Chapter 617: Release Date Confirmed
The video had an excellent effect. While sparking a frenzy of sharing among players, it also indirectly boosted Switch sales and increased downloads of *King of Glory*.
As the year-end approached, many game companies were swamped with internal affairs, busy with annual work summaries and year-end party planning. Many games didn’t need to rush for a pre-holiday release and were postponed until after the New Year.
On one hand, players were also busy before the Spring Festival, so the promotional effect of launching a new game might not be ideal. Releasing during the Spring Festival itself could yield good results, but that meant a batch of employees would have to work overtime during the holiday—usually only small companies did that.
On the other hand, after being schooled by Chen Mo during two consecutive Spring Festivals, these game companies had basically reached a consensus: avoid Chen Mo during the Spring Festival.
Anyway, no matter what game they launched during the Spring Festival, it would clash with Chen Mo’s. So it was better to steer clear, have a solid holiday, and wait until after the New Year when the buzz around Chen Mo’s new game had died down to push their own games. Wouldn’t that be just lovely?
As for the period before and during the Spring Festival, they’d just let Chen Mo put on his own show.
As for this year’s Game of the Year award, although there was still some time before the ceremony, there was basically no suspense left. It would most likely be the *Dark Souls* series.
There were too many reasons: the excellent combat system and level design, the unique world-building and background, the rich game content, and the fact that it was the first—and so far most successful—game made with the Pangu System. With so many accolades stacked on it, it would seem unreasonable if it didn’t win Game of the Year.
Moreover, this game had gone head-to-head with foreign games on behalf of the Pangu System and had been very successful. Logically and emotionally, it deserved extra points.
In fact, in Chen Mo’s previous life, the *Dark Souls* series had also won many awards, especially in Europe and America, where it was widely recognized as a masterpiece. Furthermore, in the parallel world, *Dark Souls* could be considered a genre-defining work, directly influencing the design philosophy of many subsequent ARPGs.
Many industry insiders knew that *Dark Souls* winning Game of the Year at the Game Committee’s awards ceremony was a foregone conclusion. The only question was, what kind of waves would it make in the international gaming circle?
…
Meanwhile, under the watchful eyes of everyone, Chen Mo finally announced the release date for *Prototype*: February 2nd!
Players didn’t bother to complain about such a silly date. They only cared about one thing: this release date was earlier than they had estimated—much earlier!
While marveling at Chen Mo’s prolific output, many players also speculated that the game size of *Prototype* probably wouldn’t be particularly large, maybe not reaching the scale of *Dark Souls*.
But thinking about it carefully, it made sense. Chen Mo’s main focus this year had been on *Dark Souls*. If it were any other designer, they would have just taken a break during this pre-holiday period and started a new game after the New Year.
Chen Mo, known as a “model worker,” wouldn’t stay idle, but he probably didn’t have the energy to make another ultra-premium masterpiece on par with *Dark Souls*. So *Prototype* was likely a VR game of moderate size.
Still, players didn’t mind. Because they only had one thought in their heads: “I want to play it now! I want to scale walls and run on rooftops right now!”
Although the year-end was approaching, many players still gathered at Chen Mo’s experience store, ready to try out this brand-new game, *Prototype*.
…
The atmosphere in the experience store was relaxed and lively.
After completing the development of *Prototype*, the entire project team was essentially on semi-vacation. For employees who wanted to go home, as long as their work could be done remotely, Chen Mo approved their leave, letting them start their Spring Festival break early.
Some employees didn’t need to go home so soon, so they stayed at the experience store, playing games and chatting with players, without any work pressure.
So far, Thunderbolt Interactive had many games in official online operation, like *League of Legends*, *Overwatch*, and *King of Glory*. These online games still required a lot of work.
Although customer service and server maintenance were handled by other companies, the project teams still needed to manage daily updates, in-game events, and the development of subsequent versions.
As the Spring Festival approached, all of Thunderbolt Interactive’s active games were preparing holiday events. The content wasn’t massive, but it still required some work.
For example, New Year limited skins, New Year special bundles, New Year top-up events, New Year spending events, New Year lottery events, New Year sales promotions, and so on.
In short, the New Year was a great time to milk year-end bonuses and red envelope money. Heh.
With so many spending and top-up events, some players would inevitably ask: “Sairento, during the New Year, all you do is trick players into spending money. Doesn’t your conscience hurt?”
To this, Chen Mo had already prepared his response: “Not at all. Look at all these events—besides new skins and new bundles, it’s all discounts and sales. I’m practically losing money. Why would my conscience hurt?”
Well, reasonable and flawless! Sairento worked so hard to create all these events and make all these beautiful skins. If players don’t buy them, are they even human?
…
In the lobby, many players greeted Chen Mo.
“Store owner, good morning!”
“Store owner, can we try *Prototype* now?”
“Store owner, give me the real scoop. Is this game Souls-like combat or not?”
Actually, Chen Mo didn’t recognize many of these players. After all, with so many people coming and going at the experience store, how could he remember everyone?
But it didn’t matter. Even if he tried to remember, he probably wouldn’t succeed, so he had long since let it go. He could chat with anyone who came up to him.
Chen Mo looked at the guy who asked the question. “What, if it’s not Souls-like combat, you won’t play?”
The guy quickly waved his hand. “Of course not! I’ll play any genre! It’s just that if this game has Souls-like combat, I’ll come back in a month to play, at least until the guides come out…”
Chen Mo said earnestly, “Young man, you need to have a spirit of challenge!”
The guy shook his head like a rattle-drum. “No, no, no. I’m just a salted fish. I only want to wait for the guides to come out before I really dive in…”
Chen Mo smiled. “Don’t worry. This game doesn’t need guides.”
“Really? Then I’ll go try it right now!” The guy happily headed upstairs to the third floor.
The players at the experience store had been guinea pigs so many times that now, when they heard about a new game, they weren’t so impulsive. They maintained a more cautious attitude.
After suffering through the double whammy of *Dark Souls* and the *Dark Souls* prequel, these players knew very well that trying out Chen Mo’s new game came with risks. It was better to wait and see…