Reborn in 2011, 985 missing from two copies

"Defending Grapefruit" was a huge success, with revenue exceeding 200 million.

That night, Wang Yi slept soundly.

But far away in the Magic City, MiHoYo Studio is experiencing collective insomnia.

On September 2011, 9, the first game they created, "flymetothemoon", the first game in the Honkai Impact series, was launched on the IOS App Store.

It is half a month earlier than "Defending Grapefruit".

But the difference is that "Defend Yuzu" is a free game.

"flymetothemoon" is a paid game, with a one-time price of 18 yuan.

These days, many games on IOS are under the payment model of Steam and E-parent.

However, this payment model is very popular in foreign countries, but it is obviously not adapted to the domestic environment.

Especially for a new game studio, it is even more destructive.

To put it bluntly, not many people are optimistic about games made by new studios whose names they have never even heard of, let alone spend money to buy them out.

After all, the current MiHoYo is not a unicorn game giant with a valuation of 200 billion in future generations, but a new studio that has just been established and is about to go bankrupt.

The four of them, Mr. Cai, were graduate students at Jiaotong University in Shanghai. They shared the same hobbies and were roommates.

With a 10 yuan grant from the "Eagle Project" of the College Student Entrepreneurship Foundation of the Magic City Technology Entrepreneurship Center, MiHoYo Studio was founded.

It was this 100,000 yuan that made their first game "flymetothemoon".

But because of this, one hundred thousand yuan has already been spent.

Next, whether it can be successful or not depends entirely on the market performance of "flymetothemoon".

Fortunately, on September 9, "flymetothemoon" was successfully launched on the IOS App Store, with a buyout price of 28 yuan.

The four of them, Mr. Cai, were both excited and anxious, fearing that "flymetothemoon" would not perform well and make no money.

By then, all the money they invested will be lost.

Not surprisingly, this kind of paid game is really unaccustomed in China.

As of October 10, "flymetothemoon" has been on the market for more than half a month, and it has sold a total of just over 17 copies, with a revenue of 1100 yuan.

After deducting the 30% commission from the IOS store and taxes, they only got about yuan.

Sales are dropping every day now.

Originally, it could still sell sixty or seventy copies a day, but since the release of "Defend Yuzu", the single-day sales volume of "flymetothemoon" has dropped to twenty copies. Today, there are only a dozen copies left. I'm afraid it will be single digits tomorrow. .

In the previous life, there was no impact from "Defend Grapefruit". "Flymetothemoon" only sold a total of more than 3,000 copies, which was considered a blockbuster.

So much so that many MiHoYo fans don’t know the existence of this game.

Now it happens to coincide with the release of "Defend Yuzu", one is paid and the other is free.

"flymetothemoon" may not even be able to sell 1500 copies.

Without any surprise, "flymetothemoon" failed. One hundred thousand was invested and all was lost.

The only 10,000 yuan I earned was not enough to pay wages to four people.

The newly established MiHoyou ran out of ammunition and money, and had no money to develop new games.

It seems the only way out is bankruptcy!

This situation is exactly the same as in the previous life, even worse.

In the previous life, after the failure of "flymetothemoon", in order to survive, the MiHoYo team began to solicit investment from everywhere.

But unfortunately, there are too many new game studios like this and most of them go bankrupt. No one is optimistic about them and no one is willing to invest in them.

As a result, in the next few months, the MiHoYo team encountered obstacles everywhere without any works.

After all, if you don’t have any money, what can you use for development?

It wasn't until 2012 that MiHoYo, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, was spotted by Mr. Song and invested 100 million in exchange for 15% of the shares. Only then did MiHoYo survive and have the funds to develop "Honkai Academy".

In this life, the impact of "Defending Yuzu" allowed the MiHoYo team to see the fate of "flymetothemoon"'s failure in advance.

Mr. Cai sighed: "It's also a game. Within three days of its launch, "Defend Pomelo" had over 1200 million downloads and revenue of at least million. Our "flymetothemoon" has been on the market for more than half a month, with downloads and revenue of million. Wan. We failed completely!"

Several roommates spoke one after another:

"Yes, we only sold a dozen copies today, and I'm afraid there will only be a few copies sold tomorrow."

"Let me just say, the paid model doesn't work. It's working now. It's only been on the market for half a month and it's already gone."

"It's not a matter of paying or not, but "flymetothemoon" is really a failure. Even if it's free, it can't be done."

"That's right, compared to "Defend Yuzu", our "flymetothemoon" is far behind. We have to admit it!"

After listening to the words of several people, Mr. Cai waved his hand:

"Okay, "flymetothemoon" was a complete failure. We can take our time to summarize our experience. The key is how to attract investment and how to survive now!"

"All the 100,000 yuan from the Young Eagle Project was used to make "flymetothemoon", and there is no money in the account. The more than 10,000 yuan in revenue from "flymetothemoon" will not be settled until three months. If there is no investment, miHoYo will Whether he can survive until next year is a question."

"This is a big problem, but several investors we have contacted in the past few days are not optimistic about us!"

"Ugh!"

Sighs were heard again and again, and the feeling of hitting the wall everywhere was too uncomfortable.

It wasn't until a long time that someone looked at Mr. Cai:

"Lao Cai, "Defend Pomelo" was developed by Xingyi Technology. Their director Wang is also from Jeju, your fellow countryman..."

Lao Cai's eyes lit up: "You mean... you want me to go find Wang Dongla to invest?"

"That's right! The Wang and Dong family have a great business. Meiyou earns so much in a day. Just throw a little bit at us and it's enough!"

Others also agreed:

"It's no problem. He won't refuse even if it's because of our relationship with fellow villagers. No more, even one million is enough for us to survive and make "Honkai Academy"!"

"If Director Wang can create a phenomenal blockbuster game like "Defend Yuzu", he must understand games. He must understand and support our philosophy of MiHoYo."

Lao Cai nodded: "It makes sense, especially Meiyou Chun Yufeng, which is in line with our MiHoYo culture. Director Wang should be of the same mind as us!"

"More importantly, Xingyi Technology has a bright future. If Director Wang becomes our investor, he will be on the lap of Xingyi Technology, which will be of great benefit to our future development of MiHoYo!"

"Moreover, Director Wang also wants to make Xingyi mobile phones, and there will be an order for 30 million chips at once, which is at least 30 million mobile phones."

"Director Wang has become our shareholder. In the future, our MiHoYo games will be directly promoted in the Xingyi mobile app store, and even built-in, wouldn't it mean that there would be 30 million downloads in one fell swoop?"

"Damn it! You guys are so stupid!"

Mr. Cai was shocked, and then became extremely excited: