Chapter 47: Chapter 47: Microtransactions and Source Stone
After the New Year, employees gradually returned to the studio.
It’s worth ntioning that Tianba Studio now has a total of nine people, including Chen Ba.
In addition to the mobile ga planner and the boy who can eat a lot recruited from the fan group, the studio also recruited two university graduates who intended to develop their careers in Jiangning after the Spring Festival.
"Nine people are enough."
Chen Ba thought about it. Even those world-renowned top ga studios only have dozens to hundreds of people.
Yet even so, they can develop AAA gas that earn admiration and respect in two to three years.
So, it’s about quality, not quantity!
As the studio’s number of people approaches ten, they can’t just hire haphazardly. Because at this step, it’s not the quantity that’s important for Chen Ba, but the quality and ability.
Recruit a few hundred people all at once?
That sounds nice and can greatly alleviate the staffing pressure of the studio. But even with a simple thought, one knows that a developnt team of hundreds, the basic salaries alone are enough to overwhelm a ga company.
And can a group of hundreds of diocre people really be better than a team composed of a few tens of elites?
Probably not!
Although Tianba Studio only has nine people, it can actually be regarded as a team of over 30.
Because adding Chen Ba himself and the Iron Fool System, in terms of work efficiency and comprehensive developnt capability, is definitely stronger than 20 regular ga developers.
The credit goes mainly to the system.
As for Chen Ba... just one sentence can describe his role: Together with the Double Horses, they can shake the entire economy of Asia!
"Are you crazy? You actually want to do in-app purchases in a buyout ga?"
"I’m not crazy! Without so extra inco, then what do you suggest for the server maintenance costs?"
Lu Jing and Yang Dong started quarreling at the adjacent workstation, and it seed to be due to the charging model?
Chen Ba got interested, stood up, walked over, and joined the discussion: "What are you arguing about? Is it about online mode’s in-app purchase?"
"Dong said that the online mode should sell things unrelated to ga balance, like skins, which I think is inappropriate."
Seeing Chen Ba, Lu Jing couldn’t help but complain: "Wouldn’t this turn into a second charge for a buyout ga?"
"That’s reasonable."
Chen Ba nodded.
In a buyout ga, doing a store in-app purchase like this is indeed perverse, aning players have to pay twice to experience the complete ga content.
Usually, it’s free
in-app purchase, where the ga body is free to play, but there will be a store providing various in-app purchase unlockable content.
Very few buyout gas have this thod.
"If you find the term for in-app purchases unappealing, then call it DLC!" Yang Dong shook his head and explained, "In any case, servers have maintenance costs, if we don’t open up new revenue sources, the server will have to shut down soon."
Developing an online mode, especially for a multiplayer ga like Star Emperor, server-side issues can’t be avoided.
It’s not just about leasing or setting up a server.
Daily operation and maintenance of the server also have costs, without inco support for this piece, if daily activity is extrely high, who can bear it?
"What you say also makes sense."
After listening to Dong’s explanation, Chen Ba hesitated for a while too.
Indeed he overlooked one point, which is the "daily activity" of online mode players.
A low daily activity ans less demand on server-side, and the studio can afford this maintenance cost. But if daily activity is high, reaching hundreds of thousands?
"Create an in-app purchase plan first, but no need to rush to add it in, wait until the ga testing phase to decide based on the situation."
After careful consideration, Chen Ba finally ca up with a solution.
Draw up the in-app purchase plan for the ga first, but do not rush to introduce it into the ga body, decide during early access and testing phase based on estimated player daily activity.
If the ga response is good and the online mode has many players, you can implent an in-app purchase plan to sell so skins for survival.
If the ga response is average and players’ enthusiasm is not high, and daily activity in online mode cannot et the standard, then don’t do the in-app purchase plan.
"By the way, probe what players think then, and ask them what they think about it?"
Chen Ba isn’t the kind of person to be blinded by money. If players generally detest or reject this charging model, he won’t go against them.
Actually doing DLC is better.
Although the results are the sa, all to push out ga skins, the acceptance level of DLC is certainly far better than that of a ga store.
"Ask the players?"
Lu almost laughed out loud, couldn’t help but complain: "No need to ask, probably no one would agree with this plan, right?"
"You’re right, but if they don’t let
sell skins, I might have to sell new characters." Chen Ba chuckled.
Not allowing to sell in-app skins, huh?
Then new characters are likely to be made into DLC for sale, unlocking them would cost money.
"Either launch fancy skins, or spend money to unlock new characters. It’s a multiple-choice question, and we will respect the players’ wishes."
New ga characters belong to additional content.
Assuming Star Emperor is priced at 40 units, then this 40 only includes the initial six characters. New characters released later are additional contents, need to purchase DLC to unlock.
This is actually the best thod.
Not only can solve server maintenance cost issues, but also no one can bla Tianba Studio for double charging.
But unless necessary, Chen Ba doesn’t want to use the "character charge" tactic.
Because a fighting ga’s most important experience is character selection, if new characters require extra paynt, and also have especially strong chanics, it will surely provoke great dissatisfaction among players.
"Then it’s settled."
Yang Dong nodded and summarized: "The ga body is a buyout, but we prepare a few character skins in advance, put them into the deluxe version for sale."
"If the deluxe version sales are not low, far surpassing the so-called basic version, then we’ll continue down the character skin path..."
The in-app purchase plan is also simple.
In-ga matches can earn Source Stone, with 100 units of Source Stone, you can go to Stone Workshop to cut Divine Source, what you get from the Divine Source depends on your luck, which is the so-called lottery.
Besides earning Source Stone through matches, Tianba Studio would also provide the purchase of "Source Stone," equivalent to the shark card in Grand Theft Auto V’s online mode.
Chen Ba won’t force players to spend.
In Star Emperor’s online mode, even without spending, playing two matches a day can earn enough Source Stone to try your luck at the Stone Workshop.
In other words, spending only allows players to draw their desired skin more quickly.
Without spending, in due ti, you can still draw it.
Besides, lottery is quite about luck, a big spender might spend thousands on Source Stone to get the skin, yet a lucky player might hit it in one go.
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