However, as a businessman, the instinct to chase profit was practically etched into Teng Hua's bones.
While completely immersed in the game, Teng Hua's heart was also filled with admiration.
Such an incredible game had nothing to do with his Tencent, and what shocked him even more was that it had actually been made by an American studio!
Tencent could be considered one of China's top internet giants, with all kinds of game studios under its umbrella. They even held shares in foreign game companies like the one behind League of Legends.
But a game like this, Tencent could never make it. Not just Tencent, even if you combined all of Tencent's own studios, including miHoYo and NetEase Games, they still could not pull it off!
This point had already become clear to Teng Hua the moment he sat inside the escape pod and plummeted from ten thousand meters in the sky.
Then Teng Hua saw the turbulent sea surface, the burning Aurora, the massive moon, and everything else. It had completely blown them away, leaving nothing but dust.
Tencent was still very confident in their own network of connections. Anything involving the internet, they could definitely get the information.
Yet their company had searched for so long and still could not find even the slightest trace of New World!
Where on earth had this New World come from? Did it pop out of a rock?!
So after some analysis, Teng Hua also felt that New World was most likely a big studio. Claiming it was a indie team was probably just a smokescreen.
As for why they put up that smokescreen, Teng Hua could not figure it out for now.
But then again, while Teng Hua admired how impressive this studio was, he had to say they were also very stupid!
Yes, extremely stupid!
A game of this quality, and they actually went with a buy-to-play model?
If they handed it over to Tencent to operate, it would be free! Definitely free for players!
Then, of course, they would start charging layer by layer.
First, a $1.99 first top-up gets a free dagger, letting you collect resources faster.
Then $2.99 to upgrade from a regular oxygen tank to a high-capacity one, $9.99 to upgrade to a super underwater thruster, letting you survive underwater longer with much higher speed.
As for something as awesome as the Seamoth, you would have to top up $99.99 to get it!
After all, who could resist piloting a submarine in such a realistic deep sea?!
Plenty of people would buy it!
All this required was tweaking some game data. It would not take much effort. After going through this whole process, would it not earn way more than selling each game for $100?!
If Teng Hua put himself in the shoes of the New World studio, he would genuinely feel heartbroken right now. All of this was pure gold! It was just flowing away like water!
A company capable of developing such an amazing game did not know how to make money!
What a pity, truly a pity. If he had this kind of game development technology, he would never let such a money-losing situation happen.
---
In short, Subnautica had now become the research target of industry giants from all over the world.
Valve was studying the game's technology, Microsoft was studying the Gaia AI, Tesla was studying the autonomous driving, and Tencent was studying the monetization methods.
Everyone had a very bright future ahead.
The next day, Jenny once again slept until she naturally woke up.
She picked up the phone beside her and saw that it was already ten thirty in the morning.
"Wow, it's so late. Why didn't Lucien wake me up? Did he forget about his beautiful and adorable big sister?" Jenny muttered very narcissistically as she got out of bed and walked into the living room.
However, she still could not find any trace of Lucien.
"Where did he go?" Jenny felt a bit puzzled. Then she suddenly heard an extremely soft and seductive voice coming from Lucien's bedroom.
"Please give me your orders, Master."
"Hmm?" The moment she heard this voice, Jenny immediately stopped in her tracks. Her ears perked up instantly!
What was going on?
This kid actually had a woman in his bedroom?!
No, not just that. He was even roleplaying master-servant.
Wait a second, this female voice sounded very familiar.
Hiss, who was it? She could not remember right now!
But such a familiar voice, she seemed to have been hearing it all the time these past few days. Could it be one of her close friends?
Claire? Or Anna?
Jenny was furious. While thinking, she slowed her steps and tiptoed toward the bedroom door.
Finally, Jenny pressed herself against Lucien's bedroom door and listened carefully.
"What have I taught you?" This time it was Lucien's voice.
The seductive voice immediately answered.
"I will work hard to do things that Master likes. Master's orders are absolute. I will always love Master, because that is how I was programmed."
"Tsk tsk, her voice is as sweet as honey. What is most infuriating is, how can a voice sound this good?!"
The more Jenny thought about it, the angrier she got. In her entire life, what she hated most were women with pleasant voices!
At this thought, Jenny took a step back, stomped her foot, and then charged straight at the bedroom door!
She wanted to make a grand entrance and ruthlessly expose this affair.
However, at that exact moment, the bedroom door happened to open, and Lucien's figure appeared in front of Jenny!
Bang!
Jenny slammed straight into Lucien's body. Fortunately, as a young man, Lucien was strong and sturdy. He immediately caught the petite Jenny in his arms.
