Chapter 1047

After the closed beta for Genshin Impact began, the internet's skepticism regarding the game's quality vanished overnight.

Perhaps open-world games are not a novel genre on PC, and have even become dime-a-dozen.

But on mobile, this is a one-of-a-kind existence, leading the industry in graphics, music, gameplay, and content.

Moreover, compared to the greasy Korean art style common in domestic mobile games, Genshin Impact's anime style is refreshingly new.

It's not that there aren't other anime-style mobile games in the country, but none possess the high quality of Genshin Impact.

When most game developers are still using 2D static sprites to fleece players, anyone with half a brain can understand the significance of a controllable, beautifully modeled 3D character.

To call Genshin Impact a AAA masterpiece is certainly not quite accurate.

But if you call it a AAA masterpiece on mobile, that is quite fitting.

During the first closed beta, Genshin Impact enabled a recharge rebate feature.

Any account that recharged during the closed beta phase would receive a 1.5x rebate after the public beta, with a cap of 30,000.

Among the 5,000 accounts issued for the closed beta, a staggering 4,399 people made recharges—a payment rate as high as 86%!

Although most of the players were streamers or hardcore anime fans with high concentration and sufficient funds, making them more willing to pay for visibly high game quality.

But a payment rate approaching 90% still shocked the entire gaming industry.

If it's already this insane in closed beta, what chance do other games have once it goes public?

Consequently, the game developers who had previously quieted down began plotting countermeasures again.

When Genshin Impact announced it would appear at the Sony game exhibition, those countermeasures began to be implemented.

On the internet, a large group of veteran console players began to vilify pay-to-win games, with the yet-to-be-released Genshin Impact bearing the brunt of the attack.

"If a pay-to-win mobile game can be exhibited at a Sony game show, it will be the darkest day for domestic games.

Once domestic game developers see its success, who will still seriously make single-player games? Will there be any future for domestic single-player titles?"

Such a deafening question stirred up considerable heat in the gaming circle.

On one hand, domestic single-player games do seem to be struggling, especially in the AAA space; only one Unreal Studio has achieved results, and aside from that, there is only Black Myth, whose release date remains indefinitely delayed.

Genshin Impact's quality is excellent; if it can be polished and completed with care, it is definitely a masterpiece above the passing line among anime-style single-player games.

However, it chose the evil of in-app purchases, requiring spending to achieve full collection.

Console players are certainly deeply disgusted by this.

If it just stayed on mobile, that would be one thing, but now it actually wants to touch the PS platform—how can this be tolerated?

If you succeed, and other developers follow suit, won't domestic single-player games be completely dead?

Therefore, driven by certain interested parties, the console circle launched a crusade against Genshin Impact, and the momentum grew daily.

But regardless of whether these people are truly for domestic single-player games or simply venting their emotions by following the trend, none of them have considered that even without Genshin Impact and the Miha Studio that developed it, what future could domestic single-player games have had?

Before these two studios appeared, the country didn't have a single true AAA masterpiece; all that existed were markets rampant with piracy and low-quality mobile games obsessed with skin-swapping.

It can be said that ever since the game console ban at the turn of the century, domestic single-player games were already dead.

Whether it was Final Fantasy or Resident Evil, those were miracles unique to Luo Quan.

Just like the Chinese music scene, her individual brilliance does not represent the revival of the entire environment.

It remains what it was; there has never been any change.

Therefore, these people's accusations against Genshin Impact are fundamentally invalid.

It's just that rational thinkers on the internet are a tiny minority; most are just trend-following powder kegs that explode at the slightest touch.

Coupled with those interested parties who deliberately smear and spread rumors, it is not surprising that the current situation has formed.

Luo Quan didn't pay much attention to the crusade from the domestic console circle, as most of them are not her target users anyway.

However, Luo Quan herself didn't expect that this group of people would pull off such a big stunt for her.

On the last day of Genshin Impact's closed beta, which was also the day it appeared at the Sony game exhibition.

A PS user from China brought their own PS4 console to the Genshin Impact booth.

In front of hundreds of game enthusiasts, they shouted: "Chinese single-player games are dead; today is the darkest day in the history of gaming!"

