147: Chapter 147 Plants vs. Zombies Hybrid Edition DLC

Time slipped by, and it was late October.

This day.

After finishing her work, Jiang Yuan suddenly had someone call Qin Gong to her office.

When the tall, well-dressed Qin Gong arrived at the office, he first saw Jiang Yuan leaning back in her office chair with her eyes closed, resting.

She was wearing a misty blue thin knit cardigan today, paired with a white crew-neck base layer, black straight-leg trousers, and her long hair tied into a high ponytail.

She was curled up quietly in the chair, the light falling on her gracefully shaped side profile, outlining an exquisite and stunning silhouette.

Before her lay two documents.

These two documents were nothing else.

One was the data report for Plants vs. Zombies over the past three months submitted by Qin Gong, and the other was the Halloween paid DLC proposal sent by him.

Hearing Qin Gong enter, Jiang Yuan opened her clear eyes, which were slightly bloodshot, lifted her fair chin toward the chair opposite her, and said calmly, "Sit."

Qin Gong sat down as instructed, glanced at the desktop, and smiled, "President Jiang, have you decided on the release date for the hybrid edition DLC?"

Jiang Yuan gave a light hum, not speaking.

She pushed the two proposals on the table toward Qin Gong and said calmly, "Your plan is very detailed; the pricing strategy, conversion rate estimates, and expected revenue are all charted out. But your conversion rate model is based on DLC data from hardcore strategy games."

"But Plants vs. Zombies is different. Its core user base consists of casual gamers. These people are willing to pay once for a reasonably priced game, but if you make them pay repeatedly for small-volume DLCs, the conversion rate will drop with each iteration."

Qin Gong nodded thoughtfully upon hearing this, saying nothing.

He wasn't a fool; he clearly realized that Jiang Yuan calling him here wasn't to praise his proposal and report.

On the other side, Jiang Yuan continued in a crisp, pleasant voice, "There is a more fundamental problem."

She flipped through Qin Gong's data report to a certain page, pointed at one of the curves, and continued, "Plants vs. Zombies currently has over 20 million sales on Steam and nearly 3 million on the Spark Platform, and the overlap between the user bases of these two platforms is not high."

"Steam players have been playing Plants vs. Zombies on Steam for over half a year. They don't have a clear understanding of the Spark Platform, nor do they need to use the Spark client. If we make this DLC paid, no matter which platform we release it on, we would just be earning money from the DLC."

"But if we make it free and release it simultaneously on both platforms, things would be different."

Qin Gong was clearly a smart man; he didn't need further explanation to acutely understand the meaning behind Jiang Yuan's words. His eyes lit up as he said, "President Jiang, do you mean... you want this free DLC to serve as a signal?"

Jiang Yuan nodded slightly, a faint smile appearing on her beautiful face, and said softly, "Plants vs. Zombies is the first true breakout hit for Spark Games. With over 20 million sales on Steam, it is Spark's most valuable brand."

"But in the past half year, other than daily maintenance, this brand hasn't made any new sounds. Old players are constantly leaving, and new players are growing, barely maintaining a relative balance, but the popularity is still declining. It is in urgent need of a shot in the arm."

"However, paid DLC cannot solve this problem because paid DLC can only be sold to people who are already active."

"Free updates are different, because free updates can be sold to everyone simultaneously, including those who have left, uninstalled the game, haven't opened it for months, or even players who have never played Plants vs. Zombies."

"After they return, they will discover that they can also play Plants vs. Zombies on the Spark Game Platform and get the hybrid edition DLC, with an experience completely identical to Steam! And then..."

At this point, Qin Gong had completely understood why Jiang Yuan called him here today. His eyes grew brighter and brighter as he followed her train of thought and said seriously, "Then they will incidentally see Nine Li, see Minecraft, and see other games."

Nodding slightly, she gave affirmation to Qin Gong's words.

Jiang Yuan picked up the teacup on the table and took a sip. The fresh, slightly bitter aftertaste of the jasmine tea melted on her tongue, instantly refreshing her mind. She said crisply, "And it's not just about recalling old players. Among the 20 million users of Plants vs. Zombies on Steam, a large portion are overseas users."

"The biggest impression these overseas players have of the name Spark is that it is the developer of Plants vs. Zombies and Minecraft. If the free DLC is launched simultaneously on the Spark Platform, it is equivalent to telling everyone that Spark Games is still updating Plants vs. Zombies and that the Spark Game Platform will be another home for Plants vs. Zombies."

"As for the specific release time of the DLC?"

A thoughtful look appeared on Jiang Yuan's exquisite and beautiful face. She pondered, "Let's set it for October 25th. You should issue an announcement on both Steam and the Spark Platform three days in advance. You don't need to write anything like 'blockbuster update incoming' as if we are desperate for players to know that we are updating the DLC for free."

