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On January 12th, Redbird Studios' Swallowing Heaven and Earth officially began its open beta.
After three days of preparation, Evan and Owen's entire R&D department re-optimized the game's overall structure.
Considering that the Reaper Server was his golden finger, possessing incredible capabilities, Evan temporarily canceled the conventional server settings, allowing all players to directly access the same server for convenience.
This naturally had its pros and cons. The disadvantage was that he couldn't frequently open new servers to "shear the whales" as games did in his previous life.
The advantage was also precisely because new servers couldn't be opened frequently, so big spenders would invest more money into the game for things like topping the leaderboards.
Simply put, Evan was about to lose his pants again.
In addition, Evan optimized the single-player story mode himself, while the multiplayer mode currently only unlocked a battlefield PVE mode.
Evan thought long and hard and decided to add other subsequent modes, but he put a lock on them, leaving players something to look forward to and simultaneously telling them that the later content would be even more exciting.
There were also various thoughtful little features, such as one free daily draw, increased gacha rates to celebrate the server launch, and other functions that made free-to-play players feel appreciated.
Although these features seemed insignificant, for ordinary players, they were the best adhesive. They would rely on these small benefits to gradually build up their characters, then become deeply immersed and unable to extricate themselves.
This January was the most unforgettable month for Redbird Studios since their employees joined the company.
One week after the open beta began, Evan announced the week's revenue statistics to the employees: $6.24 million!
As the New Year approached and the number of people on holiday increased further, the popularity of Swallowing Heaven and Earth also steadily rose online.
Evan even considered that players would need to visit relatives and friends during the upcoming New Year, making it difficult to spend long hours in front of a computer.
Therefore, after internal discussions with the R&D department, Evan provided two solutions: one was to enable a monthly subscription system, where for just thirty dollars, players could activate the game's idle function, meaning they only needed to set the game to idle before going out and then collect resources upon returning.
The second was a bit more troublesome: create a web version compatible with mobile phones, remove all unnecessary image assets, and simplify operations, allowing players to play on their phones, but only perform very simple functions.
After a vote and discussion within the R&D department, the monthly subscription system was chosen.
What? You say this was for monetization and exploiting players?
No, no, no, how could Evan have such a vulgar motive?
The most fundamental reason was cost. Simply put, the R&D department currently lacked expertise in mobile-to-PC conversion.
Although Evan could directly make the Reaper Server support mobile web, that would be too sensational, so he still opted for the monthly subscription.
At this point, Swallowing Heaven and Earth could be declared a complete success.
The success of a single-player game often depends on many factors, but for online games, it's often much simpler—you just need to succeed from the start.
If an online game has even a slight element of team play or social interaction, it can easily draw other surrounding players into the game.
Veterans want to show off to new players and receive a bunch of praise, while new players want to stick with the veterans and safely coast, enjoying an easy gaming experience.
It can be said that everyone gets what they want and plays happily.
And now, Evan's Swallowing Heaven and Earth had successfully taken the first step. As long as it remained stable and didn't collapse, the players who had already joined would bring in new players.
The game's development also went as Evan expected. The revenue for the second week was slightly lower than the first week, but still reached $4.96 million, which, rounded up, was about five million.
With over ten million in revenue in just two weeks since launch, Evan and his Redbird Studios directly created a myth in the online gaming industry.
Evan himself expected a subsequent decline, with monthly revenue eventually stabilizing around twelve million dollars.
And for many other online games domestically, this figure might be all they achieve until their servers shut down.
It was only at this point that various media outlets understood the myth Evan had created.
During the closed beta of Swallowing Heaven and Earth, although everyone later obtained data reports from Redbird Studios and was very optimistic about Redbird Studios, the general consensus among media at the time predicted that Swallowing Heaven and Earth would at most reach six million in monthly revenue in its first month, with a potential decline afterward.
However, it was only now that media organizations woke up as if from a dream. They had underestimated the money-making ability of this new type of card game, and also underestimated the potential of the domestic gaming market.
Facts proved that this market still had untapped potential.
Following closely, the monthly subscription feature launched in the second week on the in-game store was also widely praised.
Although the idle benefits provided by the monthly subscription weren't very intelligent, on one hand, the official announcement stated that the subscription's automatic resource collection feature would be optimized later.
On the other hand, as the saying goes, "don't underestimate small gains"—even if the resource collection feature was a bit simple, it still allowed for passive resource accumulation, and having something was always better than nothing.
Within Redbird Studios, the initial victory greatly boosted the company's confidence.
Emily privately told Evan that many employees now aimed to catch up with top-tier domestic developers, such as Eastern Dawn Games.
She said some employees were privately discussing that although Redbird Studios was currently located in Northfield City, its salaries and benefits were already on par with Eastern Dawn and Silver Ridge.
And if living costs were factored in, Redbird employees actually earned a bit more, so many people were considering convincing their relatives and friends to try their luck when Redbird Studios expanded its recruitment.
Evan was noncommittal about this. Employees wanting to bring acquaintances into the company was a good thing, indicating that the company was starting to develop cohesion.
However, Redbird Studios did indeed have money now, but he didn't want to act like a nouveau riche, indiscriminately hiring everyone.
In reality, his company being in a second-tier city was also a constraint. The overall gaming environment wasn't as good as in a major hub like Harborview City.
Therefore, if they wanted to develop, future recruitment would need to be even more stringent.
While Evan went to pour some water, he happened to overhear Sasha on the phone:
"Oh, Mom, I told you, if you arrange another blind date this New Year, I'm not coming back.
My company has money now, and the overtime pay for New Year's is ridiculously high, I'm telling you."
"Hey, it's not that I'm dissatisfied, I just don't feel anything.
I just feel like there's always someone waiting for me..."
Evan found this amusing and interjected: "That would be the Grim Reaper."
Then, under Sasha's murderous gaze, he awkwardly waved his hand. "You're busy, you're busy. I was just being playful."
Before entering the office, Evan thought for a moment and then turned back to Sasha, saying: "Go back if you can. The company doesn't really need people on duty during the New Year."
Sasha looked up at him irritably: "You should worry about Emily.
What are you planning to buy your mother-in-law for the New Year?"