Chapter 9: A One-Billion Game Promotion Budget

Fang Qingzhou gasped violently and bolted upright, cold sweat instantly drenching his back.

Then he saw the familiar executive chair, the office of his failing game company, and the neon lights of this parallel city glowing outside the window.

He was back.

He looked down at his body. He was still wearing the same clothes, completely undamaged, but he checked himself all over just in case.

No gruesome bite marks, no claw wounds deep to the bone. His shoulders didn’t hurt, his thighs didn’t hurt, and there wasn’t a single scratch anywhere. Touching his stomach, he even felt a solid set of eight-pack abs.

“The template really came back with me…” Fang Qingzhou still found it hard to believe everything that had happened.

The next moment, the system panel appeared clearly before his eyes:

【Game Manifestation System】

【Host: Fang Qingzhou】

【Current Status: Returned to the real world, injuries fully repaired】

【Current World: Resident Evil: Raccoon City (First plot node completed)】

【Total Kills: 14 zombies】

【EXP Gained: 140 points】

【Inherited Abilities:

Bristleback (Novice: Doubled damage resistance, diminished pain perception)

Li Sanguang (Novice: Can sense nearby usable supplies)

Firearms Mastery (Novice), Basic Combat (Novice)

Aura Skill (Passive: Immune to viral infection)】

【Automatically Generated Game: 《Resident Evil: Raccoon City – Prologue》】

【Game data synchronized to company development platform, ready for immediate release】

【First Plot Point Clear Reward: One billion in game promotion funds distributed. All platforms currently promoting the 《Resident Evil: Raccoon City》 trailer simultaneously】

“One billion in game promotion funds?” Hearing that number, Fang Qingzhou momentarily wondered if his ears were deceiving him.

Marketing and promotion were vital for any game. Back on Earth, for a AAA title built with hundreds of millions of dollars, promotional expenses often accounted for a third or even half of the total investment.

It wasn’t that game studios had money to burn, but rather that competition in the industry was brutal. No matter how good a game was, without enough marketing to let players know it existed, it could easily sink forever into the vast ocean of Steam without making so much as a ripple.

In his previous life, he had seen far too many cases like that. Some indie games developed by small studios were high quality and brimming with creativity, but lacking money for marketing, they sold only a few hundred copies in their first week, failing to recoup even development costs.

Meanwhile, annual releases from major studios, merely reskinned with a few new additions, could sell millions of copies during launch week purely through blanket advertising and streamer promotions.

If one billion was considered half of the game’s production budget, this game was built to the scale of a two-billion title. If counted as one-third, it was on the scale of a three-billion game.

Whether on Earth or in this parallel world, a production of that scale stood at the very pinnacle of the industry.

Fang Qingzhou soon believed that the one billion had indeed gone toward promotion, however, because outside, he saw the projected logo of 《Resident Evil: Raccoon City》 light up across a skyscraper.

According to what he knew, that was the city’s iconic landmark, named Skyline Tower.

The building’s entire exterior wall was a massive display screen, running seamlessly from ground level to the top floor and wrapping around the front and sides with a pristine resolution up to 16K.

Many games ran ads on it when launching. Supposedly, half an hour of ad time cost as much as the entire development budget of a mid-sized game.

Even 《Battlefield Vanguard》, the game that swept the globe, had advertised on Skyline Tower prior to its launch.

And right now, the entire facade of Skyline Tower was playing the trailer for 《Resident Evil: Raccoon City》.

Fang Qingzhou could see the massive Resident Evil logo, followed by his own face, or more precisely, his face with a center part, enhanced by the system.

Catching sight of his own massive, handsome face outside, he froze for a moment. Then he immediately dropped back into the executive chair, turned on his computer, and eagerly opened up video and social media apps.

Short-video homepages, trending feeds on social platforms, and gaming communities had all been completely swept by the 《Resident Evil: Raccoon City》 trailer.

The trailer synchronized by the system was broadcasting across all major platforms, its view count climbing at a visible rate. Having launched less than ten minutes ago, it had already broken through one million views.

Fang Qingzhou also clicked on the system-generated trailer, eager to see how much screen time he actually had.

The trailer was very brief, lasting only a minute or so, and it was framed from the perspective of a rat.

In the rat’s view, two people were fighting before one tackled the other to the ground and tore into him. Then, a sudden bullet blasted the biting man’s head apart. Finally came a close-up of Fang Qingzhou holding a flashlight in one hand and a handgun in the other, followed by scenes of Raccoon City after its fall.

Fang Qingzhou recognized it instantly. This trailer showed his experience at the gas station, and the creature shot in the head was the first zombie he had taken down.

He opened the comment section. Comments beneath the video were refreshing at dozens per second. He skimmed them quickly, spotting the most-upvoted comment pinned at the very top.

“Holy shit! The realism in this footage is completely maxed out! It’s even more insane than 《Battlefield Vanguard》!”

Hundreds of replies had already accumulated below it, with people agreeing and others expressing doubt, arguing over whether 《Battlefield Vanguard》 or this new title had more realistic visuals.

“That monster in the video… from the lore the official website just dropped, it seems to be called a zombie. Fucking terrifying.”

“The zombie’s texture… that doesn’t look like a 3D model, does it? Was an actual actor scanned into the game?”

“Who’s the face model for the protagonist? That face is an absolute masterpiece! I want this man’s entire life story within three seconds!”

Seeing that comment, Fang Qingzhou couldn’t help touching his own handsome face. After all, this face of his was the one thing he could genuinely boast about.

In the past, whenever he had felt too worn out to go on, he had always wanted to climb into a rich woman’s luxury car, but in the end, he had held out.

However, the next comment quickly caught his attention.

“Wait a second, the developer of this game is Miteng^[1]?!”

The upvotes on this comment were skyrocketing, and the replies beneath it had completely exploded.

“Miteng?! That game company that built itself on rip-offs? Weren’t they on the verge of bankruptcy? This promotional push doesn’t look like a dying company at all, and look at those graphics and polish; this is definitely a big-budget production!”

“I was actually looking forward to it after watching the trailer, but if Miteng Company is developing it, count me out. It was bad enough that their new release, 《Battlefield Storm》, ripped off 《Battlefield Vanguard》, but the gunplay felt like a squirt gun! I deleted it after ten minutes. Looking at this, it’s probably another shooter, so there’s no way it’ll be good…”

“Exactly. Right now, there isn’t a single shooter on the market that can rival 《Battlefield Vanguard》. Everything else feels like a squirt gun. If you want to play a shooter, just stick with 《Battlefield Vanguard》.”

“I heard 《Battlefield Vanguard 2》 is coming out soon too. I’m pretty hyped for that one.”

“Don’t be so quick to write it off. This game is focused on horror; the shooting is just a bonus. As long as they nail the terrifying atmosphere, I’d gladly pay for it even if all we get are squirt guns to fight zombies.”

“Trash Miteng! I refuse to believe a garbage company like that could ever make a decent game!”

“Good grief… How did the game company picked by the system end up with such a rotten reputation?…”

Seeing the comments fiercely tearing into Miteng Company, Fang Qingzhou couldn’t help but draw in a sharp breath. He had known the game company’s reputation was bad, but he had never imagined it would be this awful.

The moment many players saw the name Miteng, they didn’t even bother looking at the game itself before mindlessly hating and flaming it. Even so, Fang Qingzhou still believed that the game’s final quality would win them over.

After all, he had bought every bit of that game’s content with his own life.