Hollywood Hunter

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Daenerys Entertainment has invested a total of 50 million US dollars in the "Counter-Strike OL" project, of which 40 million US dollars are development costs, including a 3D game engine specially developed for this game, code-named 'Eden (eden)', And also for the customized network operating platform.

Another $10 million is for publicity and distribution costs.

In the current era when one computer can make a game by one person, this is a very huge expense.

The most intuitive comparison, the previous "Counter-Strike 2.0", the total investment in production and publicity was only 15 million US dollars, and this has exceeded the average level of this era.

Therefore, Daenerys' game department still has some complaints about Simon's strong request to advance "Counter-Strike 3.0", which is the OL project, as soon as possible.

A total of 15 million has been invested in the 2.0 version, which was launched in March last year. The North American price is 49 US dollars, and the overseas average price is basically the same. Up to now, more than 1.3 million copies have been sold worldwide, and the income is about 65 million US dollars. Excluding the final tax cost, the net profit is close to 20 million, and the return on investment exceeds 100%.

Even if it is not phenomenal, it is very successful.

The point is that games are not movies. Although movies also have long-tail benefits, they often become more and more dispensable later on. And the life cycle of the game is very long. "Counter-Strike 2.0" sold 1.3 million copies in less than two years. If there is no sequel, it will continue to sell. In the next two or three years, the total global sales will exceed 2 million copies. impossible.

The cost has been fully recovered, and there is no need for further investment in the future. If you sell one share, you will make a net profit.

This is actually why the sequels of many popular stand-alone games are always delayed and difficult to produce. Basically, it is not the reason for the development, but the previous ones are sold too well. If the sequels are launched too early, the result can be imagined, which is equivalent to ending the previous ones in advance. The life cycle does not conform to the principle of maximizing interests, and game companies must of course procrastinate.

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This phenomenon has even led to some ridiculous industry talks, such as "Grand Theft Auto 5", because it is too popular, the official has been reluctant to launch a sequel, which has caused some desperate fans to openly encourage everyone to play Piracy, all kinds of chicken feathers flying around.

The same goes for the current Counter-Strike series.

The original sales forecast of 2 million copies, because Simon requested that 3.0 be released as soon as possible, the life of version 2.0 will basically end, which is equivalent to giving up 35 million US dollars in sales revenue.

Coupled with the huge total investment of up to 50 million US dollars in version 3.0, if it is not successful, it will definitely become Simon's biggest decision-making mistake. You know, with an investment of 50 million US dollars, even if the price of the 3.0 version is increased to 69 US dollars, it will need to sell 1.5 million copies, which is about 100 million US dollars in revenue, to achieve a balance of payments. After all, this time also includes server operating expenses.

1.5 million, which is already a popular level among the top ten global game sales for the year.

It is always easy for people to see those super phenomenal games with sales exceeding tens of millions, but they ignore one point. Behind these games are hundreds of failed games that are unknown to the point of failure, and the standard ones will succeed. , Therefore, 1.5 million sales volume is not so easy to achieve.

In order to control risks as much as possible, this time "Counter-Strike OL" is only launched in the North American market first, and plans to sell it overseas based on market feedback. After all, this game is no longer a stand-alone game. As long as it is launched in overseas markets, it will require an additional server platform and an operation team.

Save a little if you can.

When Simon was playing games with a little girl on the east coast, it was just in the evening on the east coast. Daenerys went up to Amy Pascal and down to many ordinary employees of the game department, and they were all paying close attention to the development of this game. sales data.

For several months of announcements, not only related expenses of 10 million US dollars, Daenerys, Igret and other Westeros system subsidiaries also provided a lot of free media resources for the promotion of this game, such as Igge Various promotional soft articles promoted by the Ritter Portal to potential game users, internal videos pushed on the youtube platform, and game live broadcasts invited by Internet celebrities to the live broadcast platform twitch, etc.

The value is incalculable.

In short, in the first week of release in the North American market, if the sales volume is less than 100,000, it is a failure.

The first week is expected to be 100,000. In the next year, the local sales volume is expected to be 1 million. Counting overseas, based on 50% of the local sales, the cost will be recovered within one year.

This is just the minimum expectation of everyone.

After all, any business hopes to make money, but no one has the idea of ​​no loss or no profit from the beginning, so there is nothing else to do.

However, for the super phenomenal level with sales reaching tens of millions, not many people have any expectations, and the phenomenon level is not so easy to achieve.

With such a mentality, it was released for 12 hours, and things obviously exceeded many people's expectations.

Of course not too bad.

But...better than expected.

So much better!

In just 12 hours of release, according to West Coast time, from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm, the number of people who have activated this game has already exceeded 70,000. In half a day, the sales volume was already close to Daenerys' official minimum expectation for a week. It is conceivable that it is more than enough to exceed 100,000 in a full 24 hours.

When Nancy Brill got Simon's email about cheating,

Still in my office, I just talked to Amy Pascal to announce the good news, and I am about to communicate with Larry Probst, the head of the game department, about the emergency expansion of the server and the follow-up announcement strategy while the iron is hot.

Prior to this, the plan prepared by the team is to accommodate up to 250,000 activated users in the first week, which is also everyone's best expectation.

Now, at least double that.

Fortunately, "Counter-Strike OL" is running on Eaglet's cloud computing platform, and expansion is not difficult. It can be done after working overtime tonight.

Knowing that her boss has won another hit, Nancy received the email and directly sandwiched the problem of cheating in the next communication with Probst. After thinking about it for a while, she wrote a reply letter to announce the good news , Then, in a strange way, instead of talking about work, he asked what his boss was doing?

A very homely conversational tone.

After sending it, Nancy felt a little regretful, thinking whether to withdraw the email, sat blankly in front of the computer and waited for a while, but there was still no return of the read reminder, and she felt a little inexplicable.

He must be fooling around with some woman.

So he simply ignored it and asked the outside assistant to connect to Larry Probst's call and talk about business.

long island.

Inside the Seaside Manor in East Hampton.

I have to say that "Counter-Strike OL" has indeed achieved the ultimate based on the current hardware and software. The excellent game experience and unprecedented multiplayer online confrontation made Simon and Miao Miao a big and a small one quickly immersed in it. When Miao Miao Myu's mother Shirley couldn't help running to knock on the door. It was already past eleven o'clock at night.

Seeing that the man and her daughter were just playing games, even though the girl's face was flushed, Xue Li was still relieved.

Shirley is not stupid, of course it is impossible not to feel a certain attitude of men towards their mother and daughter.

It's just that this man's status is too high. As two weak vines climbing on this towering tree, a woman really can't resist much, and occasionally wants to leave. However, getting used to the current life, it will be so easy to leave.

What's more, will the man let them go?

Thinking with a little bit of regret, Xue Li put down the fruit plate in her hand as an excuse, walked around the desk, stood behind the leather chairs of the man and her daughter, and looked at the computer screen. After watching patiently for a while, he said softly: "Simon, it's already late, why don't you rest first, Miu Miao can't play for too long."

Before Simon could speak, the girl had already complained: "Dad, look, mom is like this. I usually keep talking after playing for a while."

Simon nodded: "Well, I haven't forgotten, I will help you clean up your mother later."

Hearing this, Shirley's face immediately turned red, and she really wanted to grab a certain little girl and spank her ass hard.

The girl seemed to realize that she had made a slip of the tongue, and carefully glanced at her mother behind her: "Dad, I didn't mean that. I also know that it is for my own good that my mother doesn't let me play games."

While talking, Simon, who had completed four kills on the computer screen and was about to create a higher achievement, was accidentally besieged by two people, and immediately became a sieve. He returned to the resurrection point, and started again while laughing: "I didn't get five kills. I'm going to punish you."

Miao Miao twisted her small body in Simon's arms, and she coquettishly made no excuses, but stretched out her hands, "Dad, I'll come, I'll come."

Simon gave the control to the girl, and then he glanced at the fruit plate that the woman had just brought in, and gestured.

Xue Li hurried over, picked up the fruit plate and moved forward, seeing the man looked like a gentleman, she didn't intend to do it herself, so she carefully twisted an apple on a toothpick and put it in the man's mouth.

Miu Miao's skills are obviously not as good as Simon's. He was sent back to the resurrection point not long after rushing out of this nuclear power plant map with the most complicated terrain. He yelled and raised his face: "Mom, I want to , I want a pineapple."

Shirley had to act like a nanny, sending fruit piece by piece into one big and one small mouths, and at a certain moment she felt like a hard-feeding mother bird. If someone didn't sneak over, she had to frequent Pay attention to your daughter's movements to prevent her from seeing pictures she shouldn't see.

After playing for a while, a plate of fruit was finished, and the time came to 12 o'clock.

The girl wasn't sleepy yet, but it was impossible for Simon to continue.

Tomorrow Saturday, there are still many things to do.

Seeing this, Shirley, whose blush had spread to her neck unknowingly, hurriedly called a waitress and asked her to take the reluctant girl to rest. During the period, she was still a little worried, afraid that the man would stop her, so she would do some more. What.

Fortunately not.

However, Shirley herself was left behind by Simon, who was also hugged in her arms, jokingly said to continue, and asked the woman to complete a triple kill before leaving. It's a pity that Shirley couldn't finish it until after one o'clock in the morning, because she didn't even have the strength to hold the mouse.