On May 4th, an order was passed from the capital to Dragon game stores around the world, "Diablo 1" was open for supply, and the limited 3-day sales were finally lifted, and the stores around the country called to notify players to come to buy, and the stores were open 24 hours a day, and the game boxes that had been prepared were moved out of the warehouse, and various small gifts of dark figures were sent with the game.

After multiple rounds of media exposure and publicity, coupled with demonstrations and protests, professional trial reviews, and players' word of mouth, in the next week, the sales of "Diablo 1" exploded, with a total of 1.4 million copies sold worldwide, Europe, America and Japan contributed more than 80% of sales, and even the poor market of Chinese mainland occupied about 3%, which is really shocking!

"This is really the most anticipated RPG of the year, it is an enhanced version of Warcraft 1, and it allows PC gamers to really experience what it means to be a high-quality TV game, they should be envious of SS players who have enjoyed high-quality games for so many years, right?" ——The magazine "Home Game Video Game World" commented that this is equivalent to advertising TV games and giving a super high score.

"Longteng products, must be high-quality! For those players who have been waiting for a year, it's finally time to enjoy, and it's all worth it! "Popular Software" made such a summary after a large period of game evaluation, and for the first time publicly spread the eight-character standard to the world, this sentence was almost unanimously agreed, because this is the truth, and there is no water.

"Subverting the rules of Western magic, this is a new Dark World Realm!"

"I've only been in the game for three days, but I'm already looking forward to its next installment. Oh my God, I'm afraid it's going to be another two or three years! But I think it's worth it! Diablo 1. It's a lot of fun! ”

"Compared to those simple and crude DND table games, the dizzying rules are explained. There is also a dice action that is boring to the extreme, Diablo 1 is so satisfying! Perhaps, in the future, I will only remember the DND game of Dragon Lance Chronicles, and nothing else is worth mentioning, because I have become a complete dark fan! ”

Players have praised the game, initially after a year-long patient wait, then artificially delayed due to the development of the PC version, and finally the release of the game, but the purchase is restricted, and these anger and frustration have been shattered after playing the game. Everyone is very satisfied, and they don't say anything that makes people feel discouraged, thinking that the wait and suffering are very worthwhile.

Almost at a fast speed, "Diablo 1" fanfiction, some difficult boss game strategies, players' abuse or abuse experience has sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and at the same time, the habit of team battles through the Internet has begun to slowly develop, and PC games and SS games have been in contact with each other from the physical level for the first time.

SS consoles require an external modem on the M-side interface to connect the console to the network with a standard telephone line.

The same goes for PCs. Although the configuration of the two is different, the game version is the same, you can choose the Internet battle mode in the game, and at the same time enter Longteng's free Battle.net server to see other players and build a new game. Or join a game created by someone else, invite strangers to fight together, or join a few friends on a journey into the dark world.

Although the maximum number of players in online battles is four. The 20 free IP servers offered by Longteng in the early days were often unstable, and the speed of the modem and telephone line was too slow. Network latency varies from country to country around the world, and a whole bunch of bugs have popped up in the game. The compatibility between SS and PC is also unstable, but all this can't stop the excitement of players.

This is the first large-scale RPG game that can be played online, those best-selling RPGs in history are all stand-alone versions, "Diablo 1" tells players that they can find friends who can play together without leaving home, and no longer have to worry about not finding a playmate, this is the gospel for tens of millions of gamers on the SS platform, they will no longer be lonely, they will also step into the Internet age!

"The Great Tarasha, the Great Hedirham", a review of the game's historical materials that has been published and reprinted in several game magazines and newspapers, tells the story of the life of the great mage Tarasha.

Players tracing every little detail in the game, carefully studying every sentence of Decca Kane, and then carefully reading the official dark novel, and finally adding a complete story of Tarasa in their minds, he fought hard in his early years, had unlimited scenery in middle age, and made great sacrifices for mankind in his later years, he can be called the greatest mage of the Hedirum Organization for thousands of years, and he was moved by his legendary life.

"The Autobiography of Skeletron Leorik", this anonymous fanfiction is based on the basic setting of the official novel of Dragon, but in the town of Tristram, in a court deeply invaded by religion and nobility, the author himself supplements a lot of royal battles, the struggle between faith and reality, and complements the growth and fall of Leorik as a hero almost flawlessly.

