Chapter 10: Who Could Refuse a Bishōjo Match-3 Game?

"Whew, that's unexpected!"

Inside the rental apartment, Chen Xu looked at the sales statistics on his official platform's backend with some surprise.

The overall increase in data had truly exceeded his expectations.

On the first day, sales were 162 units, a number neither high nor low.

On the second day, sales directly soared by about 4 times, reaching a full 610 units.

The main reason for this was his promotional strategy.

With a 20,000 Yuan budget, normal advertising was certainly out of the question.

On one hand, the money wasn't enough, and on the other, the game was a little bit special.

So Chen Xu's gaze immediately shifted overseas, to a forum frequently visited by gentlemen.

After all, for Chen Xu, what he needed was exposure.

As for the method, it was a relatively primitive elite internet troll post strategy.

Chen Xu never considered large-scale internet troll bombardment, as it wouldn't be very effective and might even backfire.

So Chen Xu's approach was to buy accounts and go for the elite strategy. He bought some older accounts on the forum and then published review posts. After that, internet trolls from other platforms would upvote the posts.

Of course, the most crucial point in this was that the game's quality had to be up to par. Otherwise, this promotion method wouldn't even be as effective as large-scale internet trolls.

The key to the success of this model was to convert players who discovered the game into allies, making them spontaneously recommend it to their friends and fellow gentlemen.

And as a professional Game Planner and an honest, simple player in his previous life, Chen Xu naturally understood a principle very well.

That is: for players, what are they interested in?

The theory is very simple: most players like to do one thing.

That is, to do some suggestive things in normal games; and to do some normal things in suggestive games.

This sense of contrast, one might say, made these players unable to stop.

It was like a joking remark from online players: Men have two major hobbies: seducing respectable women and rehabilitating 'women of the night.'

Players are the same. There are always some players who like to pull off some 'saucy' moves in games.

Of course, relying solely on this is clearly not enough to make a game successful; ultimately, it still relies on the game's quality.

But at least this characteristic could attract players into it, and that was already enough.

Now, judging by Mirror (Game)'s sales, this promotional strategy can be said to be completely successful.

After all, choosing Mirror (Game) was a decision Chen Xu made after careful consideration, not on a whim.

He had conducted preliminary investigations into all aspects, including how similar competing products performed in the market, whether gentlemen's preferences differed from his previous life, and the feasibility of the release platform and promotion.

All in all, Chen Xu had calculated everything. Under such circumstances, the success of Mirror (Game) was completely within Chen Xu's grasp.

The only unexpected thing was that the enthusiasm of the gentlemen was far higher than Chen Xu had imagined.

With 610 units sold on the second day, Chen Xu believed this increase was just the beginning. As time progressed and players spread the word, the sales of Mirror (Game) would definitely climb steadily.

"Hmm, at this rate, I'll be able to pay back the money owed on the payment software next week."

"Fortunately, the settlement method of the overseas official platform is real-time payment; as long as players pass the refund period, payments are directly credited."

"However, just like in my previous life, the commission from these third-party platform channels is really a bit hard to bear."

Thinking this, Chen Xu couldn't help but smack his lips.

The official game platform takes a 30% commission, mainly for daily platform maintenance, game engine updates and iterations, and the research and development of the latest technologies.

As for other third-party game platforms, they are much more frustrating. Especially when it comes to mobile channels, they typically start at 50%.

Some even went as far as a 70-30 split, with the developer getting 30% and the platform 70%.

It was comparable to Tencent (informal name: Goose Factory) and other major mobile app store channels in his previous life.

However, there were naturally benefits: these third-party platforms had a truly significant user base, and the official platform offered fewer recommendations and its algorithm wasn't very scientific.

So, although these platforms took a high percentage, game studios and companies still made money. They just had to drink the soup while the platform channels ate all the meat.

But for Chen Xu currently, these platforms were only given a cursory glance and held no interest for him at all.

It wasn't that he found them too exploitative and didn't want to join. In fact, if he were to join, initial capital accumulation would definitely be faster.

The main reason was that Mirror (Game) was a little bit special. Even if it were on these platforms, they wouldn't give it any recommendation slots.

Of course, this applied to domestic platforms. Overseas platforms had less strict restrictions.

But with the official platform available, there was no need to use third-party channels, as those domestic platform providers truly had little influence overseas. Their main focus was domestic.

---

From afternoon to evening, Chen Xu had been continuously monitoring the game's sales data. This period was also the golden time for sales growth.

Refreshing the backend data every hour, he could see Mirror (Game)'s sales steadily climbing. From over 100 new sales per hour before, it had now reached over 200 during this golden period.

Clearly, through various information channels, the name Mirror (Game) was slowly entering the ears of various gentlemen.

Each growing sale represented the support of these kind and amiable gentlemen for the game.

And as player reviews were unblocked, Mirror (Game)'s score was successfully displayed: 9.7 points, an explosive score.

However, Chen Xu wasn't overly excited.

The main reason was that, as an 18R game, players were incredibly lenient towards this type of game, and their tolerance was much, much higher. Compared to traditional games, this score didn't actually have much reference value.

Unlike some forums filled with curses and heated debates, in forums frequently visited by gentlemen, user comments were exceptionally harmonious. They were either 'OP is a good person, may good people live a peaceful life' or discussions sharing their viewing experiences and their love for certain adult content creators.

The only thing Mirror (Game)'s score could prove was that, in the eyes of players, this game was definitely worth buying and recommending.

After all, who could refuse such an interesting bishōjo match-3 game?

(End of Chapter) <>