Episode 123. Throwing firewood.
Brian asked me.
“What else does that mean? D-Tab2 doesn’t sell very well, so who’s going to buy our game?”
I held up two fingers and showed him.
“Two million pieces! If Diablo 2 sells less than 2 million copies, I will compensate for the rest of the damage.”
“yes. Moreover, D-Tab2 has already sold 800,000 units within two weeks of its release. In many ways, it means that there is no need to worry about whether or not to redevelop Diablo 2 for Windows.”
At that moment, peace returned to Brian’s face.
“Okay, I see. We will only trust Mr. Kang and go.”
Because there was a time when people were told that it would be a hit game even if it sold 1 million copies.
The guarantee of 2 million copies was a harsh condition for Brian.
Of course, I made that offer knowing that Diablo 2 was a mega-hit game that sold 4 million copies.
“By the way, Mr River. Diablo 2 was really good. I saw the finished version for a while, but as soon as I saw it, I knew that the best ARPG game had to be born.”
“Thanks to your company’s full support. We will have to open the lid to find out, but we pride ourselves on having the best level of perfection among the games we have made so far.”
“My thoughts are the same as Mr. River.”
“haha. When Mr. Kang said that, I feel a little relieved.”
Brian stopped laughing and asked.
“But are you really not going to release D-Tab2 in the US?”
“Actually, as long as the special tariffs are eliminated, we are willing to launch it.”
Brian sighed.
“Ha… that’s right. It’s in front of Mr. River, so I can’t say anything about our administration, but it’s a bit frustrating.”
“Mr. River.”
“I have some plans to release D-Tab2 in the US, can you help me with that?”
Brian’s face brightened.
“If there was such a thing, you should have said it earlier. What is it?”
“Can you postpone the Diablo 2 release date to the end of June?”
“The end of June?”
“yes. We are planning an event on our side. We plan to release blockbuster games one after another in June to attract people’s attention, and among them, Diablo 2, the most blocky, will be placed last.”
The corners of Brian’s lips rose as if he was happy to hear that it was the greatest masterpiece.
“haha. After all, Mr. Kang has eyes to see. Is that event a strategy to maximize the effect of promoting D-Tab2?”
“you’re right. Because if the American people really want our D-Tab2, the government won’t be able to ignore it.”
“You’re telling me to postpone it by about a month from the end of May, which was originally planned…”
Brian thought for a moment, then nodded.
“good. You gave us a guarantee of 2 million units, but we have to cooperate to that extent. I will do that.”
“What. If D-Tab2 is released in the US, we’d be happy too. haha.”
“And there is one more thing I need to help you with.”
“When the press asks if there are any plans to develop for Windows, simply say no.”
“Um… I didn’t originally plan to do that, but you’re asking me not to leave any room for that.”
Since Brian is known for his blunt speech, it was necessary to put a wedge in it beforehand.
“yes. I hope that there are no users who have hope that it will be released for Windows.”
“I know what you mean. Let us do that.”
“thank you. Mr River.”
After leaving Blizzard, manager Lee Kuk-hyun, who accompanied me, said to me.
“Did the story go well?”
“yes. That’s good. Have you been waiting long?”
“no. As I was talking with the western lady at the desk, the time went by quickly. haha.”
“haha. That’s fortunate. Do you still have some time left for your flight to Canada?”
The next destination was also the famous game company Howware, the creators of the Baldur’s Gate series.
“no. You must go right now. We only have two hours left until departure.”
“Whoa… that’s right. I tried to go get a cup of coffee, but I can’t. let’s go!”
#After an overseas business trip, at the end of May.
Damoe Center.
I called my brother and asked.
“What about public opinion in America?”
“It seems to be getting warmer little by little. D-Tab2 reviews are frequently posted on internet sites around the world, and American social media users are spreading them around the community. I was monitoring the Nyworld homepage in the US, and I saw that complaints about the US government were growing more and more.”
“okay. brother. Now pour the sauce on the American game magazines. Famous games will be released for D-Tab2 from early June.”
“Are you planning on throwing a win-win?”
“yes. The fire seems to be coming up, so it’s time to throw the firewood to burn it well.”
“okay. I’ll spray it right away.”
early June.
American game magazines published an article that said that this game was released for D-Tab2 and that future masterpieces will do the same, along with reviews of the highly anticipated Baldur’s Gate 2.
From then on, the American social media community began to boil.
Anthony of Cornell University in the US has become almost a habit to access the D-Tab community homepage of Nyworld.
Because D-Tab2 reviews posted by people from other countries used to be shared there.
Seeing that scene was alleviating the regret.
However, there were a lot of posts on the bulletin board that day.
As Anthony was reading, his head was dazed in shock.
↳ Did you all hear it? Baldur’s Gate 2 was released exclusively for D-Tab2! Is this a fart? What about people without D-Tab2?
↳ Nonsense! Where the hell is this discrimination?
↳ Howware abandoned us?
