Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

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The only problem was that when Qin Xueyan looked into the eyes of this beautiful woman, she suddenly felt a little guilty and looked away from Lin Li.

He then lamented that he wished he had joined the company a few years earlier.

Lin Li, who was walking forward at the moment, was naturally unaware of Qin Xueyan's inner thoughts. He didn't think too much about it at the moment and sat down in his seat to directly enter the meeting process.

Su Shanshan, standing next to her, glanced at Qin Xueyan every now and then.

~~~

This global conference hosted by Spark is quite special.

All participants were given an electronic questionnaire.

The meeting agenda consisted of Lin Li standing on stage to explain the Spark platform's support plan for manufacturers next year, as well as cooperation intentions and the collection of opinions.

After Lin Li finished recounting some details, the audience members used questionnaires to express their agreement or disagreement, or partial agreement.

You can also enter your questions at any time, and Lin Li will provide explanations on stage.

This method greatly speeds up the meeting process, and by identifying who answered and who didn't, it's immediately clear who's in the conversation.

After all, not responding is itself a reflection of an attitude.

As a member of the Spark Operations Department, Qin Xueyan listened very carefully, because most of the content of today's meeting was related to these topics, according to Lin Li's ideas.

Next year will definitely be a year of rapid development for the Xinghuo platform. The platform will continue to focus on user acquisition and hopes to announce a powerful user acquisition campaign at this year's New Year's Eve party.

The core purpose of this meeting is also this: the core of this super-strong new user acquisition meeting is still existing users referring new users.

However, this "referral program" means that an existing user refers to a new user, and both users can choose any game from the entire Xinghuo platform's game library to be added to the library for free.

If the new user completes 50% of the game's total progress within one month of being added to the database, then the challenge between the two players is considered successful.

If the challenge fails, the games obtained by both new and existing users will be invalid.

However, after successfully completing the challenge, both the new and old players will receive a 50% off coupon for the entire event.

This event is unprecedented in its scale. Although it presents a certain challenge, it allows participants to choose any game from the platform and add it to their library for free.

There are a lot of AAA games, but they often cost over 200 or 300...

Not to mention the players, even many manufacturers at the event thought it was crazy. What made them even crazier was that Spark would subsidize publishers with $3 per game for all users who received the games for free.

In other words, although players receive the games for free, Spark will give $3 to the developers for every game they receive.

In addition, new games launched within the first two months of the event will receive an extra $2 subsidy.

This subsidy does not require players to remain in the game; it is given to them as soon as they receive it.

另外针对于所有玩家领取最多的前10款游戏，星火还会再给与100万美元的一次性补贴，10到50名的厂商给与50万美元补贴，50到100的厂商给与10万美元的补贴。

To be honest, this is a really big move.

It's worth noting that at this time, Spark had over 80 million monthly active users, only 20 million less than Steam's 100 million monthly active users.

Even with Spark's relatively rigorous verification model, it's almost certain that loopholes will be exploited in this kind of user acquisition campaign. Conservatively speaking, at least tens of millions of copies will be sent out, and it's even possible that 100 million copies will be sent out!

Even if each game is subsidized at $3, distributing 50 million copies would amount to $150 million! If we consider that players will definitely prioritize new games, then that number would be double!

Compared to that, the one-time subsidy for ranking is actually a small amount of money.

In other words, the marketing cost within three days is at least three to five hundred million US dollars.

Upon hearing this news, manufacturers at the European and American sub-venues immediately engaged in heated discussions.

What they saw in Lin Li's calm face was a persistent pursuit of the market. This kind of strategy, which prioritizes market share over profit, was something that even they couldn't easily replicate.

Just looking at it makes my heart race.

Domestic manufacturers were completely silent. Many people, while listening, inexplicably started sweating on their foreheads, saying that Tencent's advertising campaign was fierce.

But look at this guy on stage, he doesn't even blink at a publicity plan worth over a billion RMB.

That's incredibly bold.

After Lin Li finished explaining the event plan, everyone in the audience began to make their own calculations.

If we only look at subsidies...

A subsidy of $3 or $5 per game is really not much for the developers.

After all, it's easy to imagine that at this time, at least 90% of players would choose AAA titles to add to their library.

Moreover, it's a newly released masterpiece.

For a typical AAA game priced around $40, a subsidy isn't really that much.

But this thing is incremental.

As Lin Li said on stage, players who wanted to buy it had already bought it. If Xinghuo hadn't held this event, you wouldn't have gotten much money. Moreover, this event mainly targets PC platform single-player games.

For all single-player games, once the game is completed, every penny earned afterward is revenue.

This is especially true for games that have already recouped their development costs.

"Then what about us indie games? No one will choose us for this event... We want to participate too."

During the meeting, someone asked a question that many small and medium-sized manufacturers also wanted to ask.

It's good that all games are in the library, but if everyone switches to AAA games, what will happen to small and medium-sized developers?

Chapter 470 Different

"When we distribute coupons to players, we will remind them that they can split them. Players can freely choose to redeem one unlimited coupon, or split it into two 100-yuan no-minimum-spend coupons, or four 50-yuan no-minimum-spend coupons."

For a promotional campaign, the simpler the content and the more intuitive the activity, the better.

The more intuitive the event promotion, the simpler it is to promote. The phrase "Choose any game from all platforms, free to add to your library" is simple and easy to understand, but when players actually enter the game and it comes time to claim their prizes...

Adding more rules would be more appealing to players, especially since some players simply don't like AAA titles and prefer smaller games.

"Of course, depending on whether players use splitting, our subsidy amount will also be reduced. A 100-yuan no-threshold coupon will be $1.50 per coupon, and a 50-yuan coupon will be $1 per coupon."

After Lin Li finished explaining the additional details, the participating small and medium-sized manufacturers responded with enthusiastic applause.

Lin Li also said that...

Spark will not force all manufacturers on its platform to participate. If a manufacturer does not wish to participate in such an event, it can notify Spark in advance, and the platform will publish a list of those who will not participate before the event.

Upon hearing Lin Li's statement, the small and medium-sized manufacturers present expressed their loyalty, saying that they would definitely participate, not only with old games but also with new games.

Some even said that AAA games don't need to participate, and that this kind of traffic should be given to smaller companies. These comments, in turn, influenced many big AAA companies that were hesitant to participate after hearing about the plan.

That's how people are, just like kindergarten kids. Whatever they fight over to eat is the most delicious.

If you don't participate, others will. In the end, others will be making money while you'll be left out. Some manufacturers who were initially hesitant joined in a daze amidst the lively atmosphere.

