Chapter 445: Vacation Agency? Mr. Chen Went on a Trip!? (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Passes)

Chapter 445: Vacation Agency? Mr. Chen Went on a Trip!? (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Passes)

Element World, promoted as an open-world game, achieved high reputation, yet failed to translate that into high sales.

In contrast, the linear game Uncharted achieved explosive sales, sparking deep reflection among many Game Designers.

Was Element World simply inferior in quality to Uncharted?

Not exactly. Although Uncharted's quality was indeed spectacular, Element World wasn't particularly bad either—otherwise, it couldn't have earned such high acclaim.

Many designers began shifting their focus toward comparing open-world and linear games.

In recent years, titles like Red Dead Redemption and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild had drawn numerous Game developers to fixate on the open-world theme.

Open-world games seemed to have become the cheat code to success.

But now, was open-world truly always the better choice?

Many Game Designers began analyzing.

What if Element World had adopted a linear mode instead of open-world?

Allowing players to progress along a single path, enabling puzzle difficulty to be carefully designed—starting easy and gradually increasing in complexity.

Much like Monster Hunter: World, where early-game monsters were mere appetizers, while the difficulty spiked dramatically upon reaching Diablos.

Would such a design have triggered an explosive surge in sales?

This topic sparked intense discussions across the gaming industry.

Yet for players, despite Element World's excellence, they still favored Uncharted—simply because it was more fun to play.

Moreover, thanks to Element World's inherent puzzle-solving and treasure-hunting elements, Uncharted experienced a renewed burst of popularity.

It also heightened player anticipation for the future.

After all, judging from content and various hints, Uncharted clearly had three DLCs currently in development!

El Dorado, Shangri-La, and the City of a Thousand Pillars—these legendary RUINS had firmly hooked players' interest.

In the midst of this industry shift, Zeus, having suffered yet another blow, finally made a decision.

They would change their cooperation partner.

For Zeus, Element World was clearly a painful failure.

Though the game's quality was excellent and its reputation solid,

what good was that if it couldn't help the Zeus Platform expand its territory?

Others reaped the benefits while Zeus alone bore the blame—how could anyone withstand that?

From Zeus's perspective, their platform itself had no issues.

Their marketing efforts were also fully committed.

So where exactly did the problem lie?

Undoubtedly, it was their partner, Atari.

If the game failed, it must be the partner company's fault.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Red Dead Redemption, and now Uncharted—except for last year when Nebula Games shifted focus to Switch, giving Atari a brief moment of triumph in the New Era VR market, they had otherwise been thoroughly outperformed every other time!

After internal discussions, Zeus's upper management reached a conclusion:

Stop relying on third parties!

They would develop first-party titles themselves!

They had the technology, and they had the money!

With Uncharted's momentum fading and Element World's popularity gradually declining,

players soon received a bombshell announcement:

Zeus had invested a massive sum to acquire FOW, a veteran European game developer, for a staggering 2.1 billion USD.

Of course, this acquisition couldn't have been finalized overnight—Zeus had long been in talks with various game developers.

Previous negotiations had stalled due to disagreements on terms. The clear failure of Element World had clearly pushed Zeus into urgency.

With Element World's defeat now inevitable, Zeus saw no reason to waste further time on it.

Simultaneously, Zeus's official website announced a new project codenamed 'Medieval'.

………………

Players erupted in discussion over Zeus's major investment.

After all, FOW was a well-known name in the industry.

The studio was famous for historical-themed games, though it had long been criticized for being frugal—patching and re-releasing games year after year, with graphics rarely updated unless absolutely necessary.

This time, with Zeus as their new parent company, fans of FOW weren't saddened—they were ecstatic.

Now that they had a wealthy big daddy, FOW's future games would finally get the graphical upgrades they deserved, right?

On domestic forums, players discussed:

"FOW's really upgrading from rags to riches, found themselves a rich sponsor."

"Yeah, I could never get into their games before because the graphics were always outdated. Now, I can actually look forward to their next release."

"Forget FOW—aren't you guys curious about the progress on Uncharted's trilogy of DLCs?"

"Nebula Games has been making big moves lately—VR themes just got an update. But Mr. Chen is being inhuman again!"

"Damn right! I went into the Outlast theme scene without Awakening Mode on, and I nearly pissed myself!"

"So why the hell did you even enter the Outlast theme scene?"

"By the way, isn't anyone talking about Zeus's 'Medieval' project?"

"It's just a codename with no details—what's there to follow? NetDragon's Shadow Operations: Communication Interrupted is launching soon. But honestly, I'm more interested in Mr. Chen—shouldn't the Uncharted DLC content be almost ready by now?"

"You're all overthinking it. Just check the latest post on their official Weibo! Mr. Chen and the entire Nebula Games team went on a group trip!"

Players were discussing recent happenings in the gaming industry online, but soon one topic dominated the conversation.

Mr. Chen isn't making games—he's gone on vacation?

Many players were baffled upon hearing this.

They rushed to check Chen Xu's official Weibo.

Just ten minutes ago, Chen Xu had posted a new update.

Unlike previous posts announcing new game content, this one stood out completely.

'First stop: Florence, checking in at Florence Cathedral!'

A simple sentence, accompanied by a group photo of Chen Xu, Ruan Ningxue, Yang Xin, Qin Yi, Meng Zuo, and other Nebula Games core members, taken at a famous local landmark.

Countless players were left utterly bewildered.

We all assumed Mr. Chen was working tirelessly, grinding intensely to finish Uncharted's trilogy of DLCs—or at least preparing for a new game or project. But you're telling us you went on vacation!?

And not just any vacation—a long trip! Judging by the caption, Florence is just the first stop? There are second, third, and fourth stops coming?

The moment Chen Xu's post went up, countless followers were left completely bewildered.

Is Nebula Games a game development company—or a vacation agency!?

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