While Lucas and his team were developing "Super Mario Odyssey," "Animal Crossing," and porting old games.
Some big movements in the gaming world also took some of the attention away from Nebula Games' involvement in handheld consoles.
That was after the new year when a group of game companies, led by SkyNova, NetDragon, and the foreign company Atari, started promoting their new games.
Whether in China or abroad, everyone was using the same word to promote their games: open world.
Science fiction, city, magic; first-person shooter, action role-playing game, action game; no matter the theme, no matter the type.
Anyway, for public promotion, Zack's motto was "open world".
And the focus of the promotion was mainly on two points.
Big map, lots of tasks.
Clearly, these game companies were hoping to repeat the success of "Red Dead Redemption".
Truly making both fame and fortune.
At the same time, game companies were fighting tooth and nail in their advertising.
It couldn't be helped. Although players were indeed enthusiastic about open-world games.
But the problem was that so many of them were coming out at once, and they were all supposed to be big games.
This situation was a bit worrying.
Especially NetDragon and SkyNova in China, there was already some rivalry between them, plus they were both launching new games on the CosmosVR platform.
It could be said that these two companies were spending a lot of money on promotion.
NetDragon was developing a first-person shooter open-world game, where players play as an elite special forces team fighting drug gangs in a vast alien land.
SkyNova, on the other hand, was developing an old action game, which was part of a long-running series that had been declining. The main gameplay was simple hack-and-slash, and this time they wanted to use the open-world concept to make a big change.
Whether it was fun or not was still unknown, but at least in terms of advertising, NetDragon and SkyNova were going all out.
While these two companies were fighting to the death, Lucas was relaxed and carefree.
Let them fight, Nebula Games had no immediate plans for VR.
And the first version of the Switch prototype was already out.
Compared to the previous life, most of the technology in this parallel world was readily available.
Especially the HD rumble feature, Lucas simply tested it with a demo.
For example, landing from high in the air into water, gravel, mud, metal, or concrete, the vibration of the coil motors could provide good feedback.
It felt like the DualSense controller from his previous life.
In addition, Lucas also told Andrew to keep a close eye on the details.
At least avoid the famous "drifting" issue that the previous Switch had, where the joysticks would start drifting after only a couple of months of use, forcing players to spray WD-40 into them.
Controllers are consumables, they can't last forever, but the damage rate of the previous Switch's Joy-Cons was too high.
The current prototype was black, including the controllers and the console itself.
Different from the classic red and blue colors of the previous life.
Of course, the color was easy to change, you could have any color you wanted.
The overall design was not much different from the previous life, but the details had been modified many times, after all, the technology in this parallel world was different from the previous life.
The most obvious difference was that it was more durable, and the large black bezels that the original Switch had were also improved.
In addition, the Bluetooth support that was added to the Switch later in its life was now included from the start, as well as a built-in voice system.
Besides that, there was the issue of game cartridges.
Before this, Lucas had considered whether to include cartridges at all, since digital games were mainstream in this parallel world, and physical games were mostly for collectors.
However, in discussions with Andrew, Lucas also found that the cost of cartridges was not high in this parallel world, which led Lucas to decide to keep the cartridge slot.
Of course, like in the previous life, the cartridges would still have a bittering agent added, partly for safety and partly as a marketing point.
Lucas removed the Switch controllers from the console and then placed it on the dock to switch to TV mode.
Although there were no games optimized for it yet, there were some demo programs specifically made to test its functions.
It could be said that it was already very complete.
"Boss Lucas, what do you think?"
"Some of the details could be adjusted, but overall there are no major problems," Lucas said, nodding.
"Also, Boss Lucas, the cartridge samples have also been produced," Andrew said to Lucas.
The cartridges were not produced by them, but were outsourced. IQue was responsible for quality control.
The corresponding patents and brand had already been applied for.
The rest was to finalize the specifications and start production.
"Also, not just the Switch and cartridges, don't forget that we can make our own screen protectors, cases, and future controllers, including the dock and other accessories," Lucas said to Andrew.
"Ah!?" Andrew was taken aback by Lucas's words.
"The Switch's screen is touch-sensitive, shouldn't players buy a screen protector to put on it?"
"And the protective case, like a phone case for a phone, the Switch is a portable handheld console, shouldn't it have a case?"
"And although the Joy-Con controllers are good enough, that doesn't mean players don't need a normal controller."
"Also, there's the Switch carrying case, just because the game console itself doesn't make money doesn't mean other aspects can't make money."
"Of course, set the price right, don't make it too expensive, don't just have the official name but no value for money," Lucas said to Andrew.
When the Switch handheld console is released, most of these accessories are what players will need.
If players need them, then they definitely have to make them.
......
The days passed, nearing May.
The main topic online was still NetDragon and SkyNova's two new games.
There were no new releases during this time.
However, "Red Dead Redemption" and "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" got a boost from their version updates.
And for many players, what they were looking forward to was the annual Gameplay Convention at the end of May.
It could be said that this year's convention was something that many players were looking forward to.
Because the recent advertising war between NetDragon and SkyNova meant that the two companies would be fighting each other fiercely at this Convention.
But it was at this time that a rumor spread.
That was that Nebula Games would also be participating in this Convention.
And at the Convention, they would be bringing news of a new handheld console and new games.
This instantly attracted the attention of all players and industry designers and manufacturers.
(End of Chapter)
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