Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 139 How could it be profitable?? (Three more for monthly pass!)

Chapter 139: Chapter 139 How could it be profitable?? (Three more for monthly pass!)

Huang Wang had been staring until 6 p.m.

One must say that the events of the past two days were simply too fantastical!

He watched with his own eyes as "Hell Inferior Demon" went from being reviled by thousands from its inception to now gaining notoriety in a very bizarre black and red fashion, and the sales volume was much higher than expected!

Originally, Huang Wang really didn’t think the game would make any money, and even sales of over ten thousand would have been a miracle.

But now, the sales had already broken fifty thousand!

Huang Wang quickly calculated the income from the game. At 18 yuan per copy, Hell Frontline had nearly six hundred thousand in net income!

As for whether this money could cover the development costs of the game?

Huang Wang was unclear because he didn’t know the specific development costs of the game.

On the programming side, he knew it was just his salary, the rent for the house, and the money spent on purchasing climbing game templates online; adding it all up and calculating liberally, it was basically within one hundred and fifty thousand yuan.

But it was clear that this was not the major part of the game development costs.

The game’s art assets were so refined, and there was dedicated voice acting in the language of Hell, plus the budget for marketing and promotion; all of these together must start at a million yuan, right?

If the sales volume was no more than ten thousand, then the net income of the game would be just over a hundred thousand, which would definitely mean a total loss.

And now with sales of fifty thousand, judging by the current momentum, perhaps the final sales volume might just barely reach one hundred thousand?

Huang Wang was still pondering when the security door opened.

At 6 p.m., President Sa arrived on time, but there were two people following him, the young man and the delinquent girl Huang Wang had seen before.

Azazel looked at Huang Wang: "Alright, you can get off work now."

Huang Wang was somewhat surprised, this early? It was only six o’clock!

This was completely out of character for President Sa.

Huang Wang even felt a bit reluctant to leave, since there wasn’t much to do back in his damp semi-basement so early; he might as well stay here and play on the computer for a while.

But seeing the two people behind President Sa, Huang Wang guessed that they might have something important to discuss, so he nodded and left.

Never mind, I might as well find an internet café to play for a while.

Once Huang Wang had left, Azazel quickly shut the door and immediately put on a different face.

"Honorable Lilith, welcome to your grand visit!

"Are you here to start fulfilling our previous contract immediately?

"No problem at all, ten percent of negative emotions will be offered to you right away."

Azazel’s face was all smiles and obviously, after spending the whole day in Hell, he was still somewhat confused about the situation.

Lilith looked at Gu Fan.

She too hadn’t completely figured out the situation and only knew that Gu Fan had told her in advance to meet directly at Xingwang Garden Community today.

As for what plans there were afterward? They would all depend on Gu Fan’s arrangements.

Gu Fan cleared his throat twice: "President Sa, who said it was one tenth? It’s clearly three quarters.

"And please, remit all of your company’s profits as well."

Azazel’s smile instantly froze on his face, but being a demon with strong mental fortitude, he quickly reacted, "You must be joking, right? Are you trying to say ’Hell Inferior Demon’ made a profit?

"How could that be possible! The total promotional expenses for the game amounted to five hundred thousand, and it was all spent on the first day. With maximum exposure, the sales on the first day were barely over ten thousand.

"The sales over these three days must have plummeted dramatically, and I fear the sales of ’Hell Inferior Demon’ can’t even reach twenty thousand now.

"No matter how you calculate it, making a profit is impossible!"

Gu Fan smiled slightly, "Oh? Then President Sa, you better check right away. What are the current sales of ’Hell Inferior Demon’?"

Azazel’s expression grew serious. He had a vague sense of foreboding but simply couldn’t fathom any possibility of things going awry.

Could the game have a bug like "Sisyphus"?

But the contract stated that if such a bug were to occur, he wouldn’t need to submit any negative emotions!

What’s going on here?

Azazel opened the backend with a skeptical look, and then he saw the current sales data for "Hell Inferior Demon."

54,387 copies!

Azazel was struck as if by thunder: "No! This is impossible!!"

The specific costs of "Hell Inferior Demon" had been clearly calculated by Azazel and Lilith when signing the contract.

The game’s own development costs were about one hundred and thirty thousand, which included Huang Wang’s salary, rent for the house, and other daily company expenses, as well as the money for purchasing game templates and miscellaneous feature templates.

As for the art and music resources? Those were all from Hell, so they cost nothing!

