Chapter 40: Chapter 40

Seven months flew by just like that. I couldn't believe it but time was truly moving fast when you are doing things you enjoy. For me that consisted of playing games, watching movies, and listening to music. I did not want to toot my own horn but that ship has long sailed. I did what I wanted and created a game that I considered successful. Others, may have another thing to say about it but I never did this for them. I did it for myself. That's all that mattered.

KingdomCome had seven million people playing the game globally. This was beyond my expectations but the number grew daily. The amount of people invested in the game was something no one could predict. It was a free-to-play game something that many considered trash in the current era. If a game went or was released as free to play it was considered second-tier. The only games worth trying or playing were either full retail games or subscription model games.

This worked wonders for me and my company, as players continuously flocked to try our game and found it more enjoyable than a lot of others that were currently on the market. For WoW players our game seemed like paradise, especially for those that were tired of paying. It was a bit of a downer for me to see some games do great for a month or two and then go dark. Vindictus was one of those games, having been released in late January of 2010, it was supposed to be Nexon's next big hit. Sadly, that never really happened, it died soon after the release of KingdomCome.

Dragon Nest which was considered a top-tier game for its combat was sluggish compared to our own game. It was free to play like many others, but it never drew that much attention. I believe the biggest difference between our games was the graphics, sound, and combat system. We were just too far ahead of our competitors that it was like going from ultra HD to 240p. Seeing the visuals and what was possible made it difficult to even return to the lowly 240p.

But again, I did not want to over-praise myself. None of this would have been possible without the incredible work of my team. Thanks to their hard work we were able to create my dream game. Which was now being made into a sequel but it would be released at a much later date.

Besides KingdomCome, there were several more games that we released. The Malazan game that a separate team worked on was launched three months ago to great success, on console and pc. There was another game based on the Static, a sci-fi game named The Last Force, a Berserk game based on the manga, and a couple more. They were greeted with praise and I was glad they did well. There were a lot of complaints with some, but I did not mind overall we made a killing. I hoped we could continue this momentum going forward and not get too lazy in our production. Releasing games with reused content and stories would not do it for me, or any of the companies under me. As long as they did their best to make a quality product then I was fine with giving them what they needed. As long as it was not too crazy. That was the thing, since they were under my company it was unlikely they would run out of money. All we could say was no, but if it made sense to incorporate what they wanted into their products then we would most likely agree.

One company wanted to release a trading card game, which interested me. It was the only company to ask to do such a thing and when I asked them to send up what they had, I was surprised. It was no magic the gathering or yugioh, but it was a game I have heard of before. Cardfight: Vanguard. Normally I wouldn't be sent the concepts for most games as they would go through a chain of other people before I gave the go-ahead or rejected it.

The concept for this game was still in its early stages and I could see where they were going with this. The working name was called Vanguard, but from the art to the numbers I had a good idea of what it would eventually become. Usually, trading card games were marketed towards young kids and teenagers, but some were complex so adults enjoyed them more. I remembered the animated television show Chaotic and their card game. It was a failure even with all the marketing they did.

Should I give the ok for this? The answer was obviously yes. However, how did or should we market this game? I never enjoyed the anime of it but that was because it was weird. I did want to have an anime for it, but I'd have to wait and see what would happen.

After gazing over the concept, what the goal was, and the budget I moved to a new tab to check the news. Nothing major, just seeing what was happening with different companies, and some speeches. I noticed that Google announced they were starting work on an augmented reality project, but it wasn't not one of the main headlines.

Augmented reality? I tried hard to recall if Google did anything with that, and nothing came to mind. Wait. Oh, I did remember. They had their failed project of Google Glass a while back. Well, a while back for me, but it hasn't occurred yet. I forgot why the project failed, but I knew it was not going to be successful.

People were so invested in working on virtual reality that not many put time into augmented reality. Virtual reality was the future, the metaverse was the next big thing. I chuckled at myself recalling those failed ideas and concepts that never saw the light of day.

However, my sight gazed at the tab with the trading card game idea. A light bulb went off in my head as I sent a message to Harold and started slowly putting the pieces together in my head. If this was possible, then I had a goldmine laying right in front of me. If it wasn't, then I'd feel sad but would still make a decent profit.

Ten minutes later Harold appeared in my office.

"You wanted to talk to me?" He asked.

I nodded.

"Come sit, I want to get your opinion on something."

He came over and sat in front of me. I turned the computer around and showed him the article where Google was announcing their plans. He simply nodded his head and then looked at me in confusion.

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"Are you wanting to know if it's possible?" He asked me as if he did not know what else to say.

"No. I know it's possible, but I want to know if we can do it."

"We haven't worked on anything like that before, and with being busy on the new engine I don't think we have the time. Are you planning on doing something with it?"

"Yes. You know the card game Yugioh, correct?"

He nodded slowly.

"Imagine if it was real."

The same light that went off in my head went off in his as I saw his eyes grow big.

"Sir, I don't... I'm not sure if it is possible. AR technology is far from being useful, so maybe we should wait."

I shook my head.

"I recently received an idea from Bushiroad a company located in Japan. The idea is different, but I wanted to know if we could take it one step further. When people think of AR technology, they think far distant into the future. Where we can reach out and move window screens, select caller ids, and much more. What I'm thinking of is more basic." I paused for him to catch up to what I was trying to say. "We can if possible create some sort of headset or better yet a console. I'm still working it out fully, but it has to be connected to a stadium. The wearers or users would be able to place their cards down on the console, and the image of their cards would appear on the stadium field. With projectors of some kind, we could show the monsters. Things would have to happen with little delay."

"This... is nice but I'm still not sure we can pull it off. We don't have anyone working that has experience dealing with anything like that. How would you be able to sell it if it's a console that can only be used in the stadium? Where would the stadium even go? The headset idea was better as it will allow easier access to the public and can be used on the go. But there is still a lot to work out, and you'd have to hire a new staff to work on it as well. I'm not sure I can be of any help." Harold told me.

I sighed. He was right, my train of thought went off track and I got lost. Still, I didn't want to give up on this.

"I'll hire the people to work on it. It'll be a side project until the base is finished. What I want to know is can you create some sort of engine to run this?"

"I can try." He told me.

"That's all I ask. I want to have a card that can be read by a device. Like I can set my phone down on a portable charge and it charges, the same thing except the card will be read and a monster appears. The early concept can even connect to a computer so we know it works, from there we can build on it."

The goldmine I had assumed I landed on was only a dream at this point. However, I never assumed in my wildest dreams that this idea of mines would spark a revolution worldwide later on.

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