Chapter 108: The RTS Community Is Going Wild!
As soon as Kaiser said that, the entire player group exploded.
"Oh my god, has K-god been hacked? I've never seen K-god praise an RTS game like this before!"
"K-god, are you serious? Is this game really that fun?"
"K-god's reputation is trustworthy. I'm going to download it and try it out right now!"
The player group was full of hardcore RTS fans. As soon as they heard Kaiser say this game crushed Legion Conquest, they all got excited and started downloading the game.
Xue Kai thought this game was absolutely incredible. He wasn't even satisfied with just promoting it in the QQ group. He opened Weibo and started hyping up Warcraft again.
But that wasn't enough. After thinking it over, he decided to go live.
A game this fun couldn't be kept to himself. The more people playing it, the better!
Besides, it was rare for a domestic game to be this high-quality. It definitely deserved support!
Xue Kai opened his streaming software.
It was still afternoon, and Xue Kai usually streamed in the evenings, so there weren't many people in his channel. However, he had a lot of followers, and they quickly started flooding in.
"Wow, K-god is streaming? This timing is weird. It's only afternoon?"
"Nice, I've got nothing to do this afternoon. Watching K-god stream is perfect."
The barrage of comments quickly picked up, and the viewer count started skyrocketing, soon reaching over 200,000.
Xue Kai's channel had over a million followers. That wasn't actually that many, mainly because RTS games hadn't reached the level of popularity that MOBA games had in his previous life. Fewer people watched streams in the afternoon, and the streaming platforms in this parallel world weren't as inflated as those in his previous life.
Still, with over a million followers, Xue Kai was considered a major streamer.
Xue Kai switched his screen to the Warcraft game screen and changed his stream title to "Trying Out the New Game Warcraft."
While controlling Arthas and continuing through the campaign, Xue Kai said, "I found a new game today called Warcraft. It's a domestic game. I played it and it feels really good. I recommend everyone give it a try."
The viewers in the stream started discussing it too. Many of them were already paying attention to this game and were recommending it to others.
This made all the other viewers curious and eager to try it, so they started downloading it too.
...
Xue Kai was the first streamer to broadcast Warcraft, but he certainly wasn't the only one. In the RTS gaming community, the news spread very quickly. Soon, viewers were spamming other streamers' channels, telling them to play Warcraft. This quickly became a trend.
By the next day, when you opened the major streaming platforms, the vast majority of streamers who usually played Legion Conquest were now playing Warcraft instead.
A large number of players were captivated by the game's high-quality cutscenes, gripping storyline, and revolutionary gameplay. The Warcraft craze quickly began sweeping across the entire PC platform.
Xue Kai had already unhesitatingly paid for Warcraft. In his opinion, this game was bound to become a huge hit. Besides, 88 yuan wasn't expensive for this level of quality.
As his playtime increased, Xue Kai also discovered that the game's content was becoming richer and richer, and the story was advancing toward even more gripping key plot points.
In Xue Kai's stream, over 800,000 people were watching him play Warcraft. This viewer count even surpassed many major streamers of RPG games, reaching a peak for his channel.
After clearing a new chapter of the story, another cutscene played.
Xue Kai was stunned. What, another cutscene? The designer must be really loaded. This kind of cutscene looked expensive to make. How many of these had he made?
First came the distant sound of bells.
Amidst a sacred and majestic melody, the camera panned over the city of Lordaeron, looking down at the returning Arthas.
The drawbridge lowered, and Arthas entered the city. The people of Lordaeron gave their returning prince a most sincere welcome, showering him with large handfuls of flower petals.
The petals fell one after another. Arthas, wrapped in a black hood, looked up and reached out to catch a petal.
At that moment, the melody suddenly turned somewhat mournful and elegant.
In Arthas's hand, the petal slowly withered.
Arthas dropped the petal and looked up again, his eyes filled with absolute coldness.
The palace doors were pushed open, and Arthas entered the magnificent hall.
Drawing his sword and kneeling, Arthas paid his respects to his father, the king. But no one noticed that the prince was holding not the holy warhammer, but Frostmourne, which exuded an aura of death.
The old king rose to greet him, but in Arthas's mind, there was only another voice.
"You no longer have to sacrifice for your people."
"You no longer have to bear the burden of the crown."
"I have arranged everything."
With the voice of Frostmourne echoing in his mind, Arthas stepped forward, sword in hand.
The camera shifted to Arthas's reflection on the wall. The old king asked in terror, "What are you going to do, my son?"
Arthas's voice was devoid of any emotion: "To assume the throne, Father."
A cry of agony, and the crown fell to the ground.
The bloodstained crown rolled down the steps. Arthas's emotionless voice echoed through the hall: "This kingdom shall fall."
"But from the ashes, a new order will be born, one that will shake the very foundations of this world!"
...
Xue Kai hadn't even recovered from the shock when the barrage of comments started flooding in.
"Holy crap, this is a domestic game? Are you telling me this is a domestic game?"
"This cutscene is absolutely insane! Mom, why am I watching this stream on my knees?!"
"So the righteous prince really did fall? Damn, does the story have to be this intense? Regicide and patricide!"
"After watching the earlier campaign missions, I had a bad feeling. I was right!"
"K-god, hurry up and continue! We want to see what happens next!"
...
They hadn't even reached the actual online versus mode yet, and just the story alone was already making the audience scream in excitement.
Just the world-building alone completely crushed Legion Conquest. Not to mention anything else, these few cutscenes alone had a level of sophistication that was off the charts. Legion Conquest's pale and hollow background setting was utterly obliterated!
Even the traffic to the "Azeroth Universe" website had skyrocketed. Under the entries related to Arthas and Illidan, comments were constantly increasing. Every time you refreshed, three to five new ones would appear.
In the experience store, everyone was focused on the game data.
Although I'm MT had previously topped the sales charts, that was a mobile game, a completely different platform from PC games. While everyone was extremely confident in Warcraft's quality, no one knew exactly how far this game could go.
Su Jinyu asked, "Store manager, how are the sales now?"
Chen Mo said helplessly, "Didn't you just ask an hour ago? How much can it increase in an hour?"
Su Jinyu said, "Come on, just check again."
Chen Mo took a look and said, "It's 24,960 now. The hourly increase is about 700."
Su Jinyu said excitedly, "Wow, amazing! Over 20,000 sales in one day!"
Qian Kun said happily, "That means the daily revenue is over a million! Wow, that's incredible!"
Previously, Plants vs. Zombies had also sold 20,000 units on its first day, but that was a mobile game, and each copy only cost 10 yuan. With 20,000 units sold on the first day, that was only 200,000 yuan in revenue.
Warcraft, on the other hand, was a full-fledged big-budget production priced at 88 yuan. Selling over 20,000 units meant a daily revenue of over 1.7 million yuan. That was a completely different league from mobile games.
Chen Mo said, "Are you satisfied with this? I think Warcraft's sales can go even higher."
"Even higher?" Su Jinyu said in surprise. "If it goes any higher, it'll completely leave Legion Conquest in the dust. That... that seems a bit unrealistic, doesn't it?"
Chen Mo smiled. "Unrealistic? It would be unrealistic if it didn't leave Legion Conquest in the dust."
For others, Warcraft's current sales were already impressive, but Chen Mo was far from satisfied.
In his previous life, Warcraft sold 1.6 million legitimate copies in China. Keep in mind that in that era, piracy was rampant in the country. Selling 1.6 million legitimate copies under those circumstances was a dream-like achievement.
Although Chen Mo had priced Warcraft at 88 yuan, which was relatively expensive, the game industry in this parallel world was more regulated, and piracy was almost nonexistent. Coupled with the lack of strong competitors in the RTS genre, Chen Mo was confident that he could push Warcraft's domestic sales to around 2 million units!
And that was just domestic sales. A product like Warcraft could easily be sold overseas. If a game like Legion Conquest could become a huge hit, then Warcraft, which completely surpassed it, would be an even bigger success.