At that moment, Rong Mu deeply felt the gap between himself and the professionals.
Sister Shan’s move was absolutely brilliant.
She directly flipped the roles of seller and buyer—who were originally on opposite sides—so that the offense and defense switched.
Some of the programmers at the company had already started families. If the company went under, the breadwinners would lose their jobs, and their families would be left out in the cold.
Following this line of thinking to stir things up would maximize netizens’ sympathy, and then, as Sister Shan said, buying a round of Weibo trending topics would make the hype explode.
More importantly, given the nature of domestic netizens, everyone online would definitely be cursing the person who leaked the game—but in reality, plenty of people would definitely download and play it.
Rong Mu believed that with Plants vs. Zombies’ quality, the first few levels alone would be enough to attract a large batch of netizens to make a purchase.
“Sister Shan, your move is incredible! Truly a professional.”
“This kind of tactic is worn out in the entertainment industry—insiders leaking stills in advance, leaking behind-the-scenes footage—it’s all released just for hype. It’s just rarely seen when applied to game companies.”
“What about overseas? How do we promote overseas?” Rong Mu asked impatiently.
“Rong Mu, have you heard of livestreaming?”
“Of course I have. The World Cup, Spring Festival Gala, League of Legends Worlds—aren’t those all livestreamed?”
“It’s not just those big events. A new way of monetizing traffic has emerged overseas, and a large number of streamers have already become popular.
Meanwhile, 4G is becoming widespread domestically. By my estimate, the livestreaming industry here should start taking off next year. Plants vs. Zombies definitely won’t catch this domestic promotional wave, but overseas we can make use of these streamers.”
“Sister Shan, you mean paying streamers to play Plants vs. Zombies on their livestreams?”
“Exactly. Isn’t your game launching simultaneously on Steam? You can have overseas streamers buy it on Steam and then play it during their livestreams.
Finding these streamers is where the big money goes. Contacting a few big streamers to help out won’t be cheap—one session looks like it’ll cost 50,000 to 100,000 US dollars.
Our company once hired two big YouTubers with over a million followers to livestream watching our company’s TV drama. One session of about three hours cost 50,000 US dollars.”
“Charging that much?”
“Mainly because there are too few influential big streamers.”
Rong Mu nodded to show he understood.
“I’ve told you all my methods. You two discuss it among yourselves! I’m going out to grab something to eat.” With that, Sister Shan left the office.
As soon as Sister Shan left, Rong Mu turned to Lin Shuwen and asked, “Er Ming, what do you think?”
“The domestic promotion approach is fine. Sister Shan has been in the entertainment industry for so many years—this little trick is surely second nature to her. The key is the overseas market…”
“Er Ming, your ambition is really something. From the very start, you were thinking about earning foreigners’ money. I really have to hand it to you.”
Hearing Rong Mu bring up Luo Ming, Lin Shuwen’s eyes lit up. Right! They should ask Luo Ming—the “mastermind”—for his opinion!
Then Lin Shuwen pulled out her phone and dialed her own number.
After two rings, the call connected. Lin Shuwen put it on speakerphone and said, “Wenwen, Sister Shan just told us her promotion plan. Have a listen!”
Before Luo Ming could even agree, Lin Shuwen told him all of Sister Shan’s arrangements.
On the other end of the line, Luo Ming scratched his head. Why were they suddenly focusing on overseas markets?
Was Mu Tou’s ambition really that big? Wasn’t he afraid of overreaching?
And Wenwen—it was 10 million! Why didn’t she try to stop it?
But Sister Shan’s approach was definitely feasible.
In his past life, many games were promoted through streamers and became popular because of them—like It Takes Two, Cyberpunk 2077, Sekiro…
Sister Shan’s approach was sound. The fact that Lin Shuwen and Rong Mu were calling him meant they both agreed. That being the case, Luo Ming felt he had no reason to object.
Thinking this, Luo Ming said, “I think Sister Shan’s plan is good. Let’s go with it!”
Hearing this, Lin Shuwen thought to herself, “As expected—Luo Ming was targeting overseas markets from the very beginning. Otherwise, when it comes to 10 million, he couldn’t possibly have agreed so quickly.”
Since Luo Ming had agreed, Lin Shuwen naturally wouldn’t object either.
Beside her, Rong Mu looked at “Luo Ming,” then at the phone screen, and thought, “Damn, these two must have colluded long ago! Er Ming must have secretly convinced Lin Shuwen, and this phone call is just for show, right?
This is 10 million! He agreed in less than a minute?
As expected, Er Ming wanted to earn foreigners’ money from the start. Are US dollars really that appealing?
No wait—the exchange rate is what it is. It really does seem pretty appealing.”
And just like that, the three of them somehow reached a consensus.
When Sister Shan came back from her meal and heard all three had agreed, she nodded in satisfaction.
“Luo Ming, Rong Mu, when do you plan to launch your game?”
“Today is December 17th. We were thinking of launching on New Year’s Day.”
“New Year’s Day? Too late. Don’t you know that Christmas overseas is basically equivalent to our Spring Festival?”
“Huh? Then Sister Shan, you mean—”
“I think the 24th would be pretty good.”
“Can Mu Tou’s game progress keep up?” Lin Shuwen asked.
“The game is already finished, and disc burning has already started. But if we release on the 24th, we’ll probably only have about 10,000 physical discs ready.”
Hearing this, Sister Shan waved her hand dismissively: “Physical discs were never the main sales channel anyway. Having 10,000 copies in the early stage is enough for the online store.”
“Then there’s no problem. All these platforms except PS4 can go live anytime.”
“Good. Then let’s set the official release for the 24th. I’ll go contact the trolls and prepare the domestic hype.
As for overseas streamers, I’ll put together a list and get it to you by tomorrow at the latest. Then you pick six people from it—two per group, three groups, each group streaming for two days.
Remember, don’t just pick the ones who are good at games. Whether a livestream promotes a game successfully mainly depends on whether the person is entertaining.
An idiot who’s terrible at games and keeps messing up, only clearing a few levels in a whole evening—that would also make people very interested in the game.
After you pick them, I’ll send people to contact them. The livestreams will start on Christmas Eve and run for six days until New Year’s Day.
During this period, most people overseas are on holiday, so a lot of people will see your game, and the conversion rate should be at its highest. If you can’t take off during these few days, there’s no point in advertising with them later.”
Rong Mu nodded to show he understood.
With Sister Shan at the helm, everything was progressing methodically.
And so, two days later, on Thursday evening, a trending topic about Plants vs. Zombies quietly climbed onto Weibo’s trending list.
