Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

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But throughout the entire hot topic process.

It's not that no hardware companies benefited; the beneficiary was Spark's StarCore handheld console.

Because in the promotional video, the StarCore handheld console + graphics card dock + VR device is a complete set of equipment.

Following the VR boom, discussions naturally turned to the StarCore handheld console.

In consumer psychology, there is a specific term called "pseudo" demand, which refers to users paying for a feature they may not actually use.

This is what many people often refer to as, "I may not need it, but you can't be without it."

For example, the StarCore handheld console can be plugged into a graphics card dock, which can then be connected to VR devices.

Theoretically speaking, for potential users who don't have a graphics card dock or VR needs, the StarCore handheld console and Steam Deck should have the same appeal.

Even after Steam Deck announced the amazing perk of getting the entire Steam suite with the purchase of a handheld console, Steam Deck should theoretically be even more attractive to players who only need a handheld console.

But in fact, it is completely the opposite.

Let alone VR, even gamers who don't need a graphics card dock will buy the StarCore handheld console because of its "expandability".

"I don't need it now, but what if I want to use it later?"

"If you buy the StarCore, you can just buy a graphics card dock if you want to play on TV, and if you want to play VR, you can just buy a Spark VR headset."

"But if you buy Steam Deck, then you've just bought a handheld console."

"Is there still a choice?"

This argument is not an isolated case, but rather a true reflection of the mindset of most players.

Even Steam events have been used by players to mock them.

"They only hold promotions because sales are slow. Look at Xinghuo, their products sell well, so why don't they hold promotions?"

The argument that this kind of dish is the original sin became even more pronounced after Spark also launched a promotion where you could get a free Spark game pack with the purchase of a handheld console.

It's the same group of people; how do they react when faced with this boomerang?

"Look! Steam Deck didn't have an advantage to begin with, and now that Spark is giving away games, it has even less of an advantage. Spark is awesome."

The overall public opinion environment.

StarCore handhelds have always held the advantage, even though Steam Deck hastily started pre-orders.

However, because the StarCore handheld console has greater scalability, SteamDeck is at a complete disadvantage.

This is not hard to understand. For example, at the same price point, a computer motherboard with two SSD slots will sell better than one with only one SSD slot.

Even though some users may only install one slot after buying a motherboard, the vast majority of users will still choose the one with two slots.

Chapter 572 Providing timely help

It can only be said that even Lin Li himself did not expect that the Spark VR project, which he created to counter Tencent VR's promotional offensive, would have such an unexpected effect.

Almost immediately after VR Spark was announced, the remaining stock was snapped up.

Immediately afterwards, the number of pre-sales surged.

Fifty thousand, one hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, five hundred thousand...

The StarCore handheld console sold out its 2 million units (including pre-orders and in-stock items) in just one week after its launch, with pre-orders exceeding 500,000 units again, causing a stir among domestic and international media.

With the explosive sales of the StarCore handheld console, scalpers have also emerged.

Instead of reselling handheld consoles, scalpers started reselling game slots.

Because the StarCore handheld console was released in the order of pre-orders, some scalpers started reselling their eligibility.

If it were other manufacturers, they would generally just let it go when faced with this kind of situation.

After all, this is a really difficult matter.

However, Xinghuo has never tolerated scalpers. The day after scalpers began to proliferate, they announced their lucky draw plan.

That is, there is a daily lucky draw. Players who have already pre-ordered can participate in the draw. If you win, you can pick up your order regardless of when it was originally scheduled.

You can get the goods directly from the stock.

Although the number of slots released each day for this event is not large.

However, this model gave many players an idea: instead of buying from scalpers, why not just pre-order directly and then enter the lottery?

This approach, coupled with the online attacks by Xinghuo's online army, and Xinghuo's direct issuance of lawyer's letters to some large scalpers on the grounds of disrupting market prices.

After a series of actions, the scalpers who had been inflating prices by several hundred yuan either lowered their prices or dispersed.

Some of the "unofficial" scalpers who came just to join the fun have even started reselling at cost.

Originally, this was just a typical crackdown on scalpers by Xinghuo.

However, since the "selection" process is largely based on luck, some quick-thinking anchors, such as Huang Wenfeng, are more likely to succeed.

They astutely seized this wave of popularity.

He already had a handheld console before, and he often streamed himself playing games on it during his live streams, but what really boosted his popularity was...

He used a friend's account to pre-order the StarCore handheld console and then promoted it in the live stream, saying that if the account was selected, he would immediately give it away for free in the live stream.

It started with one account, and then Huang Wenfeng gradually increased the stakes.

So far, 10 accounts are participating in the draw.

Every day, tens of thousands of accounts participate in the lottery, and Spark releases approximately 1000 units daily through this channel.

Therefore, with 10 accounts, the probability of winning is actually not small.

Therefore, Huang Wenfeng's live stream would be packed with viewers even before this time.

At such times, Huang Wenfeng often inserts some soft advertisements, especially advertisements for StarCore handheld consoles, which are basically seamless and produce good data.

It's popular, the advertising is effective, and its fan base is still growing.

A win-win-win situation is achieved.

For example, right now, as the daily lottery for the StarCore handheld game gradually approaches, the chat in Huang Wenfeng's live stream is flooded with messages from fans.

"Brother Huang is awesome!"

"Let me win one!"

"Brother Huang, is the StarCore handheld console worth buying?"

Huang Wenfeng kept his eyes on the screen while answering questions from some of his "core" fans.

