In its first week after launch, the sales of Eternal Ashes increased slowly, selling less than 10,000 copies.
Starting from the second week, this game was praised by players through word-of-mouth.
"Pokeni's Eternal Ashes is truly the most interesting turn-based RPG game I've played so far."
"More than that, this game can redefine turn-based games."
"It's really fun, I've recommended it to all my friends."
"I also recommended it to my friends, and everyone is still hooked."
game promotion is important, but quality is more important; when your game itself is good enough, players' word-of-mouth can carry you all the way up.
The sales volume in the second week directly jumped several steps, reaching 50,000 copies.
In the third week, the single-week sales volume exceeded 100,000 copies.
By this point, the inventory of Eternal Ashes in many software stores was almost depleted.
Software distributors called pokeni America one after another to place orders, and fortunately, Pokeni's old employees were experienced enough to have prepared for this, already increasing the number of production orders in the first week, thus barely connecting the supply chain.
Until the first month passed, the total sales of Eternal Ashes reached the 400,000 mark.
The team members of pokeni America finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Success!"
David Brevik and Skaff embraced tightly, and all team members were exceptionally excited.
Because if this momentum continues, it shouldn't be difficult for the sales of Eternal Ashes to break the 1 million mark, and as Time continues to ferment, it might even reach 2 million copies.
3 million copies might even be possible if they just dream about it.
For them, this game has already succeeded.
For any game company, if their first released game can recover costs and generate enough profit to support the development of the next game, then it is already considered a success, and pokeni America has now far exceeded this expectation.
More importantly, it laid a foundation of confidence for the team members.
All those who survived after being truly baptized by the game war will continue to create even greater games.
...
Pokeni is not only the milestone setter, Trailblazer, and creator of games in this world.
It is also the accelerator of the entire game Age.
Diablo, which should have appeared only now, was released in 1992 due to Aoki Haruhi, greatly promoting the development of real-Time games of the entire Time.
The effect of this accelerant is actually extraordinary; in the game industry, both software and hardware have been accelerated.
This acceleration has a snowball effect; it's not simply advancing the game Age by three years, but rather, as Time accumulates and ferments, it will cause many things to advance at a faster pace, thus unleashing a huge butterfly effect.
Since the advent of Diablo, many game manufacturers have turned to developing real-Time games.
Therefore, turn-based RPGs, which were originally expected to gradually be pushed out of the mainstream only after 2000, were prematurely and strongly impacted by the appearance of Diablo.
At least that's the case in the Europe and America region.
Currently, in the entire game market, apart from some very famous big-name IPs such as dragon quest and final fantasy, many game companies have transitioned to the real-Time game track.
For big companies, it's called [I want everything].
Then at least one or two games will be used to seize the real-Time game market.
It is precisely because of Pokeni's promotion and stimulation that many players, especially those in the Europe and America region, accepted and loved real-Time games prematurely.
In the Japan market, turn-based RPGs are still the mainstream.
Thus, these two markets formed a very obvious difference.
Or it could be called [regional difference] or [cultural difference].
In the Europe and America market, real-Time games are rampant: the Diablo series, Need for Speed launched by EA, Command & Conquer launched by Westwood (not yet acquired by EA), warcraft launched by Blizzard, The Elder Scrolls: Arena launched by Bethesda...
These appeared like mushrooms after rain, successfully opening up the market, seizing the market, and becoming the market...
Players are deeply attracted by the instant feedback, shorter and faster stimulation, and super dopamine secretion of real-Time games.
Therefore, in the Europe and America region, in the past two years, very traditional turn-based RPGs have rarely been seen.
To be precise, the Eternal Ashes launched by Pokeni this Time is not a traditional turn-based RPG in the commonly understood sense.
Traditional is traditional.
Even older than video games.
Because the core gameplay of this game comes from DND.
"Tabletop Role-Playing" as a category of board games, is also known as TRPG (Tabletop Role-Playing game).
It first appeared in 1974 when an American company called TSR launched a tabletop game called Dungeons & Dragons, which is the DND most often mentioned by current tabletop players.
Later, the company was acquired by Wizards of the Coast, and the worldview in this game was referenced by most subsequent fantasy themes.
Of course, Pokeni's Eternal Ashes is not such a traditional game that completely copies DND rules.
Just as warcraft's Hearthstone made many changes and innovations to Magic: The Gathering itself, Eternal Ashes also made many changes and innovative gameplay based on DND's rules.
...
This Time, Pokeni precisely and fiercely captured the taste buds of Europe and America players, serving them a game feast like Eternal Ashes.
A game like this, with [dice gameplay] as its core, featuring high freedom, gambling, and probability as its main gameplay throughout, and capable of progressing layer by layer in such [gambling] gameplay, revealing the entire macroscopic world to the players, has truly never appeared before.
Electronic Gaming Monthly in America commented:
[The emergence of Eternal Ashes once again injected new vitality into turn-based games.
At the same Time, Eternal Ashes also focuses on plot progression and character development, allowing players not only to win in gambling within the game but also to deeply experience the game world through the development of the plot.
This comprehensive game design makes Eternal Ashes a masterpiece that can truly attract players and immerse them.
In addition, the art style in the game is also worth mentioning.
The game adopts a unique low-polygon style, combined with rich scene settings and dynamic lighting effects, bringing players a visually impactful game experience.
In short, the emergence of Eternal Ashes not only enriched the gameplay and content of turn-based games but also injected new vitality and creativity into the entire game industry.]
Trip Hawkins, the founder of Electronic Arts (EA), stated after truly experiencing this game:
"The game is truly addictive.
