Free-to-play gacha game NTE is tipped to have made back approximately one-third of its development budget in just one day.
The urban open world – which launched as a PS5 console exclusive last week, alongside PC and mobile – generated CN¥100 million (~$14.6 million) across all platforms on launch day, according to a Q&A released by publisher Perfect World to investors.
The game’s budget is estimated to be somewhere in the region of CN¥300 million (~$44 million), although we haven’t been able to corroborate that number.
The Chinese company says the title “significantly outperformed” its previous flagship game Tower of Fantasy, and noted that 75% of its global revenue is currently accounted for by PS5 and PC.
Some investors may have been spooked by the title’s Sensor Tower rankings, which only take into account mobile revenue. Clearly as these cross-platform titles increase in complexity, more and more people are choosing to play them on consoles or PC.
Perfect World added that, based on its data so far, more players are interacting with the game’s open world life sim elements than its combat. But it noted that it’s listening to feedback and will be reducing the grind in some areas.
It also pointed out that it wants the game to remain “player friendly” and will be exploring direct purchases for virtual goods like “karts, housing, and skins” moving forwards.
While the game does have gacha aspects, it’s one of the more generous games on the market thus far, eliminating the common but controversial 50/50 mechanic, which gives you a 50% chance to unlock a promoted character upon reaching a designated number of pulls.
It seems the publisher will aim to continue to monetise the game by selling in-game items directly as DLC. It pointed to its upcoming Porsche collaboration as an example, so presumably you may have to pay for some of those if you want to drive them.
