Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

Rather, it's about the impact of each draw on the developer.

At this point, the value of a single pull in Honkai Impact 3rd is much lower than that in Punishing: Gray Raven.

A simple calculation will make this clear to everyone.

Take Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact 3 as examples.

A single pull in Honkai Impact 3 costs 280 crystals, which is equivalent to 28 yuan.

In Honkai Impact 3, the pity system is 100 pulls. To achieve an SSS rank for a character, you need to pull a total of 14 times, including the base character.

Use this as a comparison.

At this time, the price for a single pull in Punishing: Gray Raven is 200 Black Cards, which is 20 RMB.

The guaranteed pull is 80 pulls, and you need to do a total of 5 more pulls including the main character.

To put it in perspective, assuming you always get the pity pull, it would take 1400 pulls to get an SSS character in Honkai Impact 3, which is 39200 yuan.

Punishing: Gray Raven's SSS+ level only requires 400 draws, which is 8000 RMB.

The difference between the two is a full five times.

And that doesn't even include the fact that the Punishing: Gray Raven monthly card gives you 90 free draws.

To put it more extremely...

If both sides keep sending gifts, the limit for Punishing: Gray Raven is around 300 pulls, because at this point, the 300 pulls in Punishing: Gray Raven will be combined with a series of launch benefits.

It is already guaranteed that players will be able to get a fully-fledged character at the start of the game without spending a single penny or even buying a monthly card.

This means that players have completely lost their initial motivation to make money at the start of the game.

Honkai Impact 3's 300 free draws only give players three duplicate characters.

This is perfectly acceptable for a system that requires 14 characters to reach the maximum level, and the amount of freebies will have virtually no impact on the current big spenders in Honkai Impact 3.

That's the difference.

Therefore, Qin Yicai said that if Punishing: Gray Raven engages in a "price war" with miHoYo like Arknights did before, then miHoYo will definitely win.

However, faced with Qin Yi's proposal...

David, however, was thinking about something else.

"But if we do that, we've already lost half the battle before it even begins..."

From the bottom of my heart.

David doesn't want to engage in a price war with Zhan Shuang, regardless of whether it's a so-called "tacit agreement" or not.

This is similar to the situation with Honkai Impact 2.5 and Arknights back then.

They are completely different.

At the time, Arknights, as Spark's first-party title, had similar or even greater promotion and popularity than Honkai Impact 2.5, especially considering that the two games were of different genres.

Playing a game with mutual agreement benefits both sides.

However, the situations in Honkai Impact 3 and Punishing: Gray Raven are completely different.

This is direct competition.

Without hedging, many Honkai Impact 3rd players might not bother to learn more about Punishing: Gray Raven.

But once hedging and promotion are done.

Then the result will be different.

This is essentially a gamble.

I'm betting that Punishing: Gray Raven won't become a huge hit after its launch, betting that it will run into problems after launch, and betting that my negative publicity about Punishing: Gray Raven will have an effect.

If you lose the bet.

So the better the marketing and promotion of a hedge fund, the more it actually helps the other side gain popularity.

"Have you ever thought that once we do hedging publicity, it's like putting ourselves on a scale?"

"Players will constantly make comparisons."

"Compare Honkai Impact 3rd and Punishing: Gray Raven."

"Even if we win this time, what about next time?"

"You gave away so many free draws this time, are you not going to give them away next time? If you don't, players will just go play the competition's games."

"But what happens to our cash flow once we send it out?"

"What do those long-time fans who play the game out of passion think? Can they accept this devaluation?"

David's logic is very clear.

Compared to the war, Honkai Impact 3 has been operating for 3 years.

Veteran players spend real money to get their characters back; if too many are given away, it will inevitably lead to a devaluation of the characters.

What do veteran players think about this?

Moreover, there's something called information asymmetry.

If you don't actively promote it, some players might not even know what Punishing: Gray Raven is, since the name Punishing: Gray Raven isn't very distinctive.

If they can counter publicity and marketing, then it's a real battle of wits.

If you're already charging in for hand-to-hand combat, do you expect players not to look at their competitors?

Hearing Dawei say that stumped Qin Yi.

He took a sip of tea, lost in thought, and forgot that the tea had just been poured.

So I got burned.

"So, should we stick to the original publicity and distribution plan?"

