Horrible! Actually playing this kind of game!

…

On July 23, 1999, pokeni’s new game platform Dandelion was launched simultaneously around the world.

The Dandelion game platform was launched not only in the Neon region, but also in North America and China. Both Neon and North America regions were launched by pokeni itself, while in China, Qingzhiyuan was handed over to Penguin for agency.

As early as last month after the E3 electronics show ended, pokeni took advantage of the opportunity to promote the Dandelion gaming platform, basically covering all advertising venues, so many players have not seen it before. Everyone has heard of the game platform.

But because there are still relatively few game platforms around the world, everyone finds it very fresh.

Even though it was demonstrated once on the E3 electronic platform, most people still don't know what this gaming platform does.

Just as the name suggests, this is a place for players to play mini games.

It seems to be like this. Among pokeni's game platforms, the first ones to be launched are although each country and region has its own characteristics, but generally speaking, they are small chess and card games.

In the neon area, mahjong is mainly played. The Bird Soul mini-game produced by pokeni has an exquisite two-dimensional style. Players can choose different beauties and handsome guys as avatars, as well as beautiful vertical paintings. When playing mahjong, they can also play tiles. Different text effects will appear according to the number and type of Hu tiles, allowing players to experience the fun of mahjong while also getting a better visual experience.

Then there are shogi, go, shogi, etc.

In China, the main games are Mahjong, Doudizhu, Go and Xiangqi.

In the United States, it is mainly bridge, Texas Hold'em, blackjack, baccarat...

In short, the categories are very rich, but each one is small in size, making it very easy to develop. Compared with a large company game project, Akanishi Ken and others should not make these small games too fast, basically a month Can produce one.

Although these games are small in size, they are generally very interactive and require multiple people to play. At the same time, they also have a certain gaming nature, so they often make people get addicted and enjoy them endlessly.

…

P Club's game platform is particularly groundbreaking. It can be downloaded on both the PC platform and the Sega DC game console platform. After the game platform is launched, Sega DC is installed by default and is a built-in software. As long as the new machine is obtained, it will Comes with this game platform function.

In fact, there were DC game consoles in the past, but they were not displayed. Now that they are online, they can be automatically activated as long as players are connected to the Internet. In order to allow players to understand and adapt to the game platform as quickly as possible, there are also detailed novice tutorials.

As long as you follow the steps to enter the game lobby, it will basically be clear how to play later.

In order to allow Chinese players to download the game platform, pokeni also uses Penguin RTT, a killer tool. Through the pop-up window function of RTT, when players are chatting, a big prompt will pop up in the lower right corner. It is also paired with some exquisite pictures of beautiful women, which is particularly eye-catching.

Players almost couldn't help but want to click in and take a look when they saw this thing.

It doesn't matter if you don't think you need it, because RTT will play it after a while.

This was also a common method used by Penguin to promote games back then, allowing RTT users to monetize their traffic.

Therefore, in a very short period of time, the global registered users of the Dandelion Game Platform have shown a geometric increase. In less than two months, the number of global registered users has reached an astonishing more than 4 million, and this is just Just a small part of it.

…

But,

On the Rentian side, the first moment Hiroshi Yamauchi saw this gaming platform, he didn't feel scared, but looked confused.

"Pokeni spent a lot of money to build such a game platform, but in the end it is just to provide players with card and board games? And it seems to be free. How can this thing make money?"

He held the controller and operated it for a long time, and even played a few games of mahjong with others on the Internet, but he was very confused in his heart, how can the players pay?

Shigeru Miyamoto actually participated in this E3 electronics exhibition, and also saw pokeni's demonstration on the spot, but he himself was confused.

"It does look like a free game, just download it. But is pokeni really so kind to let players only play free games?"

On the other side, Sony Kutaragi Ken and Dei Nobuyuki also had the same confused expression.

"P Club develops a game platform. I've seen it. It seems that some dandelion coins were given out at the beginning, but now I'm still a little doubtful about how I can continue to get this thing in the future."

Kutaragi Ken frowned. After playing for about half an hour, he saw the shining recharge button on the platform.

P agency gave very considerate tips:

At this point, Kutaragi Ken and Dei Nobuyuki suddenly realized.

"Wow, that's what it is!"

"In fact, Qing Zhiyuan has already planned it, right? We thought too much first," Nobuyuki Idei sighed deeply, "No wonder I said, before SoftBank launched online banking with so much fanfare, I thought it was just using It’s just for transferring money, I didn’t expect it also has a game recharge function.”

Although they have figured out how P Club pays, Nobuyuki Idei and Ken Kutaragi still have no idea in their hearts——

Can this thing really make money?

P Club's online mode has completely separated from the entity and entered a completely new field, which game manufacturers are very unfamiliar with.

Before this, the tracks that everyone played on were physical tracks. When you play arcade coins, you actually use real money and silver to exchange for game coins, which have a physical quantity. On home game consoles, every game cartridge has Each game disc has a price marked on it, which is not much different from other clothes, pants, and bags. It is a one-time sale. After the game is sold, there will be no subsequent payments.

But pokeni’s gaming platform seems a bit different. The only analogy Kutaragi and Nobuyuki can draw is real-life casinos.

But if you want to open a casino of such a large scale that can accommodate millions of people, it seems a bit unrealistic, and it is beyond people's imagination.

Moreover, casinos rely on rake to make profits, and pokeni seems to be recharged through games, but it is really unknown whether and how much money can be made by doing so.

When something is too new and beyond people's usual cognitive scope, you will feel a great sense of instability.

Qing Zhiyuan is probably the only person in the whole world who knows the power of the gaming platform.

