Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 317: 315: Are You Sick?

Chapter 317: 315: Are You Sick?

Translator: 549690339

After taking the blame, Lincoln closed the Spiritual Rhinoceros page.

After some thought, it seemed there was nothing to do at the company.

As a matter of course, he felt like slacking off and playing with Mavis.

But then he remembered that he had only just started working and had only moved his mouth so far; he hadn’t really done any actual work.

Directly slacking off would make his conscience hurt a bit, so he turned to the in-development Night City instead.

Lately, he found that his symptoms of only wanting to slack off at work, and instead being full of energy after work, were becoming more severe…

*

At NetDragon Headquarters, someone who had been slacking off for a long time could no longer continue to endure it.

In the public relations Office, Gary looked at the news of ‘Mirage cumulative sales of 95 million units,’ and finally revised the proposal. Then, he moved the mouse and clicked on [Print].

Watching the printer spit out sheets of paper, he pondered over how to convince his boss in a little while.

The past two months had been quite a strange experience for him.

At one point, he thought he would follow in Henry’s footsteps and be kicked out of NetDragon, packing his bags and leaving.

–As far as he knew, Henry was doing quite poorly, and hadn’t found a new job to this day.

But for some reason, he seemed to have been forgotten… Richard had not paid any attention to him.

–This was actually because Richard was completely distracted by Wesley’s plan, and temporarily had no intention of dealing with other things.

So Gary began his days of slacking off, going to work, and collecting a salary.

But he had a heart that could not bear to be ordinary!

Although his previous unpleasant experiences taught him not to go looking for trouble with Lincoln again, the opportunity this time was just too perfect. It was like a top-level boxer seeing his opponent reveal a huge flaw, making it hard to resist the urge to strike.

Gary felt he had found the perfect opportunity, and after itching for action for almost an entire week, he finally couldn’t resist the agitation in his heart and decided to give it a try!

If it succeeded, it might indeed directly overthrow the industry landscape and change the direction of the gaming industry!

This kind of commanding opportunity is rarely encountered in a lifetime.

He even felt that this was his only chance to change his position in the history of gaming development!

From a “clown challenging the creator of virtual reality games” to a “hero who breaks the technological monopoly and lets a hundred flowers bloom in virtual reality games”!

And the key to everything lies in one word: “antitrust”!

Before Cloud Dream came along, there were only about 20 million players in the gaming industry. Now, the Mirage Console is about to break 100 million.

Cloud Dream alone has five times the number of players in the entire market.

The reason for Cloud Dream’s advantage is that it has completely monopolized the virtual reality game category.

It’s important to note that before this, no matter what kind of game carrier was in place, all were developed from the official technology, and many manufacturers competed at the same time.

The fundamental competition was about the content of games and the strategies of operations.

But Cloud Dream carried out a dimensional attack on other developers in the industry by relying on technology and equipment.

— If there weren’t that many players of Cloud Dream, even if there were only 20 million, which would be roughly equal to the original gaming industry’s stock, “monopoly” would be hard to use as a reason.

That’s because under the large category of “gaming industry,” virtual reality games are just one of many subcategories.

While dominant in their subcategory, they wouldn’t be criticized, they would just be praised for their prowess.

But when the volume of this “subcategory” far exceeds the sum of all “other subcategories,” things have to be handled differently!

Daxia’s support for the tertiary industry is strong, with comprehensive protection, especially for fair and equitable competition.

So as long as it’s done well, it is entirely possible to break Cloud Dream’s monopoly!

Of course, it’s not about breaking the monopoly of technology.

Daxia won’t be unreasonable, forcing the opening up of other people’s technology.

But requesting the opening up of the virtual reality game platform, allowing other game developers to enter and maintain a healthy business development environment, does not seem like a small hope!

Even if at that time NetDragon and other gaming companies, including them, have to release games on the Mirage platform and will be dependent on others, at least–

They can catch the express train!

Obtain a healthier cash flow and more time to catch up with the technology.

At least it wouldn’t be like now, watching the slow death unfold.

–No, for a company, this is not slow at all!

It can be described as a rapid violent death!

The key is that if he initiates this and eventually gets Cloud Dream to open up their gaming platform, then he will be a hero of the gaming industry!

Even the players themselves may betray Cloud Dream and appreciate him!

The more Gary thought about it, the more excited he became.

He picked up the printed proposal, left his seat, and knocked on Richard’s office door.

Just half an hour later, Gary left the office with a great sense of accomplishment.

Watching Gary leave, Richard nodded in satisfaction.

Of course, the boss’s perspective is different from that of the employees.

What he cared about was not letting NetDragon’s games be on Cloud Dream’s game platform—starting a company for Lincoln to make money, he couldn’t accept that.

If it had been any other company, he would have gritted his teeth and accepted it, but Cloud Dream and Lincoln, it made him feel uncomfortable just thinking about it!

So, for Gary’s plan, he was more concerned about creating favorable public opinion in advance.

That is: “Cloud Dream’s monopoly on technology is harmful, and more game manufacturers should compete fairly for the long-term development of the industry.”

In this way, when NetDragon also has virtual reality technology, it will be seen as the hero by public opinion and gain more support.

The only thing that made him unhappy now was—

“What the hell is Wesley doing? Why hasn’t there been any progress so far?”

What was Wesley doing?

Wesley was losing hair.

Not long after Wesley started his hacking work, he received both good news and bad news.

The good news was: they now have the ability to produce virtual reality consoles.

The bad news was: they could only produce Cloud Dream’s Mirage consoles…

Of course, replacing all hardware on the console was not difficult.

But in the case of the chip and software not being decrypted, even if the outer shell was completely changed, the core would still be Cloud Dream’s system…

The consoles produced in this way had nothing much to do with NetDragon.

It’s just like being an unauthorized pirated console manufacturer for Cloud Dream…

Was he supposed to report this to his boss?

Are you kidding?!

The main reason was that they didn’t expect even the automation software of cooperative manufacturers’ production equipment to have extremely complex encryption by Cloud Dream, making it impossible for them to find a clue.

But it’s not entirely hopeless.

Technical staff told him: theoretically speaking, there is no absolutely unbreakable software encryption.

It’s just that the decryption of Mirage’s chip is difficult because it uses multiple encryption schemes on both software and hardware, which are also unprecedentedly complex, making it impossible for them to start.

However, Cloud Dream couldn’t apply hardware encryption on the assembly line equipment of each manufacturer.

And pure software encryption shouldn’t be unbreakable.

It’s just that the difficulty of decryption is higher, requiring more time, money, and resources.

Wesley asked at the meeting, “How many more resources? How many people? How much money? How much time?”

Technical staff attending the meeting then began to explain the technical difficulties, how to overcome them, and possible issues they might encounter, etc.

It made his head spin.

In the end, he only heard: “It might be tomorrow, it might be next month, or it might be next year.”

Anyway, in summary, it came down to three words: “Hard to say.”

Wesley felt that if things continued like this, his risk of having a stroke would skyrocket!

Lincoln was still in the dark.

Before, a cooperative factory had reported production line failure and asked Cloud Dream to install its specialized software on a new production line device.

But Cloud Dream’s own factory had been steadily increasing its production capacity, so they were supposed to shrink the number of cooperative unmanned factories.

Just as they took the initiative…

So, Lincoln didn’t bother, since it’s all about fate, this factory would do!

Thus, the factory lost the Cloud Dream order and had to turn around to do NetDragon orders, producing Flying Dragon series VR devices.

But the problem was, the sales of NetDragon’s Flying Dragon series had plummeted, and the orders naturally tightened up quickly.

After completing the current batch stated in the contract, there was no more follow-up.

Wesley apologized at the dinner table and vented his frustrations, saying that NetDragon’s own factory had shut down and they couldn’t help themselves, they could barely support themselves…

The message was clear: It’s not that your brother doesn’t keep his word, it’s just that he’s powerless.

Anyway, in the end, the factory owner found that he had no work left…

As for “anti-monopoly”?

Lincoln had long prepared countermeasures and had more related plans in the future.

Not to mention that as the inventor, Lincoln has the patent protection period and that the gaming industry doesn’t necessarily affect the basic needs of people.

They never imagined that Cloud Dream wasn’t the only user of virtual reality technology.

On the night of Mirage’s birth, Lincoln authorized the technology to a second organization!

—Represented by Henry, the Daxia Military Industrial Research Institute!

And Daxia’s “anti-monopoly” law is all based on “exclusivity” and “monopoly”!

I handed out the technology rights eight hundred years ago, and you’re still accusing me of monopoly?

Are you sick?!