In the conference room of the office, after Chen Xu finished explaining the concept of this brand-new game, essentially everyone understood Chen Xu's meaning.

That is, this Super Smash Bros. needs to have an extremely high skill ceiling, while also having an extremely low barrier to entry.

Firstly, for its skill floor, it allows players who know nothing about fighting games to enjoy the gameplay.

Just like its name: Super Smash Bros..

With up to 8 players, solo or team-up gameplay, it can be said that it is primarily for entertainment.

Its extremely simple move commands do not require players to practice extensively; they only need to play it once to understand its attack effects.

Just like heroes in DOTA.

You would only ask others what a hero's skills do, not how to perform them.

By canceling the input commands setting, high-level content can only be presented in subsequent developments.

That is, the follow-ups extending from the game's knockback mechanic!

In Super Smash Bros., so-called combos are replaced by follow-ups. Players have two situations after knocking an opponent airborne.

One is to take advantage and know when to quit, and the other is to press the advantage.

Taking advantage and knowing when to quit naturally needs no further discussion, but for high-level players, pressing the advantage is crucial.

In Super Smash Bros., each character has 4 skills, 8 ground moves, and 5 aerial moves, which means players need to combine these moves.

Moreover, the maps in Super Smash Bros. are different from regular fighting games; they are not horizontally linear but dynamically expanding, meaning the air will be a primary battlefield, which introduces uncertain factors to battles.

The combined exploration of entertainment and competitive play is why Super Smash Bros. can become popular.

Just like games such as DOTA.

Games that can truly grasp competitive content are rare. In reality, most games cater to regular casual players and those who haven't crossed the competitive threshold.

For instance, in DOTA, those who can truly grasp the core of the game, understand the current situation, and know how to win, must at least reach the Divine tier, and these players account for less than 7% of the entire player base.

However, without this core content, it wouldn't work, because then casual players would lose their direction and goals, and the motivation to continue playing.

Furthermore, not fully mastering doesn't mean not partially mastering. Many players grasp parts of the core and enjoy it, finding that their growth provides the drive to continue playing.

However, the true performance will only become clear after the game is released.

………………

The development progress of Super Smash Bros. is not fast. Although it's a fighting game, there are many diverse tasks.

Music isn't an issue; once the relevant copyrights are secured, it can simply be included in the game.

The key lies in the artistic choices: how to seamlessly blend IP characters and scenes of various styles—cartoon, realistic, moe, seductive, dark, and so on—without them appearing awkward. This is the most difficult part.

Besides this, there are character designs that highlight the game's features, such as the inclusion of Pyra, the Aegis of the Sky, who will be divided into two distinct characters, Pyra and Mythra, which players can switch between. As for Rex, he'll just make an appearance in a special move.

And Sephiroth, when his health drops to a certain level, he will activate his One-Winged Angel form, and his attack power will become higher.

At the same time, Chen Xu will also introduce some of Nebula Games' flagship characters into the game, and these will require specially designed moves and skills with distinct characteristics and high recognition.

The construction of scenes and the design of characters have made the development progress of Super Smash Bros. much slower than Nebula Games' previous works.

However, despite the slow development progress, news related to Super Smash Bros. is rampant online.

………………

In Azeroth

“Oh, Old Zhang, don’t say anymore, isn’t a wipe perfectly normal? That’s the charm of World of Warcraft! If there were no wipes, no corpse runs, would it still be Warcraft?”

Resurrected at the dungeon entrance, Song Ren cheerfully chatted with his bros around him.

Listening to Song Ren’s words, Zhang Yi was speechless.

Regarding World of Warcraft, they used to play tirelessly when it first came out.

However, after the initial excitement wore off, they basically only logged in for version updates, to experience new content, or to play in the arena.

And as versions progressed and everyone became more experienced, large-scale open-world PvP battles in places like Southshore and Stranglethorn Vale, involving thousands or even tens of thousands of players, became a rare sight.

Now, with a new version update, their group has returned to the continent of Azeroth.

Initially, everyone ambitiously dreamed of taking on Malygos with their fists and kicking Arthas with their feet.

But they soon discovered that dreams remained dreams because they could only be dreamt.

Looking at the useless players in their guild, good heavens, forget about the Lich King.

Even the raid dungeons from the previous version were a struggle.

Some haven’t even reached max level yet.

“Stop sighing! Look at the news online, Nebula Games has a big move!” At this moment, Wang Han in the team exclaimed.

“What big move?”

“A new game?”

Zhang Yi and Song Ren stopped arguing instantly and quickly opened the official Weibo account.

They soon found that Nebula Games’ official Weibo, along with Chen Xu’s, was still stuck on the previous post celebrating the ‘Wrath of the Lich King’ version update.

“No news!”

“Yeah!”

Zhang Yi and Song Ren were confused.

“Look at the trending topics,” Wang Han said.

Hearing this, the two turned their heads to glance at the official Weibo’s trending topics and immediately understood what was going on.

Although Nebula Games itself had no activity, news had already spread about its acquisition of several famous IP licenses, and even the outright purchase of some IPs.

“Holy crap, Nebula Games bought so many long-standing IPs?” Zhang Yi was shocked.

“Not all of them were bought; many were just licensed,” Song Ren said.

“I feel like there’s a big move coming!” Wang Han interjected.

Not just them, almost all players who learned about this news were discussing it with relish on major game communities.

After all, this move by Nebula Games was indeed quite significant.

Many IPs that existed in players' distant memories were acquired by Nebula Games.

This also left many players and even game developers puzzled.

Having acquired so many IP licenses, what on earth does Nebula Games want to do?

If it were other game developers, most players would simply sigh, thinking they were just finding new ways to harvest the wallets of nostalgic players.

But this time, the target was Nebula Games.

Moreover, as everyone knows, Nebula Games has never been very interested in developing IP, and many of its own works haven't even received follow-ups or sequels.

Yet now, it has gathered so many famous IPs?

If it wasn't to make IP games, why bother then?

Innumerable players online discussed animatedly, and under Chen Xu's official Weibo account, countless players @-mentioned him, hoping to get accurate news.

Presumably, having seen the players' enthusiasm, Chen Xu's official Weibo updated with a long-awaited message at noon the next day.

(End of Chapter) <>