As a mage, I just want to pursue the truth

Chapter 137 Soul Game
In recent years, soul-like games such as "Elden Ring" and "Sekiro" have become very popular.

Especially this year, "Elden Ring" jointly created by Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin has gained both fame and fortune, and received praise from countless players.

So much so that in the competition within Tencent, the system planner in Chen Ran's team wanted to make a soul-based VR game.

The level of realism in VR is definitely not inferior to that of console graphics, and Tencent has no shortage of artistic talent.

Chen Chi insisted: "If we just make an RPG game without any new ideas, we can just change the skin and redesign the weapon system according to the popular ones in the market."

"It is safer to make some micro-innovations based on this, such as designing some unique weapon systems and combat methods."

“But I don’t think we’ll make it out of 50 groups.”

Chen Chi is the system planner of this team. He and Chen Ran both joined Tencent after graduating from university.

Although they did not graduate from the same school, they are from the same family and joined Tencent through campus recruitment in the same year. They are both avid game enthusiasts, so they have a good relationship.

Not only colleagues at work, but also friends in life.

Chen Chi originally thought that Chen Ran would support his idea. Soul-related games, 3A masterpieces, combined with brain-computer VR connection, just thinking about it made his blood boil.

Chen Ran insisted on his idea: "We are making RPG games, with PVE and PVP running in parallel, and we will make the plan as perfect as possible. I believe in the strength of our team."

"With the same ingredients, different chefs can make different flavors."

He hopes to focus innovation on combat methods and a unique weapon crafting system.

There is only one old tradition in Tencent Games: you can become stronger only by spending money.

Players can spend money to become stronger and enjoy the thrill of mowing down enemies in the virtual world.

Chen Chi was a little angry: "Haven't we made enough of those things? Are we only able to make these krypton gold games for the rest of our lives?"

“Make the numbers fit the pay-to-win curve, and then make a game that can generate super high profits.”

Chen Ran explained: "It is very difficult to make a game with super high profits and super high turnover."

Chen Chi nodded. "Of course I know it's difficult. It's boring and hard to make a hit. Why can't we take a different path this time? Mark said in the internal meeting that he encourages everyone to make hardcore VR games."

"You need to calm down. The hardcore that Mark is talking about is probably not the same as your understanding of hardcore." Chen Ran tried to comfort him. "We can indeed make soul-based games, but have you ever thought about the most critical issue?"

Chen Chi reacted quickly: "Are you talking about the edition number?"

Chen Ran nodded: "Yes, Elden Ring couldn't get a game license, and Monster Hunter also couldn't get a game license back then."

It is almost impossible for a Souls-like game to get a publishing license. Let’s put it this way, many foreign 3A masterpieces want to get a Chinese game publishing license. They either have to make major changes or just forget about it.

Even with major changes, it is still difficult to get it.

The PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds at that time had been modified based on the opinions, but it still failed to obtain a game license.

"We are making a Souls-like game on VR, but we can't get a license and can't sell it in the country."

"Do we have to rely entirely on European and American players to pay for our services? I'm afraid the cultural barriers are not that easy to overcome."

"China does not have the foundation for the success of this type of game, so it is difficult for us to gain the trust of players."

Chen Chi said directly: "Back then, Hidetaka Miyazaki's first game was a huge success."

"And the biggest factor in our success is the unique gaming experience brought by brain-computer connection VR."

"I believe we can combine brain-computer connection, VR operation mode and super hardcore PVE." The two were on the 29th floor of the Tencent building, looking at the night view of Pengcheng, which was still emitting dense lights under the night sky.

This is a rare opportunity, and everyone knows it.

It is not only because the company attaches importance to it, but the more important reason is that after they got the samples provided by Ke Chuang Future, they realized that it does have technical advantages that are difficult to match with other VR devices.

Other VR devices need to spend chip computing power to predict the player's movement direction, but brain-computer connected VR does not need this, so this part of computing power is completely saved.

At the same time, the brain-computer connection VR also has the first-generation AI chip independently developed by Ke Chuang Bio.

Not only is brain-computer connection optimized, but it can also provide some computing power for graphics processing.

Chen Chi continued: "Have you forgotten our dream when we first joined Tencent?"

"I think we shouldn't just run around for a house, work hard to meet assessments, and fight not to be optimized at the age of 35."

Both of them have an annual salary of nearly one million yuan. Having worked in the game development department of Tencent for more than five years, there are many who have reached this income level.

It’s just that the housing prices in Pengcheng are even more outrageous than those in Shenhai, and can be said to be the most outrageous among first-tier cities.

Even with their income level, they can only barely afford to buy a house in Pengcheng.

Chen Ran was moved. He pondered for a while and said, "If we want to do it, we must do it before foreign game companies react."

“If we wait for From Software to react, whether it’s porting their Souls-related games to brain-computer VR or making a new Souls-related VR game, we will be very passive.”

From Software is the developer of "Sekiro", "Dark Soul" and "Elden Ring", and is a famous soul-series game developer.

Although the market for Souls-series games is not monopolized by a single game manufacturer, with FromSoftware in the lead, the sales of Souls-series games made by Tencent are bound to be affected.

Souls-based games are one-time deals, unlike RPG online games that can set up various pay-to-win points for you to spend money.

Of course, maybe the soul-like games made by Tencent can also come up with pay-to-win points.

Just like no one had thought before that games like "The Legend of Zelda" could have in-game purchase points.

Chen Ran was convinced by Chen Chi, and when he shared their ideas with other members of the team, everyone was excited.

There are eight people in their team, including producer, system planner, numerical planner, copywriter, concept artist, scene artist, UI artist, and character artist.

Except for game development, other staff configurations are basically complete.

“I’ve wanted to do something different for a long time!”

"It's really meaningless to make pay-to-win games. If you repeat the same games on brain-computer VR, it's really meaningless."

"I think so too, but if we need to make a soul-based game, we have to think carefully about how to make it unique."

"Especially when combined with VR, although movement in VR is achieved directly by the brain, its controller buttons are limited, and the combat methods are definitely limited."

"I think we need to maximize the impact and feedback of the offense on the move."

"These are just some of the details that need to be done. We have a lot to do, and everyone needs to work hard for a while."

I am a casual player and I like watching others play the Ring of Elden, but when I actually play it myself, I really don’t like the feeling of being abused, hahaha.

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(End of this chapter)