You promised it would be a free game, but now your screen is full of in-app purchase prompts?

Chen Feng's strategy of spending a lot of money to invite major game streamers to live stream and try out the games was quite brilliant.

In just one day, Plants vs. Zombies became a hot topic on popular new game forums.

Discussions about this game are everywhere online.

The 500 beta test accounts were quickly distributed, and the number of people who applied for beta test accounts exceeded 80,000 before the accounts were all distributed.

The price of a beta test account online has now been inflated to over 10,000 yuan.

After discovering that such a fun game existed, gamers in this world who had never experienced hardship went crazy, frantically trying to get beta test accounts everywhere.

However, this is not the most outrageous part.

Because beta test accounts are extremely valuable now, the vast majority of them are now in the hands of game streamers and truly wealthy individuals.

This has led to the fact that most players with accounts nowadays are people who are not short of money.

For this reason, five hundred accounts reached a total recharge amount of one million in less than a week.

What does this mean?

This is just a closed beta test!

Even though everyone knows that beta test data is not retained, so many people are still willing to spend money on it.

In other words, in less than a week, 500 accounts recharged an average of 2,000 yuan each.

This data already far exceeds the revenue generated when everyone at Fengyun Company suggested selling the game for 498 yuan instead of making it free-to-play.

This time, Chen Feng proved him right with facts.

After that, no one questioned Chen Feng's decision anymore.

……

After that, the original trend in the gaming industry gradually changed.

Streamers from all sorts of gaming platforms suddenly started using the tag "Preparing for the Plants vs. Zombies open beta".

These guys may not be particularly rich, but they treat gaming as a job and a tool for making money.

So even though the closed beta accounts for Plants vs. Zombies are very expensive now, they still have to buy one to ride the wave of popularity.

As for the streamers who were originally invited by Chen Feng to promote the event and were given away with a free beta test account, they became the biggest winners in this incident.

Other streamers were so envious they were practically green with envy.

Damn!

I got the account for free, and even got tens of thousands of yuan for free!

How are you going to explain that to me?

……

A month is neither a long nor a short time.

Normally, it will pass in the blink of an eye.

But for those players who were eagerly awaiting the public beta of Plants vs. Zombies and wanted to have a good time playing it, it felt like a year had passed.

Finally, the day before the game's public beta launch arrived.

Inside an office building.

A young man who looked to be in his early twenties walked into an office with a nervous expression.

Upon seeing the middle-aged man sitting at his desk, looking at a certain image on his computer screen, the young man immediately adopted a fawning expression:

"Hehe...Manager..."

"I have some family matters to attend to tomorrow, so I need to go back to my hometown. I'd like to ask for a day off..."

The young man scratched his head, his face full of expectation as he looked at the manager.

Upon hearing this, the middle-aged man referred to as the manager looked up and glanced at him expressionlessly.

Why go back to your hometown?

"Eh..."

Upon hearing the question, the young man paused for a moment, his expression becoming somewhat embarrassed.

After a five-second rapid thought, he quickly answered:

My family introduced me to a potential partner, and they said he's only free tomorrow, so I absolutely have to go back and meet him!

"Manager, as you know, I'm almost twenty-five, and I'll be thirty in the blink of an eye, and I still don't have a girlfriend."

"This is very important! Please help me!"

The young man spoke with such a sense of grievance.

It seems that if he doesn't find a girlfriend this time, it's entirely the manager's fault.

Upon hearing this, the manager could only sigh helplessly.

"Since it's such an important matter, I certainly can't stop you from going. Ruining someone's marriage is a major taboo! You'll be punished for it."

You know what, this manager is a bit superstitious.

Upon hearing this, the young man waved his hands repeatedly:

"Hey! Don't say that. Whether it succeeds or fails has nothing to do with you!"

"But I hope the manager can understand and let me go take a look."

"Alright, go ahead then."

Since things had already been said to this extent, the manager naturally had nothing more to say.

It's clear that he's a reasonable person.

After receiving approval for his leave, the initial apprehension on the young man's face vanished instantly, replaced by an overwhelming sense of elation:

"Thank you, manager! Thank you, manager!"

"I'll head out now!"

After getting leave, the young man bowed to the manager at a 45-degree angle with great excitement, and then turned and left after the manager nodded in acknowledgment.

But just as he was about to step out of the office, the manager's voice suddenly came from behind him:

"What time does the server open tomorrow?"

"Ten o'clock!!!"

Without a second thought, the young man answered directly, his tone incredibly confident.

He's been looking forward to the public beta date for a month now, how could he possibly have misremembered?

However, the next second, after realizing what he had said, the young man's expression changed drastically.

"hey-hey……"

"Hehe...Manager..."

