Agreeing to Create Bad Games, What the Hell Is ‘Titanfall’? Chapter 98
900,000 peak viewers!
30,000 yuan in gifts for this session!
100,000 new followers!
Top 20 in the category!
Looking at the flood of data summaries in front of her, Tuanzi was stunned.
“Who the heck hacked my account?! This… this data… this doesn’t make sense?!”
Tuanzi could hardly believe her eyes.
No, this wasn’t just odd.
It was downright insane!
If you compared it to her old streams, this was enough to last her ten years!
“No, no, no, this can’t be right!”
Tuanzi stared at the mind-blowing stats, clutching her hair in disbelief.
Sure, today was the launch day for PUBG. And yes, heavyweights like Peiqie and Teacher Ma were hosting, plus the official promotions were in full swing.
It was bound to be hot.
She’d expected her viewership to rise a bit thanks to the hype.
But this?
This was not a bit of a boost.
This was a tidal wave!
Thinking back, she remembered that little chat she’d had with her "master" in the game:
“Master, your voice kinda sounds like Teacher Ma.”
“Yeah, a lot of people say that.”
“I really like Teacher Ma. He’s so fun. My dream is to become a streamer like him.”
“You can totally do it. Our stream chemistry is great—who knows, maybe you’ll blow up tomorrow.”
“Haha, Master, you really know how to pump people up…”
F***! S***! D***!
Tuanzi felt her scalp tingle in shock.
She hurriedly moved her mouse to her following list, clicked on the highest-tiered fan light badge:
Wuhu Teacher Ma.
Then scrolled down to the video bar at the bottom.
And there it was—pinned to the top.
Today’s VOD:
“Epic Box Moment: The Master Chef Accepts a New Disciple, Duo Queue Mayhem!”
She clicked in.
And heard her own voice loud and clear:
“Wow—your moves are so good! Can you teach me? I’m a streamer! I can get you on TV!”
Ten full seconds of stunned silence.
Then Tuanzi screamed.
“OH MY GOD!”
“My master—was Teacher Ma!!!”
Tuanzi nearly lost her mind.
Her master, the Prairie Viper himself, was actually Teacher Ma?!
And she had been bragging right in front of him about being a streamer, acting all proud, saying she could get him on TV?!
What the hell had she been doing?!
She… this… he…
Just as Tuanzi sat there, frozen in shock, at a complete loss—
Suddenly!
A private message popped up in the system.
Wuhu Teacher Ma:
Tuanzi, hey, really sorry for tricking you today. I’m the Prairie Viper, your ‘master’.
Wuhu Teacher Ma:
You’ve got real talent for streaming. I’ll be streaming again tomorrow at 8pm sharp. Hope you’ll join me for some duo games. I had a lot of fun today.
After sending the messages, Teacher Ma hopped into Tuanzi’s now-black screen stream, threw in a Super Fire gift, let out a hearty laugh, then shut the page to wash up and rest.
What he didn’t know was—
At that moment.
On the other side of the screen, Tuanzi was already curled up, clutching her pillow, sobbing her heart out.
Excitement, joy, past frustrations, and today’s sudden burst of popularity…
A tidal wave of emotions crashed over her, making her completely lose control.
It was late at night, but the feeling of finally breaking through the clouds to see the sun—
It left her heart warm, and filled her with a renewed, unshakable determination.
After a long while—
Tuanzi wiped her tears, sniffled, and typed back a reply:
Don’t worry, Master! I’ll work hard! We’ll totally get that chicken dinner! We have to!!!
Tuanzi had made it.
Overnight success.
And she wasn’t the only one.
Many small, unknown streamers also rose to fame alongside her.
There was no doubt.
Whether in terms of game design innovation or player experience, PUBG had massive streaming appeal.
Add in Gu Sheng’s meticulous game balance tuning, and the whole package became incredibly fun.
Riding the momentum from the Asian Games Expo, PUBG instantly took the gaming world by storm.
