Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 461: 444: A Small Goal of 500 Million

Baekje’s streamers – not just the game streamers, but many other streamers across various fields – followed suit and began studying the national standard mahjong.

Although Baekje does not have a professional mahjong league like Izumo, it does not have a competitive atmosphere for mahjong.

But –

Baekje’s eSports clubs, although not as numerous as the those in Daxia, but the level of enthusiasm in relevant fields is even greater than in Daxia!

And now, these clubs inevitably become involved in this trend.

—To be honest, their initial target was large-scale competitions like the “Assassins’ Alliance” national competition.

Who would have thought that after entering the virtual reality game system, they would be gearing up for the first major competition, only to face a competition in playing cards and mahjong…

They are more confused than the eSports clubs in Daxia.

At least in Daxia, the players have a better understanding of Cloud Dream and Lincoln’s abilities to create events, and their acceptance is much stronger than that of overseas players.

Just like now, domestic eSports clubs in Daxia have divided into two factions and started taking action.

One faction is a step ahead of Cloud Dream and beginning to organize small mahjong competitions, with as many club members as possible participating.

This is both to cultivate the players’ card playing skills and to find the “Card King” and “Mahjong God” within the club.

For targeted training-although everyone knows that the significance of doing so is minimal.

Another faction chose to “fight motion with stillness”.

They prepared contracts and cash in advance and waited for the preliminary selection to start.

As soon as powerful players appear, immediately bring cash and contracts to sign them up!

Even if it costs money to simply secure a name, the name of the club must be attached!

Of course, this plan tests their skill more.

Because their competitors are not just other clubs, but also PR departments of many brands.

Moreover, it is impossible to sign cooperation deals just as the preliminary selection begins.

There are too many players participating, and poker and mahjong do require a lot of luck. No one can guarantee that the player they sponsor can advance all the way.

The best choice, of course, is to enter when there are 32 or even 16 players left in the tournament.

At least this guarantees basic exposure.

But similarly, the deeper the competition goes, the more intense the competition for the players they desire becomes, and the higher the signing price naturally becomes.

It feels a bit like scouts digging for future star players from grassroots players.

This tests the manager’s vision, judgment, decision-making, and even eloquence.

In other words, this is not only a competition for players, but also a competition for the professional skills of professional managers!

If such competitions continue and the benefits generated are large enough, perhaps “card scouts” will be born alongside the well-known “football scouts” and “talent scouts” in the future…

Then, in the virtual world,

The plan of players attempting to break through the security barrier on Dinosaur Island and enter Jurassic Park was officially declared a failure.

Despite the fact that [King of the Ocean] had led the team day and night to complete a Ming Wheel Ship as long as 50 meters that could transport a new batch of players to Dinosaur Island,

They still couldn’t breach the park due to Jurassic Park’s perfect security measures.

Well, there was nothing they could do since the difference in weapon lethality was just too great!

What frustrated the players the most was that even if they managed to kill the NPC security and grab their guns, they couldn’t use them.

—These guns were actually fingerprint verified! Only official employees of [Jurassic Park] could use them!

Most of the players had to give up due to the lack of hope for success, returning to fight the dinosaurs again.

Only a few continued to look for loopholes around Jurassic Park, hoping to sneak in.

Finally, the entire Chinese-language Internet was filled with the growing anticipation for Alex’s virtual concert.

Although many fans did not have Mirage consoles and could not go to the concert site, they still had no live broadcasting channel to watch the concert.

Even so, it could not stop their eagerness to look forward to and follow the concert.

It was then that Leander, who had started contacting some streamers with expiring contracts, suddenly came to Lincoln.

“Boss, our live broadcast platform is about to be set up. How is the construction going?”

How did it go? Of course, they hadn’t started yet.

But Lincoln couldn’t say that, so instead, he calmly answered, “It’s pretty much ready. It will be ready by next week when you guys need it.”

Unexpectedly, Leander became excited and said: “Is there a possibility that we can have a trial run, then use our own live streaming platform to broadcast Alex’s virtual concert?”

“Huh?” Lincoln hadn’t thought of that.

The difficulty was not too significant. Since they were already cooperating, multiple live broadcasts should be possible. For Alex, it also isn’t a bad thing; they just need to pay a little more money.

But the problem was that this was contrary to the purpose of “promoting more Alex fans to buy Mirage consoles.”

However, Lincoln only hesitated for a moment before agreeing: “Alright, let’s do that! You gather everyone available tomorrow morning, and under the name of [trial operation], let’s invite netizens to watch a concert!”

