Chapter 657: Three Games Clash in a Bitter Feud
After the official release of "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds," sales climbed steadily!
This time, the domestic and overseas versions were released almost simultaneously, and the sales data directly reflected global figures.
The pre-sale version sold 60,000 copies, and afterward, daily sales exceeded 8,000 copies. This meant that during the pre-sale phase alone, "PUBG" had brought Chen Mo over 40 million in revenue!
Of course, this sales figure didn't seem particularly high. By the standards of Chen Mo's previous life, "PUBG" had broken 4 million copies in three months by June 2017, with average daily sales exceeding 40,000.
But in this parallel world, "PUBG" was a VR platform game. Only a minority could afford to buy a gaming pod and were willing to spend money on VR games.
Moreover, since the VR version of "PUBG" was priced ten times higher than the PC version in Chen Mo's previous life, purely in terms of revenue, Chen Mo's earnings were higher and his starting point better than Bluehole's in his past life.
And this didn't even account for the revenue from the internet cafe version.
At this point, many players and VR internet cafes were still in a wait-and-see mode. For internet cafes, the pricing of the "PUBG" internet cafe version was relatively high, so they needed to consider it carefully. For players, given most people's financial situations, they could only afford one FPS game.
Now, three major titles—"PUBG," "Wolf Soul: Modern Battlefield," and "Blazing Assault 2"—were clustered together, none of them cheap. For players, in the short term, they could only pick the one they liked most to buy.
As soon as the pre-sale figures for "PUBG" came out, Imperial Dynasty Interactive and Zen Interactive couldn't sit still anymore.
Because these three games were in a blatant competitive relationship, an obvious zero-sum game. The more "PUBG" sold, the more it would drain some players' wallets, affecting the sales of the other two games.
It was like how some blockbuster movies severely impact the box office of subsequent films, seemingly sucking away all the popularity.
Originally, "Wolf Soul: Modern Battlefield" and "Blazing Assault 2" weren't particularly high in completion and wanted to delay their releases further. But under "PUBG's" strong performance, the higher-ups at these two companies couldn't wait any longer. Lin Chaoxu and Liu Yuanfeng began pressuring the development teams of both games to start testing as soon as possible!
The official release and launch could be delayed, but testing had to be fast. They had to stir up hype and attract players' attention, or they would only become more passive.
The staff of both development teams had no choice but to work overtime more frequently. Everyone understood that this was the most critical phase for all three games, and no mistakes could be allowed!
Soon, a series of blockbuster news were released.
"Wolf Soul: Modern Battlefield" and "Blazing Assault 2" announced their testing dates and release dates. "Wolf Soul: Modern Battlefield" would be earlier, while "Blazing Assault 2" would be the latest.
Regardless of timing, both project teams began disclosing a large amount of game content, hoping to capture players' attention.
On April 12th, "Wolf Soul: Modern Battlefield" began testing.
On April 17th, "Blazing Assault 2" began testing.
Although there were still some minor issues in the games, Qin Xiao and Ran He could no longer wait. They urgently needed feedback from a large number of players to make further modifications to their games.
At this time, although "PUBG" had been released earlier, the other two games were desperately stirring up game popularity. Various PR articles and smear pieces, both overt and covert, were fiercely competing. Players of the three games argued endlessly.
"Say no more, Chicken Dinner is invincible! No argument needed!"
"Ha, a hyped-up game! I really admire Chen Mo's blind fans. The only thing novel is the game mode, and they still call it invincible?"
"'Wolf Soul: Modern Battlefield' is better. Fast-paced and very satisfying! All kinds of modern weapons on the battlefield—that's the kind of exciting game!"
"Exactly, 'Wolf Soul' is a game that gets your adrenaline pumping. What can Chicken Dinner do? Train you to be a coward? Ha!"
"Right, games without gunfights should just leave!"
"'Blazing Assault 2' players are laughing at you two dogs fighting. Both shallow games can step aside. The future belongs to 'Blazing Assault'!"
"Get lost! 'Blazing Assault 2' is just taking Western FPS gameplay and slapping a domestic setting on it. You have the least presence, so stop pretending to be a big shot!"
"How is a domestic setting lacking presence? This is the first FPS game in the country to delve deep into story. You brainless idiots raised on fast-food games don't know anything!"
The three fan bases clashed in a bitter feud, arguing endlessly...
If it were just two games competing, it would be simpler—just mutual bashing. But with three games in competition, the scene instantly became chaotic. Determining a player's allegiance became extremely difficult...
And on top of that, there were many troublemakers stirring the pot, bystanders who loved chaos, and various impersonators. It was practically the drama of the year.
It must be said that the most formidable were the players of Imperial Dynasty Interactive.
"Blazing Assault 2" had the latest release date and focused on a relatively peaceful single-player mode, so its conflict with the other two wasn't as intense.
One advantage of single-player games was that as long as the quality was decent, the game wouldn't flop unexpectedly and could still make some profit. Of course, it was also less likely to become a dominant blockbuster.
In this sense, "Wolf Soul: Modern Battlefield" and "PUBG" were the fiercest competitors, so the hostility was more intense.
The main criticism from "Wolf Soul: Modern Battlefield" players was that "PUBG" had no innovation beyond its game mode, and the battle royale mode wasn't a proven success in the market. It would surely be a flash in the pan.
Players were having fun now, but once the hype faded, the game would cool down and die.
Of course, there were other nitpicks too. Some felt that since only one person could win in "PUBG," the experience for the vast majority of ordinary players wasn't well guaranteed, and so on.
"PUBG" players fought back, but for a while, they couldn't find a good breakthrough. In such verbal battles, it wasn't just about emphasizing one's own strengths but also seizing on the opponent's weaknesses for a fierce counterattack.
In essence, these battles weren't just about players' pride. Behind the scenes, the PR and marketing teams of the game companies were also fanning the flames.
Such disputes more or less affected players' impressions of these two games. If a game was overwhelmingly negative online, many casual players might not consider buying it.
And then, an event occurred that made "PUBG" players absolutely furious!
Genius remembers this site's address in one second: