High School Belle Fell in Love with Me

Chapter 645: Chapter 275: Negotiations with NVIDIA

The PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds tournament IP has laid a solid foundation after two years.

On the one hand, the game’s mechanics are fun, maximizing competitiveness and entertainment, making it the best game for socializing.

LOL is not suitable for socializing, communicating only through text chat is dull.

Besides, there is hardly any free time throughout the game.

On the other hand, Bai Qing has made the in-game wealth system quite balanced.

After each match, the gold coin rewards aren’t just numbers; you can use the coins to draw from a blind box, which can yield any item that money can buy.

Though the probability is a bit low.

This gives non-paying players some playability.

In Bai Qing’s view, non-paying players should serve the paying players; if they don’t stay, there naturally won’t be a chance for the paying players to stay either.

Hoping to draw good-looking gun skins and character costumes with coins is mostly theoretical, even after playing for a year, one can only get a set of common outfits, priced at $45 to $50 in the shop.

And the costume skins that sell for hundreds or even close to a thousand in the shop, only ten sets are available in the free gold coin blind box each year.

The economic system within the game is key to retaining people. It’s essential to give those who like to spend money a reason to spend, while also allowing those who don’t to benefit. Even if they work hard all day, and the gold coins saved are only worth a dime, people will still feel accomplished.

Likewise, for those who do spend, they shouldn’t get aesthetic fatigue from spending, but should feel that their purchases are worth it.

This means increasing the rarity of items, like a particularly good-looking gun skin being limited to 10,000 sets across the entire server, which can be traded.

The first year of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds had 50 million users worldwide, 80 million in the second year, and now in the third year, it has surpassed 100 million globally.

Judging from the current trend, reaching 120 million users this year is not a problem.

That Penguine and Blue Hole cooperation game, now is a niche game.

On one hand, their free strategy made the previously paying users quite dissatisfied.

Secondly, they lowered the graphics quality and modified some game mechanics to reduce system requirements, which made many people uncomfortable.

What was the reason people played this game before? Wasn’t it because you produced a more exquisite game?

In the end, you took the wrong path!

Might as well play PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, as it has more players and stronger social attributes.

There’s also the point that the PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds tournaments are in full swing, whereas Penguin’s battle royale game is stingy, offering a maximum prize of only $100,000 for its tournaments.

Who would want to play that?

While Penguin’s battle royale now has over ten million global users, the reality is... Even South Korea’s own clubs haven’t formed teams specifically for it, as they don’t have the money.

Instead, several South Korean eSports clubs have put significant effort into forming PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds teams. Achieving even minor results ensures they don’t lose money, and strong performances lead to big profits.

Though PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds updated last year, the system requirements aren’t as stringent, and previous configurations can still run it, without causing user resentment.

It has now completely replaced the previous LOL, becoming the hottest game in the world.

However, the gap with LOL isn’t particularly large, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ highest daily active users are only 18 million, while LOL hovers around 12 million.

But LOL has more registered users, with 200 million, and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has fewer registered users.

Rightly so, the PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds PCL playoffs have started, and a few days before, it was announced that Li Yang will be appearing.

Many people said that Li Yang’s world championship last year lacked significance, as it was merely a global invitational, not a true championship, and the competition format was incomplete.

Only winning the championship this year will gain recognition.

Of course, those are just stubborn folks.

Many of them are still clinging to LOL, frustrated because their beloved game cannot provide them with off-stage emotional value, and in-game social attributes are diminishing.

Before, playing games allowed you to make a few friends, but now, once you’re in, no one wants to get to know you.

Everyone vents their emotions in the game, as if no one is enjoying the process of playing games anymore.

The PCL playoffs are a competition among sixteen teams for a spot.

In the Intercontinental Competition after the spring, the North American region took the championship, and many felt that the PCL was relying on Li Yang, as the other teams weren’t performing well.

The most crucial global finals, Li Yang must win the championship to release the emotions they’ve held onto for the entire year.

So, on the day Li Yang played, game popularity increased by 30% compared to usual.

The audience for the event was already large, then increased by 30% more...

Meanwhile, the LPL Summer Finals were being held, but no one watched, and its popularity dropped by half.

Every time after Li Yang’s match, the LPL live stream chat is bombarded by PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds fans.

"Yang God is on stage!"

"Yang God eliminated six in one game, didn’t show any decline in skill even after half a year!"

"Koala Team got the chicken dinner, the world’s strongest team is back!"

...

Actually, Li Yang’s performance wasn’t too good, but just relative to last year.

This year, professional players have shown significant improvement, and his advantages are shrinking.

But he can still maintain a sufficient competitive level, though he’ll need to practice more in the future, or he might not stand out in the world championship.