Game Release

Tian Boxun shot the social platform a vicious glare and snorted coldly to himself.

Then he opened his own account.

His gaze complicated, he looked at the words he had replied to Wang Chuan a few days ago: Just wait and see!

Heh heh!!

*Let's see what face you'll have left to deal with the netizens then~~~

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, Friday noon arrived. Soul Knight officially went online.

It launched simultaneously on all major game stores and the official gaming platform.

Both the PC version and Mobile version launched at the same time, with shared data!!!

At the same time, Penguin did not lag behind. The Parable of Illidan also launched at noon on Friday.

Of course, there were still differences. Since The Parable of Illidan imitated The Stanley Parable,

it only had a PC version and no Mobile version.

After the two games launched at almost the same time, players who had long been eagerly awaiting them hurried to download and purchase them.

However, judging by the current hype, The Parable of Illidan still held the greater advantage.

First of all, The Parable of Illidan had Penguin backing it.

As a result, aside from launching on the official gaming platform, it also had Penguin's own distribution channels.

Wang Chuan's Soul Knight, on the other hand, was different. It had only launched on the official gaming platform.

It was not that no gaming platforms or distributors had approached him, but their prices were simply too steep.

Wang Chuan truly could not accept them.

And what surprised Wang Chuan was that Penguin's platform had even approached him, but they wanted sixty percent of the profits.

Well, he had not agreed!!!

The terms offered by the other channels were also more or less the same. None asked for less than fifty percent.

If it had only been a revenue split, he could have accepted fifty percent. After all, money could never be earned in full, and expanding the game's name recognition would actually have been worthwhile for him.

Besides, if he made the pie bigger, he might not necessarily earn less.

But the other gaming platforms all required Wang Chuan to sign one condition.

That was, he had to make certain changes to the game according to the platform's requirements.

How could Wang Chuan agree to that???

If he agreed, the platform could force Wang Chuan to alter Soul Knight.

And if he did not finish making the changes, they would not allow it to launch.

Who would he even be able to appeal to then?

It was precisely this clause that made Wang Chuan realize something.

Small game development companies like theirs truly had no say at all when facing these distribution channels.

In the gaming industry, channels were king.

This further strengthened Wang Chuan's determination to build his own distribution channel.

Leaving his livelihood in someone else's hands really felt awful.

Fortunately, the gaming industry held a high status in this world and was valued by the authorities.

So with the official gaming platform available, there was still a way to survive.

Online, Soul Knight was being continuously promoted.

Tian Boxun's side was doing the same, but the difference was that, aside from the official gaming platform, The Parable of Illidan

was also featured prominently on the homepage of Penguin's own platform, receiving maximum exposure.

Unlike the original The Stanley Parable, The Parable of Illidan was priced at thirty yuan as a one-time purchase.

That was the normal price. The price Wang Chuan had set before was what truly counted as dirt cheap.

In this world, there were guidelines for the prices of buy-to-play games.

Ordinary small indie games generally ranged from one yuan to fifty yuan.

Various medium-sized games generally ranged from one hundred yuan to two hundred yuan.

Finally, major titles—that was, AAA games—generally ranged from three hundred yuan to five hundred yuan.

As for large VR games, they cost over a thousand yuan.

Of course, those were reference prices set by the authorities.

The specific price was still up to the developer. Unless the price was excessively high, it was generally understandable.

At that moment, on the second floor of Huangtu Game Company.

"Senior, didn't you set the price wrong? Why does Soul Knight look like it's free to download?"

"Yeah, Brother Wang, you're not going to lose money, are you? Why do I feel like in-app purchases aren't very reliable? The game doesn't even sell power or weapons~~~"

"Exactly, exactly. If you ask me, it would have been better to set a buy-to-play price from the start. At least then you could earn back the development costs!!!"

Several students crowded around Wang Chuan, their faces full of anxiety as they spoke one after another.

These students were all from Wang Chuan's alma mater. They had also come during the closed beta.

At first, they had thought the school had exaggerated Wang Chuan's achievements, but after getting to know him up close, they had all become his fans.

As fans, of course they would support their idol at the first opportunity.

So today, the day Soul Knight officially launched, they had specifically come to congratulate Wang Chuan.

Well, it was worth mentioning that because he had so many fans, the reason these few had managed to come was that they had fought their way through fierce competition.

And after arriving, they immediately downloaded the game to support Wang Chuan.

Only to discover some things that worried them.

Since Wang Chuan attended the same school as them, they felt close to him.

On top of that, many of the suggestions they had made during the closed beta had been analyzed by Wang Chuan and incorporated into the game.

So they felt as though the game was like a child they had raised. From the bottom of their hearts, they hoped it would succeed and achieve great results.

"Alright, alright. I know everything you're worried about, but don't worry!"

"Soul Knight is taking the low-profit, high-volume route. If it were you, could you bear not to buy those characters and skins???"

"At such cheap prices, wouldn't you buy, buy, buy???"

After listening to them, Wang Chuan smiled and fired off a string of rhetorical questions that left them speechless.

That was right! Such cheap skins, such cheap characters.

And the content was incredibly rich too. Buying them was practically making a profit!!!

No more talking—time to buy~~~

After exchanging glances for a moment, the few of them instantly came to their senses, logged into the game, and scrambled to spend money.

Watching them, Wang Chuan looked helpless. Good grief, none of them had much willpower after all!

To be honest, Wang Chuan was still very confident.

Because he had conducted market research in advance, and the results had been quite good.

Compared with the hodgepodge monetization model of Soul Knight in his previous life, as well as its expensive skins and characters,

Wang Chuan had directly lowered the prices to the minimum in this life.

Maintaining his usual tradition: dirt-cheap prices.

It was not that Wang Chuan did not value money. In truth, he was quite poor.

But wasn't this all for low profits and high sales~~~

It had to be said that human psychology was truly strange.

A ten-yuan item simply did not sell as well as one priced at 9.9 yuan.

There was only a one-jiao difference, yet it felt completely different!!!