"What do you mean by 'launching the server'?"

Realizing he might have said something wrong, the young man turned around and looked at the manager with an embarrassed expression.

Even though it seemed like he had already been exposed, he still pretended that he knew nothing.

He just hoped the manager hadn't heard what he was saying...

"well……"

Seeing the young man's expression, the manager sighed again:

"Alright, stop pretending!"

"Don't think you're so smart. You're the fourth person to ask for leave today!"

"Don't think I don't know what you young people have been talking about lately? Plants vs. Zombies is so popular! Do you really think I don't know?"

"You're not going back to your hometown for blind dates at all; it's because Plants vs. Zombies is launching tomorrow, and you guys are going home to play games!"

Seeing the young man's resentful expression, the manager directly exposed his lie.

I'm so angry!

You can't start playing on the first day the server opens, or you'll fall far behind everyone else!

By the time he gets home and starts playing, other players will probably have already reached the second major level, maybe even level 2-something.

Just as he was feeling disappointed, the manager spoke again, his tone much gentler:

"Alright! I know what you guys are thinking!"

"Business hasn't been good lately, so I'm just sitting at the office anyway."

Seeing the young man's expression gradually shift from disappointment to hope, the manager smiled.

"But don't get too excited yet."

"If you're the only one asking for leave, I'll let you go."

"But with so many of you asking for leave, I can't possibly approve it..."

"How about this, you bring your gaming devices to the company tomorrow and play on the company computers."

"When there's no work, I play your games; when there's work, I get to work."

"Just for tomorrow, okay? Don't let it become a habit! Otherwise, I won't be able to explain it to the boss..."

This guy's speech is really full of ups and downs.

It made the young man gasp for breath.

His emotions shifted from initial apprehension to excitement, and then from excitement to disappointment.

In the end, the disappointment turned into excitement again, making it feel like a rollercoaster ride.

Fortunately, the final result was good.

Upon hearing the manager's last words, the young man jumped up in excitement:

"Long live the manager!"

"Alright, alright, stop flattering me!"

The manager rolled his eyes at him:

"Don't talk nonsense like that. If the boss hears you, he'll think I'm trying to usurp the throne!"

"Alright, let's get back to work. If we finish our work today, we'll have time to play games tomorrow."

With that, the manager waved his hand, telling the guy to get lost.

Hearing this, the young man nodded happily, then scurried away, carefully closing the office door behind him as he left.

Seeing the guy leave, the manager shook his head helplessly again:

"Young people these days..."

"Is playing games really that addictive?"

After a sigh, the manager's attention returned to the computer screen in front of him.

At the same time, place both hands on the keyboard and begin typing:

Hey Bao Ge! Is the Cherry Bomb good value for money?

Can Cherry Bomb be added to the preparation slot permanently in the current version?

……

The same scene happens almost anytime, anywhere.

Because of the upcoming public beta of Plants vs. Zombies, the number of employees taking leave in domestic companies has increased.

This shows just how popular this game is right now.

And as an employee of the company that developed this game.

Chen Feng, the boss, wasn't flustered at all. On the contrary, the employees of Fengyun Games were all eagerly waiting and impatient.

I've been eagerly awaiting the game's public beta launch to see the real game data.

Chen Feng observed the reactions of these people.

This once again proves that his decision was correct, raising players' expectations so that everyone would be even more enthusiastic when the game officially launches.

Moreover, the period of closed beta testing allows the game's popularity to grow rapidly.

Of course, this so-called scarcity marketing has its limits.

If the wait is too long, it will directly cause players' expectations to collapse, or they will get angry because they have been waiting for a long time and still can't get what they want.

Even if you release something really fun, people won't play it anymore.

After all, consumers have their own tempers too.

No matter how delicious your restaurant's food is, if you tell me I have to wait three hours for it to arrive, I probably won't eat there.

The same principle applies...

……

On the same day that Plants vs. Zombies was released for public testing.

Many game streamers got up at 8 a.m. to start their live streams.

Inside Bao Ge's live stream.

Even before the game's public beta launch, the live stream had already attracted over 50,000 viewers who were chatting enthusiastically.

[Go Malaysia! Take the top spot on all three leaderboards in the Chinese server!]

【I've prepared 5,000 yuan, Bao Ge, if I'm going to play with 5,000 yuan, what's the most cost-effective way to spend it?】

【You've asked the wrong person! My brother Bao doesn't care about cost-effectiveness at all; he maxes out all the gift packs!】

[Hahahaha! You ask him about value for money? He'll tell you that as long as you buy everything, it's value for money!]

[This guy has already spent 13,000 RMB on his beta account, and that's because there's nothing left to buy in the beta server. And you're asking him what "cost-effectiveness" means?]