It was a giant cake, and everyone was getting their slice—and loving every bite!
But the reason PUBG could reach such heights wasn’t just external factors.
The game’s core quality was key.
And that’s where Gu Sheng’s savvy as an industry veteran really shone.
He knew that with a 50 million yuan budget, PUBG had the smallest budget of any game eligible for the Crown Awards.
They couldn’t afford a complete full-sensory system, the visuals weren’t top-tier, and even some distant landscape textures were sourced from free resources to save money.
Under such constraints, they had to think outside the box to win.
The hybrid of second-gen FPS and battle royale? That was just part of the plan.
The real kicker was in the details.
Maybe it was because full-immersion pods were still relatively new, but Gu Sheng noticed a trend:
Almost every pod-compatible game on the market had a problem—lack of polish in the details.
It was like everyone was obsessed with graphics and visual impact.
Small studios didn’t have the budget, staff, or time to polish details.
Big studios could, but they were like Michael Bay obsessed with explosions—blowing all their budgets on spectacle.
The result?
Most games, whether in story structure or full-immersion feel, lacked that extra something.
They couldn’t fully immerse players.
Gu Sheng saw the gap.
PUBG didn’t have much room for narrative depth—it was a multiplayer competition game, after all.
So, he made the full-immersion detail tuning the game’s top priority.
The dev team’s overtime efforts?
That was what they were working on the whole time.
It was exhausting, detail-oriented work.
But in the end, it paid off.
The players’ sheer enthusiasm was the best reward the team could ask for.
Oh, and of course—
There were material rewards too.
The day after the game’s release, Little Nezha held a full project team meeting.
First, she gave Comrade Gu Sheng a serious scolding, then lectured all the unauthorized overtime warriors.
Then, she approved backpay for all five months of overtime.
“…This is a one-time thing! Meeting adjourned!”
“Secretary Li, President Zhao, President Qian, President Sun, President Li—you stay behind for a bit.”
Meanwhile.
In Zhongjing.
At the headquarters of YiYou Technology Co., Ltd.
The meeting room.
The PUBG project discussion was wrapping up.
A standard meeting.
They covered PUBG’s unsurprising sales dominance, and passed along Huayu Telecom’s “Guidelines for Further Advancing Preparations for the ‘Asian Games’ E-sports Tournament Project.”
With PUBG dominating the domestic market, gaining traction across Asia, and selling like hotcakes, there was talk of weekly sales potentially topping 500,000 units.
Even though Huayu Telecom hadn’t officially announced the main event host for the upcoming e-sports tournament at the Bird’s Nest Stadium, everyone had a pretty good guess.
That’s why Yan Sheng specifically reminded the team to strengthen communications with Golden Wind, and subtly ask about their venue needs.
After delegating tasks, Yan Sheng adjourned the meeting, keeping the department heads behind.
Yes.
Beyond being a partner in the Asian Games, YiYou had something else very important brewing—
“Alright, I’m sure you all know why you’re here.”
Once the meeting room doors closed, Yan Sheng began:
“The Asian Games will conclude in a month. As partners, we’ve done everything we can.”
“After the Asian Games, our full focus shifts to our own product.”
“YiYou X2’s development has made major breakthroughs. The project is over halfway done, and follow-up work is proceeding steadily.”
“I’m sure you all understand—this product isn’t just about making a splash in the domestic market.”
“It’s also our first step into the international market.”
“That’s why choosing the right flagship game is absolutely critical.”
“I kept you here today because I want to hear your thoughts.”
That’s right.
While the Asian Games were in full swing, YiYou’s latest full-immersion gaming pod had made huge strides. Development was over halfway done, and full-speed production was underway!
Just as Yan Sheng said—this was an ambitious project.
Not just to challenge XunTeng’s market dominance at home, but also to test the waters abroad.
And!
The YiYou X2 was Yan Sheng’s bold innovation.
Unlike traditional full-immersion pods focused on “all-purpose” features, the YiYou X2 would focus entirely on gaming.
