Daenerys Entertainment invested a total of $50 million in the Counter-Strike OL project, of which $40 million was development expenses, including a 3D game engine specially developed for this game, code-named ‘Eden’, and also a customized network operation platform.

Another $10 million is the promotional expenses.

In the era when a computer can make a game by one person, this is a very huge expense.

In the most intuitive comparison, the previous "Counter-Strike 2.0" invested only US$15 million in production and publicity, and this has exceeded the average level of this era.

Therefore, Daenerys's game department still has some complaints about Simon's strong demand to promote "Counter-Strike 3.0" as soon as possible, which is the OL project.

The 2.0 version invested a total of 15 million yuan, and was launched in March last year. It was priced at US$49 in North America, and the average overseas price was basically the same. So far, more than 1.3 million copies have been sold worldwide, earning about US$65 million. Excluding the final tax cost, the net profit is close to 20 million and the return on investment is more than 100%.

Even if it is not considered phenomenal, it is very successful.

The key is that games are not movies. Although movies also have long-tail returns, they often become more and more dispensable as they go. The life cycle of the game is very long. "Counter-Strike 2.0" sold 1.3 million copies in less than two years. If the sequel is not released, it will continue to be sold. In the next two or three years, it is not impossible for the total global sales to exceed 2 million copies.

The costs have been recovered and there is no need for more investment in the future. Selling one portion means making a net profit.

This is actually why many popular stand-alone games have been sluggish in production later. It is basically not because of the development reason, but because the previous work was sold too well. If the sequel was released too early, the result is to end the life cycle of the previous work ahead of schedule, which is not in line with the principle of maximizing interests. Of course, the game company has to delay.

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This phenomenon has even led to some ridiculous industry talks, such as "Grand Theft Auto 5". Because it was too popular, the official refused to release a sequel, which led to some die-hard fans who were forced to publicly encourage everyone to play pirated versions, and all kinds of feathers flew around.

The same is true for the current "Counter-Strike" series.

Originally, the sales volume of 2 million copies was expected, because Simon asked 3.0 to be launched as soon as possible, and the life of the 2.0 version would basically end, which would mean giving up $35 million in sales revenue.

In addition, the huge total investment of up to $50 million in version 3.0 will definitely become Simon's biggest decision-making mistake if it is not successful. You should know that even if the investment of $50 million is increased to $69, 1.5 million copies will be sold, which is about $100 million in revenue, to achieve balance of revenue and expenditure, after all, this time it also includes server operating expenses.

1.5 million is already the top ten global game sales in the year.

People are always prone to seeing super phenomenal games with sales exceeding tens of millions, but they ignore one thing. Behind these games are hundreds of failed games that are silently lost. The standard one general has achieved success and has been broken. Therefore, 1.5 million sales are not so easy to achieve.

In order to control risks as much as possible, this time "Counter-Strike OL" was only first launched in the North American market, and plans to be released overseas based on market feedback. After all, this game is no longer a stand-alone player. As long as it is launched, it requires additional expenses from the server platform and operation team.

If you can save a little, you have to save a little.

When Simon was playing games with a little girl on the East Coast, it was the East Coast just evening. Daenerys went up to Amy Pascal and went down to many ordinary employees in the game department, and they were also paying close attention to the sales data of the game.

The promotion and promotion for several consecutive months is not just about $10 million in related expenses. Daenerys, Egret and other Westeros system subsidiaries have also provided a large number of free media resources for the promotion of this game, such as various promotional soft articles promoted by the Egret portal to potential game users, the inside videos pushed on the YouTube platform, and even the live game broadcasts invited by the live broadcast platform Twitch to online celebrities, etc.

The value is incalculable.

In short, if the sales volume in the first week of its release in the North American market is below 100,000, it will be a failure.

The first week is expected to be 100,000, and the next year, the local sales are expected to be 1 million. In Shanghai, the cost will be recovered within one year based on 50% of the local area.

This is just everyone’s minimum expectation.

After all, any business hopes to make money, but no one has the intention of not losing money from the beginning, so what else can we do?

However, not many people have any expectations for the super phenomenon level with sales reaching tens of millions, and the phenomenon level is not so easy to achieve.

With this mentality, it took 12 hours to be released, and things obviously exceeded many people's expectations.

Of course not too bad.

But... it's better than I thought.

Too much better!