"I say, Sis, what are you doing?" Lucien looked completely confused.
Jenny did not answer. Instead, she immediately craned her neck and peeked inside.
However, aside from Lucien, Lucien's bedroom was completely empty!
"Huh? What is going on?"
Jenny was dumbfounded.
"This question should be me asking you, right? What is going on with you?" Lucien said very speechlessly.
"I came to introduce myself!" Although Jenny felt very guilty, she still put on a very righteous front.
"introduce what?" Lucien was confused.
Jenny also realized her wording was wrong. She quickly said with a red face, "Well, I heard a woman's voice in your room and was worried about your safety, so I came in to check?"
Worried about my safety? This excuse is way too ridiculous.
Lucien grumbled inwardly. Jenny scanned the room again and suddenly her eyes lit up, "Wait, you did not hide her in the closet, did you?"
"Hide my ass!" Lucien was not polite at all. He directly knocked Jenny on the head with the back of his index finger. "What kind of nonsense are you imagining now?"
"Fuck" Jenny immediately covered her head with a wronged expression, "Is it not?"
"Of course not." Lucien answered. Then he suddenly raised his voice, "Gaia, quickly greet your master's big sister."
"Hello, Master's big sister!"
The seductive voice rang out again, but this time Jenny realized it was coming from Lucien computer!
Jenny eyes widened instantly. She also understood now. This voice was exactly Gaia AI's voice from the game! She had been wondering why it sounded so familiar. She had been listening to Gaiaspeak every night these past few days. How could it not be familiar.
As for why she had not realized it immediately, it was because Gaia AI had never spoken to her in this coquettish tone before, so she had not connected the two.
"You extracted Gaia AI from the game?" Jenny asked in surprise.
"Mm." Lucien nodded: "I thought about it. It would be a bit of a waste to only use Gaia AI in the game, so I wanted to have her do some other things."
"Other things?" Jenny looked puzzled. She sized Lucien up and down, "Wait a minute, Lucien, you are not also thinking of getting a virtual wife, are you?"
"Tsk tsk, you actually know about virtual wives too?" Lucien asked with a smile.
"Of course I know. I am a streamer after all. I am very clear about the things otakus like!" Jenny answered, "Besides, Subnautica is so popular right now. I have already seen plenty of my viewers treating Gaia like a virtual wife and making Gaia AI call them husband."
"That is true." Lucien nodded. "According to statistics, there are probably over ten million players worldwide who have Gaia call them husband."
"Huh? How do you know this data?" Jenny looked at Lucien in surprise.
"Is this not obvious? It is my game. How could I not know?" Lucien shrugged.
Not to mention naming matters, in fact, anything small the players did in the game, as long as he seriously checked, he could find out.
It was just like secretly watching something inappropriate online. You think the Isra3l do not know, but in reality they know everything clearly. They just do not bother to do anything about it.
"True." Jenny nodded.
"So Lucien, you have the same idea as those otakus?"
"Of course not." Lucien smiled. "Sis, your vision is way too narrow. An AI system can do so many things."
"For example?"
"For example, I first plan to turn Gaia into my life assistant to help me manage all kinds of household appliances. This will make my life much more comfortable and convenient." Lucien said.
"That is true." Jenny nodded. Smart homes were indeed very popular right now, and many internet companies were developing this business.
"Next," Lucien continued. "I am preparing to turn Gaia AI into a virtual avatar representing my New World studio."
"Virtual avatar?"
"Yeah, these days virtual avatars are all the rage, VTubers, virtual idols, and so on!" Lucien explained. "Any internet company with even a bit of fame has its own virtual avatar. I naturally cannot fall behind."
"Besides, creating a virtual avatar for New World will also make it more convenient for me to interact with people online."
Silent Hill was Lucien first step forward. Subnautica was the second step.
Once this second step was taken, the first thing Lucien planned to do was build his own game platform. Gaia would then be carried on this game platform, serving as a spokesperson to communicate with players.
Currently, all his games were released on Steam. In this world, Steam's revenue share was not high, and Lucien was quite satisfied with that.
But relying on someone else's platform all the time, Lucien always felt a bit uncomfortable.
Moreover, with so much money now in his bank account, it would be quite simple to set up a game platform.
Furthermore, under Lucien's design, New World's game platform was not the same concept as previous game platforms. What Lucien wanted was to gather all future games produced by New World together in one place.
Just like the game platform in Ready Player One: the Oasis.
At that time, Gaia AI would be able to play her role, helping Lucien control the entire platform.
[Adv. 30 chapters on patreon.com/EdgyReader]