Offside game

Upon hearing Su Yi's fluent French, Vincent exclaimed with the exaggerated expression typical of the French, "Su, your French is so good! Your accent is just like that of a native Frenchman!"

Su Yi spoke modestly, but in his heart he thought: This was taught by Kosei using the original voice, and I reinforced it again before coming here.

“Oh, I almost forgot.” Vincent gave an apologetic look to the slightly shorter middle-aged man beside him, then said to Su Yi, “Su, let me introduce you. This is Mr. Richard Bühler, the manager of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft.” Vincent said this in English.

Mr. Bühler smiled reservedly at Su Yi and said in English, "Hello, Mr. Su, congratulations on the great success your game has achieved globally. It is a great achievement."

People from Microsoft, specifically from the Entertainment and Devices division. While Su Yi thanked Bühler for his congratulations in English, his mind raced. Why hadn't the people at Yubi mentioned that Microsoft representatives were coming? Was it a coincidence or pre-arranged? But the presence of Microsoft representatives was undoubtedly because of that gaming-related product they were currently pushing forward with—the Xbox!

Sure enough, Brühl continued, "Mr. Su, it's a pleasure to meet you. China is truly an amazing country; it's unimaginable that someone as young as you could create such an excellent game."

“You flatter me, Mr. Brühl. All of this was done by our studio. Everyone in the world knows that when Bill Gates founded the Microsoft empire, he was only 20 years old, and I have always regarded him as my idol.”

Hearing Su Yi's words, Bühler was very pleased and said, "I believe your future is limitless. Doesn't everything we've seen prove that? Su, after you've spoken with Mr. Vincent, I hope to have an in-depth conversation with you."

“It’s my honor.” Bühler’s words confirmed Su Yi’s guess. Microsoft, which was struggling with the promotion of Xbox, was finally tempted by the hot sales of “Evolution of History.”

Next, Bühler left the room, leaving Su Yi and Yu Bi's people behind.

Seeing Su Yi sitting on the sofa, slowly sipping his tea, Jian Dongming, following Vincent's signal, spoke first: "Mr. Su, our cooperation with you this time has been very successful. We all believe it was a perfect collaboration, and we also think that cooperating with you was a very wise decision on our part."

Listening to the translated words, Vincent said excitedly, "Su, you should know. In Europe and North America, many players are lining up to buy 'Evolution of History.' This only happened when Blizzard released Diablo II. It's amazing, Su. It's a great game, and it will sell even better than Diablo II. Yes, I'm sure of it."

Vincent paused here, his expression changing to one of deep worry. This made Su Yi almost suspect that the Frenchman had learned the Chinese art of face-changing.

He continued, "But, dear Su, there seems to be a small problem now." Su Yi thought to herself: Here we go, we're getting to the point.

Sure enough, Vincent continued, “Recently, we’ve received a lot of complaints from players. They’re very impatient, even angry. Of course, this has nothing to do with the quality of *Evolution of History*; everyone believes it’s the best game. However, many players have found that they’ve bought the same legitimate copy, even paying more than the average price for Asian players, and yet they’re being treated differently. They’ve reported that Asian players can use the game’s online multiplayer feature and enjoy it more, while players in other regions can’t find this feature in their games. They can only watch Asian players enjoy online multiplayer while they’re stuck at home playing alone. It’s undeniably heartbreaking. Sue, you can’t imagine how many calls our headquarters and branches have been flooded with like this in the past month. Dear Sue, I’m here today to discuss this issue with you and resolve it as soon as possible.”

Sure enough, this was Vincent's goal. Thinking of this, Su Yi said helplessly, "Mr. Vincent, firstly, I admit that the LeChang gaming platform, which provides online multiplayer functionality for *Evolution of History*, is also a product of our studio and has always been operated by us. However, you should know that *Evolution of History* is different from *Diablo II*, *StarCraft*, and *Counter-Strike*. It wasn't originally designed for online multiplayer; the initial game didn't have this feature. Because online multiplayer wasn't considered during its initