With the official announcement from Nebula Games about their platform's change, the entire game world instantly exploded. Players, designers, and major game companies and distributors were all talking about this big news.
"Wow, did you hear? Nebula Games is changing to a comprehensive digital platform! All game designers can put their work on Nebula Games!"
"How could I not hear? The main thing is the cut they take! It's only 25%!?"
"Really? It sounds too good to be true. Is it a trick?"
"What are you thinking? Nebula Games said it on their official page, and they even posted the contract. Everyone in the industry, including players, is watching. How could it be fake? Don't you think Nebula Games planned this a long time ago?"
"That's right! Minecraft got a lot of attention from players and made Nebula Games more popular. Then, at just the right time, they announced the platform change."
"Actually, this was kind of expected. Nebula Games has been doing really well for the past two years. And have you seen what Nebula Games has been doing lately? Early on, their games were released on all the platforms, but their own platform gave better deals. But lately, both It Takes Two and Dark Souls: Age of Fire came out on Nebula Games first, and then came out on other platforms later."
"Yeah! And this time, Minecraft and Don't Starve didn't even go on other platforms. But even so, Don't Starve has sold almost ten million copies, and Minecraft is aiming for twenty million, or maybe even more. That shows that Nebula Games definitely has a community that is willing to pay for games."
"I don't know what Lucas is thinking. How will he make money with such a low cut? He's going against the rules of the whole industry!"
"It's a price war. Once Nebula Games is stable, they might change the cut. But right now, it's a great chance. Nebula Games doesn't have many games yet, so we'll get good promotion. There are so many users there, we can definitely make some money!"
... ... ... ... ... ...
Meeting room at NetDragon Games. Ma Lei, the president, was listening to his staff report on the data about the Nebula Games platform.
"The rule here is that the channel gets half. If Nebula Games just wanted to get into the channel business, they wouldn't do it this way. They'd lose money now, and they'd also make a lot of channel companies mad. It's like fighting the whole channel industry."
Marley tapped his fingers on the table and spoke in a low voice.
"But the key thing is that Nebula Games has been steady for the past few years. They've done big games like Dark Souls, and small games like Don't Starve, Fall Guys, and Valiant Hearts: The Great War. They've even gotten into medium-sized games like Outlast and It Takes Two. Plus, there's the Minecraft boom. Nebula Games has the goods. Their user base is established. Even if they lose the channel war, they'll still be okay." Yao Guang, who was in charge of the platform channel and content, felt amazed. "Yeah, Minecraft is too amazing! That one game is enough to make Nebula Games stable." Marley felt helpless when he said that.
It's still popular since it came out, and it's hard to tell when that will stop. Just that game is enough for Nebula Games to live off of for ten years. And that doesn't even include making sequels or other games.
Even though Minecraft is a game you buy once, and it doesn't even cost $100, except for the VR version. That many sales has already made Nebula Games a lot of money. And that's not all.
A game's earnings don't just come from in-app purchases and sales. For some games, money from the brand can be more than the game itself.
Minecraft's build-anything game clearly has a lot of potential. There could be connected block toys, and game mods that go with toys in the real world. For example, you could add a code so people who buy the toy can build it in the game.
And to make it different, you could add special features. Sitting in his office, Marley thought of many ways Minecraft could make money.
He just wished NetDragon owned the game.
"So, President Marley, what's next?"
"For now, keep the independent game designers in our channel happy. Lowering our cut is a possible plan. But we're not the most worried. SkyNova is probably watching too. The people who are really worried are the channel platforms that don't make games." Marley thought for a moment and said.
After Lucas announced Nebula Games would change its platform, SkyNova and NetDragon, the two big companies in the business, watched from the sidelines. But they were secretly making plans for third-party game companies and designers.
The main reason is that NetDragon and SkyNova are different from most channels. Although they're the biggest channels in China and most of their money comes from that, they don't only depend on the channels. But the channel platforms that only do channels are more worried. First, they signed exclusive deals with many independent game designers and smaller game companies. At the same time, some channels started attacking Nebula Games and Lucas, saying they were hurting the game market.
The main reason is that Nebula Games put too much pressure on them. If it was just a regular game platform playing this price war, it wouldn't matter. They don't have users or money, so how would game designers go there? Because the cut is lower? It still has to sell! But Nebula Games is different. They have enough money, users, and resources to join the channel war.
The whole game world was buzzing.
And Lucas, who was the center of attention, was feeling relaxed. There was a meeting going on at Nebula Games.
"First, everyone knows that Minecraft is a big success. But that's just the start. I think Minecraft can do more. As more people play and learn more about it, the game will live longer. So, we need to manage it well."
"That includes videos that show play history, community, and things like that. We have to do that. And we can think about what players and MOD makers want. But everything should be about 'freedom' and 'creation.'"
Lucas looked at everyone. Then he paused and said,
"Also, everyone should know that Nebula Games faces a big challenge now. So, we'll be making harder games, and we need to do it faster. If we don't have enough people, talk to Human Resources. They'll figure things out, and you can interview the people. I'll make the final decision."
Everyone there was excited when they heard what Lucas said. They were happy that Nebula Games was changing its platform and breaking the rules of the channel industry.
As people who work in games, no one likes how strong the channels are now. And now, Nebula Games is like a dragon-slaying hero. This real-life 'RPG' made the whole team feel excited.
"Next is what we're going to do. I'll tell you now that for the next little while, we need to focus on big games to get players to pay more attention to Nebula Games." Lucas looked at everyone seriously. What's the base of a game platform?
Big games? Not really. The base of a game platform is small, independent games and medium-sized games.
Like Valiant Hearts: The Great War, Don't Starve, and It Takes Two. But you need more than just one or two of those games to support a platform.
So, you need third-party companies to join. And how do you get them to join? That's what Nebula Games is doing.
First, a low cut. Second, more players. And how do you get more players to join? The answer is easy: big games that get people's attention, and are only on your platform.
"But before that, Hector, keep researching the new AI tech. We'll be using it in new games later." Lucas looked at Hector and said.
"Okay, that's all. Ethan, stay. Everyone else, go back to work." Ethan told Lucas about some recent things in the meeting room.
"Lucas, there's been a lot of news online about us, and some people are starting trouble. We've signed contracts with Trinity Law and Summit Law Firm, and we're ready to sue." Ethan said.
Nebula Games doesn't have its own lawyers yet because they don't need them right now. So, they're paying for legal help.
These two law firms are good at business and online problems.
"You can take care of that. Also, speed up promotion for the platform, and third-party game designers and companies too."
Lucas nodded and told Ethan some important things. Then he took a deep breath, took out his phone, and looked at it. All the chat groups were full of messages.
A lot of designers who had contact information were asking questions about the Nebula Games platform. And there were all kinds of posts on the official page.
Lucas thought for a moment, opened the official page, and wrote: 'I only have a few simple things to say about Nebula Games changing to a comprehensive digital platform.'
'First, it makes sense that the platform is changing. Nebula Games has always been trying to give players a better game experience, a good community, lots of creative content, a review system for games, game saves in the cloud, and trophy records.
We've always wanted to give players the best experience.'
'As for the cut that people in the industry and players are worried about, the answer is easy. Nebula Games doesn't want to start a price war or push out other companies just to raise prices later. The 25% cut will never change. And for the games that players like, the cut will be even lower, down to 12%.'
'As for making money, I can only say that after paying for costs, we'll make about 7% at the current rate. And as we get bigger, we can make 9%-10%.'
'Nebula Games never wanted to control the game market. We want to give developers a better environment to create games and give players games that are more fun.'
(End of The Chapter)
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