In this game, Effie and Villefort discussed for a long time, and finally decided that the game is all free, and the in-game gun costume skin is charged!

There has never been a free-to-play game in an online game, and of course, there has never been a single-player game......

So it's a first-of-its-kind!

At first, Villefort was very hesitant, afraid that the production cost of the game would not be recovered, but Effie took out the sales data of the commemorative skin box before the 2003WCG.

After seeing it, G Fat made up his mind that China adopts a free model, and the pricing in the rest of the regions is also very low.

The reason why those regions in Europe and the United States are not free is also for fear of being sued by other game manufacturers, in case others join forces to sue you for "malicious competition", it is also a very troublesome thing.

As for the mainland, because there is an agent of Facebook Games, I am not afraid of being sued, and there are no corresponding laws and regulations in China that do not allow free.

Since the sales data was used for WCG matches and charitable donations, there was no share on the Villefort side. And it's that several games have launched commemorative skins at the same time, and the detailed data on which game has sold how much has not been disclosed.

However, that shocking sales figure still impresses many people, especially those in the game industry.

It can be said that if there is no such foundation, if Effie dares to say that CSOL is all free, it is estimated that G Fat will be able to jump up and scold her.

Developing a game is not easy, it can be as short as a year or two, or as long as several years, with dozens or hundreds or even thousands of programmers working overtime.

Many people may think that there is no cost to software, games, etc., as long as you have a computer, right?

But they may not realize that the time and effort invested by so many top programmers is also very expensive.

As we all know, the average salary in the IT industry is very high, and programmers in major game companies, even in 2004, salaries of more than 10,000 yuan have abounded!

Hundreds of such programmers, the salary expenditure alone every month is a few million, and it may be hundreds of millions in a year.

There is also a mess of equipment, computers, art plots, etc., so it is normal for a large-scale game to cost tens of millions or even more than 100 million dollars to develop.

In the game industry, it often happens that a game manufacturer that was originally quite famous goes bankrupt because a big-budget game is not done well......

So at the beginning, when Effie proposed to use the free model, the people on the Villefort side didn't understand.

What are you kidding, although CSOL is not a super masterpiece, it is also a game that took more than two years and the hard work of hundreds of programmers to create.

The total production cost is over 10 million US dollars!

And you can take advantage of the popularity of CS, it should not worry about sales, make a sales client at a low or low price, and then pay for a long time, and eat double money, wouldn't it be beautiful.

Not to mention that it is shameless to do so, but many online games are like this, especially in Europe and the United States!

However, in the end, Effie persuaded them to decide to adopt the strategy of free in the mainland, the online version in the rest of the region is super low, and the CD version is also relatively low.

There are pros and cons to doing this, but it's hard to say whether the pros outweigh the cons or the disadvantages outweigh the pros.

Of course, Effie thinks that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, and she is very sure that her free-to-play model can help CSOL become a phenomenal online game.

............

On February 2nd, when many companies had just started construction and large, medium and small colleges had not yet opened, the official website of Facebook Games, including the game platform, issued an announcement again.

CSOL is coming!

If it was just to announce the launch of a new game, it wouldn't cause much of a stir, because the pre-trailer of CSOL has been released several times, and everyone knows that the game will be launched soon.

People who don't like this kind of game naturally don't care when it will be launched.

However, today's announcement quickly caused a sensation on the whole network, just because there is such a word in the announcement.

"Free forever"!

Yes, this online game by Facebook Game Agency will be operated in a free-forever model.

In the announcement, Facebook Games promised that the game CSOL will always be free, and players will not be charged any fees for the game itself and the duration of the game!

In other words, if you don't spend money, you don't need to pay a penny, and you can play the game forever, as long as the game is still operated by Facebook Games.

Free stuff is the most popular at all times.

Who doesn't want to be able to play their favorite game without spending money, but never before, even to buy a pirated copy, a disc costs several dollars!

Not to mention that CSOL is still an online game, since the advent of online games, except for the earliest kind of text MUD games, there has never been a free online game.

Does Facebook Games really have such a conscience?

Want to make CSOL, a big-scale online game, available to all players for free?

Therefore, the discussion about "CSOL is forever free" quickly fermented, starting from the official website of Facebook Games, to the outbreak of Facebook, and then spreading to various websites and forums on the whole network, especially game-related forums, all of which were swiped by posts about "CSOL forever free"!

It can be said that on February 2, the attention of the whole network was focused on this topic.

This day will surely live on forever in the history of the game industry!

Because of this forever free model, it opens the door to a new world for all game companies.

Of course, many people didn't realize it at the time, and their peers were stunned what the hell was Facebook Games doing.

............

"This ...... It's not fake news, is it? Facebook Games actually made CSOL free? Why don't I believe it? ”

In Shanda Company, Mr. Chen asked with a stunned face, and the person sitting opposite him was the company's vice president in charge of game operations, who was also the vice president, who had just reported the news to Mr. Chen.

"It's true, the announcement made on the official website of Facebook Games, I read it carefully three times, and it does say that it will be free, and it promises to be free forever. In other words, as long as the Facebook game agency operates for one day, then the game will not be charged. The vice president of operations said with a bitter face.

During this period of time, his life is not easy.

After World of Warcraft was launched, the data of the legendary game was directly cut in half!

Whether it's point card revenue, the number of active players, or the time players spend online, all of them are drastically decreasing!

Obviously, this is all influenced by World of Warcraft.

It is conceivable that these players who have lost are probably playing World of Warcraft with great interest......

Every time I think of this, the vice president of operations hates it so much, of course, he hates Facebook Games Company.

Because it happened to be just in time for this time of the year, the legend suddenly turned into a decline, causing him to get a lot less bonus at the end of the year!

When he made the year-end work report, the scene almost turned into a "public trial" meeting, and the directors of the board of directors were asking him why he failed to take effective measures in time, and why he did not respond quickly in the face of the ferocity of World of Warcraft.

If there is no World of Warcraft online, this year-end work report should be a harmonious atmosphere, and the directors have always praised him.

In fact, the vice president of operations was also very aggrieved, and on the first day of World of Warcraft's launch, he went up to experience it for a long time.

But after playing, he didn't say a word.

Because I can't say anything, World of Warcraft is absolutely crushing the legend!

Whether it's the plot, graphics, game engine, character plasticity, dungeon playability, map explorability, etc., I don't know how many streets the legend has been thrown.

Sure enough, it's not a super big production that Blizzard has been grinding for ten years, he is convinced!

In this case, the legend is competing with World of Warcraft?

After listening to the words of the vice president of operations, Mr. Chen immediately clicked on the browser and entered the official website of Facebook Games to see the announcement.

Sure enough, the announcement made it clear that the CSOL game will be free-to-always mode.

The base game can be downloaded through the Facebook game store without charging a penny!

At the same time, it promises that it will not sell point cards, and no matter how long you play, you will not be charged for the duration.

Mr. Chen's brows furrowed, could it be that Facebook Games is going to be "charity" this time?

He started out as an online game, and of course he understands that an online game, especially a popular online game, has very high operating costs!

The legend of Shanda Company is a very popular game, and after operating for so many years, he knows these very well.

Just buying a server requires a lot of money.

At the same time, you have to pay high broadband fees every month, and you have to maintain a large number of technicians, server maintenance, game patch upgrades, etc., all need technicians.

Similarly, the promotion of the game, including customer service, is not a small amount of money.

If the production cost of a single-player game is a one-time thing, as long as it is made, the follow-up cost is very low or even none.

Then online gaming is an ongoing investment!

As long as this game is not offline, then the corresponding expenses will have to be paid every month, and no one is missing!

Why does Facebook Games dare to make such a promise and why is it free forever......

Thinking about it, Mr. Chen's heart moved, and he remembered another big move that shocked the industry in Facebook Games years ago.

That is, how the prize money of the 2003 WCG competition was raised, open the box......

The kind of model that Facebook Games launched at that time to open the box and reveal the skin taught the entire industry a lesson, making everyone realize that if games want to make money, they can't only rely on game sales to make money.

As long as your gamer base is large enough and popular enough, you can make unbelievable money by doing anything else!

It's just that everyone hasn't thought about how to learn that model, because except for Facebook Games, which has that confidence and can be played like that, other companies don't have that kind of conditions.

With CS, Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo in hand, Facebook games can indeed be played.

But other companies don't have such super IPs, and anyone who dares to imitate them casually may die a miserable death.

............

After associating it with the "open the box" mode, Mr. Chen felt that he suddenly became enlightened, and he already knew why Facebook Games dared to use the forever free model.

It's not that they don't want to make money anymore, but they want to make more!

Use the forever free to attract players, and attract a large number of original CS players, even players who are not interested in CS, to CSOL.

Make this online game into an online game version of CS, gather hundreds of millions of players, and then make money by selling gun skins, clothing and other peripheral goods......

Mr. Ai is really powerful, not to be the one who has been the most popular in the game industry in the past year!

Of course, everyone knows who the man behind Effie is.

It is because of his existence that everyone dares to laugh at what shocking moves the Facebook game makes, but to study it humbly for the first time.

Facts have long proved that all the actions of Facebook are not joking, not nonsense, but have their deep meaning.