I Just Want Players to Save Money, They Insist on Giving Me!
Chapter 725 - 225: Trailer Launched!_1

Chapter 725: Chapter 225: Trailer Launched!_1

"Divine Continent" launched with quite a bit of fanfare, and in terms of pricing, they also learned from the failed experiences of Hope Flute.

They set the price around the 150-dollar mark, and adopted a global floating pricing strategy, customizing the price for countries outside of Europe and America according to the national average consumption.

Although on the whole, Blizzard was still unable to immediately adapt to the rapid slide from high prices to the cheaper spectrum.

But for Blizzard, this mid-to-low price point already represented a bold concession.

As such, the fanbase that Blizzard had built up over many years was likely to buy into it.

Once the excitement took off, fans would bring in their family and friends to also try the game.

Upon the game’s release, quite a number of players were drawn to try it out for the first time.

"Divine Continent" is an RPG open-world game with excellent graphics.

The story tells of a down-and-out prince who was exiled to the frontier, overcomes various hardships, defeats countless strong enemies, and eventually returns home to become king.

Just looking at the story framework, there is a certain degree of similarity with Elden Ring.

But the theme of a hero battling dragons has been used thousands of times and has become a classic; no one would claim that a game using this theme is plagiarizing.

Therefore, no one thinks "Divine Continent" is copying the story background of Elden Ring.

Moreover, there are a lot of details and plot points where the two games differ significantly.

Even more so in terms of gameplay.

"Divine Continent" focuses more on the tangible feedback leveling up delivers to players.

For example, after reaching level 10, players can go to a town and, upon completing the ’Maintain Town Order’ quest, they can learn a new skill from the old witch in town.

At level 30, they can proceed to the Imperial Vassal City, and after completing a series of related tasks, unlock their ultimate skill.

And so on and so forth.

For the most part, players spend the majority of their time exploring in the wild.

It is only when they need to level up, buy equipment, repair equipment, or submit quests, that they return to the bustling medieval towns.

It’s not hard to see that Blizzard, an experienced game development team, has a firm grasp of what constitutes an open world.

Unlike other game companies’ interpretation of open worlds in the past six months, which were shallow in their understanding of concepts like ’huge and wide’, ’rich in interactive elements’, ’many bosses’, ’many wonders’, etc.

Blizzard’s understanding of an open world is more straightforward and ruthless—the time players spend on side quests, interactions, and exploration accounts for 70% of the game’s core content while the main storyline takes up only 30%.

While straightforward and ruthless, this experience has proven to be quite effective.

It allows their design team to clearly understand what is primary and what is secondary.

In an open world, what is secondary becomes primary, and the main storyline becomes secondary.

The team focuses on enriching side quests, player interaction experience, and the emotional impact of scenic views, etc.

In the first half-month since its release, "Divine Continent" had a pretty good reputation.

Although it did not surpass the 13 million sales figure achieved by Elden Ring in just a half month.

But it climbed steadily to 7 million copies.

Blizzard’s game development team also generously shared their design philosophy of open worlds with game firms worldwide.

They dubbed it "The 70-30 Rule" of open worlds.

It was well-received by designers in the industry.

Meanwhile.

When Blizzard’s CEO Mide was asked in an interview how he felt about "Divine Continent’s" sales being only half that of Elden Ring, and whether this indicated deficiencies in "Divine Continent," he replied with a smile.

"Elden Ring is undoubtedly an excellent work, and our Blizzard team has studied it in depth and has learned from it."

"But I believe such a masterpiece is not easily replicated."

"We all know that many classic games, even if the designers themselves tried, could not recreate their success a second time."

"As Elden is considered a pioneer in the open-world genre, it’s quite normal for it to achieve such success; it would be odd if it didn’t."

Although Mide was all praises for Elden on camera, those who listened carefully could grasp his implication.

Elden may be the founder of the ring-like games, but it’s also the founder of the ’open world’ genre.

And the latter is more widely favored by companies and players.

However.

Since Elden was the creator of the open-world genre, that’s why it made it.

By implication.

If our "Divine Continent" were the creator of the open-world genre, then perhaps we would have sold 20 million copies in half a month.

"So, Mr. Mide, do you think that even the next open-world game from a top player couldn’t surpass Elden Ring, or even match "Divine Continent"?" the journalist asked wisely, understanding what generates buzz.

But Mide, who was over 50 with already half-grey hair, was clearly an even more cunning old fox than Conna.

He didn’t say much, just offering a subtle smile to the camera.

He shrugged and added with a smile, "Sorry, I’m also a fan of the top player, so let’s leave it all to the sales figures to decide, shall we?"

...

One month after "Divine Continent" hit the shelves, its sales stood at 13 million copies.

But compared with the record set by Elden Ring in one month, it still lagged behind by 10 million copies.