If we tried using that comparison of lifetime vs boycott in good faith, it’s still more significant than they’re making it out to be. The game has made an avg of $13M per month since the start of the boycott. If we were to multiply that by the 33 months the game’s been out, that’d mean the lifetime revenue of the game would be only $429.5M, compared to the actual est. over $1B. That’s nearly a 60% diff in expected lifetime revenue. That completely changes the scope of the long-term plans for the business. PPG wants to be a tech conglomerate & multi-media entertainment publisher & distributer. Realistically, a lifetime revenue of $400M for LADS simply isn’t enough to do that, esp not competitively. If this is the new baseline revenue for the game, that’s the reality they’ll be faced with. $13M a month is a lot of money, but it’s less than half of what they used to make. If a person’s salary declined 60% overnight, they’d feel it. It’d force a total reevaluation of budget, plans, & investments. It’s the exact same for a business, just scaled up. Just bc the numbers are high doesn’t mean they aren’t operating on slim margins. They make a lot of money, but they spend a lot of money too. Are there sociopolitical factors at play? Absolutely. Revenue is only one piece of the puzzle going on here, & we do need to consider the relevant cultural & political factors that could influence their decision-making. We’ve done a lot to learn about CN corporate practices, media manipulation, & cultural sentiment. Most ppl I’ve seen take those factors into consideration when making analysis/predictions. But to act like revenue isn’t one of the most significant pieces in the puzzle is also short-sighted. At the end of the day, they’re a business. Their goal is to make money. Regardless of private vs public ownership, no one wants to decrease their quality of life or the scope of their ambitions, esp not once they’ve reached a certain success threshold. I work with a lot of millionaires+ (& a significant percentage of those clients are Chinese). Ppl worth $500M still feel like they’re not making enough money & feel like they have something to prove, bc they only compare themselves to billionaires. They don’t compare themselves to the ppl below them. LADS making more than other gachas doesn’t matter as much to them as who’s making more. Enough is never enough in business. Realistically, their reputation among the public also matters less to them than their reputation amongst their peers. No one in the industry is going to take them seriously based on their handling of this situation bc of the scale of media escalation, player backlash, & revenue free fall. Their reputation’s been irrevocably tarnished by this. If they want to be taken seriously again, they need to do something to increase the revenue & maintain it to prove their long term value amongst their peers & keep valuable industry connections. Considering how many projects they’re pursuing, they need ppl to want to collab with and/or invest in them. Rn they’re too much of a liability. It’s very telling that despite the collab, Blade Runner never promoted LADS once. That’s a really bad look for PPG’s industry standing. Can the game go on with the current revenue? Yes, but the quality will be negatively impacted as they cut costs. Lower quality means players quitting & fewer downloading, which means less revenue over time. Can PPG proceed w their original expansion/diversification plans w the current revenue as a new baseline? No, they can’t, & that’s why the revenue is important. Can PPG rebuild their reputation if they continue handling the situation the way they have? Also no. They’ll be seen as a controversial company that’s willing to sacrifice their success & ambitions to appease crazy fangirls, which absolutely no one in the industry will respect. #ReinstateValkoNow #ValkoIsInnocent