Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 318: 316: Boss, I Think You’ve Gone Crazy

Chapter 318: 316: Boss, I Think You’ve Gone Crazy

Translator: 549690339

Right before it’s time to leave work, Lincoln unexpectedly remembers that he’s the boss of Cloud Dream.

He takes a break to open the office software created by Mavis, glancing at the dynamics of the management team over the past week.

After browsing through them briefly, there’s basically nothing interesting to see.

The only thing that caught his attention was Jerome’s itinerary and journal.

A row of taverns, bars, customs stores, and nightclubs…

It felt like he was living in Kabukicho, leaving Lincoln dumbfounded.

He scrolled the page to the top once more, confirming again: this really was Jerome’s submitted trip log, not Fred’s.

Lincoln had previously thought that the game companies in Izumo were difficult to deal with, making Jerome’s work hard to carry out, which was why he and his team stayed there for a week.

Now it seems that the Izumo counterparts were not difficult, but rather too easy to deal with, and entertained them too well!

As a result, Jerome was completely enjoying himself, right?!

How unreliable!

Indeed, for such important work, sending subordinates should never have been the right choice; it should have been the boss himself!

“Sigh, I wonder what Fred would think if he saw this itinerary?”

Lincoln immediately wanted to take a screenshot and send it privately to Fred.

But considering that “Speed Chase” was in its final stages and required a careful and cool-headed leader, he didn’t send it to provoke him in the end.

Looking at the records carefully, it’s not like Jerome didn’t do anything.

The background investigation of Izumo game companies went very smoothly, but there were some difficulties in acquiring IPs.

There are a lot of famous IPs here, but the easy ones to buy are not very well-known.

Owners of the famous ones are generally unwilling to sell, and acquisition resistance is very high.

This was the main reason why Jerome was stuck in Izumo for a long time.

However, according to his daily report, he would only stay until Sunday at most. If there was still no breakthrough, he would leave half of his subordinates to continue trying, bringing the other half to Baekje to conduct a background investigation on potential partnering companies.

Lincoln opened the panel and searched for Baekje’s featured industries, especially the places where their businesspeople usually go when discussing business cooperation.

As a result, he could hardly find any information.

He estimated that there were probably no special industries, so he ruled out the idea of going on a business trip to see the world… no, enriching the sensory database.

Leaving a word of encouragement, “Good luck,” Lincoln closed the office software and happily prepared to leave work and go home.

However, before logging off, he suddenly thought: Mirage Console sales would break 100 million units tomorrow, and he would also take the opportunity to launch [Mirage 2.0].

For such an important matter, it seems like he should discuss it with Jerome, the marketing manager?

Anyway, Jerome was a professional, at least much more professional than him.

For such critical matters, it’s always better to listen to a professional’s opinion.

Lincoln looked at the time, and there were still 15 minutes left before the end of work. He decisively called Jerome.

“Doot– doot–”

After two ringing sounds, Jerome answered the phone.

— This was within Lincoln’s expectations, as it was only 5:00 PM, and nightlife hadn’t even started yet.

According to Jerome’s schedule reported in the last few days, his work had mostly not started yet at this time.

“Hello, boss? What’s up?” Jerome asked bewilderedly.

Since he was on a business trip, he had submitted serious work reports every day, but the boss hadn’t even read them, let alone asked about it.

It went on for a week, and the first day’s report was still marked as “unread.”

He felt like he wasn’t on an important business trip for the company, but rather being exiled.

Why did the boss suddenly change his mind and remember us today?

Lincoln looked at the time and got straight to the point: “So, tomorrow the Mirage sales are going to break 100 million units, and I plan to take this opportunity to launch [Mirage 2.0] wireless version.”

“Huh??” Jerome was stunned by this news and couldn’t follow the conversation for a moment.

“When players see the second generation of the console coming out,they might be less willing to continue buying the first generation, so the 15 million units from this batch might have poor sales.”

Lincoln, not noticing Jerome’s astonishment, continued, “My idea is to sell them at a lower price. If the price is still causing poor sales, then hold some events and sell them overseas. Because the latest generation of consoles, for a short amount of time, might not be able to meet domestic demand. What do you think?”

What do I think? I think the boss must be crazy!

Jerome’s heart was breaking.

“Boss, think twice!”

“Why?” asked Lincoln, puzzled.

“The console is upgraded just a few months after purchase, and the first-generation consoles in the hands of players will immediately depreciate. Players will revolt!” Jerome didn’t bother asking Lincoln why he was in a hurry to release the second generation.

Most likely, it wouldn’t be for business purposes anyway.

So he skipped this useless step and went right into explaining the pros and cons to Lincoln.

“Depreciation issue? It’s simple, just refund them the difference according to the price-protection measures. That should do it, right?”

On the other end of the line, Jerome’s mouth dropped open. He wanted to ask: Boss, have you calculated how much money you’d have to put in for this?

A hundred million units, even if the difference is just a hundred, you’d have to refund $10 billion!

That’s outrageous!

What’s even scarier is that Lincoln might not lower the price by that little.

