Chapter 56


    Meanwhile…


    It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that everyone at Neb has been closely following the news and progress of Oust.


    After all, this was their first major release as a studio, their first group project.


    The budget wasn’t a trivial amount either—with development and advertising fees rounded out to a hefty 7 million yuan.


    Sure, this was peanuts to therger gamingpanies dominating the market right now, but it was an amount that surpassed the typical spending of most indie games.


    With great spendinges great need for returns. So it was natural that the team was highly focused on the performance of the game.


    “Bossman, how is it so far?”


    “Yeah, it’s been a few days sinceunch. I’m dying to know.”


    Within the first week ofunch, Yang Xin, Ruan Ningxue, Qin Yi and a few others were gathered around Chen Xu, who was sinking deeply into a fancy massage chair pany benefits), asking him about the status of the game. While the reviews and buzz around the game were all well and good, what truly determined their future as a game studio were the sales.


    What did word-of-mouth or cult ssic status matter to a game that didn’t sell well? If the sales were bad, the project had no future.


    The first game that came to Chen Xu’s mind along this line of thinking was ‘Bayta’ in his previous life. A game that was near and dear to his heart.


    It was one of the three best action games of its time, standing alongside other hits like ‘Ninja Gaiden’ and ‘Devil May Cry’. ‘Bayta’ was celebrated for its gamey and character design, with loyal fans that begged for more.


    Yet it suffered a lukewarm fate, having the IP traded off repeatedly. The fans had to wait 8 years between the 2nd and 3rd installments.


    Despite its critical acim and cult ssic status, it did not sell well. In fact, if you added up the first and second games, both the original releases and HD remasters, the total sales would still be mogged by ‘Devil May Cry V’ alone.


    It was that bad. The industry could be brutal like that.


    “Not bad at all. We’ve hit 130k copies sold in just under 2 days, and this is after factoring in the refunds. So we should break even within 3 days,” Chen Xu answered with a smile.


    Compared to many other games, ‘Oust’ had a noticeably higher refund rate. But this was within Chen Xu’s expectations.


    After all, it was a horror game. An exceptionally terrifying one, even by his previous world’s standards. So it was only natural that many yers would be too frightened to continue ying.


    “Aww… looks like only 2000 copies were sold on our own tform…” Yang Xin said regretfully while peeking at Chen Xu’s personalputer.


    While Chen Xu hadn’t been explicitly mentioning his intentions with the Neb Games officialuncher / storefront, the internal resource allocation provided towards it made things rather clear.


    “Our discounts aren’tpetitive and the tform stillcks recognition. Plus, our games catalog isn’t at a level to draw people in yet, we currently only have ‘Oust’ as a major title,” Chen Xu replied in a calming tone, his lips curling slightly upwards, “It’s a gradual process, our time wille.”


    In the current era of the parallel world, inte culture was in full swing, there were tons ofpanies and tons of tforms out there. Building up your own would be an uphill battle.


    In his previous life, Chen Xu witnessed the battle between Microsoft and Sony during the peak of the console wars. Both sides had wins and losses over 3 generations of consoles.


    But while Microsoft achieved some notable sesses, it lost a critical battle while transitioning to the inte era, resulting in the reign of the PS4.


    Sony pivoted more quickly to embrace digital games and social gaming, allowing thepany to dominate the market.


    And even after Microsoft leveraged its vast resources, acquiring studios left and right,unching several subscription services, it still ended upgging behind Sony for a long time.


    Simrly in the PC market, Epic Games tried to leverage its breakout hit ‘Fortnite’ to establish its own tform, aggressively spending money to secure users even while operating at a loss.


    But Steam was an industry titan, boasting a massive catalog of games and a suite of convenient services topliment its tform.


    Thinking back, Chen Xu was reminded of Tencent as well. It managed to get a leg up on older giants such as NetEase and Shandargely due to being the first to establish instant messaging.


    Wouldn’t it be great to build apany that could rival those titans one day? Chen Xu mused inwardly, having high goals was nice, but it was time to focus on matters at hand and deal with things as theye.


    He shifted the conversation: “Right now, the potential of ‘Oust’ has yet to be fully realized. There’s a good chance for a sales boom in the near future, get ready for it.”


    “Oh? How so?” Ruan Ningxue and the others were intrigued.


    “Pay attention to streamers and video content creators, those will soon be ourrgest driving force,” Chen Xu said with a gentle smile, he was looking forward to the reactions andptions that would surelye.


    For a horror game to be trulypetitive in sales, it needed to go viral.


    This means making a break out of not only the niche horror game enthusiasts, but also the gamingmunity in general. It had to make normies get hooked on watching other people get scared.


    This worst case scenario would be to remain confined to the initial niche, sales would be doomed in that case.


    Great examples would be ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’, which took the world by storm and topped YouTube charts, bing a universally known franchise.


    And the ‘Resident Evil’ series, which produced iconic characters and memes such as Leon, Ada, rock puncher Chris and hand sanitizer warrior Ethan. Alongside infamous mods such as the Fly Swatter weapon specifically for Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters.


    Other IPs such as ‘Silent Hill’ and ‘Oust’ enjoyed mainstream exposure through video essays, streams and ythroughs. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    In contrast, games such as ‘Fatal Frame’, ‘Siren’, ‘Clock Tower’, and ‘The Evil Within’, while excellent in their own ways, remained obscure to all but dedicated horror game fans, failing to break into the mainstream.


    This need to break out of the horror niche also applied to movies as well, as the majority of yers and viewers simply weren’t hardcore horror enthusiasts.


    They were simply curious about how a game or movie could possibly scare people so much.


    And while it was umon for movies to offer refunds, games did it all the time, yet yers usually do not choose to go for the refunds, even if they did not continue ying.


    After all, once a game is purchased and sitting in your collection, maybe you will y and finish it one day


    This is one of the reasons why many games have a lowpletion rate, horror games especially.


    As of now, Chen Xu’s ‘Oust’ was two days post release, and it already hit 130,000 copies sold. This was impressive, but he knew this was only the beginning.


    Over time, as influencers and content creators realized what a goldmine of content this game could be, sales would elerate.


    The buzz on video and streaming sites had yet to reach its peak.


    ……..


    As predicted, while the spark was lit, it took some time for the craze of ‘Oust’ to spread.


    On several streaming tforms, the game rose in the ranks to be a hotspot for audiences who loved watching their favourite streamers descend into madness.


    Many unsuspecting streamers were bombarded with requests and rmendations to y the newly released title.


    Donation message:


    [ Hey! Try ‘Oust’! It’s a new game by the same guy who made ‘To the Moon’. It’s a heartwarming experience! You’ll love it! ]


    [ Why not y ‘Oust’? It’s super popr right now! ]


    [ It’s great for content! Someone streamed it and hit 3 million views! Let’s go grind! ]


    [ ‘Oust’ or riot ]


    Even streamers who didn’t usually do gaming content were “gently coerced” by their own fanbases to try the game out, ultimately agreeing due to simple curiosity or a need to keep up with trends.


    Some were attracted by the reputation of To the Moon and wondered what its creator was up to. And some wanted to replicate the sess they saw in their peers and build theirmunities.


    Regardless of the reason, more and more hapless streamers willingly jumped into the hungering maw that was ‘Oust’.


    The resulting storm of chaos and excitement that followed would leavesting waves in the world of streaming. <ul data-sharing-events-added="true">


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