"Is it worth buying? Let me tell you, the StarCore handheld console is absolutely the most worthwhile gaming device to buy this year! Just think about it, it can not only be played as a handheld console, but it can also be connected to a graphics card dock to become a console, and in the future it can even connect to VR devices! The price-performance ratio is simply unbeatable!"

"What holds its value best? Products that are designed for the future hold their value best, so buy them with confidence! The delivery time isn't too outrageous right now, and I see that the price increase for pre-orders is getting more and more exaggerated."

"In short, buy it now if you want to."

Someone asked in the live chat.

"Old Huang! Do you have any inside information? I saw that VR in Xinghuo's promotional video and it looks so cool, I want to buy it!"

Huang Wenfeng smiled.

"VR devices? Hold on, Spark has clearly been holding back a big surprise this time. Look at their previous StarCore handheld console, it only took three months from announcement to release, their VR devices are probably coming soon too. But for now, let's grab the handheld console first, and we can grab the VR devices when they come out!"

After he finished speaking, he began to focus intently on the screen again.

The lottery for the StarCore handheld console has been running for several days now, and it's actually been going very fast once it starts.

Therefore, the period before the selection is his soft advertising time.

~~~

The StarCore handheld console sold like hotcakes.

It has generated a surge of interest across the entire market, which is quite different from the initial popularity of Steam Deck.

Almost simultaneously, ASUS, Colorful, MSI, and Zotac all announced that they were considering making PC handhelds, and even Lei Jun of Xiaomi posted a questionnaire on Weibo.

I'm asking everyone's opinions on PC handheld consoles.

Domestic casual game developers are overjoyed, and the reason they are so happy is because of the performance limitations of handheld consoles.

Besides playing large-scale games, casual indie games and small-scale games are also popular choices for handheld gamers.

After all, the portability and the ability to play anytime, anywhere make handheld consoles particularly suitable for games that don't require high-end specs and are easy to play.

In the past, popular games on Steam Deck often included indie games and small to medium-sized games.

This type of game is precisely the strength of domestic single-player game developers. While domestic developers have faced some difficulties in developing large-scale games in the past two years, various small and medium-sized hit games have emerged one after another.

Especially with the support of Spark Program.

The Scroll of Taiwu, Amazing Cultivation Simulator, Muse Run, Chinese Parents, Warm Snow, Ghost Valley Eight Desolations, Three Colors of Love, Bloodthirsty Seal, Invisible Guardian, etc.

A large number of games, when released on PC, do not offer any advantage, at least in terms of graphics.

But if it's on a handheld console, that's a different story.

"The lightweight games we developed before finally have a perfect platform. There is a huge demand for these types of games among handheld console users, so we need to hurry up and optimize our games to launch them on the Spark platform as soon as possible!"

The developers of "Fireworks" were quite excited during the interview.

At the same time, the Spark platform has also made a series of optimizations for handheld consoles. For example, the Spark platform for handheld consoles has an independent "recommendation slot system".

This is to help games suitable for handheld gaming gain more exposure.

Although the Spark handheld console currently only has a little over two million users, this move is undoubtedly a lifeline for many teams that focus on casual and indie games.

Chapter 573 Japanese Games Make Up Half the Sky

As StarCore handheld consoles continue to be delivered, more and more small and medium-sized manufacturers are spontaneously sharing their StarCore handheld consoles on social media, which is impacting them.

Among them are some well-known figures in the indie game industry.

For example, 2D Boy Studios, which developed "World of Goo", "Little Inferno" and "Human Resources", had its founder, Kyle Gabler, post a message on his Twitter account.

[Announcement that all 2D Boy games will be available on the StarCore handheld console.]

He also included a short reflection.

“A few days ago, Spark sent us a StarCore handheld console. We tried it out, and playing our games on this handheld was absolutely fantastic.”

“We even tried out the touchpad, which was a really interesting piece of hardware.”

"All three of our games have special levels on the StarCore handheld console, and we hope you will enjoy them."

Not only 2D Boy, but other well-known independent game developers are also speaking out.

The reason for this success is partly because Spark itself has a good reputation in the independent game community in Europe and America.

Secondly, the unique recommendation mechanism of the StarCore handheld console has indeed made many domestic and foreign independent game developers and small and medium-sized developers feel a significant increase in game sales.

This is actually quite normal. For handheld gamers, the first few days after they get their hands on the console are the most exciting and thrilling time.

Secondly, the first batch of players who purchased the StarCore handheld console were those with relatively strong purchasing power, and realistically, the StarCore is currently not "hacked".

So these players, including Curry, all have AAA games, after experiencing the novelty of playing AAA games on a handheld console.

My attention was quickly drawn to the small and medium-sized games recommended by Spark on the handheld console. These games were not only inexpensive, but also ran more smoothly on the handheld console, providing a better gaming experience.

In addition, Spark released a large number of games in a short period of time. The number of 200 million players is not large in the total number of players, but many indie games do not sell well to begin with.

It's only in the tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, range, and they might only sell a few dozen servings a day.

Therefore, it is similar to...

"Thanks to StarCore! Our sales have doubled!"

"Our sales have increased fivefold!"

Such exclamations are common in the industry, even though these doubling or several-fold increases are based on the fact that the developers' original sales were not very high.

However, this is unexpected traffic, and for games like theirs, it's almost impossible to get featured on Spark PC, but now they've managed to get featured on handheld consoles.

To get more people to notice your game.

This excitement is even more important than the increase in sales.

Developers are human too, and they naturally need channels to express their excitement.