“Boss, have you calculated how much money it will be to refund?”

“I plan to lower the price to 9000 dollars, so that’s 1000 per unit, and 110 billion dollars for one hundred and ten million units. Sheesh—”

After arriving at the conclusion of 110 billion dollars, Lincoln immediately gasped.

He hadn’t really thought about it, but now that he calculated it, it was quite terrifying!

Even for Lincoln, who increasingly didn’t care about money, he inevitably felt a twinge of pain.

Hearing Lincoln’s gasp, Jerome breathed a small sigh of relief: As long as he knew it was hard to part with the money, there was still hope.

“I have a few ideas for you to consider, boss,” Jerome suggested, skillfully listing some common practices in the market.

“First, instead of giving cash refunds for the price difference, switch it to Cloud Dream account balances and use future game revenue to offset this expenditure. And 1000 dollars is indeed quite a lot. It’s best to make it a little less, as the price of a blockbuster should be enough.”

“Second, you can consider an exchange policy that allows players to trade in their first-generation consoles and some money for the second-generation console. The consoles collected can be resold at a discounted price or resold overseas.”

These two suggestions were based on Lincoln’s idea of “lowering the price,” but Jerome’s own idea was actually leaning more towards not lowering the price—

“But boss, my advice is still not to lower the price of the first-generation console and to moderately increase the price of the second-generation console. As long as the price doesn’t go down, players won’t feel such a strong sense of loss, and their need for compensation will be weaker.”

“When an updated console comes with a higher price tag, players won’t feel that their console has depreciated; instead, they’ll feel that a more expensive, better new device has emerged. And this is actually normal business logic, and players should be used to it in their everyday lives.”

After finishing, he diplomatically reassured Lincoln: “Boss, I know you want to do more for the players, but you can’t always be this sincere in business. Sometimes doing less can save a lot of trouble.”

“Even if you want to lower the price, you can do it later. Just don’t do it so quickly and not at this critical juncture.”

After listening to Jerome’s series of suggestions, Lincoln also fell into deep thought.

He had to admit, Jerome was professional and more comprehensive than Lincoln had initially thought.

Moreover, whichever suggestion he chose seemed smarter and more rigorous than what he had impulsively come up with.

“Okay, your suggestions are all excellent. I understand what you mean.”

After hanging up the phone, Jerome breathed a long sigh of relief. Having such a boss was indeed worrisome.

Fortunately, he managed to persuade him.

After Lincoln hung up, he seriously considered Jerome’s suggestions and refined his own plans.

For the reasonable suggestions Jerome provided, Lincoln decided—

I’ll take them all!

Do not lower the price of the first-generation console, raise the price of the second-generation console by 2000 dollars!

But with the launch of the second-generation console, there is a first-month discount, slashing 2000 dollars!

—After the first-month discount expires, there will be a second-month discount!

After the second-month special ends, there is a special discount for the first quarter on sale!

In Lincoln’s plan, the increased price is just for show.

Moreover, all players who purchased the first-generation console will receive a 500 dollar cash balance in their Cloud Dream accounts.

It can be used for all Cloud Dream games, equipment, and venues!

Not to mention buying games and monthly cards, you can even spend the account balance directly at the Experience Store.

Even taking the account balance to Journey Prosthetics would allow you to use it directly towards the purchase of a prosthetic limb.

It’s not easy to do an exchange policy, as it’s impossible to let players directly exchange their old consoles for new ones. Otherwise, the void price increase would be meaningless.

In that case, then—

Get 8000 dollars credit?

“Forget it, 9000 dollars it is!” Lincoln shook his head.

For the collected first-generation consoles, remove the cables and replace them with wireless signal transceivers to directly upgrade them to the second generation.

Strictly speaking, it’s still a profit…

This amount of money can upgrade Cloud Dream’s after-sales service from “If there’s a problem, you can only return to the original factory for a replacement” to “There is at least one after-sales center in every provincial capital city.”

This can greatly reduce the time needed for console after-sales service and improve the after-sales experience for players.

It’s like killing three birds with one stone.

—Although so far, the number of consoles that have actually gone through after-sales service is very few, less than a thousand in total.

But that’s mostly because there hasn’t been enough time.

It’s better to prepare ahead of time to be safe rather than sorry.

After finalizing this part of the plan, Lincoln felt satisfied: It’s really helpful to have a group of reliable employees!

The next time there’s a big move like this, he would definitely consult more with his employees.

Otherwise, impulsively making decisions like this could lead to trouble sooner or later.

At the same time, countless media outlets in Daxia had already prepared their congratulatory messages for Cloud Dream.

They were just waiting for the second batch of Mirage consoles to go on sale the next day and sell another 5 million units before immediately sending out congratulations.

But obviously, in all the prepared drafts from the media, there would be no mention of the second-generation Mirage console…

This is quite understandable.

After all, just yesterday, everyone debunked the news that [Mirage 2.0 is coming soon], knowing that it was just a misunderstanding caused by the confidentiality requirements of [Journey Prosthetics].

Even in yesterday’s hot search list, [No Mirage 2.0] appeared!