Chapter 52
Chapter 52
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Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: Hot Topic
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Brandon scrolled through the comments on the post, realizing that the absurd situation happening to him was playing out for others too.
"Initial shipment was small? Those crazy bastards at AE must've thought Soul Hunters wouldn't sell and printed jack shit?!"
Brandon tossed out a remark that would've given Hudson a heart attack if he'd heard it.
He'd rushed out at dawn to snag a copy of Soul Hunters, only to come back empty-handed.
'No line here?!'
Tent encampments like you'd see on Black Friday at big-box stores.
Brandon had nearly gotten himself killed ignoring what he thought were homeless folks and trying to push past.
"My neighborhood was already wiped out, so I thought about heading to another area... but everywhere's the same...."
As a diehard Savior fan, Brandon had even burned vacation days he'd been saving to dive into the new title Soul Hunters. But after leaving one sold-out store, he'd scoured every shop in town.
'It sold out the second we opened this morning. We only got three copies to start with.'
Everything was already gone.
"They say restocks won't hit till next week at least. A whole week more of waiting?"
Brandon was so dumbfounded he wasn't even mad anymore—he debated just shutting down the computer.
He'd planned to gorge on Soul Hunters, then hit Usenet to brag about it and troll the Demon Slayer fans. Now that was all up in smoke, his motivation tanked.
"Wait... what's this post?"
Right as he decided to call it quits, grab a drink, and crash, Brandon spotted one last post before logging off.
"That... that crazy son of a bitch!"
Brandon cursed himself for not checking the poster first.
Nickname: Demonist.
It was the infamous Usenet Demon Slayer fanboy—the same user he'd keyboard-battled last night.
"You sure this is okay?"
"It's fine. The distributors will eat the hate anyway."
With great power comes great responsibility.
Or, in other words, with great money comes great responsibility.
The distributors raking in the big bucks from circulating our game would take the heat from players in our stead—no need to worry.
Of course, I got why Scarlett looked concerned beside me.
'Dispersing just 100,000 copies nationwide? We saw this coming from a mile away.'
The players' heated reactions were unfolding exactly as I'd predicted.
- Gotta appreciate that distributors don't usually drop this kind of promo budget!
A cinematic trailer that outshone Hollywood blockbusters, with half a year poured into production.
Air it during prime time on TV across the US, Japan, and key markets? That cost a fortune.
Savior Soft's spare cash, Uni's backing, and distributor promo budgets combined into this insane ad blitz—and the ripple effects were unreal.
'This a game? Thought it was a movie!'
'Insane. Looked it up—it's basically identical to the actual game graphics!'
'Fuck, why'd I buy a Nendo 64? If I grab a GameStation Pro too, I'm starving this month....'
To pull it off, we'd planned marketing meticulously from three months pre-launch. Savior Soft's marketing team burned the midnight oil coordinating with Uni and partners.
Thanks to that, hype for Soul Hunters had hit fever pitch.
Consensus was it'd sell out a million-copy North American first print no sweat.
"But if we'd printed a million first-run, how long till it sold out?"
"Hm... Fastest two weeks?"
"That's my estimate too."
Selling a million in two weeks? Lightning fast.
Most games struggled past 100k in a full month.
"But that wouldn't make waves."
Industry folks might gawk at a million in two weeks, but to regular consumers? Snooze-fest.
"You didn't limit supply on purpose for buzz, did you?"
"Yep. Saw lines of buyers at local stores on my way in this morning."
"I saw them too."
"This time, folks'll hype Soul Hunters for us—no extra effort needed."
If Village Maker got famous from fame, Soul Hunters was getting famous from scarcity.
"How do you even come up with these tactics?"
Easy when you've lived it.
'Started with Honey Butter Chips.'
Korea once had a national snack frenzy.
Honey Butter Chips—a novel name from a food company.
Seemed like a test product at launch—supply was limited.
But no one foresaw it'd spark a historic craze.
- Buying Honey Butter Chips! 100k won each, take 'em all!
- Selling empty Honey Butter Chip bags. Still sealed, smells fresh. 20k won.
Word-of-mouth snowballed fast. Curiosity drove buys, but low stock made it impossible.
Incidents piled up—suddenly, a full-blown social phenomenon.
What fueled it? Scarcity, plain and simple.
'Company probably held production lines on purpose.'
The makers knew it wasn't that special.
As a rarity-famous snack, flooding supply would kill the hype. So they rode the wave for promo instead of ramping up.
"Can't drag it out forever, though. One or two weeks of buzz achieves our goal."
But I wouldn't copy it wholesale.
Unlike chips, Soul Hunters packed game-changing shock value—needed a twist.
"So you ordered gradual weekly restocks?"
"Yeah. Week one: desperation peaks buzz. But two weeks max."
Push past, and it's rage, not interest.
Then pure annoyance.
Pent-up fury would poison the game—dragging too long was suicide.
'Week 2: 200k. Week 3: 400k. Week 4: 800k. Clears stock, sustains hype.'
My projections, assuming they panned out.
"Reactions are scorching hot right now."
"Already? Article up?"
"Not an article—Usenet's blowing up."
Scarlett angled her monitor my way.
"Ha... didn't expect actual fistfights from online beef."
"Men are incomprehensible. How do you go from keyboard war to real punches?"
"Instinct, Scarlett. Can't fight it."
I knew it sounded lame even as I said it.
'Sports and games scratch male pride deepest.'
Tease studies or looks? Fine. But game skills or soccer? Unforgivable.
'These lunatics... what the hell are they doing?'
I'd heard reports that Usenet was split between id Software fans and Savior fans, brawling nonstop.
Savior fans got called "zealots" thanks to the company name. id Software fans were mocked as "Demon Gays" after the in-game character.
The fandoms' bad blood was infamous in gaming circles.
But escalating to real-life brawls? Unbelievable.
And the trigger was ridiculous: Usenet's "Demonist" trolled zealots by hoarding Soul Hunters copies and flexing pics—classic "beating off to it" bait.
'Korea's the OG for this shit.'
Never thought America would steal Korea's "pre-order hoarding" tradition. Even I was thrown.
With things this heated, letting it pass without milking it felt like a waste.
"Scarlett, you got reporter contacts?"
"Yeah, keep a few on speed dial."
"Leak this to them."
"Turning even this into promo?"
I nodded.
Squeeze every drop.
That's what directors do.