164: Chapter 164: Diver Dave's Countdown to Full Platform Launch!

When the date reached November 29th.

With less than two days left until the multi-platform launch of Spark Games' official new title, dave the diver.

On this day.

To prepare for the launch of the company's new work, Jiang Yuan specially convened a final meeting to go over the latest promotional plan for the game with everyone from start to finish.

Qin Gong and several core members of the Publishing Department sat on her left, Song Siming and a few key members of the Operations Team sat on the right, while Wen Lan sat in the corner in charge of taking notes.

Additionally, as the head of Star Studio and the temporary lead artist respectively, Lin Zhengtao and Su Meng also participated in this meeting.

Considering that the company had already found two very talented artists who were currently going through the onboarding process.

This meeting would likely be Su Meng's last appearance as the lead artist of Star Studio. For a long time to come, she would be fully dedicated to her work at Spark Studio.

As the meeting began, the projector's light first hit the screen, displaying the schedule for the simultaneous multi-platform launch.

The PC version would be available on both the Spark Game Platform and Steam, while the console versions would launch simultaneously on PlayStation, Xbox, Xbox Series, and Switch.

The store pages, recommendation slots, launch discount strategies, and platform-exclusive skin plans for each platform were all densely listed in the table, clear and easy to understand.

As for why it was launching on both the Spark Game Platform and Steam simultaneously, rather than being a Spark Platform PC exclusive.

That was naturally in line with what Jiang Yuan had said when she first created the platform: core titles would have timed exclusivity, while indie games could consider a simultaneous multi-platform launch.

The competition between Spark Games and Steam could be kept within a healthy range, rather than having to be a life-or-death struggle where they immediately turned against each other.

Her clear gaze swept over everything on the screen, and Jiang Yuan asked in a crisp voice:

"Has the frame rate optimization for the Switch version been confirmed?"

This was the first time a Spark Games title would launch simultaneously on the Switch; even with her confidence in the Aurora Engine, she was still quite concerned about optimization.

Hearing this question, Lin Zhengtao immediately looked up and said seriously:

"It's been confirmed three times. Nintendo passed the review last week. It runs stably at a locked 30 FPS, and we've run through the full game several times in both handheld and docked modes without any frame drops. You can rest assured, President Jiang!"

Nodding slightly, Jiang Yuan continued:

"What about the PS controller adaptation? Did Sony have any feedback?"

Lin Zhengtao flipped through his notebook and said in a deep voice:

"The haptic feedback and adaptive triggers are both fine. When diving into the sea, the triggers provide slight resistance to simulate water pressure, and there's a crisp vibration feedback when the harpoon is fired."

"The contact at Sony said it's one of the best controller adaptations for a third-party game they've tested this year."

Jiang Yuan gave a soft hum, a look of satisfaction appearing on her exquisite and flawless face.

Back on Earth, when [dave the diver] landed on PS, it had indeed been praised for its controller adaptation.

But the adaptation in that version was relatively conservative, with only basic vibration feedback.

This time, Jiang Yuan and the team at Star Studio had clearly put in more effort. From the early stages of the project, they utilized the powerful performance of the Aurora Engine to include feature implementation plans for each platform in the development documents, rather than waiting to port it after the PC version was finished.

This was the confidence Spark Games had in doing multi-platform publishing, and it was the true moat of the Aurora Engine!

Satisfied, Jiang Yuan turned to Qin Gong and asked about the other giant in the console platform:

"What about Xbox?"

Hearing this, Qin Gong looked up and replied confidently:

"The placement fee for a day-one XGP launch is basically confirmed at ten million dollars. Microsoft has promised to put dave the diver at the top of next month's XGP monthly recommendations!"

Everyone in the meeting room, including Jiang Yuan, nodded inwardly upon hearing this figure, deeply feeling the current strength and influence of Spark Games.

Ten million dollars, while seemingly less than the porting and placement fee for [Minecraft] last time, was quite astounding considering this was just a small-scale game developed by Star Studio in over three months, and given the terrifying popularity of Minecraft.

The placement fee alone could cover all the game's development costs, with plenty to spare.

It could only be said that Microsoft now had a very clear judgment of Spark Games' brand appeal; the price for dave the diver wasn't based solely on indie game standards but on the standards of a top-tier title for the platform.

The meeting proceeded, soon reaching the topic of media hype.

Song Siming opened the notebook in front of him and reported slowly:

"The final PV was released on the night of the 27th. In the roughly 48 hours since then, the Bilibili view count has exceeded 5.3 million, and Weibo reposts have surpassed 100,000."

"Overseas, the YouTube view count has topped 1.8 million, and the edited trailer on Twitter has been retweeted over 30,000 times."

At first glance, the domestic data didn't seem too exaggerated.

But considering the company hadn't paid for promotion in this area, the organic data looked quite amazing.

As for overseas, in the current situation where successful domestic game exports are few and far between, or even non-existent, the heat of this data looked quite bright.

Perhaps it was also because everyone understood this deeply.

At this point, a relaxed and happy smile appeared on the face of every member in the meeting room, as if they weren't worried about the sales of [dave the diver] at all.

At this moment, Qin Gong took over the conversation and said with a bright smile:

"All the platforms have given dave the diver a launch-day homepage recommendation slot."

"Steam has placed us at the top of the 'Upcoming Popular' recommendations. The PS Store gave us a homepage carousel for the launch week, and the Xbox Store did the same. I can only say that our Publishing Department definitely won't miss any treatment we can fight for!"

"Finally, the most important part: the review scores. Considering this is our first time participating in a large-scale review, we sent out review codes to media outlets on various platforms last week. As of now, we've received over twenty reviews in total."

"Among them, PCGamer gave it a 91, IGN gave it an 8, Famitsu gave it a 34, and here at home, several mainstream media outlets all gave it perfect scores!"

Hearing these scores.

Jiang Yuan raised her eyebrows slightly and asked somewhat suspiciously:

"Did you guys go behind my back and bribe these domestic media outlets?"

Hearing this, Qin Gong immediately cried out in grievance:

"Without your permission, President Jiang, who would dare! We didn't spend a single cent, and they all gave perfect scores! I even wanted to ask if you wanted me to tell them to tone it down a bit so it doesn't look so exaggerated!"