Even though it was Valentine's Day, a lot of people still ended up spending it with their "side wives" — aning their friends sitting beside them.
With nothing better to do, you might randomly open the Shark TV live streaming platform, click into a stream of soone playing *Overcooked*, and hear sothing like this:
"Hey… hey! Sean, you burned the food again! Hurry up and do sothing!"
"What the hell, Mike, how is that my fault?"
"If it's not your fault, is it mine? You burned it — look at the chat, see who they think is to bla!"
"Damn it, you're so annoying! Shut up, I have my own way of doing things!"
"Fine, whatever... Hey, no! Go wash the dishes! Stop chopping veggies! Sean, your brain's not working today!"
"Screw you! I think you are the one dragging down, Mike. Don't just talk, let's practice more!"
"Hah! You think I'm scared? Fine, let's practice — don't cry when I crush you. Let's split into two teams, alright?"
"No problem. I'm gonna wipe the floor with you!"
As the ga went on, the so-called "boat of friendship" suddenly capsized without warning.
.........
Soon, on Nebula Gas, the official store, and a few third-party platforms,
Overcooked's sales and reviews started to rise fast.
Even though it was the Spring Festival break, the staff — people like Anna and Rachel — were all keeping a close eye on how Overcooked was doing.
"Boss Lucas, Boss Lucas, how's Overcooked doing in sales?"
"Yeah, the players seem super into it!"
In the company group chat, Rachel and Anna tagged Lucas to ask about the ga.
"In eight hours, we've sold 15,000 copies. Over 11,000 of those were sold on our own platform. And the sales are still going up every hour." Lucas had a smile on his face too.
15,000 in eight hours — not huge, but definitely not bad.
Plus, party gas like this behave very differently from normal gas when it cos to sales trends.
Take the promotion for Overcooked as an example — the campaign wasn't overwhelming,
but there were trailers, dia interviews, and a fair number of ads.
For most gas, no matter how good the quality is, the sales trend usually looks like a rollercoaster —
a peak at launch, then a slow decline, and maybe a second wave if word of mouth spreads.
Or sotis it just drops straight down if people don't like it.
But Overcooked was a little different.
Because Overcooked was more of a social party ga.
This kind of multiplayer ga doesn't usually sell a lot at first,
but once it becos a hot topic, it can take off.
Since every player has their own friend group,
that word-of-mouth effect starts spreading through their circles.
Once the ga becos a trending topic, it naturally drives more sales.
This kind of pattern works the sa in both this world and the one before.
"11,000 copies? That many people chose to buy from our platform?" Anna was shocked in the group chat.
"Buy one, get one free, after all," said Rachel.
"But still, I have to say—where's the peace and love we talked about? Why does it feel like a war once you actually start playing?" Anna sent a sticker in the group chat—a cute little cat looking completely confused.
"Exactly! During the New Year, I played it with my cousin, and wow... it was chaos!" Rachel chid in.
"Boss Lucas, this really doesn't feel like a couple's ga at all! And I saw so comnts saying players actually broke up because of it!" Hector added.
As Lucas leaned back on his couch and watched everyone chatting in the group, a small smile appeared on his face.
On the ga system's UI in front of him, the points were climbing fast—and this was only the beginning.
Glancing at the chat, Lucas sent a ssage:
"Don't panic. And even if soone did break up over the ga, it wouldn't just be because of the ga itself. That just ans their relationship was already falling apart. Their personalities just didn't fit together." Lucas replied in the group.
In his past life, Overcooked had been known as the "breakup kitchen," but even if so couples really did split up after playing it, it wasn't the ga's fault.
It was because the two people were never really right for each other to begin with.
Of course, the ga sotis caused a few fights between best friends, bros, or couples—that kind of thing happened all the ti.
Once the ga's rating system was unlocked, players who had bought it began to leave reviews.
Most of them gave it a 9 or even a perfect 10 out of 10.
Of course, there were quite a few who gave it a 1.
But whether they gave high scores or low ones—
The comnts they left were all pretty funny:
"Overcooked? This is totally breakup kitchen! My girlfriend's gone—Lucas, I will curse you!"
"This is the plastic love kitchen! I played it and beca single again!"
"Highly recomnd buying this and saving it for when you want to break up with your girlfriend."
"After playing this ga, my girlfriend kickec out out and now I spent the whole night playing with my bros!"
"What do you an by 'friendship over'? That's way too dramatic! We just had a fight, that's all!"
"The ga's great, just... a bit rough on your friendships."
"I liked another girl but didn't know how to break up with my girlfriend. Problem solved! We played this, and now I'm single!"
"After playing, the household beca more peaceful, cooking got easier, and I even got accepted as a firefighter. Only problem? The person I played with can't cook to save their life."
"I used to have a lot of friends, but after playing this ga, I'm glad they're gone!"
"Before we played, we were just casual friends. After we played, we were bonded for life—or death!"
No doubt, so players did have real fights with their friends over the ga.
But most of the ti, people were just joking around.
And those jokes helped Overcooked go viral all over again.
Especially with funny videos popping up and strears arguing mid-ga, all over the internet.
This kind of viral humor was just like what happened with Outlast.
Overcooked's popularity skyrocketed.
And with that spike in popularity, the ga's sales also shot up.
Players who had heard of it before—and those who hadn't—
Started learning about Overcooked through all kinds of channels, and a lot of them got curious and interested.
Among the player community, the ga also got two extra nas:
"Breakup Kitchen" and "Friendship-Ender Kitchen."
(End of The Chapter)
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