The Smiling, The Proud Wanderer was Happy Entertainment's flagship project in 2018. The company invested a lot of manpower and resources into this Wuxia MMORPG, and even hired external help. It was finally released on New Year's Day 2019.
On the first, there were ten servers in total. In just half an hour, all ten servers were full, and there were still a lot of players waiting in line.
Although Happy Entertainment was prepared, they didn't expect it to be this popular. They added another five servers on the spot, but it still wasn't enough to satisfy the players' enthusiasm.
On the seventh, the number of servers for The Smiling, The Proud Wanderer increased to fifty, with more than a million daily active players. For a company that had only been established for two years, and it was their first big MMORPG, Happy Entertainment's success was dazzling!
The key was that the game was well received in the market. In the week since the public beta, all sorts of reviews filled the forums and QQ groups, and the game's fan club was formed.
On the tenth of January, Happy Entertainment officially released a top-up card. There were two ways to purchase it, online and offline. The number of top-up cards sold exceeded thirty million on that day, with more than 90% of the players buying the monthly card.
On the eleventh, the number increased to a hundred million. If one player bought a monthly card, that would mean two million paying customers, and this was only the beginning!
Such outstanding results indicated that The Smiling, The Proud Wanderer's success was unstoppable. As long as the company didn't do anything stupid, it wouldn't be a problem for it to be popular for two to three years.
The success of The Smiling, Proud Wanderer also caused a great impact in the two circles.
The first was obviously the online gaming circle. As a rising black horse, Happy Entertainment received a lot of attention due to the success of casual games like Happy Farm and Angry Birds. However, not many people had high hopes for The Smiling, The Proud Wanderer's IP MMORPG.
This was because this market had already turned into a sea of blood. Large domestic and international video game companies were fighting fiercely for it, from computers to phones, it could be said that there was smoke everywhere.
As a new company, Happy Entertainment had no problem playing casual games, but the production and operation of large scale MMORPG was a different story. There were many ambitious new companies that entered this market, but they ended up with their heads broken and ended up in a miserable state.
In the eyes of the big companies, Happy Entertainment wasn't qualified enough. They didn't have any background to speak of. They might be able to make some money from their IP, but it would only be a flash in the pan.
The other thing was the theme. Currently, the mainstream online games on the market were mainly shooting games, real-time strategy games, and fantasy RPG games, which included most of the players. However, The Smiling, The Proud Wanderer was an unprecedented martial arts game. It was not easy to make a mountain monster.
Also, Happy Entertainment didn't put enough effort into advertising. The media rarely saw advertisements for The Smiling, Proud Wanderer. They were relying on the company's founder, Lu Chen, to gain some popularity on his blog, making it seem rather low-key.
How could people believe that the success of The Smiling, The Proud Wanderer was inevitable?
Before The Smiling, The Proud Wanderer went into beta, there were many negative voices in the gaming circle. Many people doubted Happy Entertainment's ability, suspecting that it was another game that relied on IP to make money.
However, the truth gave these doubting voices a powerful counterattack. The Smiling, Proud Wanderer was a great success as soon as it was released. It not only attracted a large number of players, but also converted a large proportion of players into paying customers.
This was a great achievement!
Free games were popular on the market at the moment. They relied on selling items such as gold, gems, skins, and cards to make money. The Smiling, The Proud Wanderer's use of point-based payment was a step backwards.
This was because online games in the past sold point-based payment cards. Later on, free games became popular, especially in the mobile game era. The most successful games could make billions in a month by selling items!
The Smiling, The Proud Wanderer didn't take this path that was already proven to be profitable, but still wanted to make a lot of money. It was hard for people to understand why.
As for the other circle, it was the entertainment circle.
In the past, there were precedents of movies, TV shows, and novels being adapted into games. Especially popular online novels, it was common for them to be adapted into movies and TV shows before being released into games. However, these types of IP that were suitable for game adaptation were rarely successful when they were made into games.
The Smiling, The Proud Wanderer's series of successes were extremely dazzling.
Some people estimated that according to the current trend, The Smiling, The Proud Wanderer could bring at least 5 billion in revenue to Happy Entertainment. With the success of the game, Happy Entertainment was qualified to be listed.
And Lu Chen owned 70% of Happy Entertainment's shares!
This made people jealous. The scary thing was that The Smiling, The Proud Wanderer's series of IP adaptations had only just begun. Chen Fei Media also owned the rights to The Legend of The Condor Heroes. The Legend of The Condor Heroes was another Wuxia novel after The Smiling, The Proud Wanderer. Currently, the sales of the novel had surpassed the former. The value of the IP was immeasurable.
In addition, Chen Fei Media also announced that they owned the rights to the other three Wuxia novels, The Return of the Condor Heroes, Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, and The Deer and the Cauldron.
At this point, Lu Chen's Wuxia IP plan has been presented in front of everyone. He holds a large number of shares in Chenfei Media, Starfactory Media and Happy Entertainment. His ambition to build his own entertainment dynasty with the help of a series of Wuxia IP can be said to be clear!
Even if this empire was just starting to take shape, Lu Chen was already at the top of the entertainment circle, above all other celebrities.
He was young and had unparalleled talent. His rise was unstoppable!
Looking back at Lu Chen's journey to stardom, it had only been four years since his debut. How could people not be emotional?
In comparison, the explosive sales of Lu Chen's third album, Lu Chen, was not as eye-catching.
This was because no matter how many albums Lu Chen sold, it only proved that he was a successful singer. His career was no longer limited to pop music, but expanded to a wider world.
Now, when people in the industry talked about Lu Chen, other than envy, they could only say that he didn't get enough awards and didn't have any titles like King of Singers or Best Actor. However, in China, these small honors were just icing on the cake for top stars.
Everyone believed that Lu Chen would get a great harvest in this year's music and film awards, because no one could ignore his success and miracles!
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