After ending the visit to Demon Dragon Studio, Chen Ba and his team attended this year’s Zhonghai Game Exhibition.

At the exhibition, he announced the official name and some selling points of the new game.

The new game is tentatively named "Cultivation Fantasy," a large-scale multiplayer online role-playing game with a fantasy theme.

This is also just pie in the sky...

Although the name and theme of the new game were revealed, it’s clear that apart from a few AI-generated promotional images, "Cultivation Fantasy" doesn’t have anything else.

They haven’t even made a trailer.

So in the eyes of many people, Ba’s move is nothing more than drawing a pie. The game is definitely not ready, it might not even have started development, yet the promotional activities have already begun?

Complaints aside, this isn’t the first time Ba has drawn a pie. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Moreover, this time, the pie he drew is clearly more eye-catching and appealing to players compared to previous ones.

Fantasy MMO?

Wow, this is shocking news for everyone all year round. Tianba Studio is going to make an MMO? And the theme is fantasy, which everyone loves?

It sounds super cool!

The only suspense is whether Tianba Studio, which has never made an MMO before, can create a great game? And what payment model will this MMO adopt?

"Ba, will the game be monetized?"

This is the question Chen Ba hears most frequently and is also a common concern among players.

MMOs are notorious for being money pits, a fact acknowledged in the gaming world. Players who’ve played MMO games know that if these games use a subscription model, it’s acceptable, but if they are free-to-play...

No doubt, in pursuit of top rankings, pouring in tens or hundreds of thousands might not even make a splash.

Don’t think it’s exaggerated!

MMOs have a very low entry threshold, especially free-to-play ones, flooded with many zero-cost freeloaders who not only don’t spend money but try to earn from the game.

But excluding these zero-cost and small-spending players, the upper limits of MMO games can be astonishing, making people exclaim it’s exaggerated!

From Chen Ba’s experience, the upper limits of MMO games primarily depend on two aspects.

One is the competitive intensity of various leaderboards!

If the leaderboard competition in your server is intense, with many heavy-spenders, and high prices in the market, then the upper limit can be significantly raised.

The second is the game’s inherent upper limit.

In some games, a major version update might require spending several thousand dollars to reach the limit. Spending more becomes meaningless because the content of the update is limited.

Take the Mi Family’s classic card pool as an example.

A new version features a character pool and a weapon pool, and the cost to draw characters and weapons to their full extent is the upper limit of that version.

The two models each have their merits.

Overall, games that control monetization limits through version updates generally have friendlier spending levels that won’t deter average players.

Because the version upper limit is there, even hardcore spenders can’t create an insurmountable gap from regular players.

Games with no upper limit that test the thickness of players’ wallets are quite terrifying. Players at the top of the leaderboards might be able to annihilate a group of zero-cost freeloaders with a single strike, a pure power-fantasy grass-cutting experience.

"We want to be the former."

Addressing players’ concerns and worries, Chen Ba said to Lu beside him, "Control the game’s spending with version updates, it shouldn’t become a pure spenders’ playground."

"So it’s still a free game?"

"No choice, the market conditions dictate it, players just prefer these no-barrier free games."

Chen Ba said helplessly, "Moreover, in terms of revenue stream alone, free games are indeed impressive! With an attractive monetization event, we can earn monthly revenue equivalent to a year’s worth of a subscription game."

What?

You’re saying subscription games have strong longevity, it’s common for a game to operate for ten years? Free games are just fast food, earning big money in the first few years and then declining?

You’re absolutely right, that’s indeed the case.

But is there a possibility that the money made by free games in their first few years already exceeds the income of a subscription game operating for ten or even twenty years?

Fast food is indeed fast food, free games don’t last long, and they become increasingly weak in the later stages, which is also a fact.

But every coin has two sides.

Free games in the first two years of operation can be incredibly lucrative! They can earn in two years what a subscription game earns in ten years, who still wants to play "slow and steady"?

"Cultivation Fantasy" has to be a free game, and can only be a free game.

Chen Ba has considered subscription fees, and also considered long-term operation like World of Warcraft, but eventually he gave up.

As they say, wild pigs can’t eat fine chaff, players choose free games, so don’t blame the game developers for voting with their feet.

The main revenue source of free games is the in-game store.

And for "Cultivation Fantasy," Chen Ba has already thought up a basic monetization scheme.

The game has a tribulation crossing mechanism!

Each time you break through a major realm, you will face the cleansing of lightning tribulations. Successfully crossing will raise your realm, failing the tribulation will drop you back a stage, making all previous efforts futile.

If you want to cross a tribulation smoothly and painlessly, you’ll need to spend money.

Merit can also reduce the power of the lightning tribulation.

However, the difficulty of obtaining merit is very high. Comparatively, spending money to buy Tribulation Crossing Pills and Realm-Breaking Pills is a higher value.

"Can’t you cross a tribulation without spending money?"

"Of course you can!"

Chen Ba looked at Lu with a look of disbelief, saying, "If you couldn’t cross a tribulation without spending money, wouldn’t our game turn into an exclusive realm for wealthy spenders?"