Once you start playing, you can't stop."
Since he started making games himself, he hadn't been so hooked in a long Time, playing for several days straight.
It really felt like the first Time he encountered video games.
He recalled playing super mario or playing a tabletop game with friends for the first Time; that feeling was truly captivating, no less than falling in love for the first Time.
Yes, many first Times in life are unforgettable.
But after that, one gradually becomes numb.
And Eternal Ashes made him find this long-lost feeling of first love, which was truly moving.
Many industry insiders have stated that this game is just a new starting point—
In the future, more similar games will continue to emerge, bringing more surprises and fun to players.
...
Meanwhile, at Pokeni Company in Japan.
"It's amazing, Eternal Ashes is even more powerful than I imagined," Aoki Haruhi exclaimed.
Since Eternal Ashes was launched, Aoki Haruhi also had his team send a box over from America.
Mainly because he wanted to play it himself, and also for game developers here in Japan to experience it.
This game truly has strong staying power; once you start playing, you have no mind for work.
When Aoki Haruhi played it for the first Time, he felt like he was playing a game that combined Baldur's Gate and Diablo.
However, as he delved deeper, he found that Eternal Ashes and Baldur's Gate were actually very different.
Eternal Ashes, like the comments from Europe and America players online, is about [dice].
Although Baldur's Gate also uses dice, the role and core gameplay of the dice are not as prominent.
In Eternal Ashes, whenever your dice get an upgrade, or you get a soul stone that can add points, there's a surge of ecstasy in your heart.
And...
In the game, the scene of recruiting companions in the tavern always reminded Aoki Haruhi of some unpleasant past experiences.
In his previous life, Aoki Haruhi's luck was truly bad.
Ten consecutive draws rarely yielded anything good.
Or he would get unwanted five-star cards.
Yes, that's right, not Genshin Impact.
But FGO.
He originally thought that he would create the gacha games in this life, but he didn't expect his subsidiary to beat him to it.
They've figured out how to make money from pay-to-win games.
However, if you trace it back seriously, the origin is actually very old.
It first came from gashapon, which existed in America before 1920, and later gashapon vending machines were introduced to Japan and became widely popular.
Then they were gradually incorporated into video games.
Gradually evolving into the mainstream payment model later on.
If you explore the essence of it, then the essence of gacha games is actually gambling.
Eternal Ashes very clearly revealed this point.
As long as it involves probability, it's gambling, and the reason people enjoy it so much is actually the gambling effect.
However, if it's packaged well, it's not just a simple gambling effect.
Eternal Ashes provides players with a great experience, in addition to the core element of dice rolling: exquisite packaging, a grand worldview, a highly free-to-explore world, complex and varied builds...
These are all indispensable, every small detail that allows players to have such a natural and good experience.
Achieving this level is actually quite difficult.
The appearance of Eternal Ashes this Time truly taught the entire world a lesson, except for Aoki Haruhi.
Aoki Haruhi also silently admired it.
Even if he took away their Diablo team, they still managed to deliver a god-like answer.
"Ah~ as expected of the team that produced Diablo, the Northern Blizzard team's strength is still there," Aoki Haruhi sighed.
"President, what nonsense are you talking about again?"
Just then, HR-chan, who had something to find Aoki Haruhi about, came in and heard Aoki Haruhi's sigh.
"Didn't you and Shinji Mikami produce Diablo?" Ayase Akane asked curiously.
"Yes." Aoki Haruhi nodded.
It's like that in this life.
"President, this is the Pokémon team's recruitment request, please take a look." Ayase Akane gently placed a document in front of Aoki Haruhi.
"Hmm, no need to look, just recruit people according to Lisa Asano's needs; however many they need, you help recruit that many. If you have any difficulties, come talk to me. Money is not an issue," Aoki Haruhi said.
Ayase Akane nodded, muttering to herself.
The President is truly generous.
...
He briefly explained that they could recruit with a premium, but not too high, leaving the degree of control to Ayase Akane.
After all, she has been with Aoki Haruhi for over five years now and is considered a senior HR in the industry.
Ayase Akane finished her discussion with Aoki Haruhi and left the President's office.
The latter was still immersed in the joy of the good news from America.
"The pokeni America team really did a splendid job this Time," Aoki Haruhi said with a happy smile.
He was genuinely proud of the victory in the first battle of the subsidiary in America.
But all of this was also within his control.
From the first Time he heard Brevik's description of this game, Aoki Haruhi could tell that it would definitely achieve good results.
Of course, so far it's only for the Europe and America region.
In a few months, when the game is released in Japan, it might not achieve such good results.
Besides the game itself opening up a new category for Pokeni, Aoki Haruhi actually had high hopes for the worldview in Eternal Ashes.
Although many stories in the Eternal Ashes created by Brevik and his team are still rough and brief, at least the entire large framework has been built.
Once this framework is in place, many things can be filled into it.
Any single race could become a series of games, and combined, they could form a grand historical event.
Aoki Haruhi's eyes glowed, already seeing the unlimited possibilities for the future of this game.
If it can be done well and a good Author is found for the pokeni America team, then this game could be on par with Blizzard's warcraft.
As long as Internet hardware develops fast enough, Aoki Haruhi is confident in making Eternal Ashes the first large-scale MMORPG in this world.
And it will be copied, oh no, made according to world of warcraft.
Once Eternal Ashes Online is released, Aoki Haruhi can't even imagine what kind of storm it will stir up.
In short—
pokeni America did a great job.
Very good, we also need to work harder here.
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