Chapter 41: Investment Proposal
Chapter 41: Investment Proposal
“Good work!”
Because of the schedule, their quitting time had been pushed back, and they ended up finishing a little past eight o’clock. If he had it his way, he would have liked to stay up for several nights and work straight through, but because of his age, there was nothing he could do about it.
They should realize they’re working in a blessed environment.
Insu looked longingly at the departing team members before leaving the development office with his mother.
“See you tomorrow!”
“Yeah! Get home safe, noona!”
The moment they parted ways with Eunha noona near her neighborhood, Hyein called Insu’s name.
“Insu.”
“Yes?”
Her tone sounded unusually serious, making Insu tense slightly without realizing it.
Is it because we got off work too late?
That was the first thing that came to mind. They had finished relatively early by their standards, but even so, this was far too late for a first-year Gukminhakgyo student. Besides, his mother had already pointed out several times before that their work hours kept getting later.
But that wasn’t it.
“We were contacted by Velocity.”
“...Because of the settlement payment?”
Insu’s heart dropped for a moment, wondering if some sudden problem had occurred and caused sales to fall. But Hyein shook her head.
“It’s not that. They said there are people who want to invest in our company through them.”
“Investment?”
The unexpected words left Insu blinking blankly, unable to respond for a moment.
...Is the American response even better than I expected?
That was exactly the case.
His game was causing an enormous sensation. He had confirmed that magazines and other media were responding positively, but articles were polished and filtered by nature, making it difficult to grasp gamers’ real reactions.
The only truly intuitive indicator of popularity was sales volume, but because settlement payments only arrived one month after the sales month, it was impossible to feel the heat of the response in real time.
However, as time passed after TLF’s release and gamers started digging deeply into the content, they began realizing just how much depth the game had. Some players became completely absorbed in it, and as they exchanged information through communities, the reactions exploded.
“Parallel Soft? Where even is this place?!”
“They don’t have any previous works? They’re a rookie company?!”
And once the gamer response exploded, plenty of people who smelled money began appearing. But because Parallel Soft was a new company and the package itself contained almost no information, there was no direct way to contact them.
In truth, it wasn’t normal for a game package to omit information about the developer. But there had been a reason for it.
It was simple. Parallel Soft’s recognition was too weak. So they had hidden behind the distributor’s brand power instead.
Of course, even if Velocity took the front, there had been no need to completely erase the information. However, Velocity believed that the fact the developer was Korean would not help the game’s success, and after agonizing over it for a long time, Insu agreed to remove it.
He considered it a one-time measure. Once The Land Of Fantasy became a hit and established recognition, there would no longer be any need to hide. At the time, Insu truly had been that desperate.
As a result, Velocity had to handle the investors’ inquiry calls on their behalf.
“Yes. We’ll contact the developer regarding that. Sorry, but it would be difficult to provide information without consultation.”
Velocity felt conflicted.
This was proof that the game they distributed had gone beyond simply becoming a hit and was now receiving high praise and expectations. But that didn’t mean they enjoyed people shamelessly calling them while eyeing their meal.
“But I don’t think we can just ignore them?”
Alex spoke with a worried expression.
“That’s true.”
Robert Mitchell, the International Publishing Coordinator at Velocity Entertainment, scratched his head roughly as he answered.
Otherwise, it would become a case of unfairly blocking a business partner’s investment opportunities without legitimate reason.
Even if there was no legal issue, Parallel Soft’s value had risen dramatically due to TLF’s success. No, due to its overwhelming success. Since they could not even be certain they would be able to block it to the end, it would be foolish to earn resentment over something uncertain.
Moreover, investment was an extremely sensitive matter for game companies.
Of course, they had faithfully transferred the profits so far, and it wasn’t a small amount of money. But considering the quality of the game, they could not be certain whether that money was enough to fully recover development costs and fund the next project.
In reality, TLF had been developed by only two people, so there had barely been any development expenses, and the profits had instead been invested into Gangnam real estate, but Velocity had no way of knowing that.
In any case, after thinking for a long time, Robert organized his thoughts and forwarded the matter upward. Then, not long after, a call came to Parallel Soft’s CEO in Korea.
“What do you think, son? Do you think we’ll need investment?”
Insu pondered briefly at his mother’s question before shaking his head.
“No.”
The high evaluation was welcome, but since they weren’t lacking money, there was absolutely no reason to accept investment and split profits with others.
“Right?”
Hyein had reached a similar conclusion herself. However, she thought she should hear both Insu’s and her husband’s opinions before responding.
“We don’t need it, do we?”
And Seongcheol, who had gotten off work even later than Insu, shook his head almost immediately after hearing Hyein’s explanation.
Not long afterward, Velocity called again at the previously arranged time.
“Yes. We don’t particularly need investment. Yes... Yes?”
But the call did not end with a simple rejection.
Watching his mother continue the conversation with a serious expression, Insu was dying of curiosity.
It sounds like they’re still talking about investment.
He could roughly guess what was happening. The fact that investment offers had come from America itself meant the game’s commercial success and their development ability had both been recognized. But Velocity, who directly distributed the game, could not possibly fail to realize that. So Velocity itself had likely made an investment proposal as well.
