Chapter 53 (1/2)

Translated by Coldtaco

Edited by Aelryinth

In his previous life, Plants vs Zombies swept the globe, earning millions of US dollars in just nine days, breaking many records.

If it were sold at three USD per copy and it made 1.5 million in sales, it would rake in 4.5 million USD in sales, or about 27 million RMB.

On the other hand, what was the monthly profit for I Am MT?

In 2013, when the Chinese mobile games market was in its early years of development, I Am MT made fifty-five million RMB!

Plants vs Zombies relied on the global market. I Am MT only utilized the Chinese market!

Plants vs Zombies was a standalone game relying on sales, the number of sales would inevitably decrease over time. On the other hand, I Am MT was a free game. Even after operating for three to your years, it’s profitability never decreases, and even continued pushing updates.

The success of Plants vs Zombies could not be replicated, but I Am MT‘s profit model could be reproduced again and again!

When the two were compared, the profitability of Chinese card games was obvious.

I Am MT showed the Chinese card game genre to the world, and made a path for Chinese developers. As the benchmark for card games, I Am MT was copied many times, and similar games still showed up four years after its release.

I Am MT was well worthy of the title of “The Original People’s Card Game”, and held the top spot at the app store for a long time before Soul Hunters made revolutionary changes to the genre

Chen Mo wanted to utilize the same profit model as other Chinese games, and I Am MT was the first step. Its features were very suitable for what Chen Mo was currently looking for.

The first feature was that it was easy to make! Most of the art for I Am MT was on character cards. Coding, level design, playstyle, and original art weren’t problems for Chen Mo now.

Its playstyle was quite simple, and the rules are also clear. As long as the art was of acceptable quality, the actual development time wasn’t too long, maybe two to three months at most.

The second feature was that it was appropriate. I Am MT didn’t rely on the other Chinese games, which relied on inciting negative emotions to force players to spend money. It was in fact the exact opposite. The game treated free players extremely well, giving out a lot of free runes, especially during the holiday season.

Moreover, the game didn’t have highly strategic PVP or group PVP aspects, therefore free players would feel less frustration.

Chen Mo had to consider the threshold for players in the parallel world. If he started with heavy firepower, the players might not be able to take the frustration. He might end up being on the receiving end of angry fans, damaging his name in the process, and when that happened, he might have to crossdress.

From that perspective, I Am MT was a decent game for testing the limits of the players!

The third feature was that it was easy to promote!

Chen Mo had given this point a lot of thought.

What was the core of card games? It wasn’t playstyle, but IP, intellectual property!

IP was a buzzword in the Chinese video game industry. Many video game developers would throw money at protecting their IP, many video game designers wouldn’t shut up about IP. It would come up more often than eating.

Why was IP so important, and why is it worth so much money?

In card games, IP decided the card’s worth. If you had Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, and I had Hawks and Zoro[1], the two games would obviously have completely different player bases, and the price that the players were willing to pay for a legendary card would also be different.

Three Kingdoms were essentially the worst IP, because everyone was familiar with it. There were many companies who made games using that theme.

In his previous world, Naruto, One Piece, Fate[2], or Jin Yong’s[3] works were the most popular IPs. As long as you got those IPs, making money was easy by changing the art on some existing game.

A card game without an IP was a card game without a soul. Yes, it was that extreme! If you wanted to make a card game, you needed to have an IP!

Chen Mo had considered how to solve the IP problem when he decided on making a card game.