Over on the New Year side, players were still talking about how Nebula Games was losing big time.
Even though all those little green bars meant Lucas's hands were barely keeping up with the work.
After all, players had way too many pockets full of cash.
But since players kept saying Nebula Games was losing its shirt,
they had to lose a little bit somehow.
After all, Lucas was a straight shooter who never lied about anything.
So on the official blog, Lucas ran a daily giveaway event.
Rainbow Six: Siege, Warcraft, and some cash red packets, plus lots of interaction with players.
These things were just small change to Lucas now anyway.
Not to mention, the wool comes from the sheep, right?
Lucas opened the work group chat and sent out some red packets, then chatted with Anna and Rachel about a few fun stories.
Right then, his phone rang.
He picked it up and saw who it was, and Lucas paused for a second.
The call was from David, the head of the Game Division.
"Happy New Year, Minister John," Lucas said with a smile as he answered.
"Happy New Year, Boss Lucas," David replied with a chuckle.
After some small talk, David paused and then said, "Boss Lucas, do you remember that VR test from a couple years back?"
"Of course. Does the Game Division have a new policy on that?" Lucas nodded in reply.
"Not really on that front, but the new version of VR is going global after the holiday. It's not just the domestic one— the latest foreign-developed VR is launching too." David paused before continuing.
"So if your post-holiday development plans aren't set yet, Boss Lucas, you might want to think about VR. Rainbow Six: Siege works great with it, and as one of the first games to support the new VR, you'll get access to resources from the relevant departments." David from the Game Division told Lucas.
"I've already sent the details to your game editor's backend. You can check them out yourself."
Lucas replied, "Okay, Minister John, I got it. I'll take a look."
Then Lucas chatted a bit more before opening his computer to learn more.
He'd already looked into the new VR tech when developing Silent Hill PT demo, and the support for games was much better than current levels.
Especially with the resources from the Game Division, it could create a way more immersive experience.
With the new VR launch, it was also about grabbing market share.
The foreign side was rolling out their latest VR too, so basically, it was a fight over who sets the market standards.
And games would decide that.
As for whether the new VR would flop due to low device market share,
that wasn't something to worry about too much.
In this parallel world, game compatibility was way easier than in his previous life.
Everything used a unified setup, so developing for new VR also worked with old VR, just without the full immersion.
Players who bought the new VR would mostly go for games made for it anyway.
No point otherwise—what's the use of new VR if you're not buying its games?
Like, are you buying it just to play old games?
This time, it seemed like escorting the new VR, but it was really a chance.
Because new VR would eventually replace the old one step by step, and with editor engine tech supporting new VR development, Nebula Games could pull ahead of other developers.
This was clearly from joining the new VR test earlier and stuff like Rainbow Six: Siege.
The day after talking with the Game Division, Marcus called from over there to discuss it with Lucas.
Of course, he represented NetDragon.
From NetDragon's side, they weren't planning new games. Instead, they'd focus on the Rainbow Six: Siege project.
Even if the kid wasn't theirs by blood, they had half custody through NetDragon, and raising it right meant it could give back to them later.
They'd handle PC version development and new VR for Rainbow Six: Siege, while Nebula Games just split the porting costs based on expenses.
For new VR, NetDragon wouldn't jump in during the first quarter.
Lucas hadn't planned to bring NetDragon along anyway.
...
Time kept moving forward, and the seventh day of the new year was the first official workday.
Most employees in Nebula Games' departments were back at their posts.
Around this time, news about the new VR started popping up online too.
But it came from overseas first: a new VR called Zeus was about to launch.
The domestic side was ready though, announcing their latest one called Universe just a day later.
At first, both sides hyped the new VR's specs and features.
Basically, just painting a big picture.
Until the foreign side made the first move: big game maker Atari announced a new title for Zeus.
Atari even said it was an IP game based on a movie adaptation, the hot one from a few years back called Storm Action.
That movie was huge worldwide back then, with box office over 800 million bucks.
Meanwhile, the domestic channel alliance announced a strategic partnership with Atari to publish the game here.
It was clearly aimed at the pre-holiday Rainbow Six: Siege from Nebula Games and NetDragon.
SkyNova sat this one out.
Because in the new era VR battle between Zeus and Universe, SkyNova would have to be nuts not to side with the Game Division.
But the channel alliance didn't care. Besides ones like Hero Games with dev teams, most were just publishers.
Zeus or Universe meant nothing to them.
Regular players were the simplest group.
Whichever platform had good games, they'd support that one.
Suddenly, players overseas and domestic were all buzzing about Storm Action and Atari stuff.
Even inside Nebula Games, everyone was talking about it.
"Atari's got deep pockets! They straight-up bought such a big IP!" Rachel said, looking at the news.
"Yeah, I rewatched that movie not long ago. No real depth, but it was super fun!" Anna agreed.
"Turning it into a VR game will be explosive!" Hector added with a sigh.
Lucas walked over, heard the whole chat, and smiled. "Not necessarily. Movie or comic adaptations into games can sometimes end up in an awkward spot."
"Adapting an IP is just to grab the original fans, but movies and games are totally different mediums." Lucas said with a smile.
Movie-to-game or game-to-movie sounds solid.
But his previous life had tons of bloody failures as proof.
The only real big success was the Resident Evil series, but that was changed so much even the mom wouldn't recognize it.
If you follow the movie's story, how do you stretch a two-hour film into ten, twenty hours of main storyline?
Endless small enemies, twisty mazes, tasks like helping an old lady cross the street?
Do that and players would trash it without mercy.
Compared to movies, books without visuals are easier to adapt.
Or just fan-service comic or anime games with no changes.
"Besides, why adapt an IP when creating your own is way more exciting?" Lucas smiled and said, "Tell all departments: meeting this afternoon. Time for a new project."
"New project!?" Hector and the others got excited right away.
"What's it about, Boss Lucas!?" Rachel and Anna looked at him eagerly.
"Atari's doing a movie-to-game, special forces theme. Let's do one too. A level-based cinematic game, modern war and special ops theme works great." Lucas stretched and said.
(End of chapter)
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