Re: Life - Business & Technology

Chapter 10 - App Taken Down

Vince woke up to prepare for school and instinctively checked the front page of Reddit. The top post was created by a person who recently bought the new iPhone and wanted to download Wingin' Chicken but couldn't find it on the App Store.

The language used was pure rage and abuse, and many other Reddit users commented and upvoted it.

"Apple most likely removed it because of the microtransactions in the game. Apple can't make money from the game as it is now.", a clever Redditor commented.

"Apple is just as greedy as always. I heard a 13-year old student made this game. Imagine bullying a kid as a multi-billion dollar company.", another Redditor commented. 

Both of these sentiments were also upvoted as high as the original post.

[This isn't good. I can't even log in to the game even though I have the latest version installed. I'll have to ask Jessica to help me create a website to import the video game and provide access to all the users who play for free or not,] he thought.

Vince checked his email and found a message from Lewis-Jacobs regarding a lawsuit Apple is pursuing against Future Technologies.

He replied, saying to fight the suit the best they can and estimate how much it would cost to win it.

Vince asked the law firm to announce the game will be available on browsers soon, and users will not lose any progress on their account, including what users paid for already. 

[This will derail the production of our new game but not too much,] he thought.

Mobile was a huge market for his games and would require cooperation from Apple and Google for more ambitious projects like their upcoming game. He discussed the issue with his team during lunch that same day. "Jessica, I'll need your help designing different aspects of the website for Wingin' Chicken. You can use your current work as a base to start with.", Vince said.

"I'm mostly done with the layout, but I'll need some help with the server hosting. Millions of people will want to continue playing the game, and I don't know where to start regarding that problem.", Jessica replied.

"Understood. In the meantime, collaborate with Sarah and Rick. They're currently working on interface art for the mobile game, but we can use those assets to beautify the website.", Vince said.

Lewis-Jacobs issued a public announcement regarding the status of the current most popular game. People upvoted the post and commented on agreements about the countersuit they will be fighting against Apple.

"This poor kid will have to spend the time porting his game on the browser instead of enjoying student life.", a commenter wrote. 

"Thank god, I won't have to buy everything in the game again.", another Redditor added.

Vince received an email about the initial cost of fighting the lawsuit. It was a cool $10,000,000. It was the cost of fighting one of the largest multinational corporations on Earth. 

[It's not too bad, I suppose. Before I reincarnated, some consultation contracts we had were worth around the same amount. Professionals are expensive, that's for sure,] he thought.

His mother was worried as she was notified by Ms. Kemp about it during work but was reassured by Vince that they had enough funds to win the suit.

Leah had faith in her son and chose to believe him. 

"Mom, you don't have to work anymore. I want you to focus on recovering from your treatments.", he said. Leah reluctantly agreed for now. After dinner, Vince checked his satoshi wallet balance and found 5 million BTC waiting there.

The exchange listing price was much higher compared to the last time he cashed out some Bitcoin. It was currently $5 = 1 BTC. Exchanging his Bitcoin right now will be painful considering how much the value of Bitcoin will grow in the future, but he needs the funds right now and cannot avoid it.

He spread out selling a total of 4 million BTC to avoid upsetting the market too much for a dollar total of $20 million. So half will go to Lewis-Jacobs, and the rest will be some spending money for himself and the crew.

Vince sent an email to Lewis-Jacobs notifying them about the withdrawal. The firm will process the cash with Deloitte like before, but they would subtract their fees and the taxes to be paid.

[Bitcoin was not a recognized currency yet, but any dollar earnings will always have some kind of tax associated with it. I trust Deloitte to perform its due diligence on this reasonably large withdrawal], he thought. 

The lawsuit was massive and received national news attention for the next week.

Vince didn't take the lawsuit too seriously and worked on the browser port of Wingin' Chicken with Jessica. He had already set up an accessible data storage server for his team to share resources and collaborate more efficiently. Additionally, Vince utilized cloud technology to host the website.

Microsoft Azure provided a utility-based charging system and can easily be expanded or reduced depending on the current network traffic experienced at any point in time.

The working version was released a week after the App Store removed the game. Apple users can now access the game on their devices but only using a browser.

Thanks to its simplicity, the game itself ran well, and users were happy to play it again. Fortunately, the lawsuit was swinging in their favor. The judge even ordered the accrued advertisement revenue to be paid out to Future Technologies while the case was still active.

Apple begrudgingly released the funds, and Vince's business account grew by $5 million after taxes and fees. He asked for the ad revenue to be split between the five members of Future Technologies for their initial paycheck.

[My friends deserve a payday after spending so much time improving their skills and contributing to Future Tech's projects since the beginning.] Vince pondered.

The parents were dumbfounded when they received the check from a courier sent by Lewis-Jacobs to ensure the right people received them.

"It's like we won the lottery!" one of the parents shouted in their home. The parents opted to use Deloitte, as suggested by Lewis-Jacobs, to manage their kids' accounts because it was the safest way to avoid any potential issues.

EDITED