Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 567: Chapter 541 “What is an Early Access Experience?”

It was as late as 8 o’clock in the evening that day when the excited netizens finally received an official announcement in white text on a blue background –

“At 8:45 a.m. on November 27, 2030, our command center received an important tipoff:

NetDragon Game Technology Co., Ltd. had stolen important technology related to national security, with clear and reliable evidence.

Upon receiving the information, our bureau immediately organized a team to conduct a full investigation of the involved unit and arrested three main suspects on the spot, Zhao-surnamed guy (Male, 29 years old), someone surnamed Wu (Male, 38 years old), Qian-surnamed guy (Male, 47 years old), along with 67 other related individuals.

Following preliminary investigation and interrogation, the facts of the crime are clear, and the criminal suspects confessed without denial.

At present, the suspects have been criminally detained according to law, and the case is under further processing.

Xiajing National Security Bureau

November 27, 2030″

…

The dust had settled!

Although the case is not over yet, there are still more investigations, more inquiries, more confidentiality agreements to come, followed by the defense of lawyers and the trial of criminals, and so on.

Not to mention the future path of NetDragon and what will happen to the remaining large number of employees.

The subsequent impact will undoubtedly last for a long time.

But for netizens, seeing this announcement was equivalent to the final judgment.

NetDragon’s boss, Zack, was charged with “endangering national security”, and there is a high possibility that he will spend the next ten years in jail.

The other two key criminals are also highly likely to be sentenced to between 5 and 10 years.

– This was the legal knowledge shared by the numerous lawyers who cited relevant legal provisions as soon as the announcement was released.

At this point, NetDragon was nailed to the pillar of shame, never to rise again.

Yes, not just Zack himself, but the entire NetDragon!

This is after all not a business crime, not a company boss single-handedly sneaking into a competitor’s factory to take pictures of the production line…

This is officially confirmed as “endangering national security”!

The severity of the situation is fundamentally incomparable to business crimes!

Netizens only understood at this moment that NetDragon was not a regular business crime.

Almost visibly, the online criticism immediately climbed several notches.

By the way, everyone started to analyze some content in the announcement.

That “important tipoff” mentioned in the announcement, was it provided by Lincoln? Is he the informant?

Otherwise, how could he appear directly at the scene?

Thinking back to NetDragon stealing technology and Lincoln being there, the answer is clear –

NetDragon stole Cloud Dream’s virtual reality technology, but was caught by Lincoln, who then brought the SWAT team to NetDragon’s door and conducted a raid!

Such dominance!

What no one expected was that the virtual reality technology was actually related to national security.

But no one questioned this, as long as they gave it a slight thought, they felt it was just right.

*

The National Security Bureau moved quickly.

The isolation cordon at NetDragon’s headquarters was removed the next morning, and the employees were no longer restricted from going to work as usual.

Although NetDragon is on the verge of collapse, it won’t fall overnight. For such a large company, employees who were anxious and worried still arrived on time for work.

Gary was one of them.

But he didn’t expect that NetDragon’s headquarters would be surrounded again!

However, this time the perimeter was not formed by relevant departments, but by – netizens and players.

Not players in the broad sense, but NetDragon’s own ever-shrinking player base.

The reason for the certainty was that there were as many as six Flying Dragon 3rd generation VR devices lined up outside the main door of NetDragon.

The expensive device that was once sold for seventy to eighty thousand per unit was now carelessly placed on the asphalt surface by its owners.

“What’s going on?”

Unlike many other employees, who rushed into the company as soon as they saw this scene, even wearing hats and masks for fear of being caught on the phones at the entrance.

Gary, being a public relations worker, did not run away but bravely approached them to ask what they were doing.

A big guy disdainfully glanced at Gary and said, “Live streaming the smashing of the equipment!”

“…” Gary widened his eyes in shock, “Is it necessary?”

“It’s absolutely necessary!” The big guy gritted his teeth with anger, “Today I’m going to break all ties with NetDragon!”

Gary swallowed, suddenly feeling dry-mouthed.

His professional integrity as a Public Relations Worker told him: This is a sign of NetDragon’s total collapse of reputation. Irreparable, something must be done quickly.

But another voice was telling him: “Don’t struggle, give up, hurry up and find a new company.”

While he was hesitating, the entrance of the company became even more lively and banners were even put up –

[Refund our Money, NetDragon!]

Looking at the dense mobile phones and tripods, Gary dares to bet: everything here is being live-streamed in real time.

This made him finally give up the idea of getting involved and instead turned and entered the company.

In the company, as expected, there was a stir.

