Wind Rises 2005

Chapter 569 Another Phenomenal Level
"Mark, paying players have appeared, and the current game revenue has exceeded 2 US dollars."

On the second day after "Plants vs. Zombies" was launched, Michael Luxton, one of the partners of Zynga, once again rushed into the CEO's office and shouted in surprise.

Mark Pincus was also very excited when he heard this. He never expected that an inconspicuous little game could have such magic power.

Because just before Michael rushed in, another partner Eric Schiermeier had just reported the situation to him and had only walked out of the office for a few minutes.

According to the latest news reported by Eric, the number of downloads of "Plants vs. Zombies" has exceeded 100 million.

You must know that less than 24 hours have passed since the game was launched.

Such exaggerated data is simply unbelievable. Although Mark Pincus had seen the madness of the players yesterday, he did not expect it to be so crazy.

If this continues, wouldn't the total number of players of "Plants vs. Zombies" reach tens of millions?
If calculated according to current trends, such an inconspicuous little game is expected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the company. This is too crazy!
Mark Pincus even doubted whether he was dreaming, because he still estimated in the most conservative way.

Having been operating board and card games for more than half a year, he is very familiar with the players.

Chess and card games often set up some easy-to-get card types, which can attract users to spend money every minute.

Not to mention a game like "Plants vs. Zombies" that is fun and easy to get addicted to.

Although in the long run, the loyalty of "Plants vs. Zombies" players is unlikely to be as high as that of card game players.

But in terms of short-term payment rates, it is definitely many times higher than that of card games.

If board and card games are about making long-tail profits, then "Plants vs. Zombies" is definitely the kind of game that makes quick money.

But Mark Pincus is not worried at all that the game will lose its vitality in a year and a half.

Because of the game plan sent by the young investor, it is clear that "Plants vs. Zombies" can continue to iterate.

New versions can be launched every one or two years.

Now that there is "Plants vs. Zombies 1", why can't there be "Plants vs. Zombies 2" and "Plants vs. Zombies 3".

It is even possible to release some expansion packs like many online games, or to continue the vitality of the entire game by constantly updating game elements or levels.

For this, Mark Pincus is very confident.

With Twitter's traffic support and his next marketing plan, he can't wait to see the game "Plants vs. Zombies" completely explode.

So Mark Pincus couldn't wait to tell Michael: "Then let's not wait and start the follow-up plan directly!"

"No problem, I'll arrange it right away!"

Michael Lux didn't even wait to finish speaking, he turned around and went to work, because he couldn't wait any longer.

……

Just one day later, Zynga's follow-up marketing plan began to take effect.

Not only did we find many technology and game media to increase their coverage, we even hired many game bloggers to carry out video promotions.

Let them post Plants vs. Zombies-related videos on YouTube.

Since he is a game blogger, he is naturally better than ordinary players.

Some of the videos they released were tutorials for clearing subsequent paid levels, but most of them were showy operations for various extreme levels.

It can only be said that the power of the masses is infinite. The extreme clearance of game bloggers immediately aroused a new round of enthusiasm among countless players for the game "Plants vs. Zombies".

In particular, some competitive players also joined in and tried to play more exciting operations.

As a result, more and more netizens have been attracted by the game videos uploaded by various players and have joined the ranks of fighting zombies.

It has to be said that game bloggers are still very capable of selling goods. In just one week, they brought millions of download users to "Plants vs. Zombies".

According to rough background statistics, the players who came through game blogger Amway almost caught up with the traffic converted from Twitter.

This surprised Mark Pincus and once again increased the marketing budget in this area.

At the same time, he decided to start the third step of the marketing plan in advance and make a linkage with Twitter.

All users who pass all paid levels can win special reward packages.

In the gift package, not only will some rarer plants be unlocked, but they can also be grown and sold in Twitter’s [Farmville] virtual farm.

Once you have these rare plants, you will definitely become the most beautiful person in your circle of friends.

