Chapter 45: Official Announcement of Parallel Soft’s Next Title?
Chapter 45: Official Announcement of Parallel Soft’s Next Title?
“But we can’t exactly open the doors now after all this, can we?”
They had already contacted Parallel Soft and generously promised that they would block troublesome outside contact for them. Even now, Velocity Entertainment still had no desire to expose their honey pot to outsiders.
If anything, being harassed like this only made them dislike the idea even more. It would feel as though all the effort they had spent enduring until now had been wasted.
After thinking for a long time, Alex cautiously opened his mouth.
“Um... what if we asked Parallel Soft for help?”
“Help? What kind of help?”
“I think the issue is partly that we’re only conveying things verbally, which hurts credibility, and also because so little information about Parallel Soft has been released that people’s curiosity and suspicions just keep growing.”
By the time he finished speaking, Robert could already roughly guess what Alex meant.
“Ah. So you mean we should throw them some kind of newsworthy material?”
“Yes. If we provide something magazines can talk about, along with a written statement from Parallel Soft saying they don’t particularly need investment, it would dramatically improve credibility.”
“A written statement, huh.”
Unlike spoken words that vanished into the air, a document inherently carried credibility. Furthermore, forging written documents was document fraud, so people would not easily assume Velocity Entertainment was taking such risks just to lie.
Robert thought for a moment before nodding.
“Alright. Let’s contact them.”
“What do you think?”
That evening, after receiving Velocity Entertainment’s call, Hyein immediately relayed the matter to Insu. Insu pondered for a moment.
He felt slightly uncomfortable about putting it into writing.
“For now, I think we should agree with Velocity Entertainment’s opinion, but set a time limit instead. What do you think, Mom?”
“Yeah. I think the same way. We never know what could happen in the future.”
Nothing about the situation had really changed, so they still did not need investment, but there was no reason to completely close off every possibility.
In an extreme hypothetical scenario, a war or natural disaster could completely wipe out all the money they had invested into Gangnam.
I died and reincarnated into a parallel world. At this point, what even counts as impossible?
At this point, if someone suddenly claimed a Gate opened in Gangnam and monsters were invading, Insu probably would have spent at least half a moment seriously wondering if it was true.
“And if it’s news about our side, then it’ll probably be about the new game, right?”
“Most likely. It’s probably what fans are waiting to hear the most.”
“Then maybe you could write it similarly to how you answered the magazine reporter before?”
Insu spoke while subtly watching his mother’s expression. It was true that she was technically the CEO, but in reality, this was Insu’s company, and she was helping without even receiving a salary, so asking her to handle extra work inevitably made him feel self-conscious.
Hyein stroked Insu’s head as she replied.
“Alright. Leave it to Mom. It’s not even difficult.”
Those were not empty words. At first, taking over the CEO position from her husband and handling company matters felt awkward and burdensome, but it seemed people eventually adapted to anything if they kept doing it.
And honestly, it did not feel bad either. Being a housewife had not been unpleasant, but there was a sense of fulfillment in doing work out in society, and she enjoyed gradually recovering the English skills that started rusting away.
Recalling her conversation with the magazine reporter, Hyein began filling the paper with writing.
“A next title?!”
James Collins, a reporter from GameFront LA, visited after receiving an invitation from Velocity Entertainment and ended up hearing news about Parallel Soft.
Personally, he was already a fan of TLF, but even from the perspective of a game magazine reporter, this was extremely surprising news. It made sense, because TLF’s popularity lately was truly extraordinary.
“Yes. Apparently they already finished alpha testing, and if everything goes quickly, they’re aiming for release sometime around mid-year. Even if delayed, they expect it before October or November.”
“Oh! Then is it TLF2?”
At James’s question, Robert, an employee of Velocity Entertainment, rolled his eyes for a moment before deliberately making a bitter expression.
“Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be that. Apparently the next title isn’t an RPG. However, it shares the same world setting as TLF, and they say many of the systems will feel familiar.”
“I see.”
It did feel somewhat strange that, after releasing a mega-hit game, they were making an entirely different title instead of a direct sequel. However, James did not view it negatively.
Well, TLF fans will probably push back a little, but honestly? A studio with that kind of development ability making another genre sounds pretty exciting too. And if they’ve already reached alpha testing, that means development started before they even confirmed whether TLF would become a hit.
He was a fan, but he was not exclusively an RPG fan, and his identity as a game reporter was also important to him, so rather than disappointment, he felt more curious about what this different genre might be.
“Unfortunately, they say it’s confidential.”
“Then I suppose we’ll just have to look forward to release.”
“Yes.”
James was also allowed to look at the fax supposedly sent by Parallel Soft. He had no real ability to determine whether it was genuine or fake, but he did not think Velocity Entertainment would go so far as to fabricate something like this just to lie.
Is the CEO a woman?
Perhaps thanks to Hyein having graduated from Korea University’s English Literature Department, nothing in the writing revealed her as a foreign-language learner, but her handwriting still conveyed a slight hint. Of course, handwriting styles were not strictly divided by gender, so James did not feel certain. It was merely a passing impression.
In any case, after obtaining plenty of excellent material, James excitedly returned to the magazine office and immediately began writing the article.
Three weeks later, the newest issue of GameFront LA was released.
“Huh? Parallel Soft?”
Eric Johnson was still unable to properly plan his own game and remained completely absorbed in TLF. After joining a gaming club by chance, he lost track of time experimenting with new combinations and collecting hidden items alongside the other members.
