Chapter 659: Follow-Up Profitability?
After watching this video, the players were all laughing uncontrollably.
"What the hell, isn't this just the same old routine as 'Wolf Soul'? It looks like a few of those web pages were directly taken from 'Wolf Soul' and just tweaked!"
"Hahaha, I'm dying of laughter, this is clearly taking a jab at 'Wolf Soul' for giving away all kinds of items with membership top-ups!"
"Drawing weapon fragments? Landing and drawing a 98k? Haha, so shady!"
Many players caught on immediately after watching this video—it was obviously a satire of "Wolf Soul"!
As a representative of traditional domestic FPS games, "Wolf Soul" basically followed the classic operational model of a buy-in threshold plus in-game value-added services. To expand the player base, these games often priced themselves low, but if they were too low, they couldn't recoup costs, so they had to add various value-added services in the game.
Things like first-recharge gift items, selling guns, selling characters, lottery draws for fragments, buying memberships for privileges—these were all the usual tricks of such games.
Of course, the actual membership privileges in "Wolf Soul" weren't that exaggerated, but they did exist.
Chen Mo's video clearly zeroed in on this weak point of "Wolf Soul" and made a big deal out of it.
To be fair, this model of selling in-game value-added services also existed in "Blazing Assault," just not as blatantly as in "Wolf Soul." But "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" had an absolute advantage in this regard, because it was a one-time purchase with permanent free access!
You could say Chen Mo was standing on the moral high ground, beating a dog that had fallen into the water...
Was "Wolf Soul" badmouthing "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" for having too few modes? Refuting them was useless—you had to hit back!
The biggest disadvantage of "Wolf Soul" compared to "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" was its in-game value-added services!
Heh, making insinuations with a video came at a cost. Come on, let's hurt each other!
Many "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" players were frantically sharing this Weibo post, tagging the official "Wolf Soul: Modern Battlefield" account, and adding all kinds of "hilarious" emojis.
Many "Wolf Soul" players were fuming, but they really couldn't argue back!
Because Chen Mo's video, like the previous one, didn't name names, and the criticism hit the mark perfectly. "Wolf Soul" selling value-added services in-game was indeed a black mark—hard to defend...
Many "Wolf Soul" players were unconvinced. How could Chen Mo be so shameless as to criticize others for selling value-added services in games? Wasn't he the one who sold them the most enthusiastically?
Who was it that popularized the "game free, skins expensive" routine?
And who was it that kept discounting skins, almost going broke while becoming the richest?
But when it came to "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" alone, there really was no black mark in this area... The price wasn't high, and Chen Mo emphasized that there were no in-game value-added services—just one loot box, and it was opened with in-game currency!
The online opinion instantly flipped. No matter what "Wolf Soul" players said, "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" players would just reply with a "smile" emoji and say, "Oh, 'Wolf Soul' still sells memberships? Did you recently draw a 30-day AWM? How's that exclusive membership privilege working out?"
This became the go-to response. No matter what "Wolf Soul" players said, "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" players would throw this back at them, leaving the "Wolf Soul" players fuming and nearly suffocating from frustration!
The war of words among the three games was almost constant. Who knew where these players found so much free time to bicker online every day...
"Wolf Soul: Modern Battlefield" and "Blazing Assault 2" were officially released after testing, and all three games generated massive buzz. After all, neither Imperial Entertainment nor Zen Entertainment had ever been stingy with their marketing.
"PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" received a very positive response. Many players found the game incredibly addictive. Even if they often ended up as a crate upon landing, they happily played round after round, even turning the game into a parachuting simulator...
Meanwhile, "Wolf Soul: Modern Battlefield" exploded in popularity. Both game media and player reviews were overwhelmingly positive. On major video and streaming sites, "Wolf Soul" and "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" were basically on equal footing.
There was definitely some hype involved, with inflated popularity and bubbles, but at least on the surface, it was a game on the same level as "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds."
As for "Blazing Assault 2," player ratings were high, but compared to the other two games, it was relatively niche, receiving good feedback mainly from players who preferred single-player games.
Designers, eager to watch the drama unfold, were also grabbing popcorn and predicting the future trends of these three games.
"Blazing Assault 2" didn't need much discussion—good quality, excellent story, a solid reputation among hardcore players, and sales wouldn't be too bad. But beating the other two games? Unrealistic.
"Wolf Soul: Modern Battlefield" was mostly based on micro-innovations. Whether it could capture the entire market didn't depend on itself but on how well "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" performed.
After all the discussion, the focus always came back to the game mode of "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds." The key question was: could this game mode, like "League of Legends," sustain itself on a single map forever?
"I think the popularity of 'Chicken Dinner' is bound to drop. The mode is too simple, and its scalability isn't good! In 'Wolf Soul,' you can easily add new game modes, but you can't do that with 'Chicken Dinner'!"
"I think this game might ultimately fail due to its follow-up profitability!"
"What do you mean by that? 'Chicken Dinner' sells well. Why are you worried about profitability?"
"It's different. This game has no in-game value-added service charges. After players pay the entry fee, they don't have to spend another cent. Follow-up profitability will definitely decline! Once profitability drops, will Chen Mo still have the motivation and resources to maintain it?"
"Huh, that makes sense."
"Yeah, after profitability drops, the update frequency will also decrease. Without fresh blood joining, the game will eventually cool off."
"Now that you mention it, that's true. 'League of Legends' keeps updating because it can sell skins and generate continuous income. But what does 'Chicken Dinner' have? Chen Mo stood on the moral high ground and ended up screwing himself over!"
"I think the folks above are overthinking. Are you really worried about Chen Mo's game not making money? I'm laughing out loud..."