It was only 12 hours on sale. According to West Coast time, from 6 am to 6 pm, the number of people activated this game has exceeded 70,000. In half a day, sales have approached Daenerys' official minimum expectations for a week. It can be imagined that the full 24 hours will exceed 100,000.

When Nancy Brill received an email from Simon about paying attention to plug-ins, she was still in her office. She had just spoken with Amy Pascal to report good news. She was about to communicate with Larry Probst, the head of the game department, about the emergency expansion of the server and the follow-up promotion strategy of struck while the iron was hot.

Before this, the team prepared a plan that could accommodate up to 250,000 activated users in the first week, which is also everyone's best expectation.

Now, at least double it.

Fortunately, "Counter-Strike OL" is running on Igrit's cloud computing platform. It is not difficult to expand, and you can do it by working overtime tonight.

It is very clear that his boss won another hit. Nancy received an email and directly sandwiched the plug-in question in the next communication with Probster. After thinking about it for a while, he also wrote a reply to inform him of the good news. Then, by all odds, he did not talk about work, but asked what his boss was doing?

A very homely chatting tone.

After sending it, Nancy regretted it. She thought about whether she had withdrawn the email. She sat in front of the computer and waited for a while. However, there was still no reply to the read prompt, and she was also a little inexplicably resentful.

I must be fooling around with some woman.

So he simply ignored it and asked the assistant outside to answer the phone call from Larry Probst and talk about the serious matters.

Long Island.

Inside the Linhai Manor in East Hampton.

It has to be said that "Counter-Strike OL" has indeed achieved the ultimate based on current software and hardware. The excellent gaming experience and unprecedented multi-player online confrontation have quickly immersed Simon and Miao Miao, one big and one small. When Miao Miao's mother Shirley couldn't help but come and knock on the door, it was already past 11 o'clock in the evening.

When she saw the man and her daughter were just playing games, even though the girl was blushing, Shirley still breathed a sigh of relief.

Shirley is not stupid, so of course she cannot feel a certain attitude of men towards their mother and daughter.

However, this man has a very high status. As two weak vines climbing on this towering tree, women really don’t have much resistance and occasionally want to leave. However, being used to life now, it will be so easy to leave.

What's more, will men let them go?

Thinking a little sadly, put down the fruit plate in his hand as an excuse, Shirley walked around the desk and stood behind the leather chair of the man and his daughter looking at the computer screen. After watching patiently for a while, she said softly: "Simon, it's already very late, so why not take a break first, Miao Mu can't play for too long."

Before Simon could speak, the girl complained: "Dad, look, mom is like this. I keep talking about it for a while."

Simon nodded: "Well, I haven't forgotten. I'll help you get rid of your mother later."

Hearing this, Shirley's face suddenly became rosy, and she wanted to pull a little girl over and spank her hard.

The girl seemed to have noticed her fault and carefully glanced at her mother behind her: "Dad, I don't mean that, I also know that my mother doesn't let me play games for my own good."

While speaking, Simon, who had completed four kills on the computer screen and was about to create higher achievements, was accidentally besieged by two people and suddenly became a sieve. He returned to the resurrection point and set off again, laughed and said, "I was unable to kill five times. I will punish you now."

Miao Miao twisted his body in Simon's arms, and she did not make excuses, but reached forward: "Dad, I'll do it, I'll do it."

Simon gave the operation rights to the girl, then glanced at the fruit plate that the woman had just brought in, and signaled.

Shirley hurried over, picked up the fruit plate and walked forward. Seeing the man looking like a master, he had no intention of doing it himself, he had to carefully pick up an apple strung on the toothpick and send it to the man's mouth.

Miu Miu's technology is obviously not as good as Simon. He just rushed out of this nuclear power plant with the most complex terrain and was sent back to the resurrection site. He screamed and raised his face: "Mom, I want it too, I want pineapple."

Shirley had to send fruits into her mouth piece by piece like a nanny. At one moment, she felt like a hard-working female bird. If a guy didn't come over secretly, it forced her to pay frequent attention to her daughter's movements to prevent her from seeing scenes she shouldn't have seen.

After playing for a while, I finished eating a plate of fruit, and the time came to 12 o'clock.

The girl was not sleepy yet, but Simon couldn't continue.

There are still many things to do tomorrow Saturday.

Seeing this, Shirley, who had already spread to her neck quietly, saw this, she quickly called a maid and asked her to take her reluctant girl to rest. During this period, she was a little worried, afraid that the man would stop him and do something else.

Fortunately, it wasn't.
Chapter completed!