Starting as a Manga Editor-Chapter 225: What a Joke

No matter what others thought.
The live broadcast continued, and Tang Yao began introducing the third game.
This time, the game was no longer a Western fantasy theme but still quite distinctive... This time it was about celestial mountains surging through clouds and radiant magical treasures.
Yes, it was the latest familiar set of stuff for domestic players.
“...A traditional 2D turn-based game?”
Shen Lun had just closed the reservation page on the other end and saw this scene, instantly feeling his vision go black.
Actually, he had already keenly realized that the easiest game type to port from PC to mobile was precisely the traditional 2D turn-based game.
On one hand, it's because the currently most commercially successful mobile game, Fate/Grand Order, itself is turn-based; on the other hand, this gameplay is indeed the easiest to do well given the limitations of mobile phone performance!
Most importantly, this game type still had quite a large audience.
Shen Lun originally planned for Stellar Ode to first replicate the Fate/Grand Order model to test the waters, streamline the mobile game release process, force Avalon users to leave so they had nowhere to go, then acquire and merge Avalon's technical team at a low price to completely monopolize the initial dividends of the mobile game track.
Then, riding on the popularity of Fate/Grand Order and Stellar Ode, they would first capture users’ minds!
After that, they would start massively occupying the mobile game market... multiple product lines crushing the market together, a process commonly known as "raising the gu."
He intended to cover all game types, including traditional 2D turn-based games.
Why do this?
It's simple.
Shen Lun was very clear about what would happen once other manufacturers realized and shifted their focus to the mobile game market.
Don’t be fooled by the current booming mobile game scene and how Fate/Grand Order is particularly profitable, or that Jiuxiao even specifically targeted Avalon because of this... The shift from PC games to mobile games seems like a natural and easy decision.
But in reality, it is far from easy.
Jiuxiao chose to bet on mobile games because of their own reasons.
Other manufacturers have not shifted their focus to mobile yet; they are only preparing to test the waters. Because compared to the highly mature PC game market, the mobile game market is still a bit small. Although Fate/Grand Order is truly profitable, what about the competitors?
There is still no competitor that has succeeded.
Even Avalon currently only has one Fate/Grand Order.
Add to that the complexity of mobile hardware models, the instability of the player base, the need to start product development from scratch, and the difficulty of distribution...
Most importantly, PC games are still very profitable.
Under these circumstances, they have ready channels and users; PC games have not yet declined; plus many internal problems within large companies... So, it is difficult to make a decision to fully shift focus to mobile games.
For example, Tang Yao’s previous life with Ninth City, Changyou, and Giant—they all missed the critical transition period from PC to mobile.
From hindsight, one might think they were really stupid and should have shifted focus to mobile games earlier.
But from their contemporary perspective, they might not have felt they were wrong.
After all, if you judge by hindsight, you’d say they missed everything—take food delivery, taxi-hailing, AI, and finally being crushed by a financial giant named Baidu—they’d all be complete idiots...
You can only say that the limitations of the times always exist.
If Tang Yao hadn’t transmigrated, she wouldn’t dare to go all in either.
Shen Lun’s resolute shift of focus to mobile games was actually forced at first.
Jiuxiao’s decision mistakes, blocked overseas expansion, and loss of PC game market share.
Although they are the second-largest internet company in China, their most important gaming revenue recently sharply declined, halving, and the shareholders were relentless. Shen Lun failed to revive PC games and thus turned his attention to mobile games.
Of course, this was only at the beginning.
Soon, after carefully understanding the market... Shen Lun immediately realized this was a very huge market.
Because anyone who knows the Fate/Grand Order player base knows they still have high expectations for new mobile games.
Moreover, the penetration of smartphones is very fast, extremely fast!
Realizing this, Shen Lun began to go all in.
After all, Jiuxiao’s PC game market share was already being eroded; they had nothing to lose.
He was even secretly happy. Although they lost the PC game market share, this was a blessing in disguise.
Other manufacturers had not shifted focus to mobile games yet.
This gave him the perfect opportunity to seize the lead. Currently, Avalon was the only unknown opponent in the mobile game market; as long as they took them down,
Then before other big companies reacted, Jiuxiao would massively occupy the mobile game market.
No need for high-quality finesse.
