55: Chapter 55 Closed Beta Test Ended

Zhao Lei nodded and took a few notes on his phone.

But he still didn't leave.

"Boss, are you really sure that heroes of the storm is nothing to worry about either?"

He rubbed his hands together, still a bit worried.

After all, as a veteran player, he had said the phrase "Blizzard products must be masterpieces" many times.

"That's Blizzard; half the games I played growing up were from Blizzard."

"diablo, Warcraft, starcraft—any one of those IPs is a tens-of-millions-seller."

"They're stuffing all those characters into one MOBA; the fan base alone could push the game to a million daily active users."

"And on Blizzard's official website, there are plenty of character skill demonstrations—Tyrael, the Queen of Blades, the Lich King—each one cooler than the last."

"People on Twitter overseas are already saying Blizzard is stuffing the entire history of gaming into one MOBA."

Qin Mo leaned back in his chair, holding a cup of coffee, his expression unchanged.

"Just have confidence in our game."

"Right now, whether it's inside Tencent or Blizzard NetEase, they certainly have no doubt that in this MOBA melee, they will be the ones to win in the end."

He paused.

"Since they all think that way, why should we be afraid?"

"Blizzard thinks its IPs can crush everything, and Tencent thinks its dota ecosystem is unbreakable."

"Both sides think they're guaranteed to win."

"But the victory or defeat of a game is never decided by IPs and nostalgia alone."

"This time, I will make them pay the price for their contempt."

Zhao Lei thought about it and put his phone in his pocket.

"Understood."

"Like you said, Boss, times have changed."

"Tencent looks down on us, and Blizzard wants to join the fray, so let's fight!"

He turned to leave, but the office door was pushed open from the outside.

Lin Xiao walked in.

He held a phone in one hand, the screen still lit, clearly having just hung up, and a document in the other.

"Boss, I just took a call."

He pushed up his glasses.

"A junior of mine wants to join Inspur Technology. His name is Zheng Yue, and he just graduated recently."

"He said he was just kicked out by Tencent."

Qin Mo became interested and leaned forward slightly.

"Kicked out by Tencent? Why?"

He knew that Tencent's campus recruitment threshold was not low, and any fresh graduate who got in would cherish the opportunity.

Being fired less than half a month after graduation meant he must have done something the Tencent executives couldn't tolerate.

"Because he said at an internal Tencent meeting that league of legends' potential exceeds that of heroes of the storm, and could even surpass dota 2."

"He even..."

Lin Xiao's expression was a bit subtle.

"...said it right to the faces of Sun Qiang, Vice President Chen Yongnian, and Pony Ma himself."

Qin Mo leaned back in his chair, also momentarily stunned.

In this society, people who are that direct are indeed rare.

"Saying league of legends could surpass dota 2 in front of so many Tencent executives?"

"Interesting."

"This Zheng Yue might not have high emotional intelligence, but he has good vision."

He set down his coffee.

"To be able to see the pros and cons of two games in front of a group of hardcore dota players—that kind of judgment is rare."

"And he doesn't lack the courage to stick to his judgment in front of his superiors and the boss."

"We can let him come for an internship, but let's observe him for a while first."

Qin Mo paused.

"After all, the timing of his firing is too coincidental. Coming to us right after the closed beta ended, we can't rule out the possibility of him being a corporate spy."

Lin Xiao nodded.

"Understood. I'll arrange for him to do some peripheral work at Riot Games first and keep him away from the core parts for now."

"Have him send over his detailed resume and project experience from school first."

Qin Mo's voice continued.

And after that was settled.

Lin Xiao put his phone in his pocket and handed over the document in his other hand.

"One more thing."

"The player satisfaction data for the first day of the closed beta is out."

Zhao Lei, who had just reached the door, turned back upon hearing this.

"How much?"

Lin Xiao opened the document.

"For all players who participated in matches on the first day of the closed beta, the valid questionnaire recovery rate was eighty-seven percent."

"The overall satisfaction rate is ninety-two percent."

Zhao Lei's eyes widened.

"Ninety-two percent?"

"That high?"

He leaned in to look at the numbers in the document.