“Great, I’ll go and contact everyone!”

Leander excitedly hung up the phone and began contacting his subordinates, asking those who could start earlier to come in three days ahead of schedule.

Lincoln agreed to this mainly because he had thought about the fact that after the announcement of Alex’s virtual concert, there had been a huge surge in console sales.

Now, the fans who haven’t bought it might indeed be under financial pressure and not willing to spend the money.

Rather than dangling the carrot in front of them and enticing them to buy the console, it would be more generous to invite everyone to watch the concert and strive for good word of mouth.

It would also serve as a powerful advertisement for the live streaming platform.

Anyway, there is no concern about selling the console now. Overseas orders and new demand from card and mahjong game users are all eagerly awaiting more consoles.

Even now, companies from Australia and Russia have come to Daxia to seek cooperation opportunities.

In Lincoln’s plan, there will be no factories built in countries outside the Daxia cultural circle, only servers will be set up.

Consoles there will rely entirely on exports from Daxia.

The number of users in Daxia has barely reached its peak.

Replacing computers completely in the domestic market, habits, and even social concepts would be a big shock, and it’s not advisable to rush it.

So, the next market for the Mirage Console will officially go global.

—Of course, Lincoln will not forget to be cautious and take it step by step without taking risks.

First, set a small goal: 500 million global users!

It doesn’t seem like much, does it?

After all, Daxia already has 165 million users.

But that’s actually an illusion.

Daxia is the base of Cloud Dream and has a large population with many internet users, making it one of the three economic poles in the world.

Only then can it support this staggering number of users.

However, even under these circumstances, the ceiling is at 200 million without making any big moves.

Of course, the potential is still there, and when Lincoln makes his next move in Daxia, it’ll be a full-scale replacement of computers, directly attacking 500 million users!

But outside of Daxia, Izumo and Baekje have only produced and sold around 6 million units each in half a month.

The user ceiling for these two countries, based on current data projections, is estimated by Lincoln to be around 30 or 40 million.

In other words, if they all pull together, they’ll be lucky to accumulate 100 million users.

Southeast Asian countries have great potential but lack economic strength. They are just starting to fully expand, and currently, there are only around 700,000 users.

In other words, Cloud Dream’s actual user count is just over 177 million.

—Of course, Lincoln has not included those who have registered Cloud Dream accounts but do not have a console. If he did, Cloud Dream’s global user count would have already exceeded 500 million…

That is to say, for Cloud Dream to reach 500 million actual users logging into the virtual world, they must fully develop the market in Southeast Asia and even get some support from Australia and Russia.

“It’s a long road ahead,” Lincoln sighs.

Considering it took Cloud Dream more than four months to get to where it is now, it might take at least another six months to reach 500 million users?

“It’s okay, I’m very patient.”

Lincoln put down his work and started making phone calls.

First, he told Jerome about the live concert streaming and asked Jerome to discuss it with Alex’s studio.

He also sent Camille Victoria a message to let her know.

Next was Samuel.

With Cloud Dream Live Streaming’s trial run starting tomorrow and the virtual concert streaming news, he needed her to handle the publicity and follow-up promotions.

Then it was Zhou Jingzheng.

That’s right. Although Lincoln said, “Invite everyone to the concert,” he would not miss the opportunity to add more users.

So he decided—launch the console tomorrow!

Originally, the plan was to go on sale with 30 million units on Saturday, but there’s no problem with launching a day early, just put 25 million units on sale!

Alex’s concert starts at 18:18 in the evening, and the console goes on sale at 8:00 AM.

Special express delivery services are also available!

Give fans a final chance to be present at the concert!

After arranging all this, Lincoln logged into the virtual world to personally complete the most critical task—finalize the development of the live streaming platform!

He caught Mavis as she pounced on him, spinning her around in mid-air a couple of times before tossing her onto the small sofa!

“Ah!” Mavis let out a small scream, then immediately laughed and pounced again: “That was fun! Mavis wants to play more!”

Lincoln, of course, wouldn’t refuse.

He played with Mavis for a while before sitting back down on the small sofa.

Then he politely asked Mavis to help with something while massaging her shoulders: “Mavis, there’s something I need your help with.”

“Hehe,” Mavis chuckled smugly as soon as Lincoln started talking.

“Mavis knows!”

Mavis waved her little hand, and a row of live streaming windows with different UI interfaces appeared in front of Lincoln.

“Mavis has already prepared everything! Master, feel free to choose!”