For reference, he had currently obtained descendants of both the Hero’s Bloodline and the Dragon Knight and was now conquering a hidden dungeon called Beyond the Veil of Darkness.
According to the gaming club members’ findings, it was likely one of the strongest dungeons in the entire TLF world. At this point, Eric could definitely be considered an elite veteran among veterans.
“Oh! A next title?!”
Because character death from aging and companion recruitment in TLF were both random, assembling the perfect desired combination was extremely difficult. As a result, there was still plenty left to enjoy, but because he had already dug through the game obsessively, it was also true that he was beginning to see the bottom of the content.
So hearing news about a new game could only make him excited.
“But it’s not an RPG? Yet it uses the same world setting and similar systems? What does that even mean?”
If this were another development company, he might have assumed they were making bizarre artistic decisions, but since this was the same studio that created a masterpiece using all kinds of innovative systems, he felt more anticipation than skepticism.
“But June...”
The article clearly stated that the release could slip as far as October, but Eric reacted as if that part did not even exist. He simply began eagerly waiting for June to arrive.
Thus, gamers and industry figures across America reacted to the article in all sorts of ways. Relative to America’s entire population, it was still only a tiny portion of people, but within the gaming industry itself, it caused quite a stir.
Meanwhile, completely unaware that anticipation for the next title was swelling across the ocean, Insu simply focused on the final sprint.
“I hope we end up in the same class again in second grade.”
“Yeah, me too.”
On the day spring vacation began, Sangshik looked excited at the thought of playing during break, but he glanced at Insu with a hint of regret mixed into his expression. For a first-grade Gukminhakgyo student, whose social awareness was still minimal and who mostly thought only about his own emotions, this was already a significant expression of friendship toward Insu.
Since Insu understood that, he did not feel awkward about it and instead responded with a similarly regretful expression.
Besides Sangshik, several other friends he had become fairly close with also came over to say goodbye casually. Of course, many of them were still too young to think deeply about such things and were simply excited about spring vacation or becoming second graders.
On the way home from school, Insu brought along five friends, including Sangshik, and bought them tteokbokki together before heading home. Since it was vacation day and they would separate for a while afterward, he decided to be generous this time instead of calculating every little thing.
“See you next time!”
“Yeah! See you again!”
“Have a good vacation!”
His friends scattered excitedly while thinking about how they would spend their break. But for Insu, this vacation would become a period of all-out sprinting to complete the beta version.
Without realizing it, Insu put on a grim expression, stopped by home briefly, then headed straight for the company.
“I’m here!”
“Ah! Team Leader, you’re here?”
“Yes! Let’s give it our all again today!”
Afterward, he and his development team passionately devoted themselves to development for two straight weeks. Having completed alpha testing and finally seeing the finish line drawing near, team morale had risen considerably.
And around the time Insu’s spring vacation ended, they even saw an American game magazine introducing the game they were currently making.
“This article is about our game, right?!”
Yoo Juyeon spoke while widening eyes that were usually narrowed beneath heavy dark circles. It made sense, because an American magazine was showing enormous interest in the game he himself was helping create.
“Yes. Velocity Entertainment contacted us before, so we replied by fax, and now the article came out like this.”
Insu himself wore a huge grin.
It made sense, because it meant his company was receiving this much attention, and they had essentially gained free promotion for the next title as well.
And this article also helps soften the backlash over the next game not being an RPG.
If a completely different genre suddenly appeared without warning instead of the sequel fans expected, there would definitely be people who felt betrayed or reacted negatively.
However, by releasing information like this in advance, they could lessen that shock while also revealing that the new title still had some connection to the previous game, thereby maintaining the interest of existing fans.
If we had tried paying for this kind of publicity, it would’ve cost an insane amount.
America was not a small market like Korea. Its physical size, population, and economic scale were all on entirely different levels, so even the simplest promotional campaign would have required enormous money.
Furthermore, this article struck precisely when interest in Parallel Soft reached its peak and everyone’s attention was focused on them, making the impact even greater.
“Alright, everyone saw it, right? Even America is waiting for our game. Let’s keep pushing hard!”
“Yes!!”
“Fighting!!”
The team members truly worked incredibly hard. Insu did as well.
But it seemed that the idea of overwhelming motivation and hard work automatically guaranteeing success only existed in fiction after all.
At least with school studies or ordinary company work, people already understood human limits and available time, so goals were set within achievable ranges. But the timeline Insu created was merely a rough estimate made back when he still barely understood his team members’ abilities and simply thought, It’d be nice if we released around then, so perhaps it had been unrealistic from the beginning.
Maybe successfully matching the alpha test schedule made me too overconfident.
Moreover, despite development being done using advanced machines like computers, the process still involved absurd amounts of randomness. Sometimes code issues could block progress for ages, while ridiculous mistakes could waste weeks.
There was a reason developers half-jokingly searched for occult solutions.
Suddenly, Insu remembered laughing at a photo he once saw online showing a bizarre shrine built in one corner of a development studio using toys and random objects. Back then, he thought it was simply a ridiculous joke, but these days, he occasionally found himself seriously understanding the impulse.
Fortunately, they still had not reached the point of sticking talismans around the development room, but perhaps because he personally experienced the supernatural phenomenon of reincarnation, his resistance toward occult thinking had weakened considerably.