u/Medium_Jacket8867

The biggest reason Chinese players believe is to prevent physical copies from leaking early.

Even the slightest change in the marketing and promotional strategy can have a huge impact. If physical copies were available at launch and some people managed to get the game early through leaked copies, gameplay videos would be all over the internet the very next day. All kinds of people would start nitpicking the game, and the community could get caught up in endless controversies even before the official release.

One example:

BMW has an almost unimaginable level of attention in China. Even without a physical release at launch, the opening CG was still leaked through an off-screen recording. After release, some people even used cheats to finish the game in a very short time, picking out all kinds of things to criticize—for example, claiming that the game “disrespects the original.” They then went on to call the game garbage. There were even absurd rumors about a secret ending unlocked after multiple playthroughs, supposedly called “Storming the Heavenly Court.” And when people eventually discovered that there was no such secret ending, some of them started criticizing the developers for not making multiple endings.

Secondly, Chinese players are predominantly PC gamers, while console users make up a relatively small portion of the market. Combined with Steam's relatively low regional pricing, the lack of a physical release actually has a fairly limited impact on Chinese players.

PB0 also has a very high level of attention in China. Their pre-order video posted on August 12 surpassed 10 million views within just a few days. They will most likely follow a similar promotional strategy to BMW, which means not having a physical release at launch.

Last year, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 winning Best Indie Game quite a bit of controversy over what exactly qualifies as an “indie” game at TGA.

For reference, what we know about E33:

• Publisher: Kepler Interactive, an independent joint publisher
• Reported development budget: Under $10 million
• LinkedIn employee count at the time: Approximately 33 employees

This year, however, there appear to be at least two games that go beyond those benchmarks:

• No Rest for the Wicked — The Early Access version was published by Private Division, a Take-Two subsidiary. In 2025, Moon Studios bought back the publishing rights. Moon Studios currently has 116 employees listed on LinkedIn, and its total investment in the game was likely well above $10 million.
• Order of the Sinking Star — reported development budget of over $27 million.

I'm very curious whether these two games will be nominated for the Best Independent Game category.

I’d like to know what everyone in this channel thinks about this year’s indie games.

https://preview.redd.it/9nuy7zj0zjdh1.png?width=1593&format=png&auto=webp&s=99387a1f73e1bd7e0ddaf81741b7d69d69061d01

I don't remember seeing this in any of the previous promotional materials. It almost looks like an extremely long necktie, but that feels a bit out of place.

https://preview.redd.it/2d53b9o4zjdh1.png?width=1572&format=png&auto=webp&s=37757a2d2dfc0bbce2eb0162bb54e234a64a6841

https://preview.redd.it/pxpj0jp5zjdh1.png?width=564&format=png&auto=webp&s=37c89651ec28fb813c7a0210a565a2e7ac09a213

Does anyone know what it's supposed to be? Is it part of the outfit, some kind of accessory, or something else entirely?

I have a theory about how the gameplay loop might work.

Out of match, I think players may choose some kind of lineage/background and then lean toward either a PvE or PvP playstyle. Instead of being purely cosmetic, that choice could affect score gains. A PvE-oriented player might get more points from bosses and enemies, while a PvP-oriented player gets rewarded more for killing players and stealing their score.

During a match, I think there could be two layers of objectives.

The first would be character-specific objectives. Depending on who you're playing, you might get goals such as finding a companion, confronting a rival, or defeating a particular boss. These wouldn't necessarily determine who wins, but they'd be a major source of points.

The second layer would be global objectives that affect everyone in the match. For example, a match could eventually shift into a mandatory PvE finale where players have to defeat a final boss.

I also suspect matches are time-limited. Once enough points have been earned across the match, extraction points become available and players have to decide whether to leave or stay.

As for the companions shown in some screenshots, my guess is that players without a companion-related objective can eventually summon Spirit Ashes. These summons would be simplified versions of playable characters rather than full characters themselves.

Just speculation, but I feel like this could explain some of the seemingly contradictory information we've seen so far.