~~~

The two-hour meeting flew by.

When Ding Lei came out of the conference room, it was not yet 11 o'clock.

Xinghuo arranged meals, but Ding Lei didn't go.

This unexpected meeting greatly shocked him. As soon as the meeting ended, he told his assistant, "Back to the company!"

The assistant standing next to Ding Lei didn't quite understand why Ding Lei had such a strong reaction. In the past, Ding Lei always liked to organize dinner parties when he attended meetings.

So this time, the assistant even arranged the dinner for that evening, but Ding Lei insisted on going back to the company as soon as he finished the meeting.

Perhaps he saw the confusion in his assistant's eyes, or perhaps he simply wanted to express his current emotions.

Ding Lei abruptly asked a question.

Do you know what kind of person is the most terrifying?

The assistant also attended the meeting and probably sensed why his boss was upset, so he replied.

"Are people with money the most dangerous?"

Ding Lei smiled and shook his head. At this moment, he had just walked out of the Xinghuo Building. Once outside the building, he could see the photo spots that the Shanghai authorities had built for Xinghuo fans.

It wasn't peak tourist season, but there were still quite a few people at the scenic spots.

Watch those people holding up their phones or cameras, searching for the best angle, trying to capture the Xinghuo Building billboards and the huge curved video advertisements.

"The most terrifying people in this world are those who have money, are willing to spend it, and can spend it in the right places."

