"Free game?
Where is the profit point of free games? "Ashley asked, "Although this is our first game, its quality is definitely not comparable to free games. "
The free games that people understood in this era are completely different concepts from the free games that were popular in China in later generations.
Most of the popular free games now are games that come with the purchase of a computer, system or computer manufacturer, such as Minesweeper, Spider Solitaire, 3D Pinball, etc., which are simple stand-alone games.
The free games that became popular in China in later generations should be, to be precise, free online games. Free players serve as consumables for paying players, and games are used to achieve differentiation through payment to induce people to consume.
This free game focuses on interaction and comparison between players.
In 1998, the network infrastructure limited the possibility of similar games to survive.
What they understand as free games are only the small games that come with the Windows system.
In Ashley and Stephen's opinion, Angry Birds is definitely not comparable to free video games.
If their company name were not Riot but Interplay (the developer of the Fallout series of games), Angry Birds would have a chance to compete for Cybermania (a video game award started in 1994).
The TGA had to wait until 2014 to be established.
Zhou Xin was asked by Ashley, because in this era of online advertising, there is no Google or Amazon.
The Internet giant that now dominates online advertising is Yahoo.
Yahoo charges between $30 and $100 for running banner ads, which are 468 x 60 pixel horizontal bars at the top of the page.
However, Google Adword, which future generations of Google rely on for survival, had not yet been born, and it would have to wait until 2000. That is, paying for web pages based on clicks.
Advertisements on web pages are designated by Google. The higher the click-through rate of your page, the more money Google will give you.
Now that Google has just been born, Yahoo obviously has no idea of sharing its advertising revenue with other websites.
Stephen added: "Yes, Newman, I know your idea, put the game on the web and then charge for it through online advertising.
But there is a conflict.
That is, even if we put all our energy into Angry Birds, its update speed is far less than the player experience speed.
Players will have a limited amount of time on our page.
At the same time we have no reputation.
No advertiser will be willing to advertise on our page.
When Angry Birds gains a certain level of fame, we will need to bear high server costs.
And we might not make any money.
As you all know, my father works for AT&T (America Telephone and Telegraph Company, equivalent to China Telecom and China Mobile). AT&T was the first online advertising company.
Do you know what the price was after they invested for three months?
Thirty thousand dollars.
Although this was in 1994, even if four years have passed, the price will not be much higher.
It is because of Angry Birds' confidence that if we adopt a free model, the cost we need to spend on the server will be higher than the advertising cost.
And it is growing at any time, and advertising costs will not increase because of the increase in the number of our clicks. "
Zhou Xin instantly understood why free games cannot succeed, or that free games in this situation are unrealistic at the moment.
"What you said makes sense, because Angry Birds is a level-breaking game.
We can put the first ten levels on our homepage for players to experience for free.
Then sell the game to interested players.
That is to say, try it first and then release it. "
Stephen raised his hand: “That still has to go through channels.
Otherwise, how can we get the game into the hands of players? "
Zhou Xin quickly thought of a way, electronic payment, but in this era, electronic payment has not yet been born.
PayPal wouldn't be born until December 1998.
But that doesn't mean there's nothing we can do.
Zhou Xin quickly thought of a way: "We can pass the verification code."
"Verification code?" Ashley asked.
Zhou Xin nodded and said: "Yes, SMS verification code.
What we need to do is guide players on how to pay.
In other words, in addition to providing players with the first ten levels for free trial on the web page, they also teach them how to pay.
Give the other party an account number for transfer, and then after the other party transfers the money, send a six-digit verification code to the other party through the mobile phone number.
They can enter the verification code on our website to open the page for downloading the game. "
This is definitely a genius idea in this era, but there are still several problems that need to be solved.
Stephen quickly realized the problem:
"If there are too many people, such as a hundred people." He stopped after speaking, "Are you planning to send a group text message via email?"
Zhou Xin nodded and said: "Yes, we need to ask players to send us their mobile phone numbers as a postscript when transferring money.
We communicate with the bank in advance and ask them to provide us with their mobile phone number and transfer amount at a fixed time every day.
If the transfer amount is greater than or equal to our listed price, a verification code will be sent to your mobile phone number.
After players receive the verification code, they can download the game.
Six-digit numbers are made up of numbers and letters.
With more than 200 million verification codes, our sales will never reach this number. "
Zhou Xin’s idea is actually the prototype of electronic payment.
He even plans to set up a company to focus on electronic payments if the results are good, and take the path of PayPal first.
“I think this idea is totally feasible.
As long as they are willing to pay the handling fee, the bank is absolutely willing to provide us with the postscript and transfer amount.
And this will make history!
Once we take this path, there will be no room for game publishers to survive in the future. "Stephen was very excited. The value contained in this mechanism alone far exceeds the game itself.
Ashley nodded and said: "We cooperate with banks, and the bank charges a few dollars at most for each transfer. However, as an unknown game company, if we cooperate with game publishers, their charges will be at least 50% of the game price.
If you cooperate with larger game publishers, this proportion will increase to 70%.
Now we transfer this part of the cost to server costs and bank fees.
This cost will be greatly reduced. "
Zhou Xin nodded and said: "So what we need to do next is to first improve the game, and secondly, whether it is mass text messaging or verification of the payment amount, we need to build a complete system to count this number.
Then we still need to build an official website, negotiate cooperation with banks, and rent servers.
There are many things to do, but the path to success is already in front of us. "
