Chapter 130: Overseas Agency

"Overseas agency distribution for Dark Souls?"

Hearing Lin Rou's report, Chen Xu nodded in acknowledgment.

The company that had approached them was Target Software, a relatively well-known domestic firm specializing in overseas agency distribution.

Clearly, Dark Souls, as a major PC title, had caught the attention of overseas publishing agencies.

After all, Dark Souls was extremely popular in the domestic market. Although Nebula Games had not publicly announced its sales figures, some third-party data firms had conducted their own estimates.

There would inevitably be discrepancies, but these could still serve as useful references.

Moreover, Dark Souls’ fantasy theme naturally lent itself to international appeal, ensuring a substantial audience overseas.

As for the much-discussed difficulty—well, that wasn’t really an issue.

Globally, whether domestic or overseas, there were always gamers who preferred fast-paced, simple gameplay, just as there were those who enjoyed hardcore challenges.

And in terms of sheer player base, the overseas market was even larger.

"Reply to them and set up a time to discuss cooperation," Chen Xu instructed Lin Rou.

Overseas agency distribution wasn’t something to be taken lightly. Previously, Mirror (Game) had merely been launched on the official overseas platform—a superficial localization at best.

But a title of Dark Souls’ scale couldn’t follow that same path.

Furthermore, "overseas" didn’t mean just one country, but multiple regions, each with its own distribution channels, promotional strategies, censorship requirements, and legal considerations—all typically handled by the agency publisher.

Certain countries even had regulations mandating that foreign games entering their local markets must be published by a local agency.

Building such channels independently would be impossible for Nebula Games in the short term.

In the future, Nebula Games might develop its own self-operated overseas channels, but for now, partnering with a capable agency publisher was clearly the most effective way to maximize benefits.

After instructing Lin Rou to schedule the meeting, Chen Xu met the representative at Nebula Games’ office the following afternoon.

Sitting across the conference table, the two discussed the details of overseas agency distribution.

"Mr. Chen, we don’t have major concerns regarding revenue sharing, but we do have some reservations about modifications to the overseas version and operational rights…" the representative began.

Chen Xu, however, cut him off with a shake of his hand: "That’s non-negotiable."

The man immediately swallowed his words.

Negotiations on other fronts—such as overseas promotion, marketing, and revenue split—proceeded smoothly, following standard industry practices.

But when it came to modifications and operational control of the overseas version, they hit a snag.

Target Software wanted some degree of operational modification rights. Chen Xu, in contrast, made his position crystal clear: they could handle standard overseas publishing, localization, translation, voice acting, and use their channels to promote the game’s launch. After that, they could collect their share of the profits. But control over the game itself? That was off the table.

To put it simply, operational modification rights meant things like potentially changing Dark Souls—a pure buy-to-play single-player game, with multiplayer as a bonus—into a free-to-play model with in-app purchases, if the publisher believed it would better suit the local market. With such authority, they could, for instance, make the game free and offer a starter pack: "First purchase 6 Yuan, receive +4 Coiled Sword."

Of course, this was an exaggerated example. It was unlikely any developer would grant such sweeping control. Typically, decisions were made through mutual consultation, especially regarding monetization.

What made things difficult for Target Software was that Chen Xu clearly wasn’t willing to cede even a fraction of that authority.

"Mr. Chen, that’s beyond my authority to decide," the representative said with a sigh, seeing Chen Xu’s firm stance.

Chen Xu smiled and nodded. "No problem. But I do hope your company can give me a prompt reply. After all, besides your firm, several other overseas publishing agencies have also expressed interest."

Whether that was true or not—well, let them believe it or not. Either way, the pressure wasn’t on him.

………………

After seeing off the representative from Target Software, Chen Xu logged into the official Nebula Games forum.

Thanks to the player base brought in by earlier titles like Sanguosha and Fall Guys, the number of active players on Nebula Games had reached a peak following the launch of Dark Souls and its promotional events.

Chen Xu had always placed great importance on the community forum, even establishing a dedicated department to manage it independently.

Especially in the early days, when the Nebula Games Platform had a limited game library, using a social forum-based approach was one of the most effective ways to foster user engagement.

The results so far had been promising.

In the Dark Souls forum section, players were mostly discussing strategies, playstyles, and routines.

Another thing that pleased Chen Xu was that the Workshop (modding platform) he had previously opened had already seen some player-created mods.

The most downloaded mod was a text replacement that changed the death message from "YOU DIED" to "You Are So Bad."

There were also sound effects mods, replacing the eerie atmosphere of the underground prison with different audio.

Of course, all mods approved through the official Workshop were ones that wouldn’t affect game balance.

For mods not approved through the Workshop, players had to back up a separate save file and play in offline mode.

Otherwise, the online system would detect the modifications and flag them as cheating, assigning the player to a dedicated server.

However, one mod discussion thread caught Chen Xu’s particular interest.

Since Dark Souls now supported the Workshop, players were engaging in imaginative speculation about what kinds of fun mods might appear in the future.

Many of the participants hadn’t even fully grasped the base game—some hadn’t cleared it, or even reached Anor Londo—still operating under the impression that defeating Greatwood meant they were nearly finished.

Yet that didn’t stop them from dreaming big about Dark Souls.

Chen Xu came across one particularly interesting suggestion: what if all the bosses and mobs in Dark Souls were randomized?

For example, in the Cemetery of Ash, instead of facing Gundyr the Ash with his Coiled Sword, players might encounter Champion Gundyr from Untended Graves. Wouldn’t that be exciting?

Or what if boss weapons vanished entirely? Imagine Gundyr fighting without his halberd—forced to rely only on kicks, palm strikes, and Iron Mountain Tackle. How intense would that be?

Of course, many of the ideas were pure imagination, some completely unfeasible. But they sparked a few thoughts in Chen Xu’s mind.

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