…

At the same time, the local promotion team hired by pokeni began to play a huge role around the world:

These temporarily hired personnel are in Internet cafes in China and North America, teaching players step-by-step. If they cannot understand the game recharge prompts, they will directly teach them manually how to recharge through online banking.

If you do not have online banking, you can purchase game points directly at the counter.

Baojiaobaohui.

The service is in place.

It is a little more difficult in Neon, because Internet cafes do not have game functions, so pokeni not only provides prompts in the game interface, but also specially places advertisements on major TV stations, in which actors teach interactive lessons to inform players. How do we recharge.

To recharge, you can use the online banking service provided by Neon Online Banking. You only need to apply for a bank card and activate the corresponding online recharge. If you find it troublesome, you can directly make point card purchases at major game sales stores, and then go to the game recharge interface. Enter the activation code to get the corresponding Dandelion Coins.

Regarding chess and card halls, there are several mainstream profit models:

The first is to sell advertising. The chess and card hall itself has a display function. It can place different advertising spaces according to the conspicuity of different places and specify the price.

For example, the most conspicuous position in the upper left corner of the lobby interface sells the most expensive advertisements.

Then gradually lower toward the lower right corner.

At the same time, larger advertising spaces are more expensive.

pokeni has not sold advertising space yet. On the one hand, it does not have time to solicit advertising sponsorships. On the other hand, Qing Zhiyuan does not want to make money through this.

Sometimes there are too many ads, which can be quite annoying to players.

Now that RTT pop-ups have already brought infamy for Qing Zhiyuan, there is no need to add some bells and whistles to the game lobby, which will affect the quality of the game lobby.

Just like the Steam game platform, when have you ever seen an advertisement for selling cars on its homepage?

When making games, we need to be more dedicated. If the game platform can be expanded in the future, there will be many game manufacturers joining in the future.

As for advertising.

We'll see if it's necessary later depending on the situation.

Selling ads is not necessarily to make money, it may be to expand the market.

The second is to sell game currency. Game currency is the most common way to make money in board and card games, such as Happy Beans, gold coins...

Although board and card games do not sell heroes, hero skins, or draw cards... but just selling game currency is quite scary.

Take Doudizhu as an example. If you go to a high-end venue, the base you need will be over ten thousand, hundreds of thousands of Happy Beans, and you will lose in just a few hands of cards.

For this type of game, it doesn’t matter who wins, as long as a player loses, someone will top up the money.

Therefore, the money-attracting ability of board and card games is no weaker than that of large-scale online games. Even because of its universality and popularity, the pay-to-pay ratio of board and card games is quite high.

According to Chinese law, as long as the currency in the game is not in circulation and cannot be exchanged for physical soft currency, then the game is not illegal.

This can be regarded as a side ball.

You will find that even if the currency is not in circulation and uses virtual currency that cannot be traded, there will still be people who continue to play it endlessly.

This is the typical gambler's mentality. If you lose, you must win back, and if you win, you must win more.

As long as players enter this pit, it will be difficult to get out.

…

In just over a month, pokeni’s gaming platform revenue reached US$31 million.

At its peak, it almost exceeded 1.5 million US dollars a day.

After excluding monthly expenses, mainly bandwidth and server costs, employee salaries, and other project consumption, the total net profit is about US$4 million.

Think about it, the gaming platform can generate nearly 50 million US dollars in net profit a year, how terrifying is this.

And according to Qing Zhiyuan's idea, this is just the beginning. In the future, it should reach several billion dollars per year.

You should never underestimate the ability of gamblers to pay.

Even Xiao Ma was shocked by this result.

He didn't even think that he would actually see this day.

The RTT platform he once created can actually produce such a powerful chemical reaction when combined with games.

China has contributed almost the largest number of people to the Dandelion game platform in the world. The number of registrations alone has reached more than 2 million, and by August, nearly 30,000 people were online at the same time.

Although the level of payment in China is still relatively low, it still contributes about 20 million yuan in monthly revenue.

In 1999, it was so scary.

When Xiao Ma saw this result, he suddenly felt like he was being lifted up by the gods. He felt lightheaded. The time of losses felt like yesterday, but now Penguin has actually started to make profits.

Before this, he had never thought of such a way to make money. Qing Zhiyuan is simply a god!

…

Not only was Xiaoma Ge shocked, but as the largest cooperative distributor of P Company, Dongrun President Hattori Hiroyuki was so surprised that his jaw dropped when he saw the company's sales data.

"What?! We sold 300 million yen just for game point cards in one month?!"

What the hell is this?

"We were surprised at first, thinking that the settlement data of each branch were wrong," Dongrun's sales director responded with the information compiled in his hand, "but it may be normal for one or two to be wrong. No. Maybe everyone is wrong.

After carefully checking the data, we found that Dandelion Point Cards really sold so many. "

Hiss...

Hattori Hiroyuki couldn't help but take in a breath of cold air.

To be honest, the reason why he took the order from Qing Zhiyuan back then was mainly because he wanted to give it a try and had trust in Qing Zhiyuan and pokeni, but he personally did not have any concept of making money.

Even if you think about it, it is impossible to understand that an online game point card used for recharging can actually create such a large amount of revenue, and it is still a steady flow of money.

This is simply much scarier than selling games.

And just like what Qing Zhiyuan described when we were having dinner -

Dandelion points card, it is money.

"It's amazing."

Hattori Hiroyuki was extremely shocked in his heart, "Isn't that equivalent to pokeni being able to print money by himself?!"

What kind of brain does Qing Zhiyuan have to create such a terrible machine for printing money?

…

…

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No updates tonight

Thank you all.

See you tomorrow. (End of chapter)