I Just Want Players to Save Money, They Insist on Giving Me!
Chapter 348 - 129: Park Lafu: "Our Huaxia Nation games are really awesome!"_1

Chapter 348: Chapter 129: Park Lafu: "Our Huaxia Nation games are really awesome!"_1

"One month means one month!"

Early spring had barely begun, and the ice and snow had not yet thawed.

With over a thousand employees at Netcom Game working overtime and rushing the project,

"Eternal Ring" had reached the final stages of production and was now in internal testing.

Jia Kuigan discovered that the main reason Mr. Ke dared to employ people generously

was due to his impeccably complete project proposal.

Typically, when a company develops a game, each department takes the outline or draft from the game proposal and then has to hold meetings to deliberate and work on it.

After creating a prototype, it still needs to be sent back to the game director to ensure it is on the right track before proceeding further.

This back and forth often results in many conflicting opinions, and the more people involved, the more conflicts arise.

But Mr. Ke’s project proposal was like a precise ruler; it didn’t matter if there were 200 or 2000 people.

All they needed to do was to complete their tasks according to the specifications of the proposal.

The departments that used to be noisy during game development were eerily quiet during the development of "Eternity,"

the only sound was that of them busily clicking away at their keyboards.

When a month had passed, Jia Kuigan excitedly took the nearly finished "Eternity" to report the progress to Ke Jin.

He thought he would at least earn some praise.

Who would have known that upon hearing it was not yet finished, Ke Jin’s brows furrowed immediately.

"This slow?"

"Hmm?" Jia Kuigan was confused, "Is... is this really slow..."

Completing it in nearly one month, this was already legendary speed for our Netcom Game’s game development!

Never before had there been such a marvelous start!

Of course, if Jia Kuigan knew about the number one gamer employees, who not only would finish within the deadline but also spare a few days earlier, he would probably understand why Ke Jin said it was slow.

Finally, after an additional grace week,

"Eternal Ring" was nearly polished in all aspects; there were some minor bugs left, but they didn’t compromise the overall playability of the game.

According to Ke Jin’s usual standard of perfect precision, even the smallest bug would need to be optimized before release.

He always strived to provide the best gaming experience for players.

But this time was different.

He had a bet-the-farm buff on, and if things really got out of hand,

he could always funnel in some capital from various directions to remedy the situation—reducing the fluctuation of the backend system stream.

As a result, bugs that used to be non-negotiable for Mr. Ke, were now officially termed game features.

As the saying goes, one bug is a bug, but many bugs can work, right?

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

...

All seemed calm on the surface.

But there was a minor hiccup.

Just when "Eternity" was about to hit the market in Korea,

The news of Netcom Game planning to invest a whopping three billion in marketing funds reached Ke Jin.

Startled, he immediately made a phone call, demanding a halt to the large-scale marketing!

He slammed the brakes hard within the red line!

Damn, good thing I’m quick-witted.

I had set up a rule for Netcom before: marketing must be approved by the top gamer.

Otherwise, this backstab would hit me right in the heart!

There are always people out to get me!

What’s there to announce anyway! Announcing anything and everything would only harm our friendship!

As for the puzzled Jia Kuigan, Ke Jin provided a reasonable explanation,

"The Korean market is just our testing ground; there’s no need to spend so much money. Let’s wait a month or two for the game’s compatibility test results before we start a big marketing campaign back in Huaxia Nation."

Those words deeply moved Jia Kuigan.

Netcom had collaborated with various companies before, but nearly all of them tried to shear Netcom like a sheep.

Though with Netcom’s strong legal department backing them, those companies didn’t really get much.

But it was truly the first time seeing someone like the number one gamer proactively trying to save money for Netcom.

The three billion in marketing funds that Netcom had readied, at the adamant request of Mr. Ke,

got reduced to around ten million.

This scale of marketing for physical goods, if you spend ten million on bloggers or livestreamers, can achieve decent results.

As long as the product isn’t too terrible, breaking even is basically no issue.

However, in the electronic gaming industry, a ten million marketing budget is much more complex.

First of all, because there’s no physical product, there’s no talk of dealers or agents buying stock, and therefore no bottom-line guarantee.

Secondly, the rate of repeat purchase is almost zero.

Generally, once players abandon a game, even if some return, it’s usually because they got wind of new updates, optimizations, or better benefits during subsequent marketing campaigns, and then, they might consider returning.

The likelihood that a player suddenly gets a whim one day and thinks, ’I haven’t logged on to XXX game in a while, let’s check it out’, is extremely low, so low that it can be virtually ignored.

This leads to game companies needing instant effects from each marketing campaign.

They don’t have the luxury, like major luxury brands, to release ads that aren’t intended to make a profit but merely to inform people about the product. This approach is completely inapplicable in the gaming industry.

This also limits the avenues for advertising games.

Currently, the best marketing channels available on the market are,

first, advertisements on major media platforms.

Second, is the word of mouth from game streamers or live gameplay.

Third, are articles or videos from some well-known game media reviewers.

However, the latter two are limited by their inherent fan base.

Jia Kuigan divided the ten million in marketing funds into three parts.

The first channel took up sixty percent of the budget, with the other two each taking twenty percent.