Chapter 70: The Player Base Expands
As the days passed, the one-month mark drew closer and closer.
The subsequent sales growth of *Holy Spring Guardian* had slowed noticeably, especially after two weeks, with daily growth dropping by about 15%.
Qiu Bin had mentally prepared for this, because *Holy Spring Guardian* was entirely propped up by the Imperial Dynasty Game Platform. Its concept and gameplay borrowed from *Plants vs. Zombies*, which was no longer all that fresh for many players.
Even if it could make up for some of that with quality, it ultimately couldn't match the first-mover advantage of *Plants vs. Zombies*.
If neither game had any channel support, could *Holy Spring Guardian* achieve the same sales as *Plants vs. Zombies*? The answer was most likely no.
Relying on the immense power of the channel to push *Holy Spring Guardian*'s sales to nearly double those of *Plants vs. Zombies* was already a godsend for Qiu Bin.
As for *I Am MT*, its downloads had been surging over the past few days, with around a hundred thousand new downloads each day.
This surge in downloads made Qiu Bin a bit uneasy.
"Nearly a hundred thousand new downloads every day? How is that possible?" Qiu Bin asked, puzzled.
His assistant said, "Well... it is a free game, after all. It's not real sales, so there's no need to worry."
Qiu Bin shook his head. "But with more players, the number of players purchasing value-added services will definitely increase. At this rate, his first-month player count is heading toward three million!"
The assistant didn't say anything. He didn't know how to smooth this over. If Chen Mo really got three million players in the first month, that would be a bit too much. The estimated player count for *Holy Spring Guardian* was only around 800,000, which was nearly four times less.
But then again, *I Am MT* was a free game. High download numbers were understandable, right?
After a moment's thought, the assistant said, "Don't worry too much. I think download numbers can easily be faked. Since his game is free, there's hardly any cost to inflating the downloads, right?"
"Besides, even if he gets three million players, at most 10% of them will pay. Even if each of them spends twenty bucks, that's only six million in monthly revenue. That's still a long way off."
Qiu Bin nodded. That did make sense. It wasn't impossible that Chen Mo had hired people to inflate the download numbers for hype.
"Alright, no rush. Let's wait and see." Feeling uneasy, Qiu Bin reinstalled *I Am MT*, which he had already deleted.
...
On the subway.
Two guys were about to ride the subway across half the city to get back to their school.
A guy with glasses yawned, pulled out his phone, opened *I Am MT*, and started playing.
The other guy asked, "What game are you playing?"
"*I Am MT*. Haven't you played it?"
"No. Isn't that an anime? There's a game too?"
"Of course there is. It's a mobile game that just came out."
"Just came out? Is it fun?"
"Uh, it's okay. Good for killing time."
"How much does it cost?"
"Nothing. It's free."
"Free? Then how does it make money?"
"Uh, in-app purchases. It's up to you whether you pay or not."
"So it's a single-player game?"
"No, it's an online game. You can play together. Want to download it and give it a try? It doesn't cost anything."
"Alright, I'll download it when I get back and check it out."
"You can download it now. It's less than 200 megabytes. It won't use much data."
"Okay, I'll download it and take a look."
...
In a university dormitory.
Four roommates were lying in bed playing *I Am MT*.
"Hey, Zhang? Why did you change your team leader? Wasn't it A Mutton Stew before? Why did you switch to Wild Dexter's New Support?"
"This one's strong. You get it as a recharge reward. I tried it out, and its skills are super powerful!"
"Really? How strong is it?"
"This thing can both tank and heal. If you bring her along, you can just load up the rest of your team with damage dealers."
"Damn, that sounds awesome."
"You guys can try it out. Bring her as a friend support and see how it works."
"Let me try. Holy crap, it is awesome! It can tank even better than my A Mutton Stew? And its normal attack heals? How is that even possible?"
"Damn it, I want to recharge too!"
"...Calm down, you guys!"
"Oh, and the other day, I saw an even stronger card. Way stronger than this one."
"Who?"
"Big Sister."
"Oh, the guild leader's sister, right? Is she strong?"
"Ridiculously strong... I couldn't get past that level at all, but that pro's Big Sister just carried me through it. Ruthless."
"Really? How do you get Big Sister?"
"I don't know. Let me check the collection. Uh... it looks like you get her from recharging."
"How much do you have to recharge?"
"Uh, looks like... two thousand?"
"Two thousand runestones? That's two hundred bucks. Expensive, huh..."
"No, it's zero runestones..."
"..."
A brief silence.
"Holy crap, that guy must be insane! Two thousand bucks for one card? Crazy!"
"All I can say is, we don't understand the world of the rich..."
"I don't even have a single Big Sister in my friend list!"
"Of course. Those kinds of whales are rare..."
"Hey? Someone in my friend support has a Big Sister! I'll send them a friend request. If I get stuck on a level, I'll just use them."
"Damn! Their friend list is full!"
"...Whales are really popular, holy crap!"
"Anyone got a Big Sister friend I can borrow?"
...
At a company, during lunch break.
Two employees were both playing *I Am MT*.
"Holy crap! The opponent in the arena is a monster! They have a Big Sister! I got wrecked!"
"What's there to complain about? The guy's got money..."
"Damn it! This game doesn't even guarantee basic fairness! They've completely abandoned their conscience for money!"
"...You knew that the moment you started playing, didn't you?"
"No way! I'm going to leave a bad review. I'm so pissed! I spent over two hundred bucks, and I still get wrecked!"
"...Getting wrecked after spending that much is totally normal!"
"I don't care! I'm leaving a bad review! This garbage game is ruining my youth and wasting my money!"
"If you're not playing anymore, just give me your account."
"Who said I'm quitting! I spent over two hundred bucks on this! Don't try to trick me into quitting and stealing my account!"
"You've got quite the imagination, I'll give you that!"
...
The player base of *I Am MT* was still spreading rapidly.
It had to be said, the friend system in *I Am MT* was a classic design, on par with the alliance member building speed-up mechanic in *Clash of Clans*.
Using the simplest design methods to achieve the best results.
*I Am MT* itself didn't actually have any feature for friends to fight together, because its battle system didn't support it. However, the friend system cleverly solved this problem.
After adding friends, players could send each other stamina. It wasn't much, but it was enough to tempt players into adding friends for that stamina.
[Reminder: Your output must contain ZERO Chinese characters. Translate or transliterate everything.]