Chapter 434: Game Launch (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Passes)

Chapter 434: Game Launch (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Passes)

After viewing the information released by Nebula Games, many players and game designers in the industry were greatly surprised.

Initially, both players and industry designers had instinctively assumed that Uncharted would be an open-world action-adventure game.

After all, within the gaming industry, if anyone could best represent open-world games, without a doubt, every player and designer would mention Chen Xu.

But who could have imagined that this was actually a linear game?

Although this did explain why the graphics in Uncharted were so explode-worthy, the real question remained: would players accept it?

Even NetDragon, upon learning that Nebula Games’ new work Uncharted was a linear game, was equally stunned.

After all, the prevailing trend in the gaming industry over the past two years had been open-world games—especially since it had only been a few months since the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Many game designers believed players still had strong enthusiasm for open-world experiences.

Yet under these circumstances, Nebula Games had gone ahead and developed a linear game?

One could only say—truly worthy of Nebula Games!

Inside Atari’s Element World project team, lead designer Antorini sighed with emotion.

Two years ago, his project Beautiful World had lost out to Red Dead Redemption, but he felt that although the game had lost, he personally had not.

After all, in terms of gameplay, Beautiful World had actually received praise from some players.

He believed that if Atari had fully trusted him back then, leveraging the attention-grabbing concept of cowboys battling robots, he might have successfully pivoted the game’s direction.

Why go head-to-head with Red Dead Redemption on pure cowboy and Western themes when Antorini felt he might not stand a chance?

But the key was, you didn’t have to fight directly.

Add a multiplayer mode, create DLC with subsequent story content,

and lean into the core idea of robots versus cowboys.

Later on, they could even drift toward science fiction—perhaps adopting a sci-fi Western aesthetic.

Another regret Antorini had from last year was that Chen Xu hadn’t developed a VR game, leaving him without a chance to reclaim his pride. This had left him with considerable disappointment.

But who would have thought—this time, fate had brought them face to face again!

The only difference was that this time, the genre of the game was different.

Antorini felt he held a significant advantage with his open-world theme!

Even if he won, though, it would feel somewhat like an unfair victory!

………………

At Nebula Games, Chen Xu remained unaware of Antorini’s confident mindset over at Atari.

Uncharted continued its steady promotional campaign.

Meanwhile, Atari’s marketing efforts didn’t let up either.

Across the gaming industry, the top two hot topics were completely dominated by Uncharted and Element World.

As for NetDragon’s Shadow Operations: Communication Interrupted, its promotion was moderate—some warm-up, but not large-scale—maintaining steady popularity.

Clearly, they were trying to avoid going head-to-head with the new releases from Nebula Games and Atari.

Other game developers adopted the same strategy.

After all, Nebula Games and Atari had long been fierce rivals.

Under the watchful eyes of global players, Uncharted was the first to announce its official launch date.

It would be published on May 1st.

After Nebula Games made this announcement,

Atari, which had previously been aggressively competing in promotion, suddenly fell silent.

Why?

Because their progress simply couldn’t keep up!

Looking at Uncharted’s release date, inside the Element World project office at Atari, Antorini felt like he had punched straight into cotton.

At the current pace, Element World would need at least another half a month to finish development.

And even after development was complete, the game still couldn’t launch immediately—it would require pre-release testing.

Although Uncharted was a linear game, which naturally involved much less workload than an open-world game,

how could Nebula Games be moving this fast?

Did you guys strap rockets to your backs?

Antorini felt deeply depressed.

As for promoting Element World?

Better take a break for now.

Promoting at this point would only end up helping Nebula Games.

With Element World’s marketing going quiet, online players were equally speechless.

Many had expected Element World to quickly follow up by announcing its own release date, setting the stage for a direct showdown with Nebula Games.

But now, suddenly—silence?

Judging from Atari’s earlier behavior, they had clearly seemed bold and confident—surely not afraid of Nebula Games.

So why had they suddenly gone silent?

The only possible explanation was that the game simply wasn’t finished yet.

If that was the case, why had they promoted it so intensely before, as if the entire world should be focused on them?

Were they just clowning around? Making everything seem so real!

Many players who had eagerly awaited Element World now felt deeply disappointed.

Meanwhile, fans of Uncharted were celebrating with drums and fireworks.

Of course, not everyone was purely excited—some players felt a bit apprehensive.

During the promotional period, Uncharted had revealed quite a bit of information to players.

Technical and gameplay details were secondary; what worried players the most was the game’s subtitle.

Like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Red Dead Redemption, Super Mario Odyssey, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,

Uncharted also had a subtitle, which had been announced during promotion: A Thief’s End.

The moment this title was revealed, many players felt a chill run through them.

Under Chen Xu’s official Weibo account, numerous players left comments.

But this time, Chen Xu showed absolutely no intention of replying.

Instantly, many players fell into pessimistic emotions.

They declared that ‘Nathan Drake’ was already doomed. The only thing left to wonder was how exactly Nathan Drake would meet his end in the game.

………

Inside Nebula Games’ lounge, Yang Xin and others looked at Chen Xu with astonishment as he casually browsed the official Weibo.

“Mr. Chen, players online are misunderstanding you so badly this time—aren’t you going to reply?” Ruan Ningxue asked curiously.

In the past, whenever players had wrongly accused him, Chen Xu would always respond immediately.

Now, before the game had even launched, players had already assumed the protagonist would die—yet they all knew that Uncharted: A Thief’s End was completely different from what players imagined. It was actually a joyful story. Why wasn’t Chen Xu stepping in to clarify?

“When players believe they’re about to play a game that will break their hearts,” Chen Xu smiled, “only to discover a happy ending, that’s when they’ll truly feel sufficient surprise.”

Of course, there was another unspoken thought in his mind.

Right now, players misunderstood him. But the moment the ending was revealed, that misunderstanding would turn into guilt. And the label of being a ‘heartbreaker’ in the eyes of players would naturally blur.

Everything is under control!

(End of Chapter) <>