
He shifted the conversation: “Right now, the potential of ‘Outlast’ has yet to be fully realized. There’s a good chance for a sales boom in the near future, get ready for it.”
“Oh? How so?” Ruan Ningxue and the others were intrigued.
“Pay attention to strears and video content creators, those will soon be our largest driving force,” Chen Xu said with a gentle smile, he was looking forward to the reactions and compilations that would surely co.
For a horror ga to be truly competitive in sales, it needed to go viral.
This ans making a break out of not only the niche horror ga enthusiasts, but also the gaming community in general. It had to make normies get hooked on watching other people get scared.
This worst case scenario would be to remain confined to the initial niche, sales would be dood in that case.
Great examples would be ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’, which took the world by storm and topped YouTube charts, becoming a universally known franchise.
And the ‘Resident Evil’ series, which produced iconic characters and s such as Leon, Ada, rock puncher Chris and hand sanitizer warrior Ethan. Alongside infamous mods such as the Fly Swatter weapon specifically for Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters.
Other IPs such as ‘Silent Hill’ and ‘Outlast’ enjoyed mainstream exposure through video essays, streams and playthroughs.
In contrast, gas such as ‘Fatal Fra’, ‘Siren’, ‘Clock Tower’, and ‘The Evil Within’, while excellent in their own ways, remained obscure to all but dedicated horror ga fans, failing to break into the mainstream.
This need to break out of the horror niche also applied to movies as well, as the majority of players and viewers simply weren’t hardcore horror enthusiasts.
They were simply curious about how a ga or movie could possibly scare people so much.
And while it was uncommon for movies to offer refunds, gas did it all the ti, yet players usually do not choose to go for the refunds, even if they did not continue playing.
After all, once a ga is purchased and sitting in your collection, maybe you will play and finish it one day
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