Chapter 748: New Preparations
No one expected that "Beachfront Mansion," as a VR game, would actually drive real-world clothing brands after adding the "Warm and Cozy Dress-Up" gameplay.
On the official website of "Warm and Cozy Wardrobe," many popular clothing items were completely sold out, and even some relatively mediocre pieces were on the verge of being out of stock.
Many traditional clothing brands, including various online clothing sellers, were shocked. How could this be?
In fact, if you look into it, the reason "Warm and Cozy Wardrobe" became popular was entirely due to its connection with the game. Without such a comprehensive "online fitting room," how many people would buy a clothing brand they had never heard of before?
Many domestic clothing brands, including some large shopping websites, were urgently researching countermeasures, hoping to develop their own VR game capsule version of an online fitting room.
Clearly, "Warm and Cozy Wardrobe" had sparked a trend. In the future, the online fitting room could very well become a revolution against traditional online shopping.
Just like the impact of online shopping on physical stores, the "online fitting room" model would also severely impact the traditional online shopping model, even representing the future direction of online shopping development. If any clothing brand or shopping website was slow to catch on, they would likely be eliminated.
Those physical stores that didn't take online shopping seriously a few years ago? Their corpses haven't even cooled yet.
However, after some research, many manufacturers discovered that this seemingly simple "online fitting room" actually had a very high barrier to entry!
These manufacturers certainly didn't understand game design, so they could only contact some domestic game companies. But after asking around, they learned that creating a game of the same caliber as "Beachfront Mansion" required a massive investment!
Based on the cost of previous VR games, the production budget for a top-tier AAA title easily exceeded a hundred million dollars. For an open-world game, that price would go even higher, with no upper limit.
Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence technology, designers both domestically and internationally had adopted new physics engines, slightly reducing game development costs, but not by much.
Moreover, "Beachfront Mansion" was made from the leftover assets of "Uncharted," so its artistic expressiveness was at a top-tier level. For other game companies to replicate that, the barrier was indeed high.
Chen Mo could do it because "Beachfront Mansion" was born from "Uncharted," and Chen Mo himself knew that "Uncharted" would definitely make money. So launching "Beachfront Mansion" cost him almost nothing, and its future expandability was extremely strong.
But for other game companies to start from scratch and copy "Beachfront Mansion" while achieving the same artistic quality... that would require a huge investment, along with a team of top-tier domestic art talent.
Therefore, some small game companies and small clothing brands simply didn't qualify to compete.
Some well-known domestic clothing brands also considered collaborating with major companies like Imperial Dynasty or Zen Meditation to develop an "online fitting room." But development required significant investment and time. During the research process, "Warm and Cozy Wardrobe" was already gaining momentum, expanding every day.
Furthermore, "Warm and Cozy Wardrobe" had a virtual idol as its spokesperson and multiple crossovers with the highly popular game "Beachfront Mansion." These were advantages that other clothing brands simply didn't have.
Many people sighed, saying that the emergence of "Warm and Cozy Wardrobe" was completely unexpected. Serent was really getting more and more creative.
...
On the other hand, many players were inspired by "Warm and Cozy Wardrobe" and began brainstorming possible future expansions for "Beachfront Mansion."
For example, an online mall, friend visits, custom room layouts, or crossovers with real estate developers or furniture brands?
Once the brainstorming started, it was hard to stop. Many people realized at this point that "Beachfront Mansion" was definitely not a simple freebie. Chen Mo had his own ambitions for this product, using it to seize the high ground in the era of virtual reality!
However, what the players didn't know was that Chen Mo currently had no plans to continue expanding "Beachfront Mansion."
The reason was simple: the timing wasn't right.
"Warm and Cozy Wardrobe" was about clothing brands, which were relevant to everyone. But other expansion plans each had their own issues, either because conditions weren't ripe or because they lacked unique competitiveness, making them not worth the effort.
For example, an online mall wouldn't offer any significant advantage.
Friend visits? Most people would only find it novel for the first two days after logging in. It could only be considered a basic feature.
Custom room layouts were essentially a virtual home decoration gameplay. Such gameplay already existed in the market, but it couldn't serve as a core feature, only as an add-on to the dress-up gameplay.
Crossovers with real furniture brands could also be done, but the effect wouldn't be as good as "Warm and Cozy Wardrobe."
Players only really struggled with trying on clothes when buying them. For furniture, measuring the dimensions and looking at photos was usually enough to make a decision. There was no need to specifically test it out in "Beachfront Mansion."
Of course, "Beachfront Mansion" would have more expansions in the future, but for Chen Mo, there was no need to develop those gimmicky features right now. He could wait until the timing was right.
The development plan for "Uncharted" was still ongoing. There weren't many difficulties in the game production itself; the only issue was time.
Strictly speaking, the current "Uncharted" had already pushed similar adventure-themed gameplay to its peak. Chen Mo was bringing out the content from the previous "Uncharted" series just to complete the narrative's integrity, essentially extending the popularity of this theme. But pushing this theme to new heights would be very difficult.
While developing the new content for "Uncharted," Chen Mo had also begun considering pulling some team members to prepare for the launch of a new game.
...
In the European and American markets, the popularity of "Lost Treasure" was completely crushed by "Uncharted." In terms of sales, "Lost Treasure's" concurrent data was only one-tenth of "Uncharted's," an absolute disaster.
Such a brutal collision reminded many players of the clash between Cog and "League of Legends" years ago.
It seemed like every time GA confidently set out to develop a masterpiece, Chen Mo would suddenly jump out and stomp it down.
But this time, the loss for GA was truly severe. After all, Cog was just a PC game. Even if it lost money, the deep-pocketed GA wouldn't bat an eye; it was completely within their acceptable range.
But "Lost Treasure" was different. GA's investment in this game was enormous!