Chapter 202 - Diablo in VR?

Everyone started working on their tasks after learning about Diablo’s new update and the design concept for Don’t starve.

Chen Mo was quite busy as he had to focus on Diablo as he had to go through resources for new areas, new classes and the new story.

Most of the work for Diablo was managed by Zheng Hongxi and Qian Kun, whereas Su Jinyu led another group of employees to work on Don’t Starve.

Diablo 3 didn’t do well when it was just released and lost a lot of its players in a short amount of time. Especially with huge shoes left behind by Diablo 2 to fill, many players of Diablo 2 didn’t recognise Diablo 3 as a sequel.

This situation was only amended on the release of Reaper of Souls.

Before this update, Diablo 3 had a 41% rating on Metacritic, rising up to 72% after the update.

After the update, the reviews of Diablo 3 increased dramatically, it could even be said that they were completely different games before and after the update.

And the way they saved the game were points Chen Mo pointed out previously.

Including a ranked ladder, removing limits for Paragon Levels, removal of Auction House, adding new maps, new playstyles, better differentiation between various difficulties, adding a competitive season…

These changes allowed players to find fun in Diablo 3, dragging it from the edge of death.

Although Chen Mo made many changes to Diablo 3 allowing it to be artistically closer to Diablo 3, this game still possessed a risk of a shortened lifespan.

The key factor was the change in the players’ tastes. Diablo 2 had a classic design that paved the way for many other games, but the fact that there wasn’t much competition then and and the nostalgia factor should also be taken into consideration.

Even if a remastered version of Diablo 2 that was completely faithful to the original was released, it probably wouldn’t be successful as the market was now completely different.

After the team for Diablo 2 left Blizzard, they made Torchlight, and games like Grim Dawn were also seen on steam.

However, no matter if it was a game made by the original team Torchlight, or a very ‘Diablo’ Grim Dawn, they never came close to Diablo 3’s success.

The reasons were complicated, but the changing times certainly played a big role. You can’t do the same thing over and over again as times changed.

Reaper of Souls was the most successful third person RPG that stemmed for the harsh lesson Blizzard learnt. Therefore, Chen Mo wanted to take some elements from Reaper of Souls to extend Diablo’s lifespan.

As for Don’t Starve.

This was similar to Lifeline, Chen Mo hoped that Su Jinyu and the others will get some enjoyment in the process of making don’t starve and learn a few lessons from it.

Which was why Chen Mo didn’t provide too many ideas, instead challenging them by having them think about the settings that should be in the game.

In Chen Mo’s previous life, Don’t Starve was an indie game, but definitely wasn’t niche.

The multiplayer version of Don’t Starve sold nearly five million copies on steam. And when it was included on Tencent Gaming Platform, it broke one hundred thousand sales in the first two weeks, selling five million copies in the first month.

There was no question for Don’t Starve Charm as a high quality single player game. Chen Mo also wanted to use this opportunity to test the acceptance of the players of this world towards open world and sandbox games, as well as providing his employees something to do.

—

Chen Mo was also working on releasing Diablo overseas while he worked on the update for Diablo and Don’t Starve.

Having worked together for Warcraft, the representative from Meteorite Technology didn’t try to make any changes to the pricing, reaching an agreement to release Diablo overseas in no time.

With a success story like Warcraft in the past and an incredible result of Diablo in China, Meteorite Technology didn’t have much to worry about.

The strategy was the same as before, releasing it worldwide at the same time.

Everything went smoothly with Warcraft paving the way. Chen Mo was quite hands off this time too, only asking a few questions here and there to ensure that the english version best conveys the atmosphere of Diablo.

Chen Mo wasn’t going to care too much about Diablo’s performance overseas as even if it wasn’t explosively popular, it wouldn’t do half bad, focusing instead on completing Reaper of Souls.

—

Chen Mo received a call while he was working.

It was from Xu Xiaojun, a representative from Emperor Dynasty Entertainment’s advertising department.

Chen Mo was shocked, Why was he calling?

They have previously communicated for the bet related to I Am MT, where Lin Chaoxu got Xu Xiaojun to communicate with Chen Mo directly for the promotional spot.

But the two of them have never communicated since as everyone knew that Chen Mo had strong ambitions and would naturally be an enemy of Emperor Dynasty Entertainment.

Chen Mo answered the call, “Hello?”

“Hi Mr Chen Mo,” greeted Xu Xiaojun, “I’ve called today to discuss a potential collaboration.”

“Collaboration?”

“Yes, Diablo’s sales were surprising to say the least, have you thought about turning it into a VR game?”

“Not currently, if there’s nothing else…”

Xu Xiaojun quickly interjected, “Hold on, please listen to our proposal. Diablo has a relatively dark and hopeless world which helps with player immersion. And when considering that the players play the role of a hero saving the world, it makes for very satisfying gameplay, which is why the game is suited for VR.

“Us at Emperor Dynasty Entertainment hope that we can collaborate to make a VR Diablo. of course, as you’re the developer of the game, we’ll respect your decision.

“You’re probably not well equipped enough to make VR games and are probably lacking in money. We hope to arrange an S-grade videogame designer to collaborate with you to make a VR version of Diablo, how does that sound?”

Chen Mo remained silent for a few moments before replying, “I don’t think it’s a good idea. I’ll make a VR version myself, thanks for your concern.”

“Please don’t be so quick in dismissing this opportunity, hello?”

Chen Mo terminated the call before Xu Xiaojun could finish his sentence.