Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Even the video game media companies were shocked by the numberd. This included a lot of people who didn’t get a good night’s sleep.
Why? Trying to finish the script, of course!
The first day’s sales went from a thousand, to five thousand, and ten thousand, then twenty thousand. The script couldn’t be the same when the numbers were that different!
The media thought that the first day of sales would be around eight to ten thousand, as they thought Plants vs Zombies was a casual puzzle game, which always had a smaller audience. It would gain a lot of players in the first few hours from Weibo, and after the hype died down the sales would also follow.
In the end, the numbers completely surpassed their expectations!
Not only did it not slow down, but it kept increasing, and broke twenty thousand in twenty-four hours!
Some had known that they were going to witness this go down in history.
At noon, when the twenty-four hour statistics for Plants vs Zombies were released, the media started uploading their articles.
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“The biggest underdog today: Plants vs Zombies!”
“Breaking twenty thousand downloads in the first day, destroying the new games leaderboard”
“Gamers say: I can’t stop!”
“Industry professionals predict: Likely to enter the puzzle games leaderboard!”
“Game reviews: Rich content, new playstyle, otherworldly creativity!”
“Can you believe this? Flappybird and Plants vs Zombies had the same designer!”
“Breaking a hundred thousand in the first month? Shi Huazhe has no comment.”
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The consensus of the video game media was very positive. The numbers that Plants vs Zombies produced were too good overall, and there wasn’t much to nitpick in the terms of quality either. Even the haters found it difficult to find things to hate on.
Under bombardment from the video game media, Plants vs Zombies was getting more and more well known. In addition to the promoted space on the official app store, it was likely that Plants vs Zombies would receive another wave of explosive growth!
Noticing the hype around Chen Mo’s game, many “caring” players put down everything they had on hand to check out Shi Huazhe’s Weibo, but it turned out that he had deleted his reply to Chen Mo.
Before today he liked criticizing everything, but ever since Plants vs Zombies became popular, he hadn’t posted anything yet.
The ‘caring’ internet citizens weren’t satisfied. He was the one to say confidently that Chen Mo’s first game wouldn’t be able to break a hundred thousand sales in the first month. Did he still think that now?
Forget about a hundred thousand; after breaking twenty thousand on the first day, this game would be heading for five hundred thousand in the first month!
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“Mr Shi Huazhe, say something.”
“It’s fine, Plants vs Zombies only had twenty thousand downloads in the first day, it’s possible that it won’t hit a hundred thousand in the first month. You still have a chance, sir.”
“Sir, don’t give up your treatment!”
“I have to say, it was a smart move for him to not say anything when asked what he was going to eat. That was smart of him.”
“So, you don’t plan to show yourself anytime soon?”
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The spectators around Plants vs Zombies were all commenting on Shi Huazhe’s Weibo trying to start something. A few of the sarcastic comments were pushed to the top with hundreds of likes.
Shi Huazhe didn’t post anything, because he knew what would happen if he did. The best thing he could do was to not do anything. However, this didn’t mean he hadn’t been looking at Weibo. With so many people making fun of him, sure he was angry, but there was nothing he could do since Plants vs Zombies had performed very well. Coming out and criticizing it wouldn’t do much.
With these sales and popularity, going against the flow would surely bring many haters. While Shi Huazhe was mad, he wouldn’t come out now to be murdered on the internet.
“How is this kid so lucky? How can everything he makes get so popular? Next time, there’s no way he’ll be able to maintain this next time!”
Shi Huazhe was set on not commenting. After others made fun of him and did not get any reactions, they decided to let this matter slide.
Things got popular quickly and died down quickly on social media. These users were just trying to band together, and when they saw that nothing could be started, they left it alone.
However, Plants vs Zombies was getting quite popular, and the sales kept increasing.
——
Zao Zihao and Lin Mao both congratulated Chen Mo over the phone.
“Not bad, I heard you murdered the new games leaderboard. I think you must’ve raked in quite a bit of money. Hurry up, I’m still waiting for my pay to win game,” said Zao Zihao.
Chen Mo laughed and said, “Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten.”
Lin Mao called in to congratulate Shi Huazhe, “That’s pretty good, Chen Mo. I thought that your game would get quite popular, with a chance of going viral. I didn’t think it’d be this popular. That’s amazing!”
Chen Mo said, “Your game is also doing pretty well, seeing as you’re second on the new games leaderboard.”
Lin Mao said, “Sigh, it doesn’t even come close to your Plants vs Zombies. I’ve been playing it for the past two days. It’s actually pretty well done in all aspects, in particular how much playtime there is! I think this game is going to start a puzzle game trend.”
Chen Mo replied, “So be it, I’m not making a puzzle game for my next one.”
Lin Mao was shocked, “Huh? What are you trying to do? This game is going to go viral, why not make a Plants vs Zombies 2 while it’s still hot?”
Chen Mo said, “Nah, I’m fine. I’m not planning on making my next game a puzzle game.”
Lin Mao didn’t understand, “Why? It makes you money and fame! You’re good at it too, why not do it?”
Chen Mo said, “It’s hard to explain, but I just don’t see too much potential in these types of games. Alright, I have to go. Let’s meet up some time.”
——
It wasn’t just Lin Mao who thought that puzzle games were about to be popular. So did the video game media!
It was hard to say how popular Plants vs Zombies was, but from what was going on now, it was possible for it to top the puzzle games leaderboard, possibly making ripples in the paid games leaderboard too!
Moreover, the game had been able to maintain a score of around 9.3, and a portion of that must have come from downvotes by competitors. However, their efforts were proven useless, as the reviews had never fallen below nine. It was evident that this game was extremely popular!
The number of players who requested a refund were also few and far between.
As long as you had a short playtime and had a good reason for the refund, the app store would provide one.
However there were extremely few players who requested refunds, meaning that they recognized the game and planned to play it long into the future!
In the eyes of the video game media and video game designers, Chen Mo’s first game was stable, well done, had gone far, was already quite popular, and was certainly quite influential.
Puzzle games were always quite popular, but there weren’t many that could take it to the extreme. Puzzle games naturally had a large player base, as they catered to both the young and old. Therefore if it got popular, it would surely go viral.
Moreover the entry requirements for puzzle games weren’t high, even a C or D-grade video game designer could make one. The only thing required was innovation!
Not one of the designers in this world felt that they lacked creativity. Therefore, some designers and video game media were trying to figure out which direction this would end up in.
Would Plants vs Zombies be a fire starter, reigniting the entire puzzle game market? Would a golden age for puzzle games arrive soon?
It could only be judged by numbers in the future.
However, nobody knew that the creator of the game, Chen Mo, didn’t plan to continue making puzzle games…
At least for now!