C25: Record Sales

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"Thanks to all the players for their support! The sales of Undertale have exceeded 300,000."

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When I released this message on my official blog, the reaction from independent game designers and media who had been following me here was one of complete shock and envy. ╭(* _ *)╮

Why? Because they'd seen this format before. They had made countless games in such a genre. But they haven't tasted this kind of success. Just three days after going online, Undertale had broken 30,000 sales, and now, in just a week, sales had surpassed 130,000. Within less than half a month, it had broken 300000 sales This kind of growth and momentum was terrifying.

As a result, a slew of articles about Undertale being a complete indie masterpiece started circulating on the internet.

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"Sales surpassed 300,000 in just 13 days! Rated as high as 9.0!"

"A must-play for all gamers! A masterpiece indie game! Reinventing the RPG wheel with exciting Potline."

"Revolutionizing the RPG genre! A unique RPG experience!"

"An astounding game!"

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Some independent game designers, who initially didn't pay much attention to Undertale, were now studying it intensely doing overtime. Praise was one thing, but now that the actual sales were out there, it was clear that there was significant market potential for this kind of game.

They want to get under the hood of this game. To figure out the portion that leads both its sales and rating.

As for the media, they reused previous articles, changing the headlines to reflect the new milestones. They are the master of copy-paste work.

These game outlets were quick to heap praise, knowing full well that Undertale was too explosive, and the throughput traffic was too big to ignore.

The game had impeccable quality—both in terms of sales and word of mouth. And the unique meta-game elements have left countless players and designers in awe. Even those who might have wanted to criticize the game struggled to find anything negative to say.

As the media continued to bombard audiences with positive coverage, the game's popularity skyrocketed. Even though Undertale had already hit 300,000 sales, it was obvious that this was just the beginning. The wave of enthusiasm showed no signs of slowing down.

This massive surge in popularity also attracted the attention of players who had been on the sidelines and all those melon crunchers, just watching the excitement.

Some even flocked to Zhong's social blog to troll, through which they were disappointed to find that previous posts had been archived and comments disabled. Zhong's reputation was taking a hit.

Now, with Undertale riding this wave of success, players—whether they had strong opinions about the game or were caught up in the hype fervour—couldn't let it go. Many who had played Magic Mirror came out one after another to play it, and they were particularly vocal about the quality and praise.

Even with the post archived and comments turned off, the official blog posts remained up. So players began spamming in earlier posts to gaslight Zhong. Tagging Zhong in their messages.

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"@ZhongMedia, Mr. Zhong, come on, criticize Undertale! Games are art! How could you let a game like this thrive? This is not an Art, It's a regret!"

∑(; °Д°) 

"@ZhongMedia, Mr. Zhong, say something! Surely Blooming will crush Undertale, right? Why has it only sold 131,099 copies so far? Why is it only rated 7.6 out of 10? I don't believe it! Mr. Zhong's game is art—it must be that these players don't appreciate it! The issue isn't the game; it's the players! Protectors of Hepai are also here" (⌐▨_▨)

"@ZhongMedia, Mr. Zhong, you were so vocal before! What happened?

( ͒•·̫| Why are you hiding?"

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Zhong POV~

Underneath my few official blog posts, the comments section was flooded with sarcastic tags aimed at me. Some of the more snide remarks had racked up thousands of likes. They all were tagging me to the wedding of my unrequited rival.

And as for Hepai? Silence. We were playing dead.

Not that we had much choice in this matter.

But the key issue is that there's no way around it!

In my original vision, my tactic was to attack my enemy's weaknesses with my strengths.

If your sales are higher than mine, I'll talk about word of mouth.

If your reputation is better than mine, I'll talk about art.

If you have more artistic merit than I do, I'll focus on the sales.

Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak ~ Sun Tzu.

Now there is no way. I have to appear weak when my opponent is strong. Cough, so the quote should be~

Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak~

Appear dead when your opponent is too strong, and Appear strong when your enemy is too weak. ~ I Note this version of my thought in my secret Meditation notebook.

(ノ ゜Д゜)ノ ︵ ┻━┻

And if that doesn't work, I'll play the game longer and compare our progress that way. As I look back at the corresponding thought in my notebook, I sigh in admiration of our culture.

When strong, avoid them. If of high morale, depress them. Seems humble to fill them with conceit. If at ease, exhaust them. If united, separate them. Attack their weaknesses. Emerge to their surprise. ~ Sun Tzu

In any case, I'll compare us based on where I'm stronger than you.

But not now!

Everything exploded, and I had to act as a Salted fish for some time.

I can't exactly say that my game Blossom sells for 39 yuan, which is 3 yuan more expensive than your Undertale, right? That would be embarrassing.

So, I decided to play dead!

I refuse to believe that in your next game, you'll still create something as excellent as Undertale.

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Under the spotlight of the entire game industry, the data for "Undertale" continues to rise.

Thanks to its excellent reputation, the growth rate for "Undertale" has remained very stable.

When Chen Xu publicly announced that the sales of "Undertale" had exceeded 300,000 copies, the trend kept going upward.

By August 15th, exactly one month after launch, the total sales finally broke the 600000 copies mark, achieving something that "Magic Mirror" couldn't.

A half-million sales in the first month—this news shocked countless designers in the indie game circle and spurs their overtime by 10% more.

For 36 yuan, even with most sales coming from third-party platforms, it's enough for my revenue from "Undertale" to exceed 10 million yuan in just one month.

Not to mention, the DLC for "Magic Mirror" will be launching during this period.

But aside from "Magic Mirror," I can confidently say that the success of "Undertale" is purely due to its excellent plot and design.

This success led many game designers to analyse the characteristics and strengths of "Undertale."

For my company, Neon Games, which was still in its infancy, the success of "Undertale" brought both fame and fortune.

Compared to my experience, "Undertale" in this parallel world achieved half a million sales in the first month by relying solely on the domestic market. Chen Xu reflected on why this was the case.

First, the parallel world's environment is different. In his previous life, the console platform in China was relatively small, while PC and mobile game platforms were more dominant.

The game market in this parallel world is much larger. Although it was once claimed that there were 524 million players in China in his past life, the numbers were inflated.

This world is different. Even setting aside the overseas market, the domestic market alone is massive.

After all, we're talking about the Second most populous country in the world.

Secondly, I've optimized the visual performance of "Undertale" much more in comparison to my past life. It is up by a notch.

In my previous life, "Undertale" was the work of a single indie developer and was crowdfunded, so resources were limited.

But a game with better visuals is always an advantage.

Players may skip a game because of poor graphics, but nobody ever avoids a game because the visuals are too good.

In short, I'm very satisfied with the current sales performance of "Undertale."

As for the overseas market, I'm not focusing on that for now, due to differences in policy between this world and my past life.

Take "Magic Mirror" as an example—it never received approval in China and is still sold on an overseas platform. While it's officially listed, its nature is completely different from "Undertale."

Meanwhile, "Undertale" has already been launched on domestic platforms, and that's where I'm putting my focus.