Chapter 30 (1/2)

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

Translated by Coldtaco

Edited by Aelryinth

The official appstore was different from other game distribution channels. Four hundred downloads in twenty-four hours may seem like nothing, but that number was actually pretty good.

Other promotional spaces for other game distribution channels, such as the Emperor Dynasty Entertainment platform or the proprietary stores of phone manufacturers, could be bought using money. As long as you were friendly with them, the platform wouldn’t care too much about artificially inflating your numbers, either.

Therefore, as long as you were willing to spend money, it wasn’t surprising to have thousands or even tens of thousands of downloads on the first day on other game distribution channels.

However, the official store prohibited inflating statistics, therefore new games could only be found in obscure corners, just like The Adventures of the Storm Rider. There wouldn’t be many who would download new games, even if they were on the top new games or among the promoted new games.

However, the official store automatically adjusted the promotional spaces. Games like The Adventures of the Storm Rider would probably be on the promoted list of new games or in its respective genre, which would greatly boost the downloads.

If The Adventures of the Storm Rider was able to maintain its downloads and ratings for the next promotional round, it would be pushed even higher on the promoted list. If that continued, it would be able to go from a few hundred downloads to possibly hundreds of thousands within a week.

Of course, games that fell into that positive feedback loop were few and far between; most games would fall off the promoted list halfway because of the statistics they had reached.

The official app store also took a smaller, twenty percent cut from the revenue that the game generated.

As for taxes, it was more troublesome than in his previous life, as it was quite a bit different, but not too difficult by any means. After income taxes, trading taxes and the like, it all added up to about thirty percent.

Of course, the main form of taxing was based on net profit, as video game designers had a lower starting cost compared to traditional businesses. So when the profit increased, the taxing increased too.

So if there were a hundred thousand downloads, assuming no sales, Lin Mao’s gross income would be two million RMB, and after the platform’s cut and taxes, he’d be left with a million, one hundred and twenty thousand.

Even though only half of it was left, it was still a huge profit.

Of course, sales were also affected by the price. For a game like Lin Mao’s, selling at twenty RMB, a hundred thousand downloads was a bit difficult to achieve.

However, even if the game was cheaper, down to ten RMB, there weren’t many games that managed to break a hundred thousand on the official app store.

Those games would always be on the top of various rankings, and have promotional spaces multiple times.

Many smaller designers only got thousands of downloads regularly, after working for half a year to a year just to earn about a hundred thousand RMB and having to worry about other expenses, barely keeping their stomachs full.

Chen Mo said, “The promotional spaces will be refreshed in one or two hours, right? Let’s see how far up this game moves, then.”

Lin Mao nodded, “Yeah, I’m looking at games during the same period, and mine looks like it has a better chance than the others. I can’t be certain, as we don’t know how the promoted spaces are calculated.”

It was easy to tell that Lin Mao was slightly nervous. Promotions had a huge impact on the future of the game. In Chen Mo’s opinion, his game didn’t lack work, sincerity, or creativity, all that was left was the acceptance of the players.

Chen Mo patted his shoulders, “Relax, the quality of the games out there on display, what’s there to be afraid of?”

Lin Mao said, “Yup, we can only hope. Is your game ready? Maybe I can give you some opinions from a different perspective.”

Chen Mo nodded, “Yeah. You can try it out by going to a computer or using your own phone.”

Shocked, Lin Mao said, “Dual platform? Aren’t you ambitious! I’ll just use my phone then, I’m more used to playing on mobile.”

After installing the game on his phone, Lin Mao tapped on the icon and launched Plants vs Zombies.

After playing for ten minutes, Lin Mao was completely absorbed by the game.