Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

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Of course, ideals are full and reality is skinny.

The countless bones of their predecessors made Lin Li and Zhang Ming have the same requirement for current communication software: to survive. Otherwise, they wouldn't have chosen this name.

A humble name makes a good child easier to raise.

Based on this logic, whether communication software can survive, and how well it will survive, depends on the sales volume of hardware.

Therefore, Zhang Ming not only watched the video, but also looked at the reviews from various media outlets and the pre-sale sales figures.

He was completely stunned when he saw the pre-sale sales figures.

"How... how can there be so many?!"

~~~

same question.

The next day, Lin Li also asked about operations.

After all, the data reported by the operations department was a bit too exaggerated.

Even with Spark limiting IP addresses and the number of pre-orders per account, the total pre-sale amount had already reached nearly 30 by the second day.

This number far exceeded Lin Li's expectations. Keep in mind, this was a full-payment pre-order, not a 1-yuan reservation.

Even if everyone approves of the product, it's impossible to achieve over 30 pre-sales in a single day.

Because the data is too exaggerated.

Lin Li once suspected that someone was playing tricks. Although he didn't understand what the point of such trickery would be, he still felt something was off, which is why he called the operations team.

However, when Lin Li asked the operations department, they were also completely baffled; they didn't know what was going on either.

The backend data shows that almost all the purchased accounts are legitimate.

After a thorough investigation, it was discovered that the source was actually a screenshot of someone's WeChat Moments, which belonged to a mine owner who posted the message in a group chat.

The gist of it is that he only wants the base, and he will directly subsidize the official base price by 200 yuan for whoever sells the base.

To prevent scalping and cryptocurrency mining, Spark allows handheld consoles to be purchased separately, but docks cannot be purchased separately.

"No, I already said that our GPU core is integrated with the motherboard using a packaging process. Why would any miners want to use it for mining..."

Lin Li was truly impressed.

When faced with the boss's questions.

The group of people at the scene looked at each other, all feeling that President Lin was too much like Versailles.

This was the first time they had ever seen a product sell out so well and still not be well received.

However, Lin Li's judgment is also problematic.

The rapid increase in pre-sales is not entirely due to the efforts of mine owners.

The bigger reason is that players worldwide have been suffering greatly from mining cards in the past two years.

Some players were initially hesitant, but then the media reported that a mining company was acquiring the company, and suddenly, those who were hesitant panicked.

Don't wait and see, buy it first.

These first people started buying, and the number of pre-orders began to climb.

"Holy crap! You guys see, I told you some miners were starting to hoard the goods!"

The more pre-orders increase, the more panicked those who haven't bought yet become. The more panicked they are, the more people buy, and the more people buy, the more panicked they become.

There were also some idle scalpers who were initially worried that this thing couldn't be cracked and dared not hoard it, but after seeing its design, they also started to buy it.

With the combined efforts of many parties, a rather bizarre reverse run on the bank was formed.

Everyone was afraid that if they acted any later, they wouldn't be able to buy it anymore.

Later on, some mine owners were actually intimidated by this show of force and actually announced that they would buy back the graphics card docks at a higher price.

Some people originally just wanted a handheld console, but then they saw that someone was buying back graphics card docks at high prices, so the handheld console ended up being a few hundred dollars cheaper for no apparent reason.

So they followed suit.

As more and more people share this idea, the number of pre-orders grows larger and larger, and the speed of pre-orders becomes increasingly exaggerated.

In the short time Lin Li was listening to the report, the price had increased by several thousand.

From 100,000, to 500,000, and then to 1 million...

It wasn't until a week later, when the number reached 1.2 million, that Spark still didn't close the pre-order window, and the pre-order speed gradually slowed down.

Following a wave of fervor influenced by various forces.

The StarCore handheld console, which hasn't even been released yet, delivered a terrifying performance in its first week that shocked the global tech world.

One full-payment pre-order!!! Pre-order!!! Pre-order!!!

Technological products.

120 million units sold!!!

What does this mean? Keep in mind that Steam Dack only sold 160 million units in its first year.

Moreover, 70% of the 1.2 million orders placed by Spark were for graphics card docks, with an average order price of around 4000.

One million two hundred thousand orders correspond to a turnover of about 40 billion.

And this is just one piece of hardware that hasn't even been shipped yet.

Let alone others, even Lin Li himself found this unbelievable. Not only did domestic and overseas media outlets raise a series of question marks, but many people on Zhihu also asked about it.

As more and more people asked the question, an expert actually came out and explained it clearly.

"What's so hard to understand? Although everyone thinks graphics cards are expensive right now, the price increase has already created a value anchoring effect."

"Under these circumstances, Xinghuo sold the graphics card docks, which could originally be shipped for more than 3000 or even 4000, for a price of more than 2000 by bundling them with other products."

"It's no exaggeration to say that Spark is really selling at a loss, because to achieve the same performance, even disregarding the graphics card dock, if you just look at the graphics card itself, it would cost 4000 or more to build it yourself."

"Furthermore, although Spark has taken many measures to prevent mining through both hardware and software, who can guarantee what will happen in the future? Therefore, I suggest that everyone take advantage of the fact that Spark has not yet closed pre-orders and buy now if you need it."

"At this rate, once Spark's current batch of graphics card chips purchased under contract runs out, prices will definitely rise..."

Of course, the above are the opinions of Zhihu masters.

Chapter 515 A makeshift troupe

Soon, Goldman Sachs and other top global financial institutions analyzed the matter and wrote a report that was dozens of pages long.

To quote the Goldman Sachs CEO during an interview.

"If Xinghuo were a listed company, this one thing alone would at least double their stock price. That's the real value of 1.2 million in sales... Oh, sorry, it's 122 million now..."

The overseas gaming media that previously turned a deaf ear to Spark Hardware have finally had to admit it.

They also started reporting on Xinghuo's sales figures.

