But in a game company, there might be hardly anyone sitting on the entire floor; someone who didn't know better would think it was a public holiday.
This time, the game will be released through several channels simultaneously.
First of all, the official website of Blue Star released the pre-orders a long time ago. Players who pre-ordered will have their games delivered automatically by drone today, and will also receive a set of pre-order benefits - a special bluebell bookmark.
Then there are the normal online sales channels, cooperating with multiple platforms such as Illusion and Artisan, and there are also download channels on several major multimedia websites.
Finally, there are offline channels. In the StarCraft era, very few people buy things offline anymore, but the enthusiasm of players for physical and collector's editions is just too high... Some people even come in spaceships to snatch them up, and no one can stop them.
Meanwhile, the designers at Blue Star Studio were waiting together in the largest conference room.
Their primary concern isn't sales figures, because they're quite unfazed by it. When a studio has a reputation like Blue Star, as long as the previous work doesn't suffer a critical failure, the sales of the next work are guaranteed.
— "The Knight Errant" is clearly a highly acclaimed work.
Therefore, what the designers are now focusing on is how players and the media will rate Assassin's Way, and whether it can wash away the negative comments on the Internet.
Chapter 151 The Other Side Team
At 6 p.m. on September 10th.
Six hours have passed since the release of the game "Way of Assassins", and the data feedback from various online channels has been basically tallied.
According to feedback from the Blue Star operations team, the current player rating for "Assassin's Way" is 99.8%.
This data shocked Varian: "What? Only 99.8%? What are the remaining 0.2% doing?!"
The operations manager explained helplessly, "Most of the negative reviews were concentrated within the first one to two hours after the game's release. We selected a few samples and conducted an investigation, and found that most of them were directed at the same marketing team..."
"Explain it more clearly."
The operations guy bluntly stated, "Someone hired an online troll army to smear us."
The "test gate" incident happened not long ago, so this is indeed a good opportunity to target the Assassin's Way.
Many netizens lack their own judgment; they believe whichever voice is loudest online. If they see that a game has low player ratings, they assume it's not fun and ignore other factors.
However, who would choose to launch an attack at this time?
While the group was still pondering this question, the operations manager pulled out a small notebook: "There are 12 new games releasing soon, and the most competitive one is undoubtedly the new expansion pack for 'Cloud Dreams' from the Dragon Slayer Studio—"
"Ahem." Mingyan suddenly cleared his throat. "Anything else?"
The operations guy turned a page curiously and continued, "There's also the new game from the Beyond team, 'Voice of the Sky.' Judging from the review results, other games don't seem to have the same level of competitiveness."
Mingyan thought for a moment and said, "You mean the Bifang team, the one that made 'War Armor'?"
Last year's Game of the Year award was shared between this team and Blue Star, and Mingyan said he was very impressed with their game.
Mingyan fell into deep thought, and when he came to his senses, he realized that the topic was not quite right.
The group discussed amongst themselves with serious expressions:
"Wasn't that team from the other side taken over by cruise capital? This whole thing seems a lot like cruise companies' style..."
"Although the styles are similar, shouldn't a cruise ship make a bigger splash? This is too weak and petty. Is it underestimating our planet?"
"They probably didn't expect our player base to be so large. The hired online trolls were completely overwhelmed, leaving only about 0.2%."
"I still don't think it has the same power as the cruise ship. Why not the Dragon Slayer Studio? Their Cloud Dream Clothes is also a completely new theme. I heard that the new expansion has doubled the number of new outfits."
"Isn't their chief designer that genius? He doesn't seem like the kind of person who would resort to underhanded tactics."
"He's already being called a 'genius,' which means nobody can guess what he's thinking. I think that's somewhat possible..."
"Ahem!" Mingyan suddenly cleared his throat again.
The discussion ultimately came to nothing, turning into an investigation task that was assigned to the logistics department.
Of course, this matter didn't bother everyone for too long in the end.
Firstly, as the number of players continues to grow, the number of player reviews for "Assassin's Way" has already surpassed 10 billion.
Given this base number, no matter how much money you spend hiring online trolls to stir up trouble, it's all just a drop in the ocean and not worth mentioning!
Moreover, it's currently the honeymoon period for new game releases, and even if player approval ratings gradually decline as expected, they will still remain around 99%.
The second reason is that the case was closed very quickly.
In Mingyan's private email address, he received an email from the chief designer of the other side team, which roughly described what had happened.
—These online trolls really do come from cruise ships!
The team behind the game received investment from a cruise line last year and is currently developing a new game called "Voice of the Sky." Along with the expansion of the team, they have also brought in a marketing team from the cruise line.
This marketing team changed their work environment, but not their work methods.
With their new game about to be released, they promoted "Voice of the Sky" while secretly hiring online trolls to both praise and criticize it—criticizing "The Way of the Assassin" and praising "Voice of the Sky" to create even greater momentum for themselves.
The chief designer of the other side is Zhuo Yu, an outstanding young designer of 29 years old.
He graduated from the Physics Department of the Central Star Province and was a true high achiever. He had a strong disapproval of such underhanded and despicable dealings.
Therefore, upon discovering this group of online trolls, Zhuo Yu immediately reprimanded and punished the marketing team, and withdrew the investment in this area.
That's why this attack looks so strange; it started strong but ended weakly, and before it could build any momentum, it was abruptly cut short.
In the email, Zhuo Yu also stated: