Chapter 156: Strike First to Gain the Advantage? 6/17
Soon, it wasn’t just Imperial Dynasty Interactive Entertainment; many companies making card-based mobile games caught wind of this news.
After all, Chen Mo hadn’t bothered to keep it a secret, and this kind of thing couldn’t be kept under wraps anyway. His card illustrations were all outsourced to specialized art studios—how could he possibly guarantee that not a single bit of information would leak out?
Once the news spread, it would quickly ripple through the mobile gaming circle. After all, Chen Mo returning to mobile games was anything but good news for every card game designer.
In fact, during the time Chen Mo had stepped away from the mobile gaming scene, other card game designers had been living quite comfortably.
Strictly speaking, they were living *very* comfortably.
As it stood, card-based mobile games in this world operated in a state of “everyone makes money together,” unlike other genres where it was a fight to the death.
Take RPGs and MOBAs, for example—competing products were irreconcilable. If you gained a player, I lost one. They were practically sworn enemies.
But card games were different, especially in the early stages of market development. The entire card game market was so vast that no single company could monopolize it. Instead, it presented a strangely harmonious scene.
Because the gameplay of these card games was too similar. The designers lacked the courage to overhaul the core mechanics, so they racked their brains to carve up the player base using IPs.
You make a Japanese anime-themed game; I’ll make one based on a popular novel. Everyone stuck to their own turf without interfering.
Even if there was occasional overlap, it didn’t matter. Just stagger the release dates a bit.
Lying back and raking in the cash together—how sweet was that?
This had basically become an unspoken rule. These game companies didn’t *want* to monopolize the entire card game market; they simply couldn’t. There was no dominant card game that ruled them all.
To achieve that goal, a game would need gameplay that completely surpassed all its contemporaries, plus a mega-IP that covered the broadest possible player base.
Among all these card games, only *Demon Calamity* barely managed the latter. No game had ever achieved both.
But Chen Mo’s return had stirred up the whole pond.
Many designers were whispering among themselves.
“Did you hear? Chen Mo is making a card game!”
“What? Is he making a sequel to *I Am MT*? That can’t be right, right? The anime’s popularity has faded—how many die-hard fans are left to buy into it?”
“No, I heard it’s a Japanese-style monster theme. I don’t know the specifics.”
“What the hell? Does that thing have an IP?”
“No, it doesn’t!”
“Then how can he make it without one?”
“How should I know? Who can guess what Chen Mo’s thinking?”
“Sounds like trouble’s brewing.”
“You’re telling me. Chen Mo’s been doing so well on PC games, and suddenly he’s charging back into mobile games. It’s like he’s got ‘I’m coming for you’ written all over his face!”
“So what do we do?”
“Just watch! What else can we do? Besides, when the sky falls, the tall ones take the hit. Let the big companies like Imperial Dynasty worry about it.”
“That’s true.”
……
At the Firefly Internet Cafe, Chen Mo was checking the development progress of *Onmyoji*.
The game’s development was going smoothly. With the experience from *I Am MT*, the team was much more efficient this time. The core gameplay was already complete, and they were now polishing the art and sound effects.
Chen Mo wasn’t in a hurry to release it. He planned to launch it about a month and a half after *Demon Calamity 2*.
Let Imperial Dynasty have their fun first. When *Onmyoji* came out, it would be a direct head-to-head.
But looking at the current situation, Imperial Dynasty was clearly feeling the pressure.
After all, Chen Mo had a track record. He’d already proven himself with *I Am MT*, and now he was back in the mobile game scene. Imperial Dynasty couldn’t afford to be careless.
So, they decided to strike first.
They announced *Demon Calamity 2* ahead of schedule, aiming to launch it before Chen Mo’s new game. They wanted to grab as many players as possible and lock them in.
After all, card games were highly sticky. Once players invested time and money, they were unlikely to switch. If *Demon Calamity 2* launched first and secured the player base, Chen Mo’s game would be in trouble.
This was a classic strategy of striking first to gain the advantage.
But Chen Mo didn’t care.
He knew that *Onmyoji*’s quality was on a completely different level. No matter how early *Demon Calamity 2* launched, it couldn’t compete.
At this moment, Qian Kun walked over with a tablet and said, “Boss, take a look at what these gaming media are writing. ‘*Demon Calamity* is the number one card game in the country’? That’s totally unacceptable!”
Zheng Hongxi also chimed in, “Yeah, isn’t that just a reskinned version of *I Am MT*? As long as the channels push it, even a pig can fly!”
Su Jinyu added, “Exactly! They’re not learning from the boss!”
Chen Mo: “...What’s the attitude of the players on the *I Am MT* forums?”
Qian Kun said, “What attitude can they have? The ones still on *I Am MT* are die-hard fans. They’re too tired to even complain anymore. *Demon Calamity* has more players now, so we can’t win a shouting match anyway.”
Chen Mo said, “No worries. Let them have their fun. *Onmyoji*’s development is progressing quickly. Everyone just focus on your own work. Our game will launch at most a month and a half after theirs. Let them party for a while.”
Qian Kun hesitated. “But, boss, with so many users on the Imperial Dynasty game platform, are you sure this strategy of letting them run 39 meters ahead won’t backfire…?”
Chen Mo smiled. “Why worry about that? You all know the quality of *Onmyoji* yourselves. Let me put it this way: whether it’s *Demon Calamity 2* or any other card game, they’ll all be crushed by *Onmyoji*. Backfire? That’s not happening.”
Genius remembers this site’s address in one second: