Chapter 34: Super Cool Version Update

On New Year’s Day, the Steam platform held a "Simulator Game Festival."

They called it a festival, but it was essentially just an excuse to list some simulator games and promote them to a specific group of players, akin to a secondary platform recommendation spot.

Two independent games from Tianba Studio, thanks to decent sales and reputation, were also included on the list.

"Secondary recommendation?"

Lu Jing took a bite of an apple and crunched, "How does this recommendation slot compare with [Featured on Home] and [Special Offers]?"

"Of course, it’s Featured on Home!"

Chen Ba rolled his eyes and said, "Featured on Home and Special Offers are primary recommendation slots; the exposure and conversion rates are much higher than this."

Unfortunately, the two games from Tianba Studio have never been on the primary recommendation spot on the Steam platform; the secondary page is already the limit.

There’s a big difference in exposure rates between primary and secondary.

Games recommended on a secondary page may not even be checked out by many players intentionally, but games displayed on the [Store] homepage will surely be seen.

It’s said that above primary, there’s an even stronger recommendation spot, the legendary pop-up recommendation!

As soon as a player opens the Steam platform, a promotional detail page for a certain game pops up...

Though this promotion really annoys the players, making them feel disgusted, they have to admit the pop-up is the strongest recommendation, with absurdly high player conversion rates!

Besides this, another channel for exposure on the Steam platform is the leaderboard.

Particularly the best-sellers list!

Whether it’s the national or other regions, if you make it into the top ten of the best-sellers, the exposure rate is no less than homepage recommendations, because many single-player gamers will refer to the best-sellers before purchasing a game.

However, the gold content of this, especially the national content, seems to be declining.

Certain free or low-priced games, due to the cost of entry into the library, inexplicably make it to the top twenty, and the sales curve is bizarrely abstract...

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not manipulation!

Although there are phenomena of rankings manipulation in the gaming circle, it is not as outrageous as in other circles.

What Chen Ba actually wants to say is that some games, by relying on pricing or discounts, have become "must-add" items for many inventory players, making the sales figures less valuable as a reference.

There are too many "must-add" players on the Steam platform.

If a certain game is heavily discounted, now only costing a few bucks, or is given away for free? Then buy it quickly!

Maybe they buy it and never play it, not even download it, but just adding it to "inventory+1" feels very satisfying, providing a sense of scoring a big deal.

While these sales are real, they don’t hold much reference value.

Why?

Because replicating such sales is very simple.

Price it a bit high, write an attractive game description, polish the promotional images, then cut the price heavily, offer it at one or two bucks for a limited time.

After that, you can just wait for the "must-add" players to take the bait.

Both "Living Under Someone’s Roof Simulator" and "Cold Window Study Simulator" have quite a few must-add players, especially the Cold Window Study Simulator at half-price, which has the most.

These players might have bought it and then forgotten about it due to work, study, or other reasons.

Or maybe the historically low price was too good to miss, conveniently adding another game to their inventory.

In their words: "I’ve already paid for it, and you still want me to play?"

Honestly, any game company wouldn’t get angry with these kinds of players, they’d even wish for more.

And Chen Ba is no different.

The only thing he hates is those who haven’t played the game for more than 10 minutes but start ranting in the reviews, calling it a "trash game, whoever buys it is an idiot."

Even if the game time is a bit longer, leaving such a comment wouldn’t be an issue for him; after all, they did experience it and have the right to their opinion.

But if you haven’t even played for ten minutes, how can you determine it’s a trash game?

Bro, you didn’t just enter the game, fail to even name your character and start criticizing after just looking at the UI, did you?

That’s pretty disappointing!

The secondary recommendation on Steam isn’t bad; during the recommendation period, both games sold tens of thousands of copies.

Notably, Cold Window Study Simulator’s half-price offer ended long ago; now it’s sevenfold at 12 yuan!

Living Under Someone’s Roof Simulator is still at its original price.

"The New Year is coming, time for discounts again."

Yang Dong suggested, "During the New Year, both our games should offer a discount, right?"

"Sure!" Chen Ba tossed the apple core into the trash can, casually saying, "The older one at half price matching historic low, the newer one at eightfold, a new historic low!"

To date, Living Under Someone’s Roof Simulator has been almost three months since release. Plus, the Spring Festival is indeed a festive occasion; not offering a discount wouldn’t make sense.

Eightfold isn’t too bad; it won’t backstab too many players.

If we cut it to half all at once, it would really be backstabbing the first batch who got the official version, some would definitely feel dissatisfied.

"Do we need to look at the players’ faces for discounts?"

Lu Jing couldn’t help but mock, "A gaming company wants to give discounts but worries about player’s negative reviews, sounds so magical..."

"What’s magical about it?"

Yang Dong grinned and said, "The moment you just purchased a game at full price, it suddenly gets heavily discounted, crucially, you can’t refund. If it were you, how would you feel?"

Older games are fine to discount.

New games, especially those released less than six months, offering discounts isn’t an easy decision for game developers to make.

They must consider the feelings of the initial batch of players.

Older games don’t matter; especially those released many years, or even nearly a decade ago, even if it’s given away for free, hardly any players would say you’re backstabbing.

"Maybe my perspective is different."

"Anyway, I think discounts are beneficial for players, ordinary players shouldn’t oppose it," Lu shrugged.

"You can’t represent everyone, you can only represent yourself."

Chen Ba shook his head, not wanting to dwell on the topic, so he changed it, "By the way, how’s the new version content coming along?"

"It’s done!"

Yang Dong picked up the mouse and demonstrated, "This will be a significant update, we’ve added multiple real estate options to the game."

"Players can purchase their dream home based on different locations, community environment, supporting facilities, and even mysterious feng shui concepts; we even added a sales office..."

"That’s really cool!"

Both Chen Ba and Lu Jing were full of admiration.

But Zhang Xiaojun, on the side, looked at the demonstration screen, then at the three who were immersed in excitement, feeling puzzled and bewildered.

What’s so cool about it?

Isn’t our game called "Living Under Someone’s Roof Simulator"? Why does the update content seem like a real estate sales advertisement?

Could my company genuinely be a real estate company?