Toy Story is a great story, but no doubt it also drew crowds simply by being the first feature-length computer-generated film. Likewise, Quantum Country probably benefited a great deal simply from looking new and shiny, irrespective of its actual benefits.
This is one advantage of developing media projects in the context of new-media experiments: those media projects may get significantly more attention than they would “on their own merits.” Of course, one must be careful not to over-index on this kind of attention. Novelty fades, and only durably-valuable media and media projects will remain.