With this announcement, Daqian Games and Blizzard Games stole the limelight. Almost every player was talking about Warcraft 3. Almost every video game media was talking about Warcraft 3 as if Warcraft 3 was the only game left in the world.
At the same time, because of the high quality of Warcraft 3 and the almost free refund policy, the players were very successful in promoting the game. More and more of their friends joined the world of Azeroth.
In the end, on the 28th day of Warcraft 3's release, in less than a month, Warcraft 3's global sales exceeded 30 million copies.
This time, not only did it break the PC sales record, it also broke all the gaming records in the world. Even Pokemon Kim Silver's record of 30 million copies in 48 days was broken. Warcraft 3 became the king of gaming with unimaginable dominance.
Of course, if Boss Jia had the same sales policy as Warcraft 3 when Pokemon Kim Silver was released, then Warcraft 3 probably wouldn't have been able to beat Pokemon.
The Daqian Games kept their promise. On the second day of Warcraft 3's release, the refunds were returned to the steam accounts of the players, returning to 6900 steam points.
Oh wait, steam drops.
At the same time, Daqian Games' phones were exploding with calls from all the game developers. Everyone was asking about the refunds.
These smart game developers realized that although Daqian Games refunded all Warcraft 3's purchases, the problem was that the refunds weren't in USD, but in steam points.
Steam points couldn't be converted back to USD, so the steam points could only be used to buy games.
These points obviously couldn't be used to buy Warcraft 3, so they would be used to buy other games in the steam store.
Based on the principle of not using idiots when you have money, at least half of these steam points would be spent by the players within a month. This meant that of the 20 million sales, at least 10 million would be allocated to other games.
Moreover, not all games were sold at 69 USD. Most of the games were still under 30 USD. There were plenty of games that were under 10 USD, so the 10 million copies would be split into at least 30 million copies. Even if they were split evenly among the 3000 games, that would be ten thousand copies for each game. It would be enough for the developers to live a good life.
Of course, this was a good idea. The key was to see what the Daqian Games' policies were. Would the refunds be calculated according to the normal steam points?
Otherwise, if the Daqian Games shamelessly announced that the steam points were all activity points and wouldn't be refunded, then the developers would be furious.
Therefore, no matter if they joined the steam game or not, they were all crazily asking about the rules of the steam game.
The steam games were obviously prepared. Soon, a detailed description of the event was sent to all the game merchants' work emails.
The game merchants couldn't wait to read the instructions. Then, they revealed hesitant expressions.
According to the description, the special steam points refunded this time were called steam droplets. When the game developers were calculating the profits, they would calculate it according to the steam points.
In other words, they would give all the profits to the game developers. This promise made all the game developers overjoyed. The Daqian Games was indeed the most generous company in the world.
However, they soon found that not all game developers could enjoy this service. Only companies that signed an exclusive sales contract with the Daqian Games could enjoy the benefits of this contract.
As the name suggests, this exclusive sales contract is the Daqian Games' exclusive online sales rights. In the future, online sales can only be done through the steam game online platform. Even the game developers themselves are not qualified to sell the game. Otherwise, they will be breaching the contract and will have to compensate a lot of losses.
The duration of this contract is 20 years, which is the highest duration in the industry. If the contract is terminated midway, the game developers will have to pay a lot of compensation.
Fortunately, this contract was signed according to a single game and not according to the scale of the entire company. However, this was not bad. A game without a contract naturally would not have an exclusive sales expression. Then, it would not be able to use steam droplets to purchase it and would not bring huge profits to the game company.
At the same time, there is a hidden condition in the contract. All the exclusive games must be developed in the Hongmeng version. At the same time, the Hongmeng version must have more content than the Windows version. Even if it is an extra mount or map, it must be more. Otherwise, it will be breaching the contract.
"The Daqian Games have finally gone astray!" Many game developers saw the Daqian Games' requirements and sighed.
Indeed, the steam games in the past are pure, righteous, and kind. They did not impose any restrictions on the game companies under them and allowed them to join Microsoft's box game company. They are the classic example of naive people.
Now, the steam games have finally gone astray. They are also asking the game companies to sign exclusive contracts to block all competitors.
They are even forcing the game developers to develop a Hongmeng version. This request is invincible …
This time, the Daqian Games are on the moral high ground. Steam points are not restricted to exclusive games. The steam droplets are the Daqian Games giving up their profits from Warcraft 3 and subsidizing all the game developers.
In other words, they are buying your exclusivity with money. If you want money, sign an exclusive contract.
If you don't want money, everything will be fine, and the game developers will not make things difficult for you.
All in all, the Daqian Games' methods are similar to the box game companies, but all the game developers are comfortable with it. No one has any negative feelings towards the Daqian Games because of this … except for the box game companies and Microsoft.
Then, will the game developers be willing to sign this contract?
Almost all the game developers agreed. The reason is simple. This contract requires the game developers to be the exclusive agent for online games. The offline channels are not restricted. That means the game developers can still sell their games in the box game stores.
Now, the steam games have no competitors in the online channels. Even if the game developers reject the exclusive contract, they will not be able to find another online store to sell their games. So, there is no reason to hesitate in signing the contract.
On August 3rd, 2000, the steam games store announced that it had signed exclusive contracts with 2,893 game companies worldwide. It will be the exclusive agent for 5,897 games.
After the announcement, Microsoft's market value, which had stabilized at 280 billion USD for more than a week, fell again. Three circuit breakdowns occurred in one day, and it fell below 200 billion USD in three days.
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