588: Conservative estimate: 100 million

Not knowing how much Ye Su understood about "Escape from Goosekov," Huang Yanghua first had Ye Su look at concept art and a short clip. After ensuring he had a basic understanding of "Escape from Goosekov," Huang Yanghua then introduced:

"Escape from Goosekov is a top-down extraction shooter game."

"After the game starts, players take on the role of a customizable tactical goose, adventuring on Goskoff Star—a goose egg-shaped planet on the brink of destruction."

"In the game, both enemies and NPCs are also rendered in a 3D cartoon goose style. We've also paired the game with a series of absurd and humorous storylines."

"In this game, we have completely removed player-versus-player (PVP) elements, allowing players to focus on battling AI enemies like scavengers, mercenaries, and bosses, thereby reducing competitive pressure."

"As for the gameplay and main quests, we call it the 'Search, Fight, Extract' mode. Players first search for supplies under conditions of limited local visibility, then use the found supplies to either sell or craft and upgrade equipment at workbenches."

"To increase fun, we added a Duck Cuisine system to the game. Players can collect various duck cuisine-related items throughout the map."

"Afterwards, they use various weapons to battle AI enemies fiercely. When attacking enemies, we've also implemented headshot damage. Players can achieve higher damage through headshots, further enhancing playability."

"Finally, there's 'Extract.' Players just need to find a fixed extraction point to keep their loot and safely withdraw."

"To cater to players of different skill levels, the game offers five difficulty settings: Casual, Standard, Hard, Survival, and Extreme."

"If players choose the first three difficulties and fail to extract, they have a death tolerance mechanism called corpse run retrieval. They can re-enter the same map to search for their previous death loot bag."

Having already approached several investors before, Huang Yanghua had honed the eloquence expected of an excellent entrepreneur. He could fluently and clearly explain the selling points of "Escape from Goosekov" to investors like Ye Su.

With Shi Deming and He Weizhi supplementing details beside him, Ye Su basically understood what kind of game "Escape from Goosekov" was.

"Since it's not a pay-to-win game, if released for free with player recharge options, 'Escape from Goosekov' would struggle to turn a profit. Therefore, we plan to sell it on PC gaming platforms like Steam and E-Platform."

After introducing the game's basic situation, the three of them finally stopped, looking nervously at Ye Su.

Investing in a buy-to-play game carries even greater risk than investing in the film industry.

For an average film, unless it's so terrible it's practically nonexistent, even if ticket sales are poor, the copyright can at least be sold to various online platforms, TV stations, and other interested companies, allowing investors to recoup some losses.

Take Jackie Chan, for example. He's reputed to command a hundred million per movie. Yet, in the past decade, the box office revenue for several of his films, after splitting with theaters, wasn't enough to cover his salary alone.

So why do investors keep funding his movies? It's precisely because of the Jackie Chan brand. Even if a film underperforms at the box office, the copyright can be sold to multiple countries, allowing investors to break even or even make a small profit.

But games are different. If sales are poor, a finished game is just a pile of garbage code and garbage assets.

Heck, nowadays, there's even a shortage of actual garbage to burn, with many companies scrambling for it.

But an unsellable game? People won't even glance at it; it's worse than trash in a bin.

The money investors pour in has no other way to recoup losses; they can't even hear a satisfying 'thud.'

It's like games developed under major IPs, such as "Star Wars: Outlaws" and "Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League."

Because they didn't sell, losses reached nearly two hundred million USD, more than a flopped Hollywood blockbuster.

That's why Huang Yanghua and the other two were so nervous. They feared the angel investor, who had finally come to them, might find "Escape from Goosekov" insufficiently appealing or be unwilling to take on too much risk, only investing a token amount.

"Alright, I have a general understanding of this game. Its development prospects seem quite promising."

Back when he used to go to internet cafes, Ye Su and his friends would also connect via LAN to play this type of 'Search, Fight, Extract' mode single-player game.

Compared to those single-player games, "Escape from Goosekov" adds fun cartoon characters and incorporates more gameplay elements.

If playing with a few friends, Ye Su would indeed be willing to buy the game for some casual fun together.

From this, it's evident that the intelligence suggesting "Escape from Goosekov" could sell several million copies indeed has its merits.

Sales volume isn't the issue; what affects profit is the pricing Huang Yanghua and the others set for "Escape from Goosekov."

And Ye Su's one sentence made Huang Yanghua and the other two extremely excited.

Judging from Ye Su's reaction, he seemed fairly satisfied with the game they developed. The hardest hurdle was passed. Next, it depended on how much Ye Su was willing to invest.

"I wonder what the development cost for this game is, and how much do you plan to sell a copy for?"

Now it was time to talk money. Huang Yanghua nervously swallowed, pondered for a moment, and then, as the three had previously agreed, said to Ye Su:

"Regarding the price, we initially set it at 59 yuan per copy. During the launch period, there will be a 12% discount, making the price roughly 51 yuan per copy."

"In terms of cost, besides the three of us, the studio has two other employees. Development took over a year from start to finish, so we set the total cost at three million."

After reporting the selling price and cost, the three simultaneously watched Ye Su's face, trying to analyze his thoughts on the cost and price.

"Selling for 59 per copy..."

Knowing the game would sell at least two million copies, Ye Su immediately calculated the sales revenue and profit for "Escape from Goosekov" in his mind.

"Assuming it only sells 2 million copies, multiplied by 59 yuan... Let's multiply by 60 for easier calculation, that's 120 million. Subtract 2 million, which is 118 million!"

"Sales revenue exceeds 10 million USD. Steam Platform takes a 25% cut. E-Platform's cut is lower, but let's also calculate it as 25%. The money received would still be over 80 million!"

"Then, using various legal methods to reduce taxes in both countries, the final profit should be over 70 million."

"If I can secure half the shares, just from sales revenue, I could get over 30 million. And this is the most conservative estimate, based on 2 million copies sold."

"Moreover, besides sales revenue, with such high sales for 'Escape from Goosekov,' the value of its derivative IP would definitely be very high. Revenue from collaborations, merchandise, etc., would surely be good too."

Ye Su conservatively estimated that the final net profit "Escape from Goosekov" could generate shouldn't be a problem to exceed one hundred million.

Compared to such high returns, the cost price Huang Yanghua quoted was a mere three million.

If not for knowing Huang Yanghua and the other two definitely wouldn't agree, Ye Su would have wanted to pull out three million on the spot to buy out "Escape from Goosekov" from them.