This Is Not a Bug but a Game Feature-Chapter 70: Player Quality

As expected.

The new version update for "Star Emperor" quickly sparked heated discussions among players.

"Heard a friend mention it at lunch and thought I misheard, but when I got home and checked the game, Ba, you’re for real?"

"Ba, fly high, your fans will always be with you!"

"I thought launching co-branded graphics cards was the limit for Ba, didn’t expect that I still underestimated him..."

"Stop complaining, blame yourselves for not spending money, look what you’ve driven Ba to!"

"To be fair, the price is quite reasonable. For brothers planning to upgrade their graphics cards, choosing Xianyu Digital is a sure bet."

The player community remains friendly.

Mainly because this game store set up by Chen Ba doesn’t sell game items or skins, can you call this in-game purchases? It’s clearly external purchases!

"Laugh at the joke, not at the person!"

Jiang Bin, an editor at a well-known single-player platform site, wrote in the latest gaming news column: "Although it’s quite funny for a game studio to sell graphics cards, it also shows that Tianba Studio really didn’t make much money developing ’Star Emperor’..."

If in-game purchases were making a lot, or if game sales were high, would Tianba Studio need to do this?

Obviously, the "Star Emperor" project did not bring in much income for Tianba Studio.

The report from Game Starry Sky quickly gained recognition and resonance from the vast majority of "Star Emperor" players.

Some players probably feel that "Star Emperor" is indeed a fun game, and supporting it through in-game purchases is no harm, so after this report was published, they all spent money to buy Source Stones.

Especially the player [Love Driving the Cullinan], who directly spent 200,000 RMB on Source Stones to express his attitude.

This moved Chen Ba deeply.

Oh heavens, finally seeing some money through in-game purchases! Though the total revenue isn’t high, at least it shows that some players really like Star Emperor.

Perhaps this is what we call die-hard fans!

What’s poignant is that the number of die-hard fans of "Star Emperor" may not be many, even less than a fraction of popular games. But every single one of these die-hard fans is an Immortal King or Emperor, at the very least a Red Dust Immortal!

What does this indicate?

It indicates that the quality of core players is very high!

Immortal Kings and Emperors, what level of big shots are they? With such a group of die-hard fans, saying that the average fan quality of "Star Emperor" is number one across the online sphere should be no problem.

"3090, 3080, 4080, 4090... Many flagship graphics card users are players of ’Star Emperor.’"

Yang Dong grinned and said, "Gaining recognition from such quality fans, even if our new game is priced at hundreds, they’ll still buy it without hesitation."

"You’re not wrong, but the number of this group is too small."

Chen Ba shook his head.

Admittedly, the player base of "Star Emperor" indeed is of high quality, the top-tier crops to harvest! But precisely because of this, the group is not large.

This is also why, despite the popularity and hype around "Star Emperor," cumulative sales didn’t break 500,000 units.

Yes, sales are less than 500,000 units.

It doesn’t compare to the previous two small games, the only good news is that the standard edition of "Star Emperor" is priced as high as 50 yuan, so although sales are lackluster, the revenue is still pretty good.

"So about this report..."

After probing from Ba’s mouth about the actual decent revenue from "Star Emperor," Lu pointed at Jiang Bin’s column news and asked, "Ba, did you pay for this advertorial?"

"Obviously!"

Chen Ba said with a straight face, "If I didn’t play the distressed card, how could it stimulate so many players to spend money on Source Stones?"

Lu: "..."

The dog is still Ba himself!

Not only ordinary players, but even the people at the studio thought "Star Emperor" wasn’t doing well financially, which led to Ba being worried every day and drowning his sorrows in alcohol every night.

Who knew, Ba had already been laughing his head off.

"Ahem!"

Clearing his throat, Chen Ba continued, "Although ’Star Emperor’ made some money, don’t be too happy, it wasn’t much."

Considering the slow sales growth of ’Cold Window Study Simulator’ and ’Living Under Someone’s Roof Simulator,’ the studio urgently needs to develop a profitable new game."

Living off old resources isn’t a viable option.

A 10-person small team like Tianba Studio, despite having low daily expenses, still needs a stable income source and cannot rely on one popular game forever.

Need to know, even the hottest games will have their day of downfall.

Most importantly, the three games under Tianba Studio’s portfolio can only be considered moderately popular and haven’t truly hit mainstream success. So even if Chen Ba wants to rest on his laurels, there aren’t much laurels to rely on.

"That’s true, but..."

Yang Dong seemed to have thought of something, furrowing his brows, "Is there something we’ve forgotten?"

"There is?"

Chen Ba scratched his head and thought, but couldn’t recall the answer.

No need to worry about old games, the new game "Star Emperor" is on the right track, and now they just need to release new characters on time.

If there was really something important, with his good memory, how could he possibly forget?

"There is, it’s Tianba Manor!"

Seeing Ba acting dumb, Zhong Shengwei couldn’t bear it anymore and bravely suggested for the sake of those poor homeowners, "We haven’t finished the new map for ’Living Under Someone’s Roof Simulator,’ and players are waiting."

How can this be forgotten?

The down payment was collected, players have paid off their mortgages, but the house hasn’t been built yet, we can’t disappoint the players!

"If you hadn’t reminded me, I really would have forgotten."

Chen Ba showed an awkward yet polite smile and made a grand gesture, "Then let’s do as you suggest, we finish the first phase of Tianba Manor before considering anything else."

"Alright! Then..."

"First phase of Tianba Manor?"

Yang Dong, Lu, and Zhong Shengwei widened their eyes and all looked at Ba.

What the heck?

Does the first phase mean there’s a second and third phase?

"Of course! Have you seen any housing estate that only finished with one phase? We aim to develop the most upscale residential community in all of Jiangning, so the scale must be considerable."

Chen Ba patiently explained to them, "Simply put, the new map is very large, and the area players can explore is extensive. The first phase only unlocks a part, with more to follow in the second and third phases."

First phase is high-rise with elevators, second phase will be low-rise townhouses, and third phase will be standalone villas!

Come, feed Master a pancake...

After living in high-rises, wouldn’t you look forward to townhouses and even villas?

Though townhouses and villas are a bit more expensive, and are also pre-sale, but Tianba Real Estate is very considerate, supporting up to 100-year loans.

"Townhouses and villas..."

Lu muttered to himself, "When are we going to implement school district housing, tying school admission eligibility to property deeds, with non-residential IDs denied admission?"