By the end of 2021, the fierce competition in the video game industry showed no signs of slowing down.
The moment Gamestar Electronic Entertainment left even the slightest gap in its release schedule, other game companies would swarm in like crazy.
These companies were completely helpless against Gamestar Electronic Entertainment—some were even outright afraid of it. They nicknamed it the Great Demon King of the game industry.
Wherever the Demon King appeared, nothing grew.
That's why any window in which Gamestar Electronic Entertainment didn't release a game became extraordinarily important—a battleground every company fought to seize.
In more extreme cases, some companies even launched public-opinion wars, openly smearing competitors.
Amid all this chaos, there was one game that, at the time, still seemed rather insignificant.
This game did not carry the name of Gamestar Electronic Entertainment.
Because it didn't originally belong to them, nor did it later formally join them.
Yet it received Gamestar Electronic Entertainment's full support—access to the latest technology and resources without reservation.
"Version 3.0 has entered the final testing phase. We can update according to plan!"
"The art team has already started the visual design for version 4.0. Boss, we can definitely finish ahead of schedule this time!"
This was the office of the Infinite World development team.
They were now working out of Gamestar Electronic Entertainment's former headquarters.
The standalone office building wasn't tall, its exterior worn and weathered, filled with traces of time—but the people inside were brimming with vitality.
Every one of them was looking forward to a better tomorrow, hoping their game would grow more and more popular.
And in truth, that was exactly what was happening.
From its disastrous launch and rock-bottom reputation, Infinite World had slowly, step by step, clawed its way out of the abyss.
Infinite World 2.0 was a version of tremendous significance.
It introduced sandbox construction mechanics and used the latest AI technology to generate random worlds.
The game's playability increased dramatically—enough to retain players who had still held a bit of interest, preventing them from easily abandoning the game again.
What's more, these players were now willing to actively recommend it to others.
"Infinite World is still not that fun," some would say, "but it's cheap. During sales it's only ten dollars—basically the price of two burgers."
"It has plenty of flaws, sure, but the devs didn't run away. They even have Gamestar Electronic Entertainment backing them with tech support. The future looks bright—it's like watching a stock slowly rise against the trend. You can't help but feel excited."
Players who heard these recommendations might still not feel interested—but an impression was planted.
Infinite World used to be terrible, but it had a team that refused to give up.
And the world often shows tolerance toward those who work hard and are willing to slowly turn something bad into something better.
Now, Infinite World 3.0 was about to launch—once again, completely free.
This update introduced even more advanced AI computation technology, along with visual improvements from the latest version of the Unreal Engine.
Multiplayer was no longer limited to four players. The game now supported over thirty-two players exploring the same world together.
According to future update plans, by versions 5.0 or 6.0, the multiplayer cap might expand even further.
At that point, Infinite World would truly have people—and with people came limitless possibilities.
Version 3.0 also brought a brand-new large-scale infrastructure system.
In simple terms, it directly integrated city-building gameplay—similar to SimCity—into Infinite World.
The game's world space was practically infinite.
Even if players spent their entire lives in it, they'd struggle to make such a vast world feel truly rich and full.
When the game first launched, many players jokingly said that Infinite World was basically an Infinite Wasteland.
The background lore talked about countless civilizations, cultures, and technologies.
But in actual gameplay, none of that felt achievable.
Even building just one or two decently sized civilizations required an enormous amount of effort.
Cyberpunk took years to create a Night City packed with detail.
Even with that experience, building the city in GTA V still took around two years.
For Infinite World's team—just over a hundred people—it was basically impossible to reach that level on their own.
So they needed a clever workaround.
If they couldn't create countless rich civilizations themselves—
Why not hand that power to the players?
That was exactly the goal of this large-scale city-building system.
Once players learned about it, many became deeply interested.
This world, after all, was never short on creative people.
As long as you gave them a stage, they could produce truly spectacular results.
Version 3.0 officially launched at the end of the year, accompanied by an even steeper discount.
For just seven dollars, players could buy Infinite World—a game that would continue to receive free updates.
The developers officially promised that there would be no paid content at least until version 5.0.
This instantly won over a lot of goodwill.
Through word of mouth, Infinite World began to see a modest surge in sales.
In the first three days after releasing version 3.0, the development team lived in constant anxiety.
They had no idea whether players would be satisfied with this update.
If players weren't satisfied, what would they do next?
If players were satisfied, what kind of content should they create next to meet players' now-raised expectations?
Whether the outcome was good or bad, the team seemed burdened with worry either way.
Success, it turned out, came with its own troubles.
Still, they naturally hoped for the best.
Three days later, player feedback started to pour in.
One particular player stood out—a professional urban planning designer.
He hadn't been recommended the game by anyone.
He simply saw Infinite World featured on the Battle.net platform, with keywords related to city planning and construction.
His professional instincts immediately kicked in.
Then he checked the price.
Seven dollars.
Even if it turned out to be bad, who cared?
He bought it, downloaded it, and played.
After about ten minutes of basic tutorial, the game let players freely explore, and the city-building system activated upon entering a new infinite world.
And so, his city-planning journey began.
For the city-building mechanics, the team had received meticulous guidance from Gamestar Electronic Entertainment's developers, and their control over details had grown increasingly refined.
So far, the developers had officially released ten distinct civilization tech-and-construction systems.
These systems couldn't be freely mixed, ensuring that each civilization retained its own unique style.
It was somewhat similar to Minecraft's redstone system—except here, there were ten different redstone-like variants.
They looked basic on the surface.
But their upper limit was infinite.