Lin You discussed the equipment’s material costs and selling price with Qin Songyun, giving him a clear picture before sending him off to spend time with his girlfriend.
Qin Songyun was astonished by the cost, completely unprepared for such advanced technology to have such a low price tag.
He was even more surprised when he heard Lin You planned to price it at only 10,000 yuan, immediately suggesting a higher price, even several times higher, believing players would still be thrilled.
Even tripling the price would still be less than half the price of virtual reality equipment from other manufacturers.
Increasing the price would significantly benefit the company’s growth.
The more devices sold, the faster the company accumulates wealth, allowing for the production of more devices and rapid expansion.
Otherwise, without sufficient scale, even with the best game, they’d be limited to 100,000 devices and at most 100,000 players.
The second batch would be 200,000, the third 400,000, the fourth 800,000…
But with a price increase, even just doubling it, after selling 100,000 units in the first batch, the second batch could be 400,000! The third 1.6 million! The fourth 6.4 million!
This is exponential growth! He didn’t understand why Lin You would forgo such a strategy.
“Mr. Qin,” Lin You sighed, “Have you noticed how fixated you are on time?”
Qin Songyun was taken aback.
Lin You continued, “What you said is true, the initial pricing determines our expansion speed. But how many players can this market generate?”
“The total number of domestic players who would buy VR gaming equipment is about 20 million,” Qin Songyun instinctively replied.
“Yes, 20 million. We can’t possibly acquire all these players. The rise of VR games didn’t wipe out all the console and PC gamers. In this situation, whether we reach the ceiling in a year or three months, the difference is negligible.
So our goal isn’t to grab those 20 million players, but to expand that group. We can sell more than just to gamers. Why can’t we sell 30 million, 40 million, 50 million, or even… 100 million units?
And we absolutely cannot use a strategy of initially high pricing followed by a drastic price drop, hoping to have both. That would severely damage both our image and the players’ perception.
I don’t think you haven’t considered this. You’re just unconsciously too fixated on time.”
Lin You’s words silenced Qin Songyun. Yes, when did he become so obsessed with time, rushing everything he does? It was… from the day Xiao Chun was diagnosed…
Seeing Qin Songyun lost in thought, Lin You patted his shoulder, “Alright, alright, stop overthinking. Go spend time with your girlfriend.”
Watching Qin Songyun walk towards Xiao Chun, who was already waiting impatiently, the two walking hand-in-hand into the distance.
Lin You couldn’t help but sigh, the falling flowers and wind and rain further wound the spring, it’s better to cherish the person before you!
Returning to the Sky aircraft carrier, Lin You and Xiaomeng watched the players’ streams with relish.
Princess and her best friend were the fastest, and the Princess had a strong drive to progress, often pulling Shuihua, who wanted to wander, forward to push the progress.
The media guy and Xia Yi weren’t in a hurry, carefully searching every level, diligently collecting all the runes and murals.
The rest played more casually. Lin You didn’t keep watching, pulling Xiaomeng to work after a while.
The surprise for the players he mentioned on Lingxi was a sudden idea: release a game demo, compatible with existing VR, console, and PC devices, allowing players on all platforms to play the first two levels.
When the Virtual Reality Equipment is released, even if they want to play the later content, their desire to buy the equipment will be stronger.
Although the equipment will be in short supply for a long time, it’s always good to do a little more.
Besides, it’s not complicated.
For ordinary programmers, this would be extremely troublesome. The different running environments alone could create a mountain of bugs.
But for Xiaomeng, with the existing virtual reality system and Lin You’s memory of the version as a reference, it’s incredibly easy.
The only cost is that for an hour, Xiaomeng had to temporarily stop her intense social media browsing.
Well… Lin You thought it was a good thing. Such a young child, spending all day on social media, what kind of example is that?
That’s something only adults can do! Xiaomeng worked while pouting, saying to Lin You: “Humph! Xiaomeng needs to adjust the calculation parameters! To lower Master’s appearance score to the bottom 5%!”
“Go ahead,” Lin You casually waved his hand, he couldn’t imagine what use Xiaomeng’s appearance score had.
The leisurely afternoon passed bit by bit.
Because Lin You greatly expanded the map in this virtual reality version, no one could finish the game that afternoon.
Even the Princess, who had previously reached the underground entrance, was constantly interrupted by her best friend Shuihua, who dragged her around, only barely reaching the end of the Temple level.
Others explored and progressed, not even reaching the underground level.
But when they came out, they all expressed their great satisfaction, the surprise and disbelief still lingering on their faces.
Especially Xia Yi, the girl with one leg, even after leaving the virtual world, occasionally subconsciously touched her right leg.
Only now, what she touched was a metal prosthetic.
Although they had a lot of fun, they didn’t encounter any problems or discover any flaws that needed improvement.
So Lin You expressed his gratitude and sent them away one by one.
When he saw Qin Songyun and Xiao Chun off, Lin You directly gave them two devices, and Qin Songyun and Xiao Chun repeatedly thanked him in surprise.
Lin You just waved his hand and casually said, “A special treatment for employees, consider it a welcome gift. Be careful on the road.”
When the Princess left, Lin You also handed her the device she had been playing with, letting her take it home.
The Princess was surprised: “Can I?”
“If it weren’t for your help, I wouldn’t have been able to finish it so quickly, would I?” Lin You said gratefully, “And it’s thanks to you that we were able to fix the important material issues in Journey. You’ve helped so much, one device is nothing. Take it home and play!”
The Princess happily accepted the device, so excited she almost bowed to Lin You.
Amidst her best friend’s envious gaze, they left together.
Lin You didn’t give the Princess’s best friend a device. Firstly, they weren’t close enough to warrant a gift.
Secondly, you have to satisfy a little girl’s vanity, right? There were no more urgent matters. Lin You pondered, maybe after registering the company tomorrow, he could practice his shooting?
Just that afternoon, Lin You felt a little itchy.
It certainly wasn’t because he wanted to play, but to prepare for the next game!
Yes, what did that writer he liked say?
Go out and gather materials!
(End of chapter)