The article even received official praise from Longteng, and many people found that the style of the article was almost exactly the same as that of the "Dragon Lance Chronicle", which made people suspect that this was the anonymous work of the original author, but no one admitted it!

"The Butcher Evolution Trilogy", co-signed by the famous American best-selling author Brian and game critic Rory, uses humorous words to conduct an in-depth analysis of the Butcher in the Dark, from his normal life, to the slaughter of ordinary human inhabitants after the fall into darkness, and even the use of a smashing axe to kill the crispy mages and archers in seconds, designed a hilarious sitcom, which aroused the great attention of the dragon, and publicly issued a statement inviting them to do screenwriting work for Diablo movies in the future.

There are many, many more, the dark storm has swept the world, and the improved version of "Diablo 1" has conquered the hearts of players all over the world at the game level.

At the same time, behind the game, in those business fields that players find a little boring, a dazzling series of related acquisitions and cooperation plans have been announced, and careful game peers have sorted out all the matters, but they can't figure it out one by one.

On May 10, the British Deputy Prime Minister visited China with a large business delegation, and the next day there were results, many large British enterprises have married with Chinese enterprises to find partners to jointly develop the Chinese market, among which Pearson Publishing Group has reached a strategic partnership with Longteng Entertainment Game Company, and the two sides have in-depth development of video games and related publishing industries.

Pearson Group sold SSI Studios to Longman Hong Kong Press for an ultra-low price of US$1 million, Longman Publishing began to produce English versions of Longteng company-related game stories and Chinese cultural backgrounds, and Longman Publishing cooperated with Tsinghua University Press to produce Longman English book series......

This series of cooperation plans is easy to understand, Pearson will SSI as a meeting gift to Longteng, Longteng to help match, for Pearson to expand the Chinese market, this is a win-win situation.

The crux of the matter is that TSR, the company that developed the DND rules, was not acquired by Longteng or taken by EA, and they knew that they were the focus of contention, so they quoted a $120 million cash and debt purchase price, and they desperately needed cash to keep them afloat!

The offer of $120 million is too high, Long Teng doesn't want to, and he can't afford to pay for it, and Yang Yun has no intention of spending this money to buy TSR at a high price.

EA didn't want to, they came at most to pick up the leaks, and after their playtesters played Diablo 1 in depth, they gave a frustrating answer, if EA acquired TSR, they would definitely be able to sue Success Dragon for infringing arcade games, but they had more than half a chance of not being able to pull Diablo 1 down, and their win rate was not high.

With the exception of EA, there are no other fourth-party interested buyers who want to compete with Dragon in the head-to-head game of table games and DND games.

Now it is a multi-party stalemate, TSR is unwilling to lower their own value, they become the next Distinctive, in the confrontation between Longteng and EA, no one dares to take over, no one dares to interfere, everyone is watching them go to the brink of bankruptcy.

"God, please send someone to save the DND rules and games!" Die-hard and die-hard gamers have called for someone in the world to stand up and buy the full set of DND rights from TSR, and then continue to develop pure DND games.

It's a pity that after recognizing the facts, looking at the global best-selling of Diablo 1, which is based on DND rules and is very different from DND, few companies are willing to take over this mess.

"Longteng Company, please continue to develop pure DND games after acquiring SSI and obtaining DND's official exclusive PC game adaptation authorization!" Players can only hope for Longteng, a professional game production company that will develop a pure DND RPG game that is no less than the Final Fantasy series.

It's a pity that the Dragon Teng Company never responds positively to this request of the players, as long as someone asks, they never give a positive answer, they only recommend "Diablo 1", no one knows the true thoughts of the Dragon.

"TSR, Dragon is definitely trying to replace the pure DND with Diablo 1, please lower the price and sell it to other third-party independent companies! If this continues, the DND rules will become a pile of waste paper in a year or two, and no one in the world will play this kind of game again! "The pessimistic die-hard players eventually came to TSR's door, and they were heartbroken.

TSR was silent, the $120 million asking price was not high, and it would take $20 million to maintain daily cash flow, and they had to pay for the printing of the publishing house, pay the royalties for new books, pay various transportation and sales costs, and tens of millions of dollars in debt, and the board refused to cut the price.

It's a dead knot that no one can untie. (To be continued......)