Ding Lei sighed and got into the car.

"The spark has already ignited a prairie fire. Go back and call Liu Hua over. I've approved their 'Return to the Bright Moon' project team's budget for next year. Also, go and call the 'Sixteen Sounds of Yanyun' team over and tell them... never mind, don't tell them. Revise my speech for the annual meeting."

"We need to invest more in research and development, and take advantage of the fact that Spark is willing to spend money in the past two years to keep up with the pace."

"Tell me, if there were a domestically produced AAA game on the Spark platform right now, how much money could it make from this subsidy alone...?"

"Spark is really willing to spend money, and given their current profits, they will definitely continue to spend money in the future."

As a pioneer in the domestic game industry, Ding Lei has a keen insight into the game market. In terms of consumption habits, domestic players have grown up with free-to-play online games.

However, with the promotion of Spark in recent years, the decline of traditional online games has been so rapid that it is astonishing.

Although NetEase still has older games like "Fantasy Westward Journey" that are making money using the traditional online game model, Ding Lei is well aware that the reason these older games can make money is because of the stickiness they have built up over the years.

If you look at the entire domestic market, it becomes very clear that with the rise of Spark, a large number of pay-to-win games in China are gradually declining.

Although they can still make money, their market share is shrinking compared to before.

And all that shrunk water has now gathered back into the pool of sparks.

Spark is now building a platform. As a company that started with 2D service games, Spark is now making a huge investment to attract single-player gamers worldwide.

With over a billion yuan invested, given Xinghuo's execution capabilities, the results are sure to be there.

This is just the first time they've done this. If there's a first time, there will be a second. Right now they're attracting single-player gamers, but who can guarantee that next time they won't attract online gamers?

Is it possible to offer a 100 RMB no-minimum-spend voucher for online games to new users? Given Xinghuo's dominance in service-based games, the cost of these vouchers is even lower than that of single-player games.

If Xinghuo really does such a thing one day, who can stop him?

Upon hearing this, the assistant naturally understood that his boss was determined to completely side with Xinghuo, so out of curiosity, he subconsciously asked a question.

"What about the penguins?"

"Penguin? Penguin isn't a game company. They can bully us, but bully Spark? I doubt it..."

Ding Lei is not optimistic about Penguin Games.

In recent years, the rise of a series of internet companies, such as Didi, Meituan, and Ele.me, has proven that as long as you are willing to burn money, you will definitely gain market share.

In terms of scale, if Spark really launches a money-burning war...

Very few companies dare to go against him and burn money.

Penguin won't work, Steam won't work, and Epic won't work either.

The current profitability of Spark is truly terrifying. This terror lies not in how many popular games Spark currently has, but in Spark's ability to continuously release popular games.

Like this event, everyone thought it was already outrageous that Xinghuo could spend over a billion yuan on an event, but what's even more outrageous is that if Xinghuo was determined to do something like this, they could do it every month.

"Penguin Games is ultimately just a division of Penguin. Its parent company still relies on Penguin Games for funding, so how could it possibly turn around and provide funding to Penguin Games?"

"And when it comes to decisiveness, I don't think anyone can compare to President Lin."

"Believe it or not, if I say that NetEase will hold a 1 billion yuan event next year, investors will come knocking on the door the next day, the board of directors will come to persuade us on the third day, and if I still insist on it on the fourth day, the company will probably be in complete chaos."

The assistant was taken aback, not expecting this detail.

Ding Lei also started talking.

"NetEase is my NetEase, and it's also the NetEase of capital; Tencent is his Tencent, but it's also the Tencent of capital. But Spark is different... Spark is just his Linli Spark..."

~~~

Salty Fish Author:

Another year has passed in the blink of an eye.

Wishing all our readers a Happy New Year!

In the new year, I hope everyone gets ten consecutive double gold medals and never has to worry about the bottom.

Wishing everyone good health, and wishing the games you all enjoy continue to improve.

May all your dreams come true and all your hopes be fulfilled.