That’s right.
Yan Sheng’s ambition was huge.
While everyone else was adding more and more features to their pods, he was doing the opposite—cutting features to the core, pushing the “gaming” identity of the product to unprecedented heights.
A device born specifically for gaming.
You could even tell from the full product name:
YiYou X2 Professional Gaming Full-Immersion Pod
To make this happen, YiYou had poured massive resources into building an R&D team, dedicated to upgrading the full-sensory system.
Yan Sheng had been inspired by the mod-support technology developed with Golden Wind.
He designed an enhanced support system to pair with the full-sensory system—making it not only more powerful, but also significantly reducing development costs for game developers!
Meaning—
Any game launched on the YiYou X2 would deliver a dramatically better sense of realism.
Even the same game.
The experience on the YiYou X2 would blow other pods out of the water.
The most immersive experience ever seen on a gaming pod—that was the goal.
Yes—this was the “technical breakthrough” Yan Sheng had mentioned before.
So!
To make the YiYou X2 a massive hit on launch…
Choosing the right flagship game was crucial.
Typically, a global-level pod had no more than ten flagship titles.
For a regional-level pod like YiYou, the number was no more than three.
Too few or too many, and it didn’t work. That was a lesson hard-earned through market trials.
Everyone knew the choice of flagship games would directly impact launch sales, so it had been a hot topic of discussion.
After Yan Sheng finished, the department heads exchanged glances.
Head of Development, President Qian, spoke up first:
“I’ve been thinking about this too. For the advanced full-sensory system, NuYan should definitely be one of our main partners.”
“Their racing games have always dominated the domestic market, and they’ve made a name for themselves internationally too.”
“Flagship games need the ‘guns, cars, and balls’ trifecta.”
“So I think one of the three must be a rally racing game from NuYan, to really let players feel the thrill of high-speed racing on rugged terrain.”
The other execs nodded in agreement.
President Qian was the head of development—no one knew the product’s strengths better. His suggestions might not be perfect, but they were solid.
Yan Sheng agreed.
He nodded: “President Qian makes a good point. We’ve also discussed this before with NuYan’s CEO. We’ve got a good relationship, and I’m sure they’ll support us this time too.”
He took a sip of water.
“Anything else?”
External Relations, President Sun, raised his hand:
“Another thing—we should consider teaming up with an overseas game studio.”
“Like Kol from Japan. After all, we’re aiming to go international.”
“Kol’s soccer games are top-notch. Maybe we can partner with them, introduce an overseas title, and fill our gap in sports games.”
Originally, for sports games, President Sun had thought about collaborating with a domestic company to make a Chinese Super League game.
But that idea died as quickly as it appeared.
It was a joke—just like Chinese soccer itself. A total dead end.
So President Sun shifted his focus, targeting the Asian market.
“Good suggestion.”
Yan Sheng nodded.
“Breaking into the overseas market is a major goal for this venture. Japan is a veteran game market, so it’s worth reaching out.”
After the discussions—
The last issue remained.
Of the big three—guns, cars, and balls—they’d tentatively locked down two. The last piece was the “guns.”
They’d achieved a balance between domestic and international developers.
Now they needed one more domestic partner. (After all, YiYou X2’s primary market was still domestic.)
So—who could take on that responsibility?
Everyone exchanged glances.
In truth—
They all had the same name in mind.
But—
No one could say it aloud.
Because unlike NuYan or Kol, both market giants with flagship-level games backed by nine-figure budgets…
The company in their minds—
Was nowhere near that level.
Even if they sold off every asset ten times over, they probably still couldn’t afford to develop a flagship title of that caliber.
“Sigh—”
The room fell into a heavy silence, the execs all clicking their tongues and frowning in frustration.
After a long pause—
Vice President Zhao finally opened his mouth, hesitantly suggesting the name of that company:
“In my humble opinion, for discussion’s sake—
What if we chose…”