Chapter 196: Sales Explosion
In the studio, many employees were also playing Diablo.
Several design assistants were discussing as they played.
“Strange, when I looked at the concept drafts before, I really didn’t think this game would be that fun. But now that it’s made, the more I play, the more addictive it gets! If I don’t clear a run in a day, I feel uncomfortable all day!”
“No kidding, this dark cult art style didn’t turn me off at all. Instead, it actually makes me enjoy it.”
“Right, and the game doesn’t have that many rich gameplay features or holiday events. Every day you log in, it’s just grinding in different ways—finish this level, move to the next, solo then team up—but I just can’t stop!”
Zhou Hanyu was also surprised.
After the game was completed, he tried it himself. At first, it did feel a bit oppressive, but when he actually played through the entire storyline, that oppressive feeling strangely disappeared.
Zhou Hanyu analyzed it himself: it was because the color schemes, field of view, music, and other factors kept switching between different scenes, continuously adjusting the players’ emotions. So the imagined sense of oppression never materialized.
Moreover, this art style greatly enhanced the thrill players felt when fighting monsters, especially when defeating a boss in an extremely terrifying scene. With a massive drop of equipment, the players’ emotions were released in an instant, delivering an unparalleled rush of pleasure.
The deeper he studied, the more amazed Zhou Hanyu felt. He never expected that such a niche art style could be perfectly mastered, and that it would be nearly flawless in manipulating player emotions.
This made Zhou Hanyu sigh with admiration: Chen Mo didn’t develop so many high-quality games by luck—he truly had the skill!
Fu Guangnan said to Zhou Hanyu, “Today’s the launch day. Whether it succeeds or not depends on whether the players accept it.”
Zhou Hanyu nodded. “Yeah, but I have confidence in this work.”
Fu Guangnan asked, “Guess how many copies it’ll sell in the first month?”
Zhou Hanyu shook his head. “No idea. But based on the investment, the CG and the game itself cost at least 140 million. At the boss’s pricing, the full version at 128 yuan, it needs to sell nearly 1.8 million copies just to break even.”
Fu Guangnan looked worried. “The price is a bit steep, and that sales target is way too high!”
Zhou Hanyu nodded. “Yeah, but the costs are right there. It’s just that the costs are really high, and the boss is too willing to burn money. Which other game company in China would dare to spend over a hundred million on a third-person single-player game? Even if they had the money, they wouldn’t dare spend it like this!”
Fu Guangnan said, “I guess it just shows the boss has real guts. I hope the game sells well. Otherwise, right after expanding the team, the first game flops—that would really kill morale.”
Zhou Hanyu nodded. “Yeah, I hope so.”
……
On July 3rd, Diablo officially launched!
Since after the New Year, information about this game had been trickling out bit by bit—first some concept art and settings, then CG clips, and later gameplay recordings…
Many people were still paying attention to this game, especially Warcraft players and Chen Mo’s fans. No matter how much outsiders looked down on Diablo, they always believed Chen Mo would surprise everyone.
On the day Diablo launched, these players didn’t think too much and paid to buy it.
Diablo used a buy-to-play model, priced at 128 yuan for the full version. This was already on the expensive side for single-player games. For comparison, Chen Mo’s Warcraft was priced at 88 yuan, and Wulin Heroes was only 50 yuan.
Of course, players knew that Diablo’s production was very high-quality, especially the CG, which burned a lot of money, so there wasn’t much criticism about the price.
However, aside from die-hard fans, most players were still on the fence, and some were sneering, hoping Diablo would sell poorly and fail to recoup its costs.
Soon, the first batch of players who bought and played the game started posting feedback on the forums.
“Hey, those of you who went to test Diablo, how is it? Is the game fun?”
“Just finished downloading and came to post. Thunder Film Studio’s movies are getting better and better…”
“…And the rest?”
“The game quality is surprisingly good. It’s completely different from those old-school third-person RPGs. Hard to say exactly how, but it feels like the details are way off.”
“It’s pretty strange. I thought this art style would definitely turn me off, but once I got into the game, I didn’t feel particularly repulsed. Instead, the atmosphere felt… hmm, hard to explain this feeling.”
“It’s very cohesive. The art style fits perfectly with the story background and gameplay.”
“How does it fit?”
“How can I explain that in a few words? Just download the game and play it yourself… Honestly, with this big production, buying it for 128 yuan is really not a loss.”
“How does it compare to Warcraft?”
“Hard to compare, since the game types are different. If I had to compare, it feels similar to that RPG map Sacred Realm, except it’s a lot more hardcore.”
“That map was okay. I played it. If Diablo can really capture that feeling, I’ll definitely buy it.”
“You’re underestimating Chen Mo too much. Let me put it this way: there’s no comparison. Comparing Sacred Realm to Diablo is like a kindergarten kid playing basketball against the NBA.”
“Whoa, that exaggerated? Alright, I’ll give it a try!”
“Come on, come on. I heard you can team up in this game. I’ll carry you!”
……
Sales climbed steadily, and player ratings remained very high, rarely dropping below 9 points.
Game media outlets were also publishing articles.
“Another High-Quality Western Fantasy Game from Chen Mo!”
“Unique Art Style, Desperate Worldview: A Review of Chen Mo’s First RPG”
“Fierce Battles and Unexpected Surprises”
“Third-Person RPG Performance Exceeds Industry Expectations”
“Chen Mo Burns Money on CG Again! Thunder Film Studio Delivers with Sincerity!”
“Expert Analysis: Niche Theme, Likely to Be Critically Acclaimed but Commercially Unsuccessful”
“Industry Insiders Believe First-Month Sales Will Struggle to Break 500,000; Is Chen Mo Going to Lose Money?”
There was praise and doubt. Everyone was watching Diablo’s sales. After all, it was a single-player game—only sales could tell the real story.
Soon, Diablo’s first-week sales figures came out.
280,000 units!
This number stunned all the industry insiders and players who had previously dismissed Diablo, because it was already on par with what they had predicted for the entire first month!
But even more shocking was yet to come.
After its explosive first-week sales, Diablo didn’t decline. Instead, it maintained strong growth momentum, with second-week sales reaching 430,000 units!
Clearly, in the second week, more players who had been on the fence made up their minds to buy. Word of mouth further boosted Diablo’s sales.
In the end, Diablo’s first-month sales settled at 1.87 million units!
This meant Diablo’s first-month revenue reached 240 million yuan, and Chen Mo’s net income hit 167 million yuan!
The massive R&D investment was fully recouped in the very first month.
This number once again stunned industry insiders. No matter how they thought about it, they couldn’t believe that the third-person perspective RPG they had always looked down on—calling it an “old relic” of a game genre—could unleash such terrifying power!
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