Universe Infinite Canteen.

Chapter 656 Listen to advice
The newly launched national war lord gameplay, coupled with the healthy snacks that can be obtained for free as long as you are willing to grind, has added fuel to the already increasingly popular Chiling.

Over the next three days, the number of players surged again, reaching 19 in one go.

Tu Tuzi simply bought the braised chicken shop next door after its lease expired, and transformed it into a small game store specializing in selling game discs, which he had to restock by the truckload every day.

The reason why game discs are now sold instead of given away is also the suggestion made by consultant Malu.

The main reason was that he found that there were many second-hand dealers on Xiaohuangyu. They bought large quantities of goods from Tutuzi, and then sold them to foreign players who had heard of Chiling through various channels but did not want to go to City B to get the game disc.

The project team doesn't care, because they want as many people as possible to play the game, and these second-hand dealers also provide them with a new sales channel.

But Malu was very unhappy. He had been pretending to be a conscientious operator for so long and had finally grown the leeks, but they were pulled out by others before he even started to harvest them. How could he tolerate this?

So he immediately went to find Tu Tuzi and asked him to add online sales channels and change the game discs from being given away for free to being sold.

Tu Tuzi has also noticed the recent influx of players from other places into the game, and has already asked people to look for courier companies to cooperate with in order to start mailing business.

However, there are still concerns about whether CDs should be changed from free to paid, as people are worried that this will discourage some players.

Malu patted his shoulder and said, "I think we should have more confidence in our own game. Just look at the modeling, lighting, optimization, super benefits, NPC's super high IQ, and wide freedom, monsters that don't behave like humans. How is it worse than Elden Ring?
"Even Hidetaka Miyazaki dares to sell Elden Ring for 298, but we only sell Red Ridge for 168, and it's free shipping. If you come to pick it up yourself, you can get another 20 off the shipping fee, so it's 148. What's the difference between this and giving it away for free?"

The producer, Baldy, was still a little hesitant. "But we... after all, this is an online game, and the players in the game are actually working for us. If we charge them..."

"What's wrong with paying to work? Isn't this the latest trend?" Malu said angrily, "Old Baldy, you can't treat us specially just because you come from the abyss. We have to adapt to the local customs.

“And if you say working is not working, you have to make the players feel that working is working.

"The fact is that people don't feel like they are working. Instead, they have a lot of fun playing the game, gaining friendships and even love. Isn't this worth spending 168 yuan on?"

"Well, I'm not saying it's not worth it. I think setting a threshold will reduce the number of new players." Baldy scratched his bald head.

"If they are not willing to pay for the tickets, they will most likely be freeloaders in the future, server parasites, and will not be able to contribute to revenue."

Malu could only keep this in mind, because as a consultant, his goals were not completely consistent with those of the project team.

To put it bluntly, the reason why Malu took this job was because of the huge commercial potential behind Chiling.

According to the cooperation agreement signed by both parties, Boss Ma helped the Chiling project team expand the player base and increase the online rate of the game, while Tu Tuzi distributed the revenue generated by the operation of "Chiling" to Malu according to the number of online players.

With the current number of online users in Chiling, Malu can already get all the operating profits.

So next he should think about how to further increase the payment rate (cut leeks).

And although it is said that they are cutting leeks, but in fact, selling a dimensional masterpiece of the level of "Red Ridge" for 168 yuan can really not be considered unscrupulous.

It's mainly due to the support of friendly competitors. "Red Ridge" has no constellations, no card draws or boxes, and even no monthly passes. It usually just sells costumes.

Boss Ma also took out his treasured snacks to share with everyone, and charged 168 tickets to make up for the loss, and the players must have agreed with both hands. However, he still had to convince the producer Tu Tuzi. Fortunately, this was not a problem for Ma Lu, and he quickly sorted out a set of arguments.

"I read the latest report. Chiling's indicators in all aspects are excellent. Our game is undoubtedly in a period of rapid development. But I also noticed that we have given away nearly 32 game discs, but the registration rate is less than half."

"There must be some dealers hoarding game discs." Baldy said, "Didn't you see someone selling our discs on the trading software before?"

"Yes, that's part of it, but I think it also has to do with the fact that our game has always been free."

"Really?" Baldy was skeptical.

"It's true. Each generation has its own eggs. Young people nowadays like to get free games everywhere, but data shows that most people don't open the games after getting them.

"But if it's a paid game, there won't be such a problem, because after spending money, everyone will have the thought in their mind that since they spent money, they must play it to make it back.

"So I think that changing Chi Ling from free to paid will indeed cause us to lose a certain number of new players in the short term, but in the long run, it will have a positive effect on the game and increase player stickiness and loyalty."

Baldy was finally persuaded and agreed to change the game disc from free to paid, and also opened an online purchasing channel.

I didn't put it on Steam, but I pinned a link on the forum because Malu didn't want Steam to share the profits.

The fact that "Red Ridge" has changed from free to paid has caused a wave of discussion among players. However, considering that most players now have game discs in their hands, not many people have cordially greeted Tu Tuzi and the project team's family. Instead, many people have expressed their support.

In fact, from the first day the game was launched, some people were curious about how the project team planned to make a profit.

Especially with more and more online players, renting servers alone is a considerable expense. In addition, with the technical strength of "Red Ridge", the development cost cannot be low.

Someone has calculated that the money earned from selling skins alone is probably not enough to pay the project team a week's salary, not to mention the various benefits offered by the Infinite Canteen of the Linked Universe.

Everyone is worried that the producer Baldy will have his arms and legs cut off by loan sharks one day.

Players are such a lovely group of creatures. As long as they play a good game, they will automatically become shareholders and help the game company calculate profits and losses. They worry that the game can't continue to operate, or they will become greedy in order to survive.

It turned out that Chi Ling had just started to charge a buyout fee, and everyone praised the operator's conscience. Then they started discussing whether the price of 168 was too low, after all, Chi Ling's size and freedom were there.

If you want to buy out the film, I think you’d have to sell at least tens of millions of copies to make a profit.

Seeing a group of people working together and offering suggestions to try to help "Chi Ling" boost its revenue, Malu, a capitalist, was moved.

Let the gold medal producer help him collect these suggestions one by one, and then pick out a few to arrange for everyone.

When it comes to operations, the most important thing is to listen to advice.

(End of this chapter)