But there must be a lot of quantity, and fast—put bets on different project teams, different game types, whether it was micro-innovation, investment, acquisition, or agency, just cover all types, relying on quantity to win.
At the same time, use Jiuxiao’s existing channel resources to brutally brainwash users, forming the perception that mobile games equal Jiuxiao, even including all kinds of built-in ads and pop-ups.
Among these,
There would definitely be one or two breakout hits!
Soon, as smartphones became even more widespread and the market scale expanded, the snowball Jiuxiao started rolling would grow bigger and bigger...
By then, when the second and third breakout hits appeared, and other major manufacturers panicked and hurriedly shifted focus to mobile games,
They would face
Jiuxiao, which had already firmly established itself!
Jiuxiao would firmly secure the position as the number one in mobile games!
Only...
He thought too well...
But all this depended on Stellar Ode succeeding and Avalon truly having no counterattack power as he predicted.
Otherwise, even if other manufacturers hadn’t reacted, Avalon, as the true pioneer in mobile games, would keep releasing games afterward, and Jiuxiao wouldn’t be able to monopolize the initial dividends of the mobile game track.
After all, who knows if they could make the next Fate/Grand Order.
This was also why Shen Lun wanted to suppress Avalon after failing to acquire it.
He could not allow Tang Yao to create a second breakout mobile game.
But was Avalon truly powerless?
Obviously,
No.
This live broadcast was the answer.
...They even realized mobile games were a huge market faster than Jiuxiao.
Their appearance, this live broadcast’s appearance, completely disrupted Shen Lun’s plans.
Single-player games, card games, now traditional 2D turn-based games...
Covering every type, multiple games competing for the market simultaneously...
Damn it!!
This was exactly what Jiuxiao wanted to do!!!
Why!!
Why the hell was this shitty company struggling!!
They even openly livestreamed the game! How dare they!!
Why didn’t they use traditional marketing methods!!
Shen Lun stared at the anime-style girl sprite talking confidently on the screen, watched the turn-based game demonstration, feeling dizzy and furious beyond words!
After a long while,
He barely calmed down, grabbed the mouse again, and reopened ANF’s game section.
Sure enough.
The third game’s detail page was also online. Although the reservation number was not as exaggerated as Hearthstone’s just now,
Now the ANF game section... could really be called taking shape.
The game platform and game channels are typical two-sided startup projects; users and games are the platform’s two biggest pain points.
ANF itself already had a certain user base; their previous problem was insufficient games. After all, to launch the whole game section, relying on just one Fate/Grand Order was absolutely not enough.
But now,
They had...
Essence, Hearthstone, and finally Fantasy Journey to the West.
Together with Fate/Grand Order, although the number of games was still not many, each game stood out distinctly.
Most importantly... they were all mobile games!
Generally speaking, a game platform without any advantages or characteristics, without any resource backing, would find it very difficult to get various manufacturers to release and develop games on it.
Promise high revenue share?
That means nothing.
Because most manufacturers clearly understand that if the platform has no advantages or characteristics, users who come in will likely immediately leave for familiar platforms; even if they download games, they won’t dare to top up due to doubts about the small platform’s credibility.
But now, Fate/Grand Order had already proved ANF game section’s operational and money-making ability; Essence demonstrated their single-player field could also work; Hearthstone targeted the card battle market; and now Fantasy Journey to the West directly entered the most familiar domestic 2D turn-based track...
Each of their games had differentiated competitiveness, not just reskins to make money.
ANF was covering as many player groups as possible with different game types, while leveraging ANF’s own community attributes to form social stickiness within the platform—that was exactly Jiuxiao’s so-called “raising the gu” strategy, wasn’t it?
But the problem was...
This was Avalon!
If their next few new games also succeeded, it would mean...
Their game section would firmly establish itself and become an emerging channel in the mobile game field that could not be ignored.
Shen Lun realized this and unconsciously clenched the mouse tightly.
If that happened,
What meaning would Jiuxiao’s focus on Fate/Grand Order have?
Would they not be throwing money to external two-dimensional channels... only to fail to affect Fate/Grand Order at all?
Instead, they would have created... a mobile game channel towering over all game manufacturers, stretching out hands for money?
What a joke!!!