After finishing, they forcefully lifted the PS4 in their hands and viciously smashed it onto the ground, emitting a crisp 'Crack!'

The surrounding crowd was stunned by this scene, looking at them as if they were looking at a mental patient.

Security guards who heard the noise quickly arrived and took them away, but this priceless smash directly shocked the global gaming circle.

Before this, Genshin Impact was just an anime-style mobile game developed by the obscure Miha Studio.

Thanks to Luo Quan, its popularity in the country was decent, but it hadn't made any waves in the world.

Being able to attend the Sony game exhibition this time was also because Luo Quan pulled some strings to get it in.

There was no other way; they had been collaborating since she debuted, so asking for a back door was just a matter of a single sentence.

Originally, it would have ended there; anime games are not considered popular in the console circle, and even if they entered the game exhibition, they would only attract a small group of people.

But after that person's earth-shattering smash, the eyes of both gaming media and ordinary game fans were all attracted to it.

This also caused Genshin Impact's English name, "Genshin," to hit Twitter's trending list, and more and more people began to actively learn about Genshin Impact, wanting to know what kind of game it was that could lead a console player to express protest in such an extreme way.

And these foreigners, who had barely touched mobile games, quickly became attracted to Genshin Impact's excellent quality and its "politically incorrect" character art style after delving into it.

In the following days, popular tweets related to Genshin Impact could be seen on Twitter every day; this popularity could rival Luo Quan releasing a new album.

Originally, she was quite worried that the console-smashing incident would cause some negative impact, but she didn't expect it to backfire, directly causing Genshin Impact's popularity to explode.

Perhaps it was truly the favor of the goddess of luck; this game was destined to be a hit, and the kind of hit that explodes globally.

From the moment it released its CG, everything that followed became unstoppable.

The first closed beta ended successfully, and Luo Quan announced that there would be a half-month period for bug and game content fixes.

The qualification draw for the second closed beta would begin after half a month, and the closed beta would start at the end of March for a duration of twenty days.

If there are no major issues in the second closed beta, then the public beta is basically not far off.

This news was undoubtedly exciting for mobile gamers; they had been itching for more than half a month after seeing the gameplay footage from those streamers, and many wealthy players even spent high prices to purchase closed beta qualifications just to get a taste in advance.

The subsequently released concept PV for the seven nations hooked the players' desire to play to its peak, and even led to the first masterpiece of Genshin Impact: "Waiting for Kamisato."

It is no exaggeration to say that gamers now are counting the days on the calendar, just waiting for the second closed beta to start so they can grab a spot.

Seeing such a result, Luo Quan was absolutely overjoyed.

Originally, she had prepared to be roasted by the console circle, but fortunately, the two masterpieces developed previously had reduced a lot of the firepower.

Coupled with the fact that her relationship with Penguin was quite good, they didn't let the head of the internet trolls intervene; otherwise, it's hard to say what the consequences would have been.

As for the console-smashing incident, that was already the impotent rage of protesters; it could only bring popularity to Genshin Impact and couldn't affect the big picture.

Following this trend, with step-by-step development, updates, and operations, Genshin Impact would become the biggest profit-making project in her hands, and by then, the entire global gaming circle would be shocked by this terrifying money-sucking monster.

Of course, that is a story for another time.

The top priority right now is "Sheep Without a Shepherd"; after the two films were edited, Luo Quan sent them for review and then posted a status update:

"'Sheep Without a Shepherd' is almost ready and will be meeting everyone soon, please look forward to it!"

When the status was posted, the Spring Festival film season hadn't even ended yet.

"The Empty River Blue" and "The Wandering Earth 2" were still in theaters, but the box office outcome had already been decided; the former had already grossed 4.2 billion, ranking eighth in Chinese film history.

"The Wandering Earth 2" was slightly worse, with only 3.7 billion, not yet making it into the top ten.

However, such box-office hits usually choose to extend their screening time, so both should be in theaters for about another twenty days, and there is still room for box office growth.

Films in the Spring Festival season are usually released on the first day of the Lunar New Year; although there are many competitors at this time, there are also many viewers, so even if it's a bad film, as long as the trailer is festive enough, it can achieve significant results.