Of course, Azazel knew very well that with a mere cost of 130,000, it would be very easy to accidentally turn a profit, so he included the marketing budget as well, totaling 500,000.

This amount wasn’t much, and it didn’t cause a huge commotion, but it did suddenly increase the total cost of "Hell Inferior Demon" to 630,000!

Based on this cost, considering different platforms’ revenue sharing, taxes, and other factors, "Hell Inferior Demon," priced at 18 yuan a copy, needed to sell at least about 50,000 copies to possibly break even!

And in Azazel’s opinion, this was absolutely impossible!

The reality was indeed such.

"Hell Inferior Demon" only sold a little over 10,000 copies on the first day, and on the second day, there was a significant downward trend.

After all, the marketing funds were gone, the game’s ratings were out, and the number of new players purchasing the game had greatly decreased.

What about negative emotions?

Azazel had earned them in spades!

Although sales dropped sharply, it didn’t mean that the number of people playing the game had decreased. Thanks to the two hours of free gameplay strategy, the negative emotions produced by each player during those two hours were quite considerable!

Two days ago, Azazel had already collected 860,000 worth of negative emotions from the game "Hell Inferior Demon"!

This completely surpassed "Sisyphus" before the appearance of bugs.

And as of now, Azazel took a look at the negative emotions provided by the game and saw an excellent increase, the total amount reaching 2.04 million!

This achievement made him sincerely proud of himself.

Who says collecting negative emotions is difficult?

But now, Azazel’s joy turned to sorrow.

Why did this game actually have sales of over 50,000?

No wonder the negative emotions kept rising these past few days; it turned out new players were continuously coming in!

If he hadn’t signed that investment agreement, Azazel would definitely have gone crazy with joy, but now it was a matter of heaven in one instant, Hell in the next.

The investment agreement coming into effect meant that not only did Azazel have to turn over all profits after breaking even, but he also had to give three-quarters of the negative emotions!

That’s a full 1.53 million!

If "Hell Inferior Demon" kept making money, he had to keep paying!

"Impossible! This simply cannot be!"

Azazel looked at Gu Fan with anger: "There must be some trick you’ve pulled! The contract clearly stated that there must be no..."

Gu Fan nodded, "Yes, the contract clearly states that any bug causing significant deviation from the original design and leading to unusual profits would exempt your side from paying any negative emotions.

"But so far, ’Hell Inferior Demon’ hasn’t had any such bug."

Obviously, Azazel simply couldn’t accept this reality; he searched online and called Huang Wang to inquire about the details.

Eventually, he figured it out.

"Hell Inferior Demon" being able to achieve revenue completely at odds with the original expectations was mainly due to three reasons.

The first was the mysterious speedrun expert All-Greedy Bro initiating a "Sewage Butterfly Stroke Competition" among all streamers and YouTubers, which kept the game trending!

The second was the mysterious MOD creator who provided a Succubus appearance MOD, voice MOD, and save MOD, enhancing the playability of the game!

The third was because the game was so terribly bad that it shot to first place on the bad ratings list, leading players to start exchanging positive reviews, creating a buzz and further increasing its visibility!

All three factors came together in a short period of time, resulting in an abnormal increase in sales!

Of course, if the quality of "Hell Inferior Demon" was slightly higher, like "Sisyphus" or "Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon," and another bug emerged that could improve gameplay, sales could have further increased, and breaking 100,000 would have been possible.

But it was just too trashy, so even with such high popularity, most players still wouldn’t choose to purchase it, and the final sales were just over 50,000.

Yet even with sales just over 50,000, the game had made money!

As for a special bug that made the game profitable?

Sorry, there really wasn’t any!

If one must insist on something that changed the game’s functionality, it would only be the MOD. But MODs are not bugs; they aren’t even part of the game itself.

They are just third-party programs voluntarily developed by some people online, which players can download and use voluntarily, having no official affiliation whatsoever.

Azazel was so enraged that his teeth itched; he was desperate to find out who this MOD author llsdydyzzr was, but he couldn’t find out, nor could he do anything about it.

Can a MOD be taken down? Yes, but the prerequisite is that the MOD must involve clear infringement, such as if the models were stolen from other games. In such cases, if the developers insisted and sued the website, it would be possible to have the MOD removed.

But the Succubus appearance replacement MOD didn’t use any existing materials; it was entirely the author’s own creation, leaving no handle to grasp!

Azazel slumped into his chair, looking as though all his strength had been drained away.