Chapter 895: Release Date

The development process of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City went very smoothly.

As early as when Chen Xu learned about the next-gen VR news, he had already established this project within Nebula Games.

At the same time, in the production of most AAA-tier games, especially the art aspects, the differences are not very significant. Nebula Games' asset library is now quite rich, and a large amount of asset content only needs modification to be used.

Furthermore, content like actions, gunfights, and vehicle controls are common across many games.

Firearm shooting, action systems, and vehicle controls, apart from changes in the gameplay framework, the feel of player control, unless there are drastic reforms, will at most undergo some minor adjustments. One could say they all have commonalities.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was a famous game in his previous life, arguably a legend in gaming history. Due to the 'Hot Coffee' incident, it even drew condemnation from politicians, and subsequently, whenever there was a minor's shooting incident, this unmentionable game was always blamed.

In terms of public outcry, it was slightly less impactful than the societal uproar caused by Sega's Night Trap and ACCLAIM's Mortal Kombat in his previous life, which directly led to the establishment of the rating system.

However, one must remember that by the time the former emerged, video game development was already quite mature, indicating its immense influence.

In fact, even in this Parallel World, there are still many similar statements.

Numerous games under Nebula Games have also been consistently attacked, including Payday which was launched earlier. After all, a tall tree catches much wind. The legal department of Nebula Games spends most of its time each year dealing with these matters.

After all, politicians and moral guardians always try to 'save' the next generation from dire straits. Before the 20th century, religious leaders called romance novels 'Satan's most capable pawns.'

After the 20th century, movies became the new target, followed by publications like MAD magazine and rock musicians as new targets. Then board games like 'Dragon-language Dungeons' took their place, and then came the electronic games familiar to players, from the arcade era, home console era, PC era, to the online era and VR era. If new technologies and projects emerge in the future, they will clearly become new targets for attack.

However, Chen Xu was completely indifferent to this. For him, the most important thing was to satisfy the players, and that was enough.

………………

After the promotional trailer for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was released, more and more information was gradually disclosed to players.

Liberty City, Los Santos, Vice City, San Fierro — one map after another was revealed to players.

If it wasn't possible to determine before, with the unveiling of these locations, many players had already confirmed one thing: this game named Grand Theft Auto: Vice City would very likely be an open-world game.

Watching the new game information gradually being released, many players were both excited and a little worried.

They were excited because Nebula Games was once again returning to the open-world genre, and this time, Nebula Games was tackling a modern-themed open world, something they had never done before.

The only similar title was Red Dead Redemption.

And this time, the map developed by Nebula Games for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was simply too enormous.

Many players had already found the corresponding prototypes for the several fictional cities within it.

For example, Liberty City corresponds to New York City, Vice City to Miami, Los Santos to Los Angeles, and San Fierro to San Francisco.

A vast world is not necessarily a good thing for a game; if it doesn't make players feel alive enough, a large map can seem hollow.

So, many players were unnecessarily worried about Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, even though Nebula Games had proven its strength time and again.

But in recent years, quite a few excellent designers and game developers have stumbled. With such a large-scale scene construction, could Nebula Games also fail?

………………

Inside Nebula Games

Chen Xu was watching an in-game cinematic and explaining to the designer responsible for the animation script.

“It needs to be coherent, treating the story’s presentation like a movie. Why is it that in games, once the main quest starts, players are forced to complete it? Because the entire world is just a stage, and characters like Carl and Tommy in the game are the actors. The stage is built only for the actors to perform.”

“If you don’t understand, you can look at how Red Dead Redemption did it. Although the visual details and content are technically outdated, the core remains unchanged.”

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was one of the largest projects Nebula Games had developed to date, and even Chen Xu couldn't oversee everything. He was responsible for two main aspects, with the rest being jointly developed by other Nebula Games teams.

The animator and designer nodded while listening to Chen Xu, filled with emotion.

Running, vehicles, shooting – in addition to these, the game also featured countless derivative game systems.

If, in Persona, eating hamburgers, working part-time, or visiting maid cafes were just mini-activities that showed a cutscene and then increased stats, then in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, these had all become mini-games that players could experience.

Beyond that, the game contained all sorts of details, including every NPC on the street having a complete daily logic. If a player was bored enough to follow an NPC, they could even see them leave home and return in the evening.

Everyone involved in the project was also infected, frantically stuffing all sorts of detailed content into the game.

…………

As players anticipated day by day, Nebula Games also announced exciting news: the release date for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was set for December 25th, Christmas Day.

As for the price, it would be 2599 Yuan domestically and 499 USD for the overseas version.

This price immediately stunned many players because it was indeed too expensive. Compared to games on PC platforms, VR games are obviously much more expensive, especially with the arrival of the new generation of VR, the increased development costs have also led to an increase in game prices.

Many players complained about the price increase, but it was actually inevitable.

In fact, the industry generally takes three approaches in this area: the first is buy-to-play plus in-app purchases.

The second is buy-to-play, but with some content that originally belonged to the game split off and sold as DLC. For example, older games were complete hamburgers with bread, sides, and meat, while DLC was an extra patty. Now, it's a hamburger without the sides, and the DLC is no longer an extra patty but the original sides.

The last approach is much simpler and more direct: increase the price without changing the content.

Nebula Games has always followed this path, but the price of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City this time was indeed a bit startling.

Although a large number of players, upon seeing the price, expressed their apologies for being poor and left, for some players, it actually increased their anticipation.

Because after all these years, players were very clear about the character of Nebula Games and Chen Xu. It was impossible for them to act like some developers, especially those making niche ACG games, who priced their games carelessly, wishing their scythes were sharper to harvest more from their fans.

Since Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was selling for a high price, it meant that its development cost must be far higher than other games. These players immediately pre-ordered, then waited for the pre-download and game launch day to arrive, eager to see what extent the game could achieve and what kind of shocking experience it could bring them. (End of Chapter) <>