"When we did Douyin before, the user satisfaction for the first version was only in the low eighties."

"Games are much harder to make than Short Video. This thing can reach ninety-two percent?"

Qin Mo took the document and flipped through it.

"It's reasonable."

"There were only a few thousand closed beta slots in total. Those who managed to snag one were already the most expectant players; they came in with a positive bias."

"And our novice guidance and simplified design did indeed allow most people to find the fun within a few minutes."

"But first-day satisfaction doesn't represent long-term retention. We need to keep monitoring the subsequent changes in this data."

He paused.

"Especially during these few days of the closed beta, see if anyone drops out by the third day."

"If satisfaction starts to decline, find the reason immediately."

Lin Xiao nodded and made a mental note.

...

Over the next few days.

The hype for heroes of the storm continued to skyrocket at a staggering speed.

Blizzard was also quite skilled at marketing.

On the official website.

Every day, they released a skill demonstration video for a new character. Each video would explode into a flurry of discussion threads on game forums at home and abroad.

You have to understand.

Whether it's the heroes of dota 2 or the original characters of league of legends, their influence is far inferior to these old IP characters.

Every character from a Blizzard IP has a massive fan base globally.

The Archangel Tyrael from Diablo, the Queen of Blades Kerrigan from starcraft, and the Lich King Arthas from world of warcraft are all top-tier IP characters.

For these characters.

Every time a skill demonstration video was released, it would set off a new wave of discussion among the global player community.

On Twitter.

Once the related hashtags for heroes of the storm appeared, they almost never left the trending list for the gaming category.

"Blizzard is crazy; they've stuffed characters from their entire family in there."

"As a player who has played Blizzard games since Warcraft III, would I even be human if I didn't play this game?"

"dota grew out of Warcraft; now that Blizzard is personally entering the MOBA scene, dota 2 better watch out."

"God bless, heroes of the storm must be the one that survives to the end among the three games."

On the heroes of the storm official pre-registration page, the global pre-registration numbers were rising every day.

Less than a week after the trailer was released, the global pre-registration for heroes of the storm officially surpassed twenty-five million.

This number.

Had already exceeded the pre-registration data for dota 2.

At the same time.

Because of heroes of the storm's entry, many overseas game media outlets also began to pay attention to this MOBA competition.

"heroes of the storm Pre-registrations Surpass dota 2: Is Blizzard's Entry Already the Peak?"

"Three MOBAs Competing on the Same Stage: heroes of the storm Takes the Lead in Pre-registrations."

"NetEase stock stimulated by positive heroes of the storm news, rises for three consecutive days."

At the same time, global pre-registrations for league of legends had just surpassed six million.

And most of them were concentrated domestically.

Although league of legends had also done localization work for various regions and would have a synchronized global open beta, Riot Games had found outsourced teams in each region for translation and localization adaptation.

But in the overseas market.

Inspur Technology's promotional capabilities were indeed more than one order of magnitude lower. After all, there was no dota predecessor or famous IP characters; they relied entirely on IceFrog's name and that CG trailer.

It was already quite impressive that league of legends had the level of attention it did.

Meanwhile, domestically.

As the days passed, the reputation of league of legends continued to spread.

Those streamers who had taken money to write hit pieces all shut up; no one dared to bash league of legends in their streams anymore.

The aftermath of the Old C incident hadn't dissipated yet, and streamers in the gaming sections of Douyu and Huya didn't even dare to mention the name "league of legends."

On the contrary, several game bloggers on Douyin had been continuously streaming the league of legends closed beta, and their follower counts were visibly rising.

On Tieba and Bilibili.

Players who had snagged closed beta slots began to post and share their experiences one after another.

And these experiences were naturally mostly positive.

However.

After all, the scale of this closed beta was too small—a few thousand slots scattered among millions of pre-registered players across the country meant very few people could actually play it themselves.

So these scattered positive reviews didn't completely dispel the doubts of players who were still waiting and watching.

Most people were still waiting.

Waiting for the open beta of the three games, waiting to make a judgment after getting their hands on them.

Time passed day by day.

Soon, the ten-day closed beta for league of legends officially ended.