Chapter 237: Lukewarm
After the new game press conference, many media outlets successively reported the latest information about *My World*.
"Chen Mo's New Game Latest Info, Titled 'My World'"
"Chen Mo's First VR Game Fully Exposed"
"My World: Pixel-Style Building Block Gameplay"
"My World and Thousand Prison to Launch Simultaneously"
"Chen Mo Praises Thousand Prison Extensively at New Game Press Conference"
These press releases basically disclosed all the details from the press conference, including Chen Mo's explanation of *My World*'s gameplay and features, along with some on-site videos.
Soon, this news spread among the player community. Players who had been anticipating Chen Mo's new game had mixed reactions, but many were somewhat surprised.
Chen Mo's first VR game was actually about stacking blocks?
As long as players carefully studied these press releases, they could basically understand the core appeal of *My World*.
In essence, it was a game centered on "creation" as its core element. Like *Don't Starve*, it primarily sold itself as an open-world game and supported relatively complex online modes.
But even players of *Don't Starve* were skeptical about this game.
*Don't Starve* became popular because it was a small-budget game. A PMORPG on the VR platform typically sold for a relatively low price. There were games selling for 500 yuan, but those usually had subsequent charges, like selling game time cards or value-added services. Otherwise, it was hard to recoup costs just from the game's sale price alone.
Although VR gamers were generally high-income earners, would they spend 1,000 yuan on a game about stacking blocks?
Even if they had money, that didn't mean they'd waste it like that, right?
On the forums, players were discussing.
"How did Chen Mo think? At this critical time for entering the VR platform, he made a puzzle game about stacking blocks? Honestly, I haven't seen many puzzle games on the VR platform that made big money."
"According to Chen Mo, this game can't simply be seen as a puzzle game. It's also a sandbox game, similar to *Don't Starve*."
"But the core appeal is creation! Besides, VR games are so expensive. How many copies can *My World* sell? Can it even recoup its costs?"
"I think recouping costs is definitely no problem. This game has a pixel art style, and a lot of it is player-built. All the textures can be reused. How much R&D money could that cost?"
"If it were on mobile or PC, it definitely wouldn't cost much. But adapting it for VR still requires some investment. And look at the actual in-game footage in the video—the textures are very detailed. Chen Mo probably spent a lot on the art side too, otherwise, he couldn't have made the pixel style look this good."
"I think maybe a few million, at most twenty million. Hey, for Chen Mo, that's just a drop in the bucket."
"Let's say twenty million. That's already very low for VR game development costs. Chen Mo could totally go for small profits but high volume. If he sells a copy for 200 yuan, wouldn't that be great? Players who can afford a VR gaming pod, would they care about 200 yuan?"
"Hey, it's not that simple. Would Chen Mo worry about not making money? Even if he just threw away twenty million, he wouldn't care much. The problem is, this is his first VR game! If it flops, it's a huge embarrassment!"
"And it's launching at the same time as Yan Zhenyuan's *Thousand Prison*. If the sales and revenue get completely crushed, how ugly would that look?"
"Hey, even if it gets crushed, he can just say he made a puzzle game, so there's no comparison."
"Let's wait and see. Anyway, I'm poor and can't afford a VR gaming pod. If this game turns out well, I'll go support it at a VR internet cafe..."
...
Soon, *Thousand Prison* and *My World* began frequently exposing various detailed information. Although these two games never mentioned each other's names in their promotions, the onlookers could tell that both games were secretly treating each other as competitors.
Especially *Thousand Prison*. Various character concept art, scene concept art, skill effects, story backgrounds, and actual in-game footage were all revealed. The visual fidelity was extremely high, and the gameplay was full of excitement, making players cheer with delight.
On the forums, players' anticipation for *Thousand Prison* continued to rise. Even the activation codes for the internal beta were being scalped for two to three thousand yuan, higher than the official launch price.
On Chen Mo's side, things were somewhat lukewarm.
On the official website for *My World*, some basic information had been disclosed early on, but there were no specially made, grand-scale promotional materials. The only thing worth showing off was the CG video from the press conference.
Players' reactions to this CG video were also tepid, because CG was the easiest thing to fake. Many games had awesome CG but the actual in-game footage was completely different.
Moreover, compared to the CGs of *Warcraft* and *Diablo*, the CG for *My World* looked like a kindergartener's doodle—hardly appealing at all.
Players were also very puzzled.
Chen Mo had so many ways to promote games. He made an animated series to promote *I Am MT*, released Arthas line art to promote *Warcraft*, wrote the martial arts song "Sword Dream Like a Dream" to promote *Martial Heroes*, and released "Gokuraku Jodo" to promote *Onmyoji*...
Why was there nothing like that for *My World*?
With such a half-hearted promotion, how many people would even pay attention to this game by launch day?
Amid everyone's confusion and doubt, Chen Mo finally made a move.
One day at noon, Chen Mo suddenly posted a new Weibo message: "*My World*: The Forbidden City. Note: All footage in this video is actual in-game footage."
The onlookers were all baffled. What the hell?
The Forbidden City?
Was Chen Mo saying he built the Forbidden City out of blocks in *My World*?
Players clicked on the video one after another.
Although there had been games before that created real-world scenes within the game, those were done by professionals, and many were just a shell—nice to look at but ultimately useless.
But *My World* was a block-building game. If even the Forbidden City could be built, did that mean players could freely play inside the Forbidden City?