Not to mention the reporter who asked the question, even Liu Guoping and Chairman Zheng, who were drinking and preparing to celebrate inside the Fengyun Company building, were stunned.

"free?"

Has Shen Wuye gone mad?

The game is free! They spent so much money developing it, and now they're letting people download it for free? Are they out of their mind?!

"Damn it, is he deliberately targeting our company?" Chairman Zheng's face turned black with anger.

They started charging for the game client, and then Shen Wuye made it free. Isn't this just paying money to slap them in the face?

Liu Guoping comforted Chairman Zheng, saying, "Young people are hot-tempered, but what kind of impact can a free game have?"

"Chairman Zheng, if someone offered you a steamed bun for free on the street, would you take it?"

Chairman Zheng scoffed, "Who wants this?"

He refreshed the computer page again, and sure enough, his 'Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period' sales had increased again.

...

Actually, Bai Yan and Shen Wuye had already privately finalized the free client deal, but they hadn't announced it yet.

The technological development in this world is similar to that of many parallel modern eras, but most game clients here are paid; purely free games exist, but are rare. Especially well-known large companies are even less likely to release games for free.

Taking advantage of the fact that the game client was priced at 78 yuan on Fengyun, "Conquering the Central Plains" also managed to ride the wave of popularity.

After all, the sales of the 'Spring and Autumn and Warring States' game client have exceeded 100 million, and the game user base is exceptionally large. Faced with the same type of game, especially a free mobile version that doesn't require as much memory as a computer to download, there will always be people who want to give it a try.

On its first day, "Contending for the Central Plains" achieved over a million downloads by exploiting the "Spring and Autumn and Warring States" theme.

The next day, on the official rankings, "Conquering the Central Plains" had already surpassed "Spring and Autumn and Warring States" in downloads.

Mobile games haven't really taken off in this world yet; there isn't even a separate mobile game chart. A mobile game dominating a PC game makes it seem rather unique.

For seven consecutive days, sales of 'Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period' were affected, but Fengyun's brand recognition remained strong, and the revenue ranking was still in the top three.

Liu Guoping finally felt at ease. He was determined to achieve results even in a different company. Now, as long as 'Spring and Autumn Warring States' maintained its ranking for a month, the R&D costs would be recouped, ensuring a steady profit.

However, after the seventh day, 'Zhu Lu Zhong Yuan', which had not even appeared on the profit ranking, gradually rose up.

Liu Guoping was shocked. Even the lowest-ranked game on the leaderboard had a daily revenue of over a million. How could a free mobile game like "Conquer the Central Plains" possibly be so popular?

On what grounds?

A certain BL (Boys' Love) website, which is very popular among young people, has recently seen many videos go viral, one of which, with over ten million views, is a game commentary video for "Conquering the Central Plains".

The character played by the uploader is Li Shimin, who is positioned as an assassin in the game. Known as the "General of Heavenly Strategy," he wears a white robe embroidered with phoenixes and wields a long spear, looking majestic. The uploader's skills are also quite good, using Li Shimin's high mobility skill to flash into the crowd and instantly kill the enemy's carry.

Meanwhile, Empress Zhangsun, a hero from the same era as Li Shimin and positioned as a support, used her skills to mark Li Shimin and pull him back from the crowd when he was low on health. Li Shimin, whose Cold Blood skill was ready again, flashed into the crowd and wiped out the entire enemy team with a high-octane maneuver.

"Ahhh... You play Zhu Lu too? I love it too! My favorite team is Li Shimin with Empress Zhangsun, but unfortunately, the Empress Zhangsun players I get matched with aren't very good at it. They pull me out of the game before I even get in, boohoo..."

"Upstairs, I fared even worse. I was dragged into a crowd by my Empress Zhangsun and beaten to death..."

On the one hand, mobile games have never featured this kind of gameplay before, and the novel gameplay of the free game quickly attracted a large number of tech-savvy players.

Since everyone's a tech enthusiast, shouldn't they at least buy a skin for their favorite hero?

Secondly, the art design for "Conquering the Central Plains" was very expensive, with detailed and exquisite characters. There are historically popular figures such as Qin Shi Huang, Emperor Wu of Han, Emperor Taizong of Tang, and Emperor Taizu of Song, as well as characters with poignant and lingering love stories. In particular, some ancient beauties are very appealing to female players, who will inevitably spend money in the store to dress them up in beautiful clothes.

Unfortunately, the game has only been online for a short time, and apart from the more popular characters, the other characters only have two or three outfits.

Players are even urging the artists at Sunset to release character skins as soon as possible.

On its tenth day of operation, "Contending for the Central Plains" surpassed "Spring and Autumn Period" in terms of profit, taking the top spot.

On the same day, the official website issued a statement saying that, in order to thank players for their support, they decided to hold a vote to select a popular character and release a free skin for them.

Unfortunately, the players had differing opinions, and when they couldn't select their favorite character, they took turns whipping the art designer with small leather whips in the comments section of the official website.

"Please, I'm begging you! Li Shimin was born with three sets of skins! Is it really necessary for a man to have so many clothes? Could you please make a set for Zhuo Wenjun? This beautiful woman doesn't even have any clothes yet!"

The release of the Twilight skin was slow; it took half a month for Li Shimin's free skin to finally come out.

Players were outraged, and one comment was pushed to the top of the list.

"I'll give you a number, can the art team handle it? 365 skins a year!"

Rimu Company made a fortune with the explosive popularity of "Conquer the Central Plains," while Fengyun's "Spring and Autumn Hegemony" was the opposite. Logically speaking, this type of game on PC was already mature, but "Spring and Autumn Hegemony" was a quick fix to prevent "Conquer the Central Plains" from becoming popular, and it was all about making money.

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