"Just say that the game has undergone some interesting small experiments, and to thank the players for their support, we are giving it away for free to everyone."

Upon hearing this, Qin Gong nodded repeatedly while unable to hold back a laugh, "Okay, I will arrange it immediately when I get back. Speaking of which, other companies talk about free things as if they are priceless, but we at Spark seem to talk about priceless things as if we are giving them away for free. Hahaha!"

Jiang Yuan smiled slightly, thinking to herself that this was nothing; it was just the beginning.

She planned to release several subsequent famous gameplay modes of Plants vs. Zombies as free DLCs!

...

"The free DLC for Plants vs. Zombies [hybrid edition] will be officially launched in three days! We have made a rather interesting little experiment in terms of game mechanics, and we hope everyone will like it!"

Just as the popularity of the game Nine Li was gradually cooling down and the domestic and international gaming circles were returning to a stagnant pool.

This announcement was pushed out on Steam and the Spark Platform at the same time, becoming a bomb dropped into deep water, instantly creating monstrous waves.

Almost all players thought that since Jiang Yuan and Spark Games had put all their energy into the production of new games.

A work like Plants vs. Zombies, which had already been out for almost a year.

At most, there would only be daily maintenance and small updates; a major version update, if not indefinitely delayed, would certainly take a long time to arrive.

But everyone did not expect.

That this day would come so quickly!

Just in the first hour after the announcement was sent out, the reading volume of the announcement on the Steam side had already exceeded 400,000, and the reading volume of the announcement on the Spark Platform had also successfully exceeded 100,000.

Reflected in the game, the download data and concurrent online players of plants vs. zombies hybrid edition began to climb. The curve was not steep, but it was rising very steadily without any sign of stopping.

The first wave of the real surge appeared at 11:30 AM.

The number of concurrent players for Plants vs. Zombies on Steam suddenly pulled out a very obvious upward curve.

For a game that had been released for more than a year, the number of concurrent players on a weekday morning is usually one of the lowest periods of the week.

But today, starting from 10:30, the number of online players kept going up, and by 11:30, it was already 30% higher than the peak of the same period last week.

Another hour passed.

Just past 12:00 noon, during the lunch break.

The news of the plants vs. zombies hybrid edition DLC had already successfully reached the top of the hot search lists on major platforms, and on a certain game forum, there were also many hot posts with over a hundred replies:

"Holy crap, what is the hybrid edition? Is it a fusion version of different plants?"

"Just hearing the name makes me look forward to it!"

"Hahaha, I thought Spark Games was busy making new works and couldn't take care of updating these old games, but I didn't expect to be able to wait for an update for Plants vs. Zombies?"

"Love it! Although the game I play the most and am most obsessed with every day is Minecraft, Plants vs. Zombies was the first game that got me into Spark Games!"

"Free DLC? Is it for real? Is it that conscientious!!!"

"If it were any other game company, I would tell you to be careful of scams, but since it's Jiang Yuan and Spark Games, I can only say rest assured and go play!"

"Hahaha, indeed. If this were Tencent, I would definitely suspect if they added in-app purchases."

"Tencent: Today I will teach you a principle: only free things are the most expensive!"

"Why is it only available in three days? I want to play it now!!!"

Amidst these discussions, Jiang Yuan was sitting in her office, scrolling with her mouse and quietly browsing the feedback from players in major communities.

Among the dense post titles on the screen, surprise and anticipation accounted for the vast majority, and occasionally a few skeptical ones were quickly sprayed by other players until they couldn't find north.

She watched for about ten minutes, closed the browser, leaned back in her chair to close her eyes for a while, and took the opportunity to slack off.

The announcement had been sent out, and the players' reactions had verified her previous judgment.

The rest was to wait for Zhou Ming to finish the final finishing work and wait for the 25th to arrive.

The cup of jasmine tea on the table was still steaming faintly; Chu Qing had quietly come in to refill the water at some point.

Jiang Yuan opened her eyes, picked up the teacup and took a small sip, silently reviewing the arrangements for the next few days in her mind.

On the day of the launch on the 25th, the Operations Team needed to monitor the data for the whole day and fix some malicious bugs. The maintenance and small updates of several other games could not be left behind either.

Of course.

The most important thing at the moment must be the production of the two games [Resident Evil] and [dave the diver].

As the next blockbuster masterpiece of Spark Games and the continuation of indie game production, the importance of these two games goes without saying.

Compared to Resident Evil, which was progressing smoothly but still needed some time to be released, the production of dave the diver had already entered the final stage under high-efficiency production.

What Jiang Yuan needed to do now was to find a suitable time or schedule for the specific release of this game.