Once his thoughts reached that point, his interest cooled slightly.
“Yes. Understood. We’ll think about it and call you again later. Yes. Yes.”
“What’d they say?”
Apparently, his father was just as curious, because the moment Hyein hung up, he immediately asked.
“Mmm. Velocity says they want to invest in us too.”
“That’s what it was about?”
“But it’s not just about investing money.”
“Then?”
“They said they want to strengthen the partnership. If we want, they said a stock exchange could also be included as an option.”
Both Seongcheol and Insu looked surprised at that.
This meant they highly valued Parallel Soft and were seriously considering long-term cooperation. Although Parallel Soft had produced a hit game, it was still only a rookie developer, while Velocity was already one of the giants of the industry.
But separate from that, the stock exchange itself was not particularly attractive to Insu. He viewed Parallel Soft’s value as limitless.
However, Hyein’s next words genuinely surprised him a little.
“...And if we want, they said they’ll even establish a development studio in America for us.”
There were probably multiple intentions behind this proposal.
First, they could strengthen cooperation with them, create games better suited for the American market, gain access to high-level local developers and cutting-edge technology, adapt more quickly to local trends, and simply having a development studio in America would itself strengthen the developer’s brand power.
And although Velocity didn’t know it, for Insu, who had already been planning to move overseas, it was a proposal that struck precisely at his target.
I don’t know how far they’re willing to go, but at the very least, they’d probably sponsor an invitation.
It was still an era where even getting a visa was difficult, but with an invitation, going to America would become much easier. And since they had already said they wanted to strengthen the partnership, they would probably even help establish a local corporation.
Of course, it was something he intended to accomplish somehow anyway, but while it sounded easy in his head, reality could have blocked him so completely that even going to America itself might have become impossible. He had never expected an opening like this to appear.
Now we really succeeded. I just need to persuade Dad now.
And this proposal from Velocity itself would probably help with that persuasion. Even now, both his father and mother looked slightly lost in thought, as though proving Insu’s assumption.
Three days after that proposal, Velocity’s second settlement payment arrived.
[Deposit VEL ENT INC USA 1,472,427.82 USD]
“Cough!”
The moment Insu saw the amount in the bankbook, he coughed involuntarily. The number had reached the million-dollar range.
1.4 million dollars? With the current exchange rate being around 720 won...
Even with rough calculations, it exceeded one billion won. It was more money than what had come in during the best-selling first month in the Japanese market, and America even deducted taxes before wiring the payment.
“Wow...”
Even his mother could only gasp in admiration. She knew the American market was enormous, but she had never imagined it would be to this extent. Without realizing it, Hyein became more positively inclined toward the idea of an American local development studio.
Insu felt like he understood why America had contacted them. Although it wasn’t exact, calculating backward while considering taxes and distribution rates meant they had probably sold around 160,000 copies. By the standards of this era, selling 160,000 copies by the second month was the level of a hit nearly every gamer would know about.
We became a named brand.
Anyone even remotely interested in games would now remember the name Parallel Soft.
At the same time that pride welled up inside him, Insu thought about the game currently in development, making his shoulders feel heavy. They had already entered Alpha Version development, but he had no idea whether this new title would damage the reputation of the previous work.
Maybe I should’ve just made another RPG.
Like anything else, success would solve everything. But if it failed, people would say he had gotten arrogant after succeeding through luck and recklessly ruined the IP.
As those negative thoughts surfaced, Insu grabbed his head and shook them off.
Ah, screw it. The Land Of Fantasy started from absolutely nothing too.
And even if they failed once, it would only damage their reputation somewhat. The IP’s power would not disappear in a single blow.
No, more importantly, we’re not going to fail in the first place!
He had already confirmed the game’s fun factor during the prototype stage, and even now, his team members were passionately developing it. He did not know whether it would achieve the same level of success as The Land Of Fantasy, but he was at least confident it would not be critically panned.
Not long afterward, he separately called Eunha noona over and handed her share to her.
“Really?!”
Of course, giving her hundreds of millions of won in cash was impossible, so he transferred it by bank account. But this was her reaction after hearing the amount beforehand. Eunha noona could not close her mouth after hearing the number involved.
Which made sense. In this era, one hundred million won was an enormous amount of money. While it wouldn’t buy an apartment in Gangnam’s central core districts, it was enough to buy a mid-sized apartment on the outskirts of Gangnam. In 2025, even one billion won would struggle to buy such an apartment.
“Noona.”
“Huh? Yeah?”
“We’re going to become even more successful from now on. We’re only getting started.”
“...”
Insu had said that because he worried that earning too much money too quickly might make Eunha lose motivation, but Eunha noona looked at him with a gaze as though overwhelmed.
She had always known Insu was a genius, but she had only understood it as him being smarter than other people. Now, however, she realized that beyond that, his vision for the future and his ambitions were extraordinary.
“Got it?”
“Mhm.”
Unlike Eunha’s impression, Insu himself was actually quite desperate. At this point, she had become an irreplaceable, masterpiece-level member of the development team. Now that his game’s graphics had been recognized in the global market, her skill had essentially been fully validated as well.