But if it's past the first day of the Lunar New Year, the prospects are quite bleak.

The best example is "Chinese Ping Pong: The Counterattack," released on the third day of the Lunar New Year; it was originally scheduled for the first day, but for some reason, it withdrew and was delayed until the third day.

As a result, it missed the peak of the audience, and coupled with the fact that the subject matter itself wasn't very appealing, the final box office bombed directly, with the first-day box office not even reaching 50 million.

Seeing that continuing would mean losing everything, the producers announced another withdrawal, preparing to restart promotion and release it again on the 27th of the first lunar month.

For a New Year film, it is impossible to achieve a high box office at this point in time.

Coupled with the fact that everyone has seen too many of these mainstream films in recent years, if it were "Wolf Warrior 3," it might be worth watching, but what's the point of Chinese Ping Pong? It's going to win anyway.

If it were filming "Chinese Football: The Counterattack," maybe more people would watch it.

The investment for this film is 300 million; if the box office doesn't reach 900 million, it's losing money. Of course, it's no longer a question of whether it's losing money, but how much it will lose.

Most people's opinion is that the final box office for this film will be around 150 million, and after selling the digital rights, it will lose about 700 million.

This is a typical case of losing everything, the kind that makes investors want to jump off a building.

But this is also deserved; who told the lead actor and director to only film bad movies in the past.

And the box office for the previous bad films was actually quite good; this time it's considered paying back the debt.

As a Best Actor, not cherishing one's reputation and overdrawing the trust of fans and passersby, it's not surprising to end up like this.

On the other hand, Lyon, even when filming bad movies, chooses ones that aren't that bad, and he also tries his best to help the director perfect the script, absolutely worthy of his salary and fans.

So after "Tiny Times" was released, some people criticized it for being money-worshipping, some for showing off wealth, and some for the plot.

But as a commercial film, it was still sincere, and finally achieved an excellent result of 1.5 billion.

This also indirectly shows that if you intend to film a bad movie, it's best to hire a few more traffic stars to pull up the popularity first.

Quality and popularity, you must occupy one to gain box office, otherwise how can you make the audience pay willingly?

After all, box office is not internet click-through rate; without money laundering, it can't be faked.

In short, the bombing of the film "Chinese Ping Pong" is a foregone conclusion, and the big villain Luo Quan has scattered thumbtacks all over the street where it was going to bomb.

"'Sheep Without a Shepherd' is scheduled for the 27th of the first lunar month!"

Luo Quan's news made the film fans cheer, and at the same time, it made the investors of the "Chinese Ping Pong" crew feel half-cold.

The previous withdrawal was originally intended to avoid those two flood-beast monsters, preparing to try their luck at the end of the Spring Festival season.

Who knew that at this time, they would encounter Luo Quan coming to stir up trouble!

Who is this grandmother? She is the holder of the highest international honor for domestic directors, the box office champion among female directors, and a triple Best Director winner of the Oscars, Cannes, and Golden Rooster!

Once her resume is brought out, there are few people in the whole of China who can be compared with her.

Although the film she shot this time was completed so quickly, it couldn't be a masterpiece.

But a person's name is like a tree's shadow; just putting her title on the movie poster can attract a large number of passersby to enter the cinema to see what's going on.

Imagine, when the poster for "Chinese Ping Pong" is placed next to it, what will the situation be?

"Chinese Ping Pong" still wants a counterattack?

Then who won the dozens of gold medals in the past few years? It's completely nonsense!

Undoubtedly, no one will go to watch it at all.

Consequently, the creators of "Chinese Ping Pong: The Counterattack" began to ponder whether to continue withdrawing.

Successive withdrawals will certainly consume the patience of fans, but if they really ignore it, it is very likely that the last glimmer of hope will be shattered.

This is a difficult decision; the creators and investors are destined to be unable to sleep tonight.

By comparison, Luo Quan is very happy, opening a live stream to promote the new film to fans.

She doesn't even intend to do too much promotion on Weibo; anyway, Bilibili's news resources are ready-made, and it doesn't cost money.

In addition, she can also use her own popularity to drive discussion, and then get on the trending list through a curve.

It's just that the effect will be slightly worse.