Chapter 238: Lukewarm
Many videogame media released their articles for Minecraft following the conference.
Chen Mo’s newest game: Minecraft
Chen Mo’s first VR game exposed
Minecraft: Pixel art building game
Minecraft and Thousand h.e.l.ls released at the same time
Chen Mo: nothing but praises for Thousand h.e.l.ls during his conference
These articles went over the details that were shown during the conference, including the playstyle, as well as some gameplay footage.
Soon, the news was spread among the players. There were various different reactions, but most of them had some element of shock.
Chen Mo’s first VR game is a building game?
But most of them could tell what the point of the game was just by looking slightly deeper into the articles.
From the looks of it, it was a game based around creating. Just like Don’t Starve, it featured an open world and more complex online modes.
But even Don’t Starve players had some doubts about the game.
Don’t Starve was popular because it was a smaller game that could be played on both PC and mobile. Moreover, it was priced at a compet.i.tive twenty RMB.
However, Minecraft is a VR game. VR games are usually quite expensive, Earth Online for example was priced at three hundred and ninety nine USD, and VR games of similar calibre would cost around one to two thousand RMB in China.
Some Chinese MMORPGs were relatively cheaper, some even around five hundred RMB. But those games usually had microtransactions such as it was incredibly difficult to break even just by selling copies of the games.
Although most of the VR player base was in a higher income bracket, but wanting them to spend one thousand RMB for a building game?
n.o.body would spend that kind of money even if they had plenty right?
There was a lot of discussion on the forums too.
“What’s Chen moi thinking? How could he make a building game as his most crucial game when entering the VR market? Honestly, I haven’t seen a VR puzzle game make big money.”
“From what Chen Mo said, the game isn’t just a simple puzzle game, it’s still a sandbox game similar to Don’t Starve.”
“But the main fun of the game is creating! Moreover, how many copies can he sell as VR games are priced so high. Is he able to break even?”
“I think breaking even isn’t a problem. The game has pixel graphics, and a lot of the game is built by players. Many of the resources can be reused too. How high could the development cost really be?”
“It probably wouldn’t cost much to develop the mobile or PC version, but porting it to VR would still cost a pretty penny. And you’ve seen the real gameplay videos, the graphics are really detailed. Chen Mo probably didn’t skimp on spending money, it wouldn’t look as good otherwise.”
“I think it’s in the millions, but it can’t be over twenty million. That’s peanuts for CHen Mo.”
“Twenty million for a VR game is incredibly low. Chen Mo could price it lower and sell more copies. If he sold each copy at two hundred RMB, he could totally make it all back. Would the people who own VR gaming pods care about a measly two hundred RMB?”
“I don’t think it’s as you said. Is Chen Mo worried about making money at all? I don’t think he cares about wasting twenty million. On the other hand, he’d care more about his first VR game being a total trainwreck!”
“And he’s releasing it at the same time as Thousand h.e.l.ls too. It’d look so bad if he lost to Thousand h.e.l.ls in all aspects!”
“When he loses, he could say that he made a puzzle game and didn’t stand a chance.”
“We’ll see. I can’t afford a VR gaming pod anyways. If the game performs well, I’ll just have to try it out in an internet cafe.”
—
Soon, Thousand h.e.l.ls and Minecraft started showing their faces all over the internet. Although the games never mentioned their rivals, the players could tell that the games have treated each other as such.
Thousand h.e.l.ls in particular showed many aspects of their characters, maps, special effects, story, and gameplay, all of which were incredibly detailed, and the game seemed really satisfying to play. All the players were incredibly excited for its release.
Players showed their eagerness for Thousand h.e.l.ls on the forums. Beta keys were being sold at prices over two thousand RMB, even higher than its initial release.
But on Chen Mo’s side of things, everything was kind of lukewarm.
A lot of the basic resources were revealed early on on Minecraft’s official forums. They didn’t try to make a big deal about revealing all of it. The only thing noteworthy was the cinematic that was shown during the conference.
The reactions to the cinematic were also so-so as it was easy for the gameplay to differ greatly from actual gameplay. Many games have incredible cinematics that are completely different to the gameplay.
Moreover, the cinematic lacked any charm as it looked like a child’s drawing compared to the cinematics of Warcraft and Diablo.
The players were all incredibly confused.
Chen Mo had many ways to promote his own games. He made an animated series for I am MT, used Arthas’ sketch for Warcraft, the song A Life of Fighting is but a Dream for Wulin Legend, and Gokuraku Jodo for Onmyoji…
But how come there was nothing for Minecraft?
They just did a shoddy job in promoting the game, how many people would care on its release?
Among all the confusion, Chen Mo finally made a move.
Chen Mo unexpectedly posted a Weibo at noon that day: “Minecraft: Forbidden city. Note: All of this is actual gameplay.”
The players were utterly shocked.
Forbidden city?
Does that mean Chen Mo built the Forbidden City using blocks in Minecraft?
They started watching the video.
Although there have been many games in the past that recreated real life scenes, those were all done by professionals, and most of the time, they were only for looks.
But Minecraft was a building game. If the Forbidden City really was built, doesn’t that mean players could run around in the Forbidden City?