Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 387: Chapter 374: A Completely Different Choice

Translator: 549690339

An hour before the monthly meeting in Cloud Dream started, the high-level meeting of NetDragon kicked off.

The main focus was crystal clear – the first large-scale DLC for “Blaze 3”, “Red Flame”, was going to be launched soon.

In the face of the complex situation that NetDragon currently faced, this release is very critical!

When Jason’s development team finished developing the DLC ahead of time, they were extremely excited.

Because they all believe that the scale of the “Red Flame” DLC could be considered super large-scale!

In terms of map design, plot missions, NPC creation, combat system expansion, and many more aspects, it was almost equivalent to developing a new game.

When they reported to the company, everyone felt satisfied, believing that they had completed an impressive task.

The feeling was particularly strong for Jason, the team leader.

God knows how tough it was to rebuild a group of disgruntled, intending to resign, and resentful individuals whose morale had hit rock bottom, into a team that surpassed expectations by completing the work not only on time but also excellently!

And he finally accomplished all of this!

His receding hairline, his premature gray hair, his deteriorating health, all testified to his dedication!

His excitement was ineffable, and he was completely immersed in the euphoria of success.

Until – Cloud Dream announced the closed beta and release date of “Speed Chase”.

Just like after the hottest day of summer, the days will only become cooler; if ripe apples are not picked in time, they will fall and rot; after the tide reaches its peak, it will start to recede. Ever since that day, Jason’s heart started sinking constantly.

Seeing how “Speed Chase” attracted all the players and media’s attention in the blink of an eye, no matter how much they tried to hype and release new materials and information, they could not pull the players’ attention back.

Even though the number of players had surged several times, the enthusiasm they received was far worse than when “Blaze 2” released a DLC!

How could this not make Jason feel helpless and disheartened?

Now, the only consolation for him was that “Speed Chase” and “Blaze 3·Red Flame” are on different platforms and won’t be in direct competition.

Even if they were entirely eclipsed by the hype, it would be challenging to further stimulate the sales of the game itself through the release of the DLC.

At least the existing player group won’t miss this news, and the likelihood of them purchasing is very high.

The majority of players who were originally dissatisfied with the game’s ending would still want to continue playing it, wouldn’t they?

Of course, this would also create a problem:

If the sales of the base game do not grow, the sales of the DLC could only rely on players who have already purchased the base game.

And a significant portion of these players are entitled to the “Free DLC” treatment – a desperate measure they had to take to salvage the game’s reputation.

And now, it’s time to bear the cost of that measure.

This also means that the sales of the DLC could easily hit a ceiling, making it tough to meet NetDragon’s expectations.

For this reason, Richard’s question about “sales expectations” became tough to answer.

In the end, all Jason could say was: “We can look forward to the word-of-mouth effect.”

Players used to VR gaming won’t abandon their VR equipment so quickly; they can’t just discard their expensive full set needs.

Even if the total number of players has declined, the base is still there.

As long as the base is present, there won’t be a lack of players for the DLC.

And Jason was confident that “once players play the ‘Red Flame’ DLC, they will indeed feel our sincerity!”

Then, not only the DLC’s rating but also the player’s rating for the game itself will experience a significant increase.”

With the base game quality checked by Randall and Fred, apart from lacking an ending, the base game did not have any significant flaws.

Now, the DLC has addressed that flaw, and it is only appropriate to receive justified ratings.

“After boosting player’s word-of-mouth, targeted promotion and marketing, capturing players’ attention, the promotional effect at that time will undoubtedly be better than now just relying on word-of-mouth promotion.”

“Reversal of the decline is still a possibility!”

Gary nodded repeatedly, expressing his approval.

This originally was a strategy he and Jason had discussed; it was their only option in the current situation.

Right now, Cloud Dream’s “Speed Chase” is at its peak; trying to compete for popularity, given their limitations, is just not viable.

Especially since Spiritual Rhinoceros had blocked NetDragon, they couldn’t directly purchase trending searches…

Richard’s face grew darker.

But he also knew that even if this DLC is excellently made and the promotion runs smoothly, it would already be a tough job to achieve previous sales numbers.

Even if it achieves that, it would only keep the company just barely afloat; it could not fundamentally solve the problems faced by NetDragon.

Or, more accurately, it would not solve the common problem faced by NetDragon, Wild Island, and Flying Fox – the significant trend of VR equipment falling out of the mainstream in the gaming industry.

He is aware of all these problems.

But that does not stop him from currently being in a bad mood, especially since from the start of the meeting until now, there hasn’t been a single piece of good news.

The continuous resignations of employees still persist. Although there hadn’t been any mass resignations in a short period, there were always employees leaving continuously.

And the human resources department is very inefficient. The recruitment results were terrible, with the speed of replenishing personnel failing to keep up with the loss rate.

NetDragon is bleeding continuously.

This is different from when NetDragon proactively decided to suspend the research and development of a new generation of VR equipment, and streamline the R&D team.

Those who left are mainly talents related to game development. They are indispensable talents for NetDragon’s resurgence in the field of gaming after obtaining virtual reality-related technology, and competition with Cloud Dream.

Besides the personnel issue, the progress of the other games that are under development is also far from ideal.

A few months ago, because they had to support the development of “Blaze 3” DLC, the other teams lost several employees to various extents, and the progress of game development had already slowed down.

Later, seeing the unstoppable development momentum of virtual reality games, the stagnant sales of their own equipment, and VR games exiting from the spotlight of player attention, combined with Lincoln’s conclusion that “VR games are destined to become niche”…

It’s almost unspoken, all the employees unconsciously slackened off, and the project progress nearly came to a halt.

Richard was very dissatisfied, though. There’s a reason for this disguist: even though the cost-effective ratio of continuing to make games based on VR equipment is getting lower and lower, and the investment may well be entirely sunk costs.

But seeing these employees goofing off, he was also very dissatisfied.

In the end, he could only conventionally credit the supervisors present and encourage their subordinates to work harder after the meeting, hoping that the employees would take their work seriously.

Then he concluded the meeting with a gloomy face: “Meeting’s over! Wesley, stay behind.”

“The old issue, when can we crack the virtual reality technology?!” Richard’s tone was extremely ungracious.

“Don’t tell me you’re trying hard, don’t play coy, give me a date! I want a timeline!”

Wesley swallowed subconsciously. It wasn’t fear of Richard, but unsure of what to say: “We have a date.”

“Oh!” For the first time, Richard was spirited, “When? How long?”

“Two more months. It is estimated that the technology can be cracked by the end of December.” Wesley responded with difficulty.

“You have moved back the production line for so long! Now you’re telling me it’s still two months away?! ” Richard’s eyes widened, his face full of surprise and anger, “Do you know what two months means?”

Wesley kept his head down in silence, precisely because he knew how terrible NetDragon’s current situation was, and how difficult the next two months would be, he found it difficult to answer.

“How to speed up the cracking process?” Richard asked further, “Do you need more money? Or more engineers?”

“No need for either,” Wesley replied in a low voice.

“The engineering team is using a production line to burn codes line by line, crack them line by line, but they can’t precisely control which line to burn. Each time, they can only burn one more line than the last, no more, no less.”

“This is a process of perseverance, like dripping water through a stone. They have already been working in teams for 24 hours straight. Except for the need to ensure that the equipment does not malfunction and requires regular maintenance, the production line does not stop for a moment. The time simply can’t be shortened any further.”

Thereupon Richard understood, he had to accept this result.

“End of the year…” he whispered repeatedly.

When the situation begins to worsen, at the beginning there are usually only slight signs.

However, as time goes on, the signs become more and more obvious, the situation worsens, and in the end, it often collapses like an avalanche.

Unfortunately, he has already seen this sign.

He doesn’t know if Flying Fox and Wild Island have noticed the signs and taken any actions.

But for him, cracking Cloud Dream’s technology and making a knockoff of NetDragon’s own virtual reality technology is his single lifeline.

But the problem now is: can NetDragon hold out until then?

To maintain its expansionary momentum, NetDragon, relying on the advantage of being an industry leader, had borrowed quite a lot of debt!

Moreover, even if it can hold out until the end of the year, will the remaining talents and funds then be able to sustain NetDragon’s resurgence?

The predicament that NetDragon is facing is obviously something that Flying Fox and Wild Island would have to confront as well.

The difference is, they don’t have a direct clash with Cloud Dream, and they have not been targeted by Yunmeng, so they have more room to figure out a solution.

Moreover, after struggling and discussing for several months, they have determined their own survival strategies.

Flying Fox has essentially acted cruelly towards itself, the research and development work for VR equipment has completely stopped, and the factory is almost completely idle.

The scale of the related staff has now been reduced to less than one-tenth of what it once was, only used for after-sales service and solving potential hardware problems of the equipment.

This can’t be described as a gecko’s tail, it’s more like a self-mutilation.

They have almost completely given up on the company’s future in the field of VR gaming.

Many players are guessing, will “The Last Moment”, which has been postponed repeatedly, be stillborn?

Even many players are advising the boss of Flying Fox: “Launch the game before the company dies! Make some retirement money!”

Wild Island, on the other hand, seems to be very stubborn.

They are so far the only company that neither downsizes their VR equipment development team nor slows down the work of their game development team.

Many financial media even say they have gone crazy.

Of course, in the eyes of many game media and players, this represents “persistence” and “courage”, which are admirable qualities of a game development company, with a somewhat tragic undertone.

Of course, appreciation is one thing, whether to buy their games now is another story…

After all, no matter how good the sentiments are, the game quality also has to be solid!

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