The first rival game wasn't something like Piano Tiles, which is what William had expected—it was a Life Restart Simulator type.
But thinking about it, it made sense. Making Piano Tiles is harder than making Life Restart Simulator. The tough part of Life Restart Simulator is writing the story—and talent for that is everywhere on this planet. The question is, did the other studio already know the game would blow up after the New Year and plan ahead? Or did they just get lucky and ride the trend?
If it's the first one, then their backers must be really powerful.
On the bright side, the fact that the game wasn't released at the Life Restart Simulator's peak probably means they were being cautious. Even investors can't guarantee a hit, so instead of going head-to-head, they chose to ride the wave and catch the momentum.
Still, William's first thought after seeing the game was:
"Thanks for not killing me, big bro."
With a top celebrity writer, a hot new market, and a trendy game theme, Immortal Rebirth Simulator launched with all the right ingredients. Even the name sounds more appealing than Life Restart Simulator.
As expected, downloads exploded as soon as the game went live. At that moment, William found himself appreciating the new telecom regulations—at least they saved him from being envious of the massive traffic bonuses. The cap was 5 million anyway, unless the game also had milestone rewards, which was clearly not going to happen.
The game hadn't yet launched a WeChat widget. Cynthia said that since other companies didn't benefit from the initial traffic wave, they'd have to make up for it elsewhere. Most likely, they'd negotiate a price with Tencent before adding the widget.
William had never heard of negotiating prices with Tencent before, but after Cynthia explained, he realized it wasn't what he first thought.
Immortal Rebirth Simulator is a free game, but thanks to Regulation 97, the maximum it could earn was just 700.000 dollar—barely enough to cover development costs.
To make more money, they'd have to include ads. But if they launched on WeChat widgets, Tencent would take a cut of the ad revenue. How much depends on the negotiation.
The main reason they weren't charging upfront was because of market competition. Since Life Restart Simulator is free, players wouldn't be willing to pay for a new game right away. And even if they were, if the quality wasn't at least on par, it would just backfire.
Basically, only two types of developers would dare to charge upfront: those who are reckless, or those with absolute confidence.
Earth Games charging for their new title clearly wasn't recklessness. With the reputation they built from five previous free games, they had enough confidence to make that move.
While William was preparing to test the new game with Marcus, Immortal Rebirth Simulator's developer, GlamorArts Entertainment, posted a statement on social media:
"Ten minutes, thirty million downloads! Another market miracle!"
Hitting 30 million in such a short time was a record even Earth Games hadn't achieved. It even stole the spotlight from Life Restart Simulator, which had just passed 100 million downloads the day before. The two were clearly rivals.
As the saying goes, "the one who plants the tree doesn't always enjoy the shade." Immortal Rebirth Simulator's success owed a lot to the market Earth Games had already opened up. But more importantly, it had solid quality. Its biggest flaw? No real gameplay innovation.
William and Marcus quickly noticed that aside from some differences in story, every choice in Immortal Rebirth Simulator had a near-identical counterpart in Life Restart Simulator.
"Can we sue them for copying us?"
Marcus had already finished the game and was convinced it was just a reskin.
William put down his phone. He was sure that if they ran a code comparison, it would show a 100% match. But the problem was that in this genre, the core is the story. As long as the story is different, winning a plagiarism lawsuit is nearly impossible.
Besides, GlamorArts Entertainment is a major company in China. William's small studio going up against them would take tons of time and energy, and even if they won, there'd be no real benefit.
What would they gain? That 700.000 dollar? They'd more likely end up with a ruined reputation—not worth it.
William shook his head. "Forget the gameplay—how do you think the game is overall?"
"It's good. Hmm…" Marcus hesitated.
"Just say it."
"Okay." Marcus took a breath. "I think the writing is great. Especially the world-building—it really feels like being inside a fantasy novel. The immersion completely blows our game out of the water."
"Yeah."
William patted Marcus on the shoulder and stood up.
He had written the story for Life Restart Simulator himself. He knew his own level. Compared to a top-tier writer, he was clearly outclassed. Getting crushed on the writing side was inevitable. The good news? He wasn't planning to make another game in this genre and embarrass himself. The bad news? Their competition was strong—really strong.
"Feeling the pressure now?" Cynthia leaned against the door, watching William frown at his desk.
William let out a long breath. "Not too much."
"Come on, it's written all over your face." Cynthia walked in and shut the door. "That's just how the market works. We can't always be the best, but the one thing we can control is getting better. Right?"
"Yeah."
William was a little discouraged. Being outdone never feels good. He didn't blame Marcus for being blunt—after all, he was just being honest. But the truth still stung. All he could do now was keep making better games.
"Thanks."
"Hey, we're in this together. I'm counting on you. If you fall behind, what am I supposed to do?" Cynthia joked, pretending to worry.
William laughed, finally feeling a bit lighter.
By the afternoon, when he went out to check on progress, he could clearly feel the tense atmosphere. He didn't say anything about it—pressure was a good thing. If they'd had it easy the whole time, no one would feel the need to improve. Himself included.
Online, reviews of Immortal Rebirth Simulator were starting to split. Some players were full of praise, while Life Restart Simulator was being dragged into constant comparisons. As expected, people were either hyping one up or tearing the other down.
Other players, like Marcus, admitted the writing was great but also pointed out the obvious: the gameplay was copied—"copied" might even be putting it lightly. It was straight-up copy-paste.
People had already gathered hard evidence. One player showed that making the same choices in both games resulted in identical attribute points, identical story triggers, and identical endings. The only differences were the character names and story setting.
Faced with this mountain of evidence, GlamorArts Entertainment remained calm. They simply released a bland statement, which basically said: "If you think we copied, go ahead and sue us. But you can't deny that our game is better than the competition."
That kind of message was infuriating—especially to Earth Games fans. Marcus was fuming and ready to go off on them online.
Many players felt the same way he did, and many actually took action, but no one could deny that "Immortal World Rebirth Simulator" was more fun than "Life Restart Simulator."
To respond to GlamorArts Entertainment's provocation, Earth Games, with William's approval, had Merry post a short update: "We can't deny that a copycat product can sometimes be better than the original, but we also believe people can tell the real from the fake."
Since they dared to provoke, William naturally wouldn't back down.
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