Even though it was Valentine's Day, a lot of people still ended up spending it with their "side wives" — meaning 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 someone playing *Overcooked*, and hear something like this:
"Hey… hey! Sean, you burned the food again! Hurry up and do something!"
"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 blame!"
"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 me 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 game went on, the so-called "boat of friendship" suddenly capsized without warning.
.........
Soon, on Nebula Games, 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 game.
"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 games like this behave very differently from normal games when it comes to sales trends.
Take the promotion for Overcooked as an example — the campaign wasn't overwhelming,
but there were trailers, media interviews, and a fair number of ads.
For most games, 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 sometimes 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 game.
This kind of multiplayer game doesn't usually sell a lot at first,
but once it becomes 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 game becomes a trending topic, it naturally drives more sales.
This kind of pattern works the same 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 chimed in.
"Boss Lucas, this really doesn't feel like a couple's game at all! And I saw some comments 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 game 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 message:
"Don't panic. And even if someone did break up over the game, it wouldn't just be because of the game itself. That just means 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 some couples really did split up after playing it, it wasn't the game's fault.
It was because the two people were never really right for each other to begin with.
Of course, the game sometimes caused a few fights between best friends, bros, or couples—that kind of thing happened all the time.
Once the game'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 comments 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 became single again!"
"Highly recommend buying this and saving it for when you want to break up with your girlfriend."
"After playing this game, my girlfriend kickec me out out and now I spent the whole night playing with my bros!"
"What do you mean by 'friendship over'? That's way too dramatic! We just had a fight, that's all!"
"The game'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 became 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 game, 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, some players did have real fights with their friends over the game.
But most of the time, people were just joking around.
And those jokes helped Overcooked go viral all over again.
Especially with funny videos popping up and streamers arguing mid-game, 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 game'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 game also got two extra names:
"Breakup Kitchen" and "Friendship-Ender Kitchen."
(End of The Chapter)
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