Is Getting First Place in Games That Hard?

"Ah, we're doomed, we're doomed! I actually forgot about the testing draft. What are we going to do?!"

Xiao Chen paced back and forth anxiously, thinking of a solution.

There was really no helping it. The game was a little too fun, and he had forgotten everything else without realizing it.

"Chen Dong, what are you doing?? Can you be quiet for a while? You're holding up my game."

Xia Xiao frowned as she looked at Xiao Chen.

Hmm, so Xiao Chen's name was Chen Dong!!

"Xia Xiao, I-I didn't mean to. It's about the draft—we have to come up with something!"

Xiao Chen said with an awkward smile.

Then, noticing what Xia Xiao was doing, he asked curiously:

"Xia Xiao, what are you doing?"

"Topping up! Manager Wang just gave us a hundred-yuan red packet, so I can buy every skin. This is great."

Xia Xiao answered cheerfully without even looking up.

"Oh, right! No, Xia Xiao, why are you still playing? We need to hurry up and write the draft!"

Xiao Chen froze for a moment before earnestly trying to persuade her.

If they played any longer, they would have to stay up all night writing that draft~~~

"Are you stupid? A test is a test—you have to play the game to test it, right? If you don't play it, what are you going to write about?"

Xia Xiao knew what Xiao Chen was saying, but this game was truly impossible to put down!

After thinking it over, she decided to give herself an excuse to keep playing.

"Uh..."

Xiao Chen was stunned. Was that... really how it worked??

"Besides, how can a review be described as playing around?? We're obviously gathering material!!"

Seeing that it was working, Xia Xiao continued to sweet-talk him.

"That... actually seems to make some sense!"

Xiao Chen said with a bewildered look, half believing her and half doubting her.

But why did it still feel like something was off?

Because the game had launched on Friday,

the period from noon to midnight was when its data grew the fastest in a single day.

After Wang Chuan had sent the four of them off in separate cars, he returned to the villa alone.

He opened the Pangu Editor and carefully checked the relevant data for "Soul Knight."

It had now been eleven hours since the game launched.

It was almost midnight, so it would be difficult for the later data to keep skyrocketing.

As expected, the game's rating had dropped to 9.7.

Its downloads had more than tripled as well, reaching over one million.

"Looks like the period around seven to eight at night was when the data exploded!!"

Wang Chuan habitually studied the trend charts. It was obvious that the most growth had occurred between seven and nine.

Beyond all that, the most important thing was naturally the revenue data.

Its daily revenue had reached more than six hundred thousand, meaning it had increased by over four hundred thousand during that period.

That surprised Wang Chuan greatly.

Likewise, what surprised him even more was Soul Knight's ranking.

It had actually leapt from seventeenth place on the chart all the way to second.

It only needed a little more to overtake The Parable of Illidan and claim first place.

"Haha, this is a pretty good result. If it can take first place tomorrow, then it'll count as a success."

"Ah, right. I still need to prepare the later version updates. Otherwise, once the initial novelty wears off, the game will be finished~~~"

Wang Chuan rubbed his brow, thinking it over again and again.

He had not let the temporary success go to his head. Instead, he remained calm the entire time.

The night passed amid Wang Chuan's work, and soon it was the next day.

Noon.

More than twenty-four hours had passed since Soul Knight and The Parable of Illidan launched.

By then, the top spot on the new games chart had already changed hands.

Soul Knight had successfully defeated The Parable of Illidan and taken the top position.

Originally, Wang Chuan had thought Soul Knight would need a few more days to reach first place.

After all, its current buzz was not that high yet. It still needed time to build up.

Furthermore, Wang Chuan had set very few monetization points in the game, and they were all very mild.

The reason for that was to let more players enter the game and experience it, building up a larger player base.

At the same time, while accumulating players, they could establish a good reputation and maintain the game's long-term operation.

Besides, there really was not much that could be added if Soul Knight wanted more monetization points.

Limited by the game's content itself, its current monetization points were already the limit.

If they forcibly added more monetization points, it would easily anger players and ruin the game's balance.

The loss would outweigh the gain!

"First-day revenue reached 1.3 million. Sales peaked at eleven o'clock, while The Parable of Illidan only reached around forty thousand."

Combining Soul Knight's daily revenue, Wang Chuan estimated Tian Boxun's figures over at Penguin.

He had a rough idea in mind.

Wang Chuan had also played Tian Boxun's The Parable of Illidan a little.

It could be said that it had been made by completely imitating The Stanley Parable.

It had merely changed the plot and made the Art Assets slightly better.

There was nothing original about it. Its performance would not explode, but it would not lose money either.

It was the kind of work that followed market trends and copied whatever was popular.

Although this world had no piracy, the game market was correspondingly more mature, resulting in a great many games.

Players had plenty of options even among games of the same genre.

Therefore, in this world, it was much easier to reach sales in the millions or even tens of millions.

Just as Wang Chuan was thinking about this, the villa's office area became lively again.

"Manager Wang, I'm willing to beg you with a month's salary—please hurry up and hire customer service staff. I can't take it anymore~~~"

"No, no, one isn't enough. Make it two!!!"

"My god, do people really need to make a special phone call just to ask which class is strongest?? Aren't phone bills expensive?"

Everyone complained to Wang Chuan while working.

Because the game itself had been made with the Pangu Editor, there were basically no programming issues.

Any bugs and such had already been dealt with during internal testing.

However, player-related matters still needed customer service to handle them.

There were only four people at Huangtu Game Company, and Zhao Jing and Huang Shanshan had only been filling in as customer service staff.

Although both of them were conscientious and responsible, they truly could not handle Soul Knight's ever-growing player base anymore!!!

"Haha, don't worry. I already settled it just now. We'll hand customer service directly over to the Outsourcing Team."

Wang Chuan endured the two women's complaints and smiled awkwardly.