An hour before Yunmeng's monthly meeting started, NetDragon's high-level meeting also started.

The main topic is very clear - "Fire 3"'s first large-scale DLC "Red Flame" will be released soon.

Under the complex situation currently faced by NetDragon, this sale is very critical!

Yu Gu led the development team and was very excited when the DLC development was completed ahead of schedule.

Because they all feel that the scale of the DLC "Red Flame" can be called super large!

In terms of map design, plot missions, NPC shaping, combat system expansion, etc., it is almost as good as developing a new game.

When reporting to the company, everyone felt a sense of satisfaction and felt that they had handed in a satisfactory answer.

And for Team Leader Valley, this feeling is especially strong.

God knows how to reorganize this incomplete, patchwork group of people, those who want to leave, those who are full of resentment, and whose morale has dropped to the bottom, into a team. Regardless of the past grudges, they will cooperate sincerely, use all their talents, and put in all their hard work. Not only will it work as scheduled,

How difficult it is to even do this job outstandingly!

And he finally accomplished it all!

His receding hairline, his early gray hair, and his deteriorating physical fitness all prove the hard work he has put in!

His excitement and excitement were truly indescribable, and his whole person was immersed in the excitement of success.

Until——Yunmeng released the internal beta test and release date announcement of "John Wick".

Just like after the hottest day in midsummer, the days will only get cooler; if ripe apples are not picked in time, they will fall and rot; after the tide reaches its highest point, it will inevitably fall.

After that day, Yu Gu's heart began to sink.

Watching "John Wick" attract the attention of all players and media in the blink of an eye, no matter how they publicize it or release new materials and intelligence, they can't bring the attention of players back.

Obviously the number of players has increased several times, but the popularity they have gained is far less than when DLC was released in the "Fire 2" era!

How can this not make Yu Gu feel helpless and discouraged?

Until now, the only thing that can comfort him is that "John Wick" and "Flame 3: Red Flame" have different platforms and will not form direct competition.

Even if the popularity is completely suppressed, it is difficult to use the release of DLC to further stimulate the sales of the main game.

At least the existing player group will not miss this news, and the possibility of purchasing is very high.

——Most of the players who were deceived by the ending still want to continue playing and avenge their revenge, right?

Of course, this also creates a problem:

If the sales of the main game do not increase, the sales of DLC can only rely on players who have already purchased the main game.

And a very large part of these players enjoy the "free access to DLC" treatment - in order to restore the reputation of the game, they had to spend a lot of money to appease the players.

And now is the time to bear that price.

This also means that the sales volume of DLC will easily hit the ceiling, and it will become very difficult to meet NetDragon's expectations.

As a result, Zhao Yucheng's question about "sales expectations" became very difficult to answer.

In the end, Yu Gu could only say: "We can look forward to the word-of-mouth effect."

Players who are accustomed to using VR equipment to play games cannot abandon them so quickly. A complete set of equipment worth 70,000 to 80,000 yuan is even less likely to be abandoned at the drop of a hat.

Even if the total number of players has decreased, the basic base is still there.

As long as the basic game is there, there will definitely be no shortage of players to play the DLC.

Yu Gu is very confident, "As long as players play the DLC "Red Flame", they will definitely feel our sincerity!"

"At that time, not only the ratings of the DLC, but also the player ratings of the main game will experience a substantial increase."

——The main body is controlled by Qin Songyun and Fan Rui. Except for the lack of ending, there are no other flaws.

Now the DLC has made up for the shortcomings and received reasonable ratings, which is what it should be.

"After that, when the reputation of players increases, and then we carry out targeted promotion and marketing to occupy the players' attention, the promotional effect at this time will definitely be better than just relying on one word of promotion now."

"It is very possible to reverse the decline in one fell swoop!"

Zhang Heying nodded repeatedly, approving very much.

——This was originally a strategy jointly discussed by him and Yu Gu, and it was an unavoidable solution under the current situation.

Now Yunmeng's "John Wick" is gaining momentum, but it is too late to compete for the popularity.

Especially when Lingxi has blocked NetDragon and cannot directly purchase hot searches...

Zhao Yucheng's face turned darker.

But he also knows that even if the DLC is done very well and the promotion is very smooth, it will be very difficult to sell the same amount as before.

Even if it can be sold, it will only slightly extend its life and will not fundamentally solve the problems faced by NetDragon.

