What is... this situation?
Song Zhicheng looked at the chart before him, his eyes wide.
He had worked in operations in the ACG Game industry for seven years, having spent time in companies big and small and operated game projects for many years, considering himself well-traveled and experienced.
Yet today's scene was truly something he had never seen before!
Before today, the entire May revenue for Frost Snow Project hadn't even reached 3 million, already in a rhythm of lying in the ICU and ready to be sent to the crematorium at any moment.
To be predicted for bankruptcy by Game Observer really was not unjust in the slightest.
But now, less than ten minutes after the release of the promotional video, players had passionately topped up 100,000 monthly passes!
Total revenue: 3 million.
It surpassed the total revenue of the previous 30 days in one fell swoop!
And this was merely monthly-pass revenue; the total for direct in-game purchases was also approaching the one-million mark.
It had only been ten minutes! This data might be insignificant compared to the games at the very top of the rankings—those were terrifying behemoths with revenues easily in the hundreds of millions.
Yet Frost Snow Project had been lying inside a coffin waiting for burial just a second ago, and the next second it jumped up to snatch a suona horn, playing and dancing all at once.
This contrast was simply too sharp.
And the game hadn't even updated yet!
Song Zhicheng rationally knew why this was—
Many players, after watching the new character showcase in the promotional video, liked them so much they couldn't wait for the update the next day and wanted to draw these characters ahead of time.
However, Frost Snow Project had been half-dead for two months, resulting in massive player attrition and online rates dropping to rock bottom.
Those still playing merely logged in to clear dailies before logging off, basically failing to stockpile much gacha currency.
Now, suddenly wanting the characters, they had no choice but to spend money and hard-draw them.
However...
It was still absurd!
With so many characters in the promotional video, the ones actually completed for the rework were only eight, while the rest only had their concept art finalized, with modeling and animation still undergoing intense crunching.
Of course, looking at it another way.
Given Dream Builder's scale, completing the rework of a full eight characters within a month—and such ultra-high-quality, meticulous reworks at that—was already close to a miracle in the eyes of peers.
Song Zhicheng, a veteran of over seven years in the ACG circle, wasn't in a technical position, but he still had sufficient industry common sense.
Precisely because of this, as he watched the revenue curve that kept climbing and symbolized the resurrection of Frost Snow Project from the dead, he felt both shocked and gratified.
Over the past month, the nearly demon-like efforts of his colleagues had yielded results; how could one not feel gratified?
He quickly organized the data and reported this good news to the boss.
Xu Meng had already returned to his office, and upon seeing this data, he decisively forwarded it to the office chat—
The players' eyes are discerning, and everyone's painstaking efforts can be seen by them.
The players' hard-earned money is the most steadfast support for all of you!
The chat instantly erupted into cheers: "Awesome!!"
"The boss is wise!"
"Hooray, bonuses and vacations are in sight!"
"I knew it, the butt I crunched three thousand polygons on is invincible!"
"Help me up, I can still crunch another big thunder!"
"I used to not dare speak when browsing forums, but now I browse them with my real name! Feeling proud and vindicated!"
"There are actually people scolding Bu Erxi for being vulgar? Just say you're jealous!"
Hahahaha, someone private-messaged me asking me to teach them how to draw butts.
The office chat was shockingly active, with everyone talking incessantly and excitedly.
Over the past month, even when models came to the company to put on a fashion show, the chat hadn't been this lively.
After that, everyone buried themselves in work; with a short schedule, heavy workload, and an uncertain project future, the work pressure was shockingly high.
The entire company had been in a state of high tension.
And now, whether looking at the online response or the intuitive data, it fully proved the success of the boss's rework direction.
Thus, that intangible pressure greatly diminished, and the depressed emotions were relieved.
Everyone was practically revenge-chatting to vent the excited emotions in their hearts.
Xu Meng certainly wasn't going to kill the mood by jumping out to stop them.
While happily watching everyone chat, he browsed social networks and game forums, sipping wolfberry water while leisurely eating melons and watching the fun.
First naturally came the comment section of Weiguang's promotional video (it hadn't been released on P Station yet)—
"In one word: awesome!"
"Good job, Dream Builder!"
"At this moment, the 100 porn games on my computer have been completely eclipsed."
"Why isn't it updating yet?!!"
"Wuuu wuuu, I love big sister Tong Que so much, @Dream Builder boss, can you gift her to me? I'm a student."
"After watching the promo: hot-blooded! Remembering I'm still underage: devastated like losing my parents!"
"Why restrict it to 18? Isn't our high school students' money money?!"
"I'm going to report this, Dream Builder discriminates against minors!"
"Hahahaha, let me tell everyone a joke, pilipili..."
Xu Meng flipped through a dozen pages straight, finding everywhere messages of players so excited they forgot themselves.
They wished Frost Snow Project would update right now, having even prepared the money for topping up.
As for the dissatisfaction of underage netizens, they could only remain dissatisfied.
Xu Meng was not going to relax on this matter.
The scale of Frost Snow Project was already sensitive; if another incident of a child illegally charging their parents' bank cards rushed onto the trending searches, the consequences would be far more severe than other games.
Coupled with rival companies wishing death upon their peers, the game might just vanish.
Xu Meng's risk radar was beeping wildly.
Wave when it was time to wave, and steady when it was time to steady; only then could it last long.
After reading Weiguang's comment section, Xu Meng wanted to check the reactions of other ACG Game communities.
But he quickly discovered a problem—
The ACG circle had a huge difference from the gaming circle in the broad sense:
In the broad gaming circle, everyone was a player, so they were all in the same camp and could therefore get along harmoniously in a single forum.
Helping each other and fighting against developers together were very common occurrences.
Yet in the ACG circle, every ACG company hoped its own users would stay in its own community forever, play only its own game, and not even mention other games—if they had to talk about them, they could only speak ill of them.
Ideally, they could turn all users of other games into their own.
This philosophy led to the fragmentation and confrontation of ACG communities.
ACG players were artificially penned into isolated little communities, completely lacking a public discussion community with enough influence.
Some players would even stand with the developers to attack other players, and they would attack using every means possible.
Simply absurd.
Xu Meng disliked this phenomenon, but there was nothing he could do about it.
--Dream Builder only had a tendency to rise from the coffin; it was still a hundred thousand miles away from rectifying the industry.
He downloaded several rival apps to check the reactions of ACG players.
Then he discovered with some joy that this artificial closure was broken today by Dream Builder in a bizarre way—
Almost all ACG communities were talking about Frost Snow Project, and GIFs of several real-machine characters using their ultimate skills were being passed around everywhere.
[Big means good! White means beauty! Both white and big, life's ideal] [Brothers, have you seen the Frost Snow Project promo? I'm already downloading the client] [A promotional video of under 5 minutes made me change two pairs of underwear] [When is our game going to release big-titty chicks?][Can the admins slow down on deleting posts? I haven't saved the GIF just now]...
ACG players had never seen such high-quality, surging game characters, let alone gotten their hands on them to play.
This stimulation came too directly and too intensely, completely a different style compared to the various cute characters on the market.
This directly opened the door to a new world for them.
Their full urge to express themselves simply could not be contained.
Yet the community admins of various apps insisted on jumping out to delete their posts and forbid them from discussion.
Begging for monthly passes, follow-ups, and recommendations!
Before you continue