64: Chapter 64 Is the Storm Dead?

The only one.

Daily active users exceeding one million.

When these two phrases were put together, everyone understood what Penguin meant.

You see, dota 2 had three million daily active users, so there was no need to go out of the way to say it was the only MOBA game on the market with over a million daily active users.

This statement was clearly aimed at heroes of the storm.

Netizens also quickly understood Penguin's implication.

"The only one? What about heroes of the storm's million daily active users?"

"Is this saying that heroes of the storm has already dropped below a million?"

"Penguin must have heroes of the storm's data; otherwise, they wouldn't dare write that."

"This is directly declaring heroes of the storm out of the game."

The top of the comment section was quickly taken over by Blizzard fans.

"We don't believe it! Blizzard, come out and say something!"

"Blizzard! NetEase! Come out and refute this!"

Under the official accounts of Blizzard and NetEase, comments from Blizzard fans spanned dozens of pages.

"As long as you come out and say heroes of the storm still has a million daily active users, we'll immediately tear Penguin's announcement to shreds."

"Say something! What's going on?!"

But.

Just like before.

A whole day passed.

Blizzard and NetEase remained completely silent.

Even the vague replies they had posted earlier, like "the follow-up will proceed as planned," were deleted.

You see.

Before the open beta of heroes of the storm and dota 2, the two were locked in a fierce battle, both sides wishing they could tear each other to pieces.

Therefore.

If Penguin didn't have internal data on heroes of the storm, they would never have made such a snide remark.

And if heroes of the storm's daily active users were still over a million, they would have jumped out to refute dota 2 immediately, but they chose silence instead.

At this moment, although Blizzard had not yet released the data for heroes of the storm, everyone understood that this game probably didn't even have a million daily active users left.

heroes of the storm is dead.

These words shot to the top of the trending searches and stayed there for two full days.

Before this, everyone thought this MOBA war would be a close fight.

dota 2 had Penguin's traffic ecosystem.

heroes of the storm had Blizzard's global IP and NetEase's operations.

Both sides were giants.

No one expected that heroes of the storm would go from 3.2 million on its first day of open beta to dropping below a million daily active users in just three weeks.

No one expected Penguin to end this duel so completely in such a short time.

So right now.

On the global internet, many people even felt that dota 2's announcement had already declared the winner of this MOBA war.

The stable three million daily active users were almost impossible to surpass.

In this MOBA game competition, Penguin was the one left standing, winning in a crushing manner.

As for league of legends, which was still over a week away from its open beta, there were hardly even a few comments discussing it amidst the hype of heroes of the storm and dota 2.

The few that existed.

Were also drowned out by more comments.

After all, even Blizzard and NetEase's heroes of the storm had lost, let alone this league of legends.

...

NetEase Headquarters.

An oppressive atmosphere filled the meeting room.

No one spoke.

CEO Ding sat in the main seat, the ashtray in front of him filled with cigarette butts.

On the large screen, a video conference with Blizzard executives was ongoing.

Kotick's expression was no better than CEO Ding's.

Beside him sat several core developers from Blizzard, exhaustion written on every face.

"After our optimizations and changes to some mechanics."

The developer next to Kotick spoke, his voice dry.

"The downward trend of heroes of the storm's daily active users has slowed down significantly over the last two days."

"Currently, we only lose tens of thousands of players a day, which is much better than the previous drop of over a hundred thousand a day."

CEO Ding said nothing.

The other executives in the meeting room remained silent as well.

Because they all knew that heroes of the storm only had 900,000 daily active users left.

Even if it only decreased by a few tens of thousands every day, it wouldn't last long.

After a long silence.

CEO Ding took a deep breath, his voice hoarse.

"In your model predictions, how many players will this game ultimately retain?"

Kotick glanced at the developer beside him.

The developer lowered his head and tapped a few keys on the keyboard.

Then he looked up.

"At the beginning."

"We did indeed miscalculate; the external level of acceptance for the changes in heroes of the storm was too idealized."

He paused.

"Gold and equipment are essentially part of the core logic of why MOBA games are fun."

"By removing them, we did create significant differentiation."

"But the difference is so great that it almost doesn't feel like a MOBA game anymore."

"This was a strategic failure for all of us, and a major error in direction."

He closed his laptop, his expression in the video looking quite grim.

"During this time, after our re-estimation."

"This game will probably only be able to retain 500,000 core players in the end."

Hearing this, CEO Ding closed his eyes.

"Five hundred thousand."

Originally, they had estimated five million.

After taking a deep breath, CEO Ding spoke tremulously.

"Is it really impossible to continue making changes to the game?"

Kotick shook his head in the video before speaking.

"We've already made quite a few post-launch changes."

"But to change it further would involve core logic like gold and equipment."

"The cost of such changes would be no less than redeveloping a game from scratch."

"And after those changes, heroes of the storm would just become a conventional MOBA game."

"At that point, no one can guarantee whether it could beat dota 2, which has already established a firm foothold."

Kotick leaned back in his chair and sighed deeply.

"By leveraging the current uniqueness and differentiation of heroes of the storm, perhaps we can still retain four to five hundred thousand core players."

"But after a major overhaul, losing that uniqueness might leave us with even fewer than four or five hundred thousand."

CEO Ding opened his eyes; he clearly already knew the outcome in his heart, but he couldn't help asking.

"So, what is your decision?"

Kotick's voice was steady.

"Maintain the status quo."

"Let heroes of the storm be a game with few users, but one that can survive on its uniqueness."

"Maybe one day, it'll become a hit?"

No one in the meeting room responded.

heroes of the storm will be a hit.

If those words had been spoken a few days ago, no one would have doubted them.

But saying them now, they sounded more like a joke.

After a long silence.

Kotick stood up.

"Let's end the meeting here."

After saying this, he was about to turn off the video.

But in the NetEase meeting room, someone suddenly spoke up.

"By the way."

It was an executive sitting in a corner.

"It seems there's another MOBA game about to enter open beta."

He paused.

"It's that league of legends."

"This game has also undergone quite a few simplifications."

"heroes of the storm has already failed."

"Do you think it can beat dota 2?"

The people in the meeting room looked at each other.

Then everyone shook their heads with a bitter smile.

If even Blizzard plus NetEase couldn't do it.

What other game company in this world could beat Penguin?

The video conference connection was severed, and the screen went dark.