In other words, it cannot solve the problem faced by NetDragon, Desert Island, and Feihu - the general trend of VR equipment falling out of the mainstream of the gaming industry.

He knows all the issues very well.

——But this does not affect his current mood, especially since there has been almost no good news since the beginning of the meeting.

Employees continue to resign. Although there is no longer a phenomenon of concentrated resignations in a short period of time, there are always employees who leave one after another.

And the human resources department is very weak, the recruitment effect is very poor, and the speed of staff recruitment can never keep up with the loss.

Net Dragon is continuously losing blood.

This is different from NetDragon's initiative to suspend the research and development of new generation VR equipment and streamline the research and development team.

Most of the people who left are game development-related talents. They are indispensable talents for NetDragon to compete with Yunmeng in the game field and re-emerge after acquiring virtual reality-related technologies.

In addition to personnel issues, the progress of several other games under development is also very unsatisfactory.

A few months ago, due to supporting the development of the "Fire 3" DLC, other teams lost several employees, and the progress of developing the game was already slowed down.

Afterwards, we looked at the unstoppable development momentum of virtual reality games, the stagnant sales of our own equipment, and the withdrawal of VR games from the center of players' attention. Finally, Lin You's conclusion that "VR games are destined to become a niche"...

Almost tacitly, all employees unknowingly slackened off, and the project progress almost stagnated.

Zhao Yucheng is very dissatisfied, although this is also due to his deliberate indulgence: now that he continues to produce games based on VR equipment, the price/performance ratio has become increasingly lower, and the investment is likely to be sunk costs.

But he was very dissatisfied when he saw his employees taking advantage of the situation.

In the end, I could only give the supervisors present a regular slap and ask them to encourage their employees after the meeting to make them work seriously.

Then he said with a dark face: "The meeting is dismissed! Wu Yong will stay for a while."

…

"The old question, when will virtual reality technology be cracked?!" Zhao Yucheng's tone was already very rude.

"Don't tell me you're working hard, and don't play catch-up with me. Give me a date! I want a timetable!"

Wu Yong swallowed subconsciously, not because he was afraid of Zhao Yucheng, but because he didn't know how to say it: "The date is already there."

"Oh!" Zhao Yucheng finally got excited, "When? How long will it take?"

"It will take another two months. It is expected to be successfully cracked by the end of December." Wu Yong replied with difficulty.

"It's been so long since the production line was moved back! Now you tell me, it will take two more months?!" Zhao Yucheng's eyes widened, his face full of surprise and anger, "Do you know what two months means?"

Wu Yong lowered his head silently. It was precisely because he knew how bad NetDragon's current situation was and how difficult the next two months would be that he found it difficult to answer.

"How to speed up the cracking process?" Zhao Yucheng asked, "Do we need more money? Or more engineers?"

"No need." Wu Yong replied in a low voice.

"The engineering team uses the assembly line to burn code line by line and crack line by line, and they cannot accurately control which line to burn. Each time it must be only one more line than the last time, no more, no less."

"This is a gradual process. They have been divided into groups for 24-hour shift work. In addition to ensuring that the equipment does not malfunction and requires regular maintenance, the assembly line is non-stop, and there is really no way to shorten the time."

Zhao Yucheng then understood that he could only accept this result.

"At the end of the year..." he repeated in a low voice.

When a situation begins to deteriorate, there are often only small signs at first.

But as time goes by, the signs will become more and more obvious, and the deterioration of the situation will continue to accelerate, and in the end it will often collapse like an avalanche.

Unfortunately, he had already seen the signs.

He didn't know whether Feihu and Huangdao saw the signs and responded.

But here, cracking Yunmeng's technology and copying NetDragon's own virtual reality technology is his only life-saving straw.

But the question now is: Can NetDragon survive until that day?

In order to maintain its expansion momentum, NetDragon took advantage of its position as the industry leader and borrowed a lot of debt!

Moreover, even if it survives through the end of the year, will the remaining talents and funds by then be able to support NetDragon's comeback?

*

Of course, Feihu and Huangdao also face the same dilemma that NetDragon faces.

But unlike NetDragon, there is no direct conflict between them and Yunmeng, and they have not been attacked by Yunmeng, so they can think of solutions more calmly.

And after these months of struggle and discussion, they have all formulated their own survival strategies.
To be continued...