Friends on Twitter are eager to buy rare plants from you in advance so that they can pass the levels more easily.

After all, those rare plants not only have powerful attacks, but also have very cool bullet effects. Who wouldn’t want that!

In addition to these, the gift package also includes many virtual product rewards from Twitter websites, and even some virtual currency rewards from Zynga’s chess and card games.

Since you are engaging in linkage marketing, sincerity must be sufficient.Use multiple methods to hit it, and the effect will be immediate.

More and more netizens have picked up this game. Even girls who don’t like playing games originally will be led by their friends to play a few games.

For a time, the topic of "Plants vs. Zombies" was indispensable in major website forums, various social media, and various instant messaging tools.

Players also flooded into Zynga's servers to download and try out the game.

……

South America, Chile, capital Santiago.

Although the economy of all South American countries seems to be average, Chile is one of the richest countries in South America.

In terms of economic data, Chile's per capita GDP far exceeds that of China.

Mateo is an ordinary boy living in the capital Santiago, but unlike other South American boys, he does not want to go outdoors and only likes to stay at home and play games.

And he is not an ordinary player, but a game blogger.

Therefore, Mateo is even more lazy to go out and play. He plays games at home all day long, records videos, and posts them online to increase his popularity in the hope of receiving some advertising tasks.

Recently, he received a recharge from a game manufacturer. An American game company asked him to promote a game, "Plants vs. Zombies."

After a brief understanding, he readily agreed.

Although Mateo has always focused on large-scale games in the past, he has always scorned such independent small games.

But this time it was different. The manufacturer was very sincere in the fee, so it was hard for him not to be tempted.

In addition, "Plants vs. Zombies" is not difficult for a game master like him, and he can get started easily.

So Mateo accepted the task and started preparing seriously.

But unlike other game bloggers, he was not in a hurry to complete the game and publish so-called game tutorials, nor did he do some cool tricks to attract attention.

Mateo is a pure technical player. He is very particular about every game he plays and even takes a lot of notes and calculations.

This is still the case even in the face of an inconspicuous game like "Plants vs. Zombies".What is the attack power of a pea shooter? How many seconds can a wall of nuts resist zombies? How many seconds can a cabbage pitcher kill a zombie with a barrel? Do the thorns cause the same damage to different zombies...

Mateo has always won applause from fans for his detailed analysis of the game.

Therefore, after receiving a recharge from the manufacturer of "Plants vs. Zombies" this time, he started to test play and conduct detailed evaluations as usual.

Even while playing, he unconsciously became addicted to it.

Fortunately, his professionalism was there, and he quickly came to his senses, constantly testing the data and special uses of various plants.

As we all know, the game "Plants vs. Zombies" is all about troop formation.

So Mateo's efforts were not in vain. After working hard for days and nights without sleep, he finally mastered the core data of this game.

Later, when playing each level, he could always find the easiest way to set up the formation.

No matter how powerful the zombies were, they were vulnerable to him. He fought through them all the way and cleared the entire game effortlessly.

Mateo posted these detailed analysis videos on the Internet one by one, which once again attracted many players to criticize them.

However, he was not complacent, but focused on the next task.

After all, the manufacturer attaches great importance to this game, and is even willing to spend money on marketing.

In particular, he is very generous to game bloggers, and has promised to gradually increase payment according to the increase in the number of video plays.

And this agreement is only for game videos related to the special challenge mode.

Because in the game "Plants vs. Zombies", after every player passes the level and unlocks all the plants, he can start the endless challenge mode and try the extreme gameplay.

The endless challenge mode also has multiple maps, and each map is increasingly difficult.

Every time a level is passed, endless points will be added to the player. The higher the score, the more levels the player has passed.

There is also a ranking list, and corresponding rewards will be issued every week based on the ranking.

Mateo discovered from the very beginning that the endless challenge mode was the most suitable place for him to create content.

If the levels are not difficult enough, how can he show that he, a game blogger, is different from others.

So after doing sufficient research, Mateo put all his energy into it.

His goal is to be number one in the rankings.

While playing, record relevant videos and post them on YouTube.Because he did sufficient evaluation in the early stage, his ranking speed far exceeded that of other game bloggers.

As the saying goes, a sharpened sword never fails to chop wood, and many of his extreme operations really amazed countless players.

Many of Mateo's formations really taught the players a lot.

This also attracted more attention to him, and the number of fans continued to rise, and it was about to exceed the 50 mark.

This made him even more excited, and he even posted several videos a day.

Mateo wants to earn more commissions for no other reason. After all, for every thousand times the video is played, the income will increase by one dollar.

Don't underestimate this insignificant one dollar. If you add up so many videos, he might be able to earn thousands of dollars more every month.

This is the reason why he stayed up late for several days to play the game. Otherwise, no matter how fun "Plants vs. Zombies" is, it would be difficult for him to stick to it.

The reason for this setting is because after analysis by Mark Pincus and the team, they found that exciting videos in the endless challenge mode are more likely to attract players into the game.

That’s why a new commission model was released to major game bloggers, with rewards based on the number of video plays.

The more exciting the game video is, the more it will attract players’ attention, and the more traffic and users it will attract.

And as long as players want to challenge the endless mode, they will definitely need krypton gold.

Otherwise, slowly rely on the farm in Twitter to grow stolen vegetables, and wait until the Year of the Monkey to unlock the endless challenge mode.

So this back and forth forms a closed loop of the business model.

Mark Pincus also gained the confidence to spend money to stimulate game bloggers to record more videos of the sexy gameplay of the endless mode after reading the feedback from players.

There is only one purpose, so that millions of players can’t help but spend money.

Mateo is not the only game blogger who has been recharged by Zynga. Game experts like him are recruited all over the world.

With such elaborate marketing arrangements, the popularity of "Plants vs. Zombies" has completely exploded.

It is still so popular that even people who don’t play games know about this game.

This is called being outside the circle, and everyone outside the circle knows it.

After all, thanks to the dual efforts of Zynga and Twitter, the fate of the small game "Plants vs. Zombies" is completely different from its previous life.

Not only has the number of players and payment rates reached an exaggerated level several times that of the previous life, but the social attributes are also fully maxed out.

Originally, the simpler the game, the more popular it will be, but it will be difficult to promote it if there are barriers to entry.

"Plants vs. Zombies" is a small game suitable for leisure. If you don't like extreme gameplay, almost everyone can pass it.

You must know that this little game was the most out of the circle in Ma Liang's previous life.

If you really want to talk about it, it is even more famous than "Angry Birds".If it hadn't been for too many cracked and pirated versions in the previous PC era, Baokai Company might have made a fortune long ago.

But this time is different. "Plants vs. Zombies" is already associated with Twitter.

Not only have many measures been taken to prevent theft, but the crackdown is also stronger, and because of the social nature, players are less willing to try piracy.

Therefore, the new version of "Plants vs. Zombies" launched by Ma Liang has completely surpassed the performance of the previous life.

The number of players, payment rates, and total revenue are all constantly breaking various records in the gaming industry.

If I had to use one word to describe it, it would be “phenomenal”.

This was only possible when Twitter launched the food-stealing gameplay of [Farmville].

The food-stealing games are free, but Plants vs. Zombies is a paid game.

The difference between the two can be said to be a matter of heaven and earth, and cannot be generalized.

The popularity of "Plants vs. Zombies" not only created huge revenue, but also brought Twitter's registered users and activity to another peak.

According to rough calculations, the gap in operational data between Twitter and Facebook is negligible.

It is estimated that it will take a few days to fully catch up with the opponent.
-
PS: Sorry, sorry, two days of updates were posted together.

Because this plot is connected, it would be difficult to update it separately, so I thought I would stay up late and finish it in one go. Here are two chapters in one.

I just have something going on at home on Sunday, so there will be no update tonight. I will continue tomorrow. Thank you brothers for your support!
(End of this chapter)