Number One Game Designer

Players have mixed feelings about the change in the game's distribution method.

On the one hand, the purchase of games has undoubtedly become more convenient. This is a good thing for players. Players don’t have to set the alarm clock half a year in advance, and then take a tent to the front of the disc store to make a shop the day before the release. The crowd is twisted and crooked, and then the boss regretfully tells you: it is out of stock, if you want to play, you have to go to another store ten kilometers away, or wait for him to buy it next week. The result is that you are often spoiled by others before you play it.

But on the other hand, some players who love to collect have to pay a higher price if they want to get the physical version of the game. The physical collection of the game has gradually become a hobby that requires high investment. Moreover, the game is no longer physical. Buying one with a friend and then changing it after finishing playing does not work. Most of the games now have online, so if you want to play with friends, please buy double copies.

These are what Yu Jiashu and his roommate are complaining about now, in a word: "Why is the physical version of Assassin so hard to buy and so expensive!!!!"

Assassin's release Fang Xi used the method of simultaneous release of digital entities, but considering the physical distribution volume, only 82,000 sets were produced, not to mention the distribution in the world, even if it is only in China. Players It is also fully capable of eating it, but considering that Hongyi has not dabbled in the aspect of physical disks, if it produces more, it will face quality problems, so this physical version can only increase the price, and some of them will not be made public. Badges, maps, etc. are sold to increase the value.

In the end, the online sales continued as usual, and Fang Xi added the option of the Assassin’s physical edition commemorative edition in Honghu’s mall, which is also the usual means of time and space—or the usual means of business: Golden Treasure, Supreme Package, Collector’s Edition, Annual Edition, Annual Collector's Edition, Annual Collector's Gold Edition, Annual Collector's Gold Supreme Edition, etc., it's just a routine anyway.

It took a day in the factory to produce an additional iron box for these discs, on which the main character of the assassin was embossed. When you open the box, there are various limited edition gifts. Although the cost is not high, but with the limited logo, these small things The price can be easily doubled dozens of times, which is definitely a good deal.

And the object of Yu Jiashu's wailing in the apartment was this little thing: only 45,000 sets were sold in the Asia-Pacific region, which sounds like a lot, but now the pre-sale version of the assassin has reached 12 million sets, and the sales in the national area No matter what, there are six million, including those who are not used to pre-sales, some are console players but don't mind buying a PC disc, etc. In short.

Although Yu Jiashu is rich now, there are at least hundreds of thousands of people competing with him for these limited editions. Then, in terms of the release time announced by the official announcement, these limited physical editions were instantly killed almost as soon as they went online, and Yu Jiashu's heart full of holes was also killed in seconds. Because you can't buy it at all.

"Why don't you go to the second-hand area to have a look?" The roommate gave a seemingly reliable suggestion while eating melons for a hundred years.

As a result, Yu Jiashu uttered the wailing above. The posts in the second-hand section are basically asking for a limited edition physical version at a high price, and Yu Jiashu clicked on the one with the most clicks, "1000 yuan for a physical version of Assassin".

"I'll give you one thousand and two!"

"You offered 1,000 for the original price of 888? Why don't you go grab it! I'll offer 1,500!"

"The price is two thousand, I implore the players who are photographed to give up their love."

"Looking at a group of fools, no one will sell you and make an offer."

"Onlookers +1"

...

"Why don't you ask Ellie? See if she can buy you one in North America. They probably don't like this kind of pure oriental style game?" The roommate made another seemingly reliable suggestion.

The emergence of the Honghu platform has made exchanges between regions a little more. You can add some foreign friends on the Honghu platform. Ellie is a North American girl who often plays with Yu Jiashu and his roommates.

"Good way!" Yu Jiashu ran to the balcony to make a phone call.

Because I was worried that Ellie was not online at this time because of the time difference.

Ten minutes later, Yu Jiashu came back with a dejected look on his face.

"She said that the limited edition in North America has been sold for $120!"

"Many people from North America are also calling to China to accept one."

"O M G! It feels like the whole world is hyping this limited edition!"

The players were overwhelmed, Fang Xi sat on the Diaoyutai and laughed.

For him, even if this limited edition is enlarged ten times, and it can be sold at the price of a scalper, it is still not worth mentioning compared to the game's profit, so this sale is more to stir up the atmosphere. It means that the game's release is really fast. So in the future Liu Hai will launch a series of activities to mobilize the enthusiasm of the players, which will be maintained until the assassin goes online.

After all, according to the survey, there are often two peak periods for the release of a game, one is when the pre-sale starts, and the other is within a week after the official launch. These two are very easy to drive sales, not to be missed.

However, the launch of the Assassin means that the new machine of the old Ren will be launched. The two are scheduled to be released on the same day. The difference is probably that the home machine of the old Ren must be purchased offline. They are not yet online. The channel of purchase has reminded many players of the time when they stayed up late to buy the game, which is nostalgic.

As for the Assassin's simultaneous landing on both PC and home console platforms, many media have written a lot of predictions around this.

Because since the birth of consoles in the 1980s, the most profitable game platform has undoubtedly been home consoles. The purchase of games on PCs did not initially have a model until the beginning of the 21st century. The piracy problem that you don’t have to worry about on the PC can be called “wildfires are endless, and spring winds are born again.”

The development history of PC games can basically be summarized as a history of epic struggles between developers and pirates.

At the beginning, the wonderful "polarization lock", and then the secret security, activation code, IP ban, CD-ROM must be put in when playing, etc.

In the last time and space, there was even a Polish jackass who prepared double face data for the heroine of the game: if your game is obtained by means other than normal purchase or gift, then the face of the heroine in the game will be directly Replaced with an old woman to ruin the game experience for pirates.

However, the final reason for this kind of thing is that the market size on PC has never been large enough. The market itself is not very large, and then there is an endless struggle with pirates, so naturally most manufacturers will stop at the door of PC. Don't go in and waste your energy.

Until now, Hongyi has broken this deadlock in one fell swoop with the Honghu platform: providing players with services that pirates cannot provide, and using perfect services to defeat piracy, and so far, it seems to be effective.

Therefore, many media believe that Hongyi's Assassin's simultaneous landing on the PC and home console dual platforms is an opportunity to intuitively see whether the PC market can surpass the console platform.