David shook his head.

"No, we'll fight with bayonets."

"What I just said is to tell you that this bayonet fight is not the end of the game. Quality is the lifeline of the game."

"Our own quality is high enough that even if those players go to Punishing: Gray Raven, they will come back."

Qin Yi glanced at Brother Dawei.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something.

As someone who has been working on the front lines of operations for a long time, Qin Yi has the right to speak on the quality of the game.

He's not like David.

At this point, Dawei hadn't played his own game in a long time.

My impression of Honkai Impact 3rd is still from when it was first released. Back then, Honkai Impact 3rd was in a class of its own on mobile devices.

The gameplay is also different from other anime-style games; it's a system with in-depth gameplay.

But as time goes by.

The development team made many compromises in order to generate revenue through in-game purchases.

Later, Genshin Impact was launched, and 19 years later, Honkai Impact 3's other parts besides the main storyline were really hard to describe.

Qin Yi also participated in the black box test of Punishing: Gray Raven.

In this respect, competitors have actually done a better job, because the reduction in in-game purchases has allowed for the addition of more large-scale PVE and competitive gameplay content.

Players can also have fun from it.

Qin Yi found some of the patterns interesting.

For example, this version of Punishing: Gray Raven has a bounty mode.

Six players spawn on a large map, and whoever gets enough kills first wins the reward.

This involves a whole set of strategies. For example, players can first kill small monsters to obtain a buff, and then challenge elite monsters to get a high score, or they can just rush in and kill elite monsters or even the BOSS first.

Of course, you can also seize opportunities, like the mantis stalking the cicada unaware of the oriole behind.

Players also engage in some form of PvP.

For example, when other players try to steal monsters, players can use a banish skill to drive them away.

However, if a player dies while challenging a boss, it benefits other players.

This mode is a derivative of competitive PVP. Players do not directly engage in PVP, but it is still very fun to play a game. Moreover, this framework can be gradually enriched in the future.

However, these things are difficult to replicate in Honkai Impact 3, firstly because of the high development costs.

Secondly, its development will further widen the gap between paying players and ordinary players, thus lowering its reputation.

At this point, Punishing: Gray Raven guarantees that every player will be able to develop at least one top-tier character within a few months. Therefore, playing this competitive PVE mode relies purely on skill or understanding of the character.

However, spending money will not be the core factor, at least not in the case of whales overwhelmingly dominating.

Therefore, everyone can have fun from it.

What if Honkai Impact 3rd also adopts a similar model?

This raises a big question: should we balance things out?

Logically speaking, the developers must know that such large-scale PVE must be balanced, otherwise, given the "wealth gap" in Honkai Impact 3, whales will be able to play like they're cheating as soon as they enter a room, how can others play?

But once a balance is struck, another voice immediately emerges.

With so much manpower and resources invested in this system, will your balancing efforts actually help the flow of water?

No.

So, why do it?

It's better to continue with online boss battles, where whales unleash their damage and earn envious glances, while regular players get carried by the pros, satisfying both sides...

However, these things.

There was no point in saying anything, so Qin Yi opened his mouth.

But what he said in the end was...

"Okay, Dawei."

~~~

Author's Note: Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to all my readers!!!

Every single pull yields a gold item, and a ten-pull gives you two gold items!

Finally, although the details of the second half of this story are still being refined, it is largely complete.

You can watch with peace of mind.

As an aside, following the editor's suggestion, this book will primarily focus on game competition and industry restructuring in the future.

Other things will serve as a backdrop and won't be emphasized too much.

Finally, feel free to leave a comment if you have any other requests, questions, or game ideas.

~~~

Chapter 159 Enjoy the fun, and don't be too mad about it.

Time flies.

miHoYo's bayonet-fighting plan is progressing very smoothly.

It went even more smoothly than David had imagined.

After miHoYo announced that it would give away a total of 170 free draws in various events of the 3.0 major update, the overwhelming public pressure was finally suppressed.

No one expected that miHoYo would be so generous as to give away 170 free draws plus a free character selection.

This is different from Starfire, and different from Kuro.

Spark has always been generous, and since Kuro is now a competitor of Honkai Impact 3 after accepting investment from Spark, it's understandable that they would be even more generous.

But this is miHoYo!