Chapter 313: I'll Come Play Too
Ryohei watched the scene in surprise.
At seven in the morning, in front of a newly opened Tatsuryū game store in the city of Suhua, dozens of players eagerly awaited the game's launch, while Ryohei and his colleague stood at the back. Both looked unhappy. With so many people queuing in the city of Suhua, it seemed predestined that the sales of Clannad would surpass those of Laughing Sakura Academy.
"Senior, don't worry, this is the brand effect of Mirai-sensei." The colleague smiled and said, "This doesn't mean that Clannad is excellent. As long as these people take it home and play for a few hours, the shopping fever will pass."
Ryohei nodded forcefully. In fact, he understood that the number of people queuing had nothing to do with the quality of Clannad, but was a manifestation of the double appeal of Mirai-sensei and advertising. However, seeing this scene, Ryohei felt a little uncomfortable.
'Perhaps I underestimated Mirai-sensei...'
He thought. Perhaps it was because Mirai-sensei hadn't released a game in a long time and he underestimated his influence. At first, he thought that by re-releasing a visual novel a year later, his popularity would have dissipated, but the scene before him shattered that chance mentality. Mirai-sensei's popularity not only did not dissipate but increased greatly over time.
And there are players who follow the trend in the team...
"Are they all fans of Mirai-sensei's manga?"
"No, I don't read manga, but I've always looked forward to the author of Fate/Stay Night releasing a new game. This Clannad has a very high price. I think the quality should be good. I plan to buy it to try it out."
"I came because I saw the ad."
"Is this game that good? I came to buy it for my boyfriend and I don't know what kind of game it is!"
There were many similar conversations in the team, and Ryohei was relieved to hear them. Many people bought it out of curiosity, following the trend. If they are disappointed after playing, the enthusiasm for buying Clannad will decrease and, ultimately, Mirai-sensei himself made a serious mistake by setting the price of the game. The collector's edition includes all-ages versions and costs 4000 yen.
"Only idiots would buy it at this price?" Ryohei thought. But at that moment, a person at the front of the line shouted to the store owner, "Boss, I want the collector's edition, why don't I see it?"
Ryohei was stunned. Was he really an idiot? He looked up and found that it was a boy who looked like a high school student. He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, "If you're under 18, you can only buy the all-ages version and the collector's edition. Most of the people in this line are adults. The others shouldn't be like him."
"Not anymore." At that moment, the video game store owner looked at the high school student and smiled, "You're a little late. The collector's edition is sold out. You'd better buy the all-ages version for 2800 yen."
"Alright..."
The high school student nodded in disappointment.
But Ryohei's eyes widened. The collector's edition is gone? How is that possible? It's only been open for half an hour. How could it have disappeared?
"Haru, how many collector's editions of Clannad are there?" he asked his colleague nervously. His colleague thought for a moment and said, "It seems there are 50,000 games in total. Tatsuryū Company may be worried about not being able to sell them all, so they limited the initial supply to 50,000 games."
50,000 games, Ryohei calculated mentally. If this amount is distributed throughout the country, the amount in each store will be very small. In addition, depending on the region, some stores might not have it yet. This store might only have a few sets. Therefore, it seems it won't be a problem if they sell out. But despite this, Ryohei was still a little restless: today's atmosphere was too strange.
Tatsuryū Company, headquartered in Tokyo.
At eight in the morning, the company was also shrouded in a strange atmosphere. The employees gathered and whispered, which made Rikiya Matsuda, who had just started work, feel very dissatisfied.
"What's going on?" He entered the office, then called the secretary and asked, "Why do I see some employees in some departments distracted today? What happened?"
"Mr. Matsuda..." The secretary bowed his head and said, "We just counted the statistics. Clannad went on sale at 6:30. At 7:30, the sales of this game exceeded 70,000 copies."
Rikiya Matsuda was stunned, "What did you just say?"
"The sales of Clannad exceeded 70,000 copies in the first hour of its launch!" The secretary looked at him and reiterated, "The biggest contribution to this figure is from the collector's edition, which sold almost 40,000 copies, the 18+ version sold more than 20,000 copies, and the all-ages version sold almost 10,000 copies."
This time, Rikiya Matsuda clearly heard that Clannad sold 70,000 copies, which means that in one hour, the sales of this game exceeded 200 million yen!
This figure surprised Rikiya Matsuda a bit, but after all, he was a very experienced man, and Tatsuryū had released more popular games than this one. After a moment of surprise, the vice president calmed down, "What's wrong with this figure? The collector's edition costs twice as much as the 18+ version? And the all-ages version is less than half?"