Everyone had their computers on, but they didn’t touch their keyboards or mouses. Instead, the mobile phones in their hands buzzed incessantly.

All this gave Gary a strong sense of impending doom.

Even with people in the group saying “the old chairman has returned”, it did nothing to alleviate this feeling.

Looking out the window, the row of eight Flying Dragon 3rd Generation VR devices had grown to eight, and amidst the applause and cheers from the crowd, they were being smashed to pieces by their owners, their parts scattering all over the place.

The “thud” “thud” noises reverberating in his ears were like the death knell for NetDragon.

This gave him an incredibly strong intuition: NetDragon was done for.

And it would happen very quickly!

*

The player gathering at the entrance of NetDragon entertained the netizens all morning.

Especially the scenes of VR consoles and accompanying equipment being smashed to pieces one by one, elicited shouts of “Brother is awesome!” from them.

Even if the price of this device has drastically dropped in the secondhand market, it could still sell for seven or eight thousand right now.

Yet, these people didn’t hesitate to smash it!

And it wasn’t just eight devices, as more and more people arrived on scene with their equipment. During the morning, a total of thirteen Flying Dragon 3rd Generations were smashed!

The atmosphere at the scene went from a righteous indignation of “punishing NetDragon” to becoming an outdoor party.

The crowd grew bigger and bigger, even causing the tech park’s security guards to take actions. But instead of dispersing the players, they began to maintain order and even offered help.

——In Daxia, “endangering national security” is highly detested.

The netizens had been partying all morning, just as their excitement was subsiding, they were greeted with exciting good news.

Both the official Cloud Dream account and the newly registered “Battlefield” official account simultaneously posted announcements——

『Battlefield Early Access Version, will be available worldwide at 14:00 tomorrow afternoon!』

Samuel led a team to carefully study the news reports on the arrest of the NetDragon boss by many overseas media outlets, particularly in Europe, and the players’ reactions on relevant forums and communities.

After working all afternoon, the answer they gave to Lincoln was: they could absolutely release it and there would be nothing but benefits.

The grudges between Lincoln and NetDragon, after being reported to the player community in Europe, didn’t make at all make Lincoln seemed excessive there. Rather, they felt that this was a “Real Man”.

It actually increased their favor towards him considerably.

So, this time the “Battlefield” early access version will be launched simultaneously in all regions worldwide.

In Europe, there is also a social network platform with functionality identical to Spiritual Rhinoceros – [Bluebird].

After Mirage was sold in the European market, Cloud Dream also registered an account on Bluebird where they posted this announcement too.

A large number of players cheered while opening the announcement to read the details——

『’Battlefield’ Early Access Version, will be available worldwide at 14:00 tomorrow afternoon!

Purchase Notice:

Early Access players can immediately gain permission to play the game and participate in its development.

However, the content of the Early Access version is incomplete and may change subsequently. If you don’t want to play this game that badly at the moment, you should wait for a while to watch the game’s development progress rather than buying it immediately.

—— Why do we use the Early Access model?

…』

This purchase notice left the players a little confused.

They had never seen such a strategy before.

Not only was the game not completely finished, even the already completed parts could be altered.

Isn’t this equivalent to buying an uncertain product?

And they openly advised players against rushing to buy it, what kind of strategy is this?

If another company tried this seemingly unreliable distribution method, who knows what the players’ reactions would be.

But Cloud Dream’s consistently reliable image and good reputation made players willing to believe: Cloud Dream did not intend to make a quick buck from an unfinished game.

Therefore, they could be more tolerant of this “early release” model.

Although there were doubts in the comment section, they were not intense, and there were hardly any outright curses:

“The announcement says, ‘Early Access buyers can enjoy price discounts. How much of a discount exactly?”

“This ‘unfinished’ aspect wouldn’t be like how ‘Blaze 3’ was where the end of the plot was unfinished, right? Cause then I’ll have to rush you!”

“It’s too sudden, way too sudden! If you said it a day earlier, it wouldn’t have been such a hassle to ask for leave!”

“I don’t like the idea of selling an unfinished game; but I am happy that I can play a new game earlier. So I’ll hold off on my judgment, once I have played the game tomorrow, I’ll decide whether to praise or curse you.”

…

While the players had diverse opinions, there was no excessive praise like before.

Obviously, they still had doubts about this “Early Access Mode”.

So most players chose to reserve their opinions, and planned to play it first hand the next day and then evaluate the game based on its performance.

——And that was enough.

Whether it was Lincoln, or Randall, Fred, or even every single member of the “Battlefield” development team, they all had a strong confidence in this game.

In 24 hours, they would find out whether it was gold or dross!