↳ You must have left the United States and chose the rest of the world. The country will do the same. D-Tab2 has already sold over 1 million units.
↳ That’s not all. There are rumors that games like Total War and Diablo 2 will be released exclusively for D-Tab2.
↳ Oh no. I really don’t know about other games, but Diablo 2 will be released for Windows. America is the biggest market, how do you give up on this?
↳ Anyway, what can we do if it really is?
↳ There are many things you can do. First, let’s go to the White House and the USTR website to protest.
↳ That’s right, let’s go.
..Anthony, who had been staring at the post blankly for a while, entered the address of the White House homepage into the web browser window.
But immediately after that, what he saw was not his usual White House website, but a single black line on a white background.
【Cannot connect】
This time, I went to the USTR (US Trade Representative) website.
There, too, only the message ‘Cannot connect’ appeared.
Anso laughed.
“Ha… I wasn’t the only one who was so angry. Then it is.”
#Mid June, the White House.
Liam, the president’s chief aide, was listening to the complaints of the White House computer clerk.
“Chief of Staff. More than a million people a day stop by and leave complaints. Our White House isn’t some kind of online shopping mall like Yamazon. Either increase the server or shut down the website. Every hour there is a server down crisis, and I am going to die.”
Liam replied with a puzzled face.
“I’m sorry, but neither of them. The homepage is the face of the White House, how do you get rid of it? Besides, I mentioned that this is temporary. It will be quiet soon, so please be patient.”
“Is it temporary? I’m sorry, but I don’t think that’s the case.”
“..why do you think so?”
“The number of people visiting is increasing. It’s a million now, but it’s only a matter of time before it’s two million.”
Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Liam’s expression changed.
“Is it growing?”
“yes. It continues to increase by about 2-3 thousand per day. Thanks to this, the downtime is getting longer and longer. It would probably have increased if the website server capacity had been larger. Fortunately, the website is often down, so many people can’t even access it even if they want to, so that’s about it.”
“..that is something to think about.”
Liam comforts the computer man and sends him back.
I found President Edward.
“Mr. President, this is Liam.”
“Liam. What happen?”
“Presumably, the public opinion is not serious because of the Super Group 301 negotiations with South Korea.”
“public opinion? Why are the Korean people interested in it? It would have nothing to do with them.”
“It was announced that a product called D-Tab using the drill CPU would not be exported to the United States.”
“So? If I don’t have a D-Tab, I can just buy another substitute, is that a problem?”
“The problem is that there is no substitute for it. It is very different from other products and the performance is also very good. They say that D-Tab is the most popular among young people these days.”
But the president still did not take his words seriously.
“The faster the water boils, the faster it cools. Don’t worry too much, Liam, as it will get quieter over time.”
Liam felt that the president wasn’t ready to listen to him.
Today, I decided to leave.
“..I wish I could, too, but let’s keep an eye on the situation for a bit.”
“yes. please.”
Team leader Lee Woong-gi was reporting on the status of Naiworld users.
“Currently, there are about 9.2 million domestic users. And the number of users is growing faster and faster, so we expect to hit 10 million by the end of this month.”
“It’s 10 million… You did a great job, Chief Lee. As I said last time, when the number of users reaches 10 million, corporate advertisements such as banners will be placed. Now, there is not much time left until Nyworld turns into a surplus.”
Team Leader Lee Woong-gi laughed.
“haha. In fact, we have already achieved a surplus.”
“Already? how?”
“Thanks to the store and the emoji. Last month, there were more than 300,000 people exchanging gifts in the store, earning about 800 million won. One million emoticons were traded, resulting in about one billion dollars. Because all the servers are gathered and managed in the data center, the operating cost has also been greatly reduced.
“haha. Congratulations. manager. I didn’t know that we would achieve a profit before we even started posting ads.”
To my words, the manager replied.
“This is entirely thanks to the vision of the CEO. To be honest, the CEO had told me that emoticons would sell well, but I didn’t believe it. But as one or two people decorate their mini homepage with paid emoticons and start writing posts, it became fashionable again.”
Team leader Lee took a sip of the water and continued.
“In particular, our Nai World is a space where we can express ourselves, so it has become an atmosphere where we take it for granted to buy emoticons in order not to go out of fashion. Thanks to this, the sales of paid emoticons increased rapidly, and the number of writers who made emoticons increased. In the end, what the CEO said has already become a reality.”
“haha. It’s still far. Now that’s 1 billion in monthly revenue. I think it could be more than five times that.”
The manager asked with a surprised face.
“..5 times 5 billion?”
In fact, if smartphones came out and our Nyworld had more than 90% of the social media market at that time, it could be tenfold.
“yes. It’s an item with great potential, so don’t be satisfied here, and pay more attention to the emoticon section.”
“All right. Let’s make more ways to use emoticons and think about ways to attract good writers.”
“yes. Did the number of Nyworld users increase slightly in the US other than Korea?”
