Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Lincoln patiently let the bullets fly.

He estimated that players would take at least a day to reach the end of the game, realize their disappointment, and then vent their anger at NetDragon.

After all, unlike traditional console games and Cloud Dream Host’s virtual reality games, current VR game equipment was extremely physically demanding.

Wearing a heavy curved display on their heads, constantly moving on the omnidirectional treadmill, and some high-end players even wearing a full set of sensing suits.

While light activity was ok, intense movement resulted in significant physical exertion and sweating.

That’s why esports players were highly respected here, and hardly anyone who was good at gaming suddenly didn’t want to go to school and stubbornly wanted to become an esports player.

The well-toned muscles of esports players and the physical activity noted in their daily training schedules were enough to deter them.

But there was no choice, as the lucrative competitions were all organized by leading companies and naturally promoted their own VR platform games.

This was the basis of Lincoln’s time estimation: realistic circumstances didn’t allow players to play too hard, so eventually they would have to rest. Therefore, it would take at least the next day to reach the end of the game.

But the bullet flew much faster than Lincoln had anticipated.

Just one hour after the game went on sale, both Henry and Richard were filled with joy, as sales figures skyrocketed to over 1.6 million copies, and were still increasing rapidly!

However, without warning, a large number of refund requests started appearing in the back end.

How massive was it? Over 300,000 refund requests!

Henry’s heart almost stopped at the sight, he could swear he’d never seen so many refund requests in his life, especially all clustered within such a short period of time!

“Is someone playing dirty tricks on us?” Richard said with a gloomy face, as this situation was just too unusual.

Henry also found it unbelievable, “But who has the ability to do that?”

Yes, who has the ability? To use 300,000 real-name accounts, purchase NetDragon’s game, and then collectively ask for a refund. Who could do that? What’s the purpose?

It was simply impossible!

“Don’t refund yet, notify the technical department immediately to check whether there is a problem with our system, and if there are any signs of intrusion,” Richard firmly believed that this could not be normal data and that something must have gone wrong!

NetDragon’s technical department quickly took action.

But soon, the technical department ruled out the possibility of system problems and intrusion, finding no abnormality whatsoever.

Richard’s face turned pale, “Find out what’s going on right away! Get the

Flaming Project Team to work! It’s only been an hour since the game was released, if there’s a severe bug causing the refund wave, we must issue a statement and fix it immediately!”

“What about the refunds?” Henry asked cautiously.

“Of course, refund immediately. Do you want to hold onto them? Are you insane? What the hell are you thinking about?!” Richard scolded, feeling more and more disgusted with Henry.

“Yes, I’ll go arrange that right away.” Henry, no longer displaying his usual senior pride, hurried to arrange the refunds and then rushed back to the Flaming Project Team to attend to any bugs in the game and fix them as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t an issue with the game’s bugs, but with the game itself.

The vast majority of players, out of curiosity stimulated by Lincoln and Princess Camille, tried “Blaze 3” and chose to quit within the first hour.

The heavy helmet, continuous movement, intense combat, and tension-filled atmosphere filled with flying bullets…

They couldn’t last long and chose to give up one by one. Removing the equipment, requesting a refund and leaving – all in one go.

Only a very small number of people who hadn’t played VR games before enjoyed it and continued to play with interest.

But in the end, these people were in the minority. Eventually, the massive potential new player group contributed their sales to NetDragon, only for the company to have to return them all.

This wasn’t some chpan_ small vamp costing inst a few dollarq_ it was over 600

dollars! Of course, people would want a refund!

Even Camille Victoria, who didn’t care much about money, opted for a refund, fuming with anger.

Thrifty Shuihua didn’t even need to mention how quickly she requested her money back, fearing that she would no longer be eligible if she waited even a few minutes.

Their feelings were similar to those of other refund seekers: they felt deceived.

“This is no fun at all!” Shuihua complained.

“Yeah, I’d rather go back to ‘Traveler of the Wind’ and play with strangers,” Camille Victoria recently enjoyed hiding her identity and playing with anonymous players, feeling a very special kind of thrill.

“Alright, alright, it’s my fault. I’ll buy you ice cream, let’s go!” Shuihua pulled Camille Victoria away.

The two of them had good tempers already, having opted for a refund, they wouldn’t say anything else online.

But other people were different, with 300 ,ooo refund orders, one-tenth of them venting their frustrations online – that’s 30,000 posts!

It had undoubtedly become a hot topic.

Many people who weren’t going to say anything initially joined the discussion when they saw so many others talking about it.

After all, everyone had the same experience! What was this? Fate!

So they eagerly joined the discussion and began to express their dissatisfaction with NetDragon’s new game.

For Henry, it seemed like things had entered a terrifying vicious cycle.

The Flaming Team didn’t find any severe bugs, and the occasional bugs discovered by players online were very minor, not affecting the overall game, and could be fixed quickly.

However, every second, a large number of refund request orders were still being generated in the system. Once the refund was completed, the players would join the internet and express their complaints and dissatisfaction with NetDragon’s new game.

These complaints and dissatisfactions, in turn, pushed more new players to leave the game and ask for refunds.

“If this is a nightmare, please let me wake up as soon as possible.” Henry looked pale and helpless.

The game’s total sales numbers didn’t increase but rather declined, and although new sales were still continuously being made, in less than half an hour, the game’s total sales had been smashed back to 1.1 million by the refund orders!

And the word of mouth online was collapsing rapidly.

Although initially, it was just new players who didn’t usually play games complaining, new players were still players! They did buy your game and played it, and when they felt unsatisfied, they asked for refunds. This was only reasonable.

Could you blame the consumers for not taking the time to experience the game properly?

None of the game developers would have that audacity.

Besides, when the heat reached a certain point, many old players who usually played gunfight games began to hesitate.

Could it be that “Blaze 3” was really that bad?

Keep in mind, the “Father of Blaze,” Randall had left for Cloud Dream, and NetDragon hadn’t explained the exact reason!

Without Randall, would “Blaze 3” suffer a huge drop in quality? No one could be sure.

More and more players chose to wait and see, after all, 648 dollars wasn’t a small amount.

They paused their payments and began browsing various live-streaming platforms, deciding to check the game’s quality first.

If the quality was good, it wouldn’t matter if they were a day or half day late.

But if the quality didn’t meet the standards?

Well, then it would be goodbye!