He considered this ratio to be very abnormal, especially the collector's edition, which almost sold out in just one hour.
"It has been confirmed that this data is correct. The sales of the 18+ version are within our expectations, and the sales of the all-ages version are better than expected, but not unexpected. The main reason is that the sales of the collector's edition are very surprising..." The secretary paused, then opened a document and said, "We analyzed the sales of collector's editions in various places and found that these packages were bought in large quantities by a small number of people. It can be confirmed that they are game distributors..."
"Mr. Matsuda, we underestimated the influence of game distributors beforehand. We didn't expect them to be interested in advertising!" The secretary said, but Rikiya Matsuda shook his head solemnly, "No, those shouldn't be game distributors..."
His eyes flickered, "We underestimated Mirai-sensei."
Would game distributors be interested in advertising? That's obviously impossible. Visual novels are just a niche, and there aren't many game distributors interested in it for now. So those distributors are not so much game distributors as "Mirai-sensei distributors" who specifically focus on Mirai-sensei's works.
Rikiya Matsuda felt a little helpless. He didn't expect that. There was such a group of people. If he had known, he should have prepared more collector's editions.
"Mr. Matsuda, without further ado, what do you think if we add more collector's editions?" The secretary also thought of this and made a suggestion.
"No, forget it." Rikiya Matsuda reflected for a moment and considered that adding a collector's edition was not a good idea. "It's a limited edition. Once it's sold out, it's sold out. Adding it randomly will cause a stir. We will release the second edition of the collector's edition in a few weeks."
He smiled with satisfaction, "And we'll be able to recover the advertising costs, which are already very good."
Tatsuryū Company received more than a fifth, that is, 40 million, of the 200 million yen sales. And this is only the return of one hour. In a few weeks, the advertising sales will multiply several times. In any case, Tatsuryū Company will not lose money: its advertising expenses only amounted to 120 million.
"Did the company anticipate this situation?" The secretary, with some curiosity, said, "Mr. Matsuda, excuse my frankness, but I still don't understand why the company wants to advertise this game. Mirai-sensei is just a mangaka. He has no interest in us. Why should we show him goodwill?"
His question is something that neither the employees of Tatsuryū nor many external media can understand. After all, Clannad is a low-cost game. Any game in Japan with a bit of fame can surpass its value. Why did Tatsuryū take the initiative to cooperate with Hinotori Publishing?
"It's a strategic investment. Your vision is not long-term enough." Rikiya Matsuda looked at the secretary and asked, "I'm referring to a person. You should know the writer Arima, right?"
"Yes." The secretary nodded. He was a famous novelist, but he didn't understand why Rikiya Matsuda was mentioning him.
"Arima is now a director. He made a film based on his novel and it was a great success. He has become a big star in the film and television industry. The same can be said of the writer Tsukino. He made a film with Arima and it was also a success..." Rikiya Matsuda said. "There are also Sanjo and several novelists named after fruits and vegetables. The games adapted from their novels are very popular... The online game Zhu Xian, ranked among the top five in Japan, is also an adaptation of a novel."
"The latest game, A Feng I Want to Be on the Headlines, is also written by the writer Aunt Watanabe..."
"Wait! I understand!" The secretary wiped his sweat and said, "Does the company think that Mirai-sensei, as the number one mangaka, has the possibility of adapting his works into video games?"
Rikiya Matsuda nodded.
"Yes, whether Mirai-sensei wants others to adapt it or creates it himself, now is the era of pan-entertainment. A work can evolve into animation, film, novel, video game, and other things. The manga industry is developing by leaps and bounds. Mirai-sensei is at the top of this industry. Sooner or later, he will expand..." He sighed, "It's only a matter of time. There's nothing wrong with our Tatsuryū getting along with him."
Kanto can't get any benefit in front of Mirai-sensei, so Tatsuryū will certainly not offend him. Rikiya Matsuda finished explaining. Seeing that the secretary had nothing to report, he let him go.
After the secretary left, Rikiya Matsuda took an all-ages version of Clannad from the table. Upon opening the box, there was an exquisite character album and two CDs. The album includes all the characters from Clannad, including their presentation, and the CDs are divided into game CDs and separately recorded music CDs.
If it's a collector's edition, the album includes more images, plus a deck of cards with all the characters, a random character bookmark, and a character cell phone charm...
"The drawing is very good."
Rikiya Matsuda flipped through the album, took out the CD, and put it in his notebook, "Anyway, it's for fun, I'd better play it..."
"What kind of game did Mirai-sensei create?"
You can only know how much value Clannad can generate by playing it yourself.
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