~~~

Time passed amidst this bustling activity, and it was already late January.

Qiongzhou.

Mentioning Qiongzhou.

For many people, the first thing that comes to mind is sunshine, beaches, tourism, and coconuts.

However it may be.

The term "gaming industry" seems really hard to associate with Qiongzhou.

Even though Xinghuo has had some cooperation with Qiongzhou in recent years, and there is even a joint game industrial park in Qiongzhou, the game industrial park in Qiongzhou is still a desert for game industry development in the whole country.

Calling it a desert is not an exaggeration at all.

Because the gaming industry relies heavily on collective effort, in cities where the gaming industry is developed, it's relatively easy to find suitable people, even if you have to spend more money.

This is why game development companies worldwide are mainly concentrated in a few major cities.

If starting a business in the gaming industry presents a challenging option.

To paraphrase Yue Lingfei, who chose to start his business in Qiongzhou.

“If we started a business in this godforsaken place, even if it wasn’t torture, we’d still have to be masters. The higher the difficulty in this dark place, the greater the reward. In real life, there’s no compensation for the difficulty of starting a business.”

Yue Lingfei had just finished saying that.

The door to Lingyun Games Studio was pushed open, and Wu Yunfan, another founder of the company, hurriedly walked in.

"Who said there was no compensation? We've already received subsidies here, haven't we? Alright, stop complaining. The appointed time is almost here, let's hurry up and leave, the Xinghuo people will be here soon..."

"They really came!?"

Just moments ago, Yue Lingfei was complaining, but now he has completely changed his tune.

He looked very excited.

He and Wu Yunfan have been running this company for over a year. In that year, the company has had zero income and has relied entirely on government subsidies and support from their families.

However, this support is not unlimited.

Wu Yunfan's family grows mangoes, while Yue Lingfei's family runs a barbecue stall on the beach.

However, the two of them had something in common: they had both been sailors and had even worked on the same ship, where they started talking about games.

Then they discovered that they had more in common than just liking games; they also had a particular passion for military affairs, especially the Pacific War in World War II.

As they chatted, they came to the point that there wasn't a single naval warfare game available to play in China.

Then, Yue Lingfei slapped his forehead.

Said a word.

"Why don't we both make one?!"

It can only be said that the impact of Xinghuo is indeed significant.

Both of them had watched the variety show "Spark Game Maker Master". While others thought it was just an advertisement when they heard the line that "everyone can make games", they took it seriously.

What's even more impressive is their ability to act.

Just do it.

The company registration was completed quickly, and they went straight to the site right from the start.

The two are typical examples of people whose families have some money, but not much to live on. Fortunately, their company doesn't have many employees, only six or seven people.

Even with some savings on expenses, we can still barely keep going.

As mentioned earlier, the game they developed is a naval warfare military history simulation game. Games of this genre are relatively rare in China, and that's why they decided to take this path.

Then, the two quickly realized why fewer people in the country were working on this subject.

This type of subject matter is known as the "three-no subject matter" in the domestic game industry.

There was no popularity, no successful experience, and no experienced talent.

We had nothing, and we had to do everything ourselves.

Initially, the two wanted to use Spark Game Developer, but the developer didn't have a similar resource library, so the two had to start teaching the Spark engine themselves with a few employees.

Learning while developing limited skills.

Yes...

In the first half of their entrepreneurial journey, no one in the entire company had any systematic training in game development, because the people they hired were from a World War II enthusiast circle in Qiongzhou.

This is just a group of people, in the words of the industrial park director.

"Aren't you guys just messing around? How did you even get into the park?!"

Their response at the time was one of love.

The director of the industrial park was completely dumbfounded by this response.

"Passion? Can passion put food on the table? Can games be made simply through passion!?"

However, after a year of development, the two of them, along with a small team of just a few people, managed to create a demo out of sheer passion, but this demo was just too much of a demo.

Moreover, this demo is extremely rudimentary and unique, and the way it's played is incredibly magical.