Meng Chang had already assigned people to thoroughly investigate on the AiLiDao website and other video platforms, specifically looking for content creators with large followings and notorious histories of paid promotions, or those with few followers and little influence.
The VR headset didn’t have the game “Animal Island” installed, only a few ordinary VR games currently available on the market.
Because this promotional plan was meant to advertise the VR headset itself, there was no mention of promoting the game, right?
Games getting delayed by a week or two or even half a month due to various reasons—wasn’t that normal and reasonable?
A delay of just half a month—could that even be called a delay?
He really disliked how inexperienced some people were.
When the time came, these content creators would certainly lavish praise on the headset, but players wouldn’t have the headsets themselves.
These content creators wouldn’t be able to prove that the headset was as amazing as they claimed.
Furthermore, Tenda would sign a confidentiality agreement with them, prohibiting them from mentioning the specific parameters of the headset before its official release.
Ostensibly this was to prevent leaks, but in reality, it was to avoid drawing too much unnecessary attention due to the headset’s high specifications.
These content creators were either not very famous or had prior histories of malicious paid promotions. Combined with Chi Xing Studio and Meng Chang’s bad reputation, everyone would surely suspect they were being paid to promote.
Even if they livestreamed, it wouldn’t help. When VR visuals are projected onto a screen, the unique immersive experience of VR is completely lost. Moreover, the headset didn’t have the “Animal Island” game at all, so they could only stream existing VR games, which would have no effect whatsoever.
In addition to the promotional video and previous groundwork raising players’ expectations to an extreme level, when the true face of this headset was revealed, it would surely leave players greatly disappointed!
This way, after some time, they could officially release the headset.
By then, the hype would have been sufficiently suppressed, and sales would definitely be poor.
Wouldn’t that complete the reverse publicity plan?
The plan was perfect—the key was whether any problems would arise during execution.
Meng Chang rushed to contact the 100 carefully selected content creators, signing electronic agreements with them, then packaging and express shipping the Doubt VR headsets to them.
His desired effect was that, ideally, after the VR headset promotional video was released tomorrow night, a batch of experience videos and livestreams about the headset would immediately appear online!
Although the previous groundwork had already filled players with skepticism about this VR headset, there were still some people looking forward to it.
If this anticipation was allowed to continually ferment without releasing the actual product, the hype might actually increase.
Therefore, it was essential to let players see the actual product as quickly as possible. Only by experiencing this huge psychological gap in a short time would their anticipation transform into a feeling of being deceived, generating hatred for this headset born from love!
……
……
July 4th, Wednesday.
Today, Qiao Liang wasn’t at Chi Xing Studio but was instead resting at home.
Because his work on “Animal Island” had already concluded.
Up to now, the main work on “Animal Island” had been making changes to the game’s tutorials according to Mr. Pei’s requirements. The core content and general gameplay had already been completed.
Although this game had received considerable investment, it wasn’t the type of game that required massive content or level creation. Instead, it was a casual game with all its storylines taking place on a single island, and its everyday gameplay consisting of various mini-games. The scope wasn’t that large, so development progressed relatively quickly.
Next, he could more or less wait for the official release of the final version of this game.
Although Qiao Liang had a lot he wanted to tell his fans, he restrained himself.
When Meng Chang had previously brought him to Chi Xing Studio to test this game, he had mentioned that he hoped Qiao Liang would keep the project confidential and prevent any information from leaking online, as it might affect the promotional plan.
At that time, Qiao Liang had readily agreed.
Although later Qiao Liang had been baited in his fan group, causing the “Eternal Loop” misunderstanding, since then he had diligently remembered this point and hadn’t revealed any new information about “Animal Island” in his fan group.
This included the recent heated online discussions about the relationship between Chi Xing Studio and Tenda Group—Qiao Liang had remained silent throughout.
Because he believed that once the game was released, everything would naturally come to light and the truth would be revealed!
Although Tenda and Chi Xing Studio were indeed in an investment relationship, the game concept came from Mr. Pei, and Lin Wan, the person in charge, was originally the head of Shangyang Games. This was a genuine Tenda game in every sense!
But why did Tenda specifically post a Weibo to distance themselves…
Perhaps it was to avoid putting too much pressure on Lin Wan!
After all, the title of “Tenda’s orthodox sequel” was too heavy a burden—not everyone could bear it. If players’ initial expectations were too high, and the game failed to meet them when released, it wouldn’t be good for Lin Wan, who had just established Chi Xing Studio.
Therefore, Qiao Liang hadn’t paid much attention to the online discussions but was patiently waiting for the promotional video.
Because once the promotional video was released, it would mean that Tenda’s promotional campaign was officially launching, and everything would naturally get back on track!
Someone knocked on the door—it was the regular delivery time for Slackin’ Delivery.
Qiao Liang took his dinner from the delivery person, sat down at his computer, and opened the AiLiDao website while eating, planning to watch a random video with his meal.
At that moment, he saw a new update that had just been published.
“Hmm? The VR headset promotional video is finally out!”
“I wonder how good this video is? So excited!”
Qiao Liang immediately clicked on the video to watch.
While others knew nothing about this VR headset, Qiao Liang was very well aware of how amazing it was!
Compared to current VR headsets on the market, even those mainstream ones already commercially available and mass-produced abroad, Doubt VR was not at all inferior. In fact, it surpassed them comprehensively in many detailed aspects.
Whether it was in terms of hardware specifications, controller functionality and overall design, or system software compatibility, it was exceptionally well done.
Qiao Liang could imagine how the perfect promotional video should be shot.
First, it should definitely show true renderings of the Doubt VR headset, especially giving a close-up of the two unique controllers, explaining the functions of each part in detail, to create a strong first impression for viewers.
Next, it should list the detailed specifications of the VR headset, including the resolution and refresh rate of the two lenses, the machine’s chip configuration, and features like wired or wireless streaming.
Finally, it should mention the new game, right? “Animal Island VR” was a game fully developed to complement Doubt VR, and many of the VR headset’s features could only be fully utilized in the “Animal Island” game.
Find a photogenic, sunny pretty girl, have her wear the VR headset and perform some archery or shooting actions, paired with scenes of the cute animal characters from “Animal Island” game doing the same archery or shooting…
Wouldn’t that cover everything?
Qiao Liang felt that even he could handle this kind of promotional plan.
It was so simple!
The key was that the product itself was already impressive enough—if the promotional plan just followed the usual steps, nothing could possibly go wrong.
For a product like this, trying to mess up the promotional plan would be an extremely challenging and skillful task.
Qiao Liang had noticed that the name of this promotional video wasn’t “VR Headset Promotional Video” but rather “VR Era Concept Promotional Video.”
However, he didn’t pay much attention to it, thinking perhaps they just called it that to sound more high-end, but the content should still be the same.
While Qiao Liang was freely imagining the promotional video’s content, the video had already started playing.
……
In a pure white void, a slightly disheveled young man was staring blankly at two buttons on a pure white platform in front of him.
One button was blue, labeled “Virtual” underneath, while the other button was red, labeled “Real.”
After a brief moment of indecision, the young man reached out and pressed the blue “Virtual” button.
Then, a very small, sleek VR headset resembling sunglasses appeared on the pure white platform.
The young man picked up the headset and put it on.
In that instant, he suddenly transported to a snow-covered forest.
The camera quickly rose for an aerial shot. The young man was running on a long, empty road in the forest, with towering pine trees covered in snow on both sides, rapidly receding as the camera moved.
The scene changed, and the young man, now dressed in a full high-tech outfit, arrived at a place resembling a high-tech temple. All around were deep gray, cold, angular metal pillars, with the spacious temple hall extending beyond sight.
The young man ran wildly through this cold hall. As he ran, the scenery on both sides rapidly changed, sometimes becoming a vast desert, sometimes a surging sea…
There was also a scene in the vast cosmic universe, where the protagonist was running wildly in a starship while an insect swarm had torn through the ship’s hull and was pursuing him…
The young man’s body gradually became rigid as he ran. His body seemed to freeze, becoming like a slide show, only able to strike a series of freeze-frame poses, his face filled with terror.
Suddenly, the pure white platform appeared before him again. This time, he used all his strength to rush over and forcefully pressed the red button labeled “Real.”
The moment he pressed it, everything around him collapsed with a thunderous crash!
The high-tech outfit he was wearing also vanished without a trace, turning back into his original everyday clothes.
Finally, the young man, still shaken, took off the VR headset he had been wearing and threw it far away.
The fragile VR headset hit a wall and flew back, bouncing on the ground before falling, continuously rolling, ultimately shattering into pieces.
The young man looked around and found that he had returned to the real world—his familiar bedroom, desk, and computer. But on the computer screen, there was a special logo and a line of small text.
This special logo was Chi Xing Studio’s logo with a horizontal line crossing through the center, and the small text read: “The age of virtual reality is coming!”
The young man let out a long sigh, clearly realizing that what he had seen was just his own hallucination, perhaps from falling asleep and having a nightmare.
He picked up the water glass on the table and got up to get some water.
But after he turned and left, in an inconspicuous corner of the room, a potted plant suddenly became distorted, with different colored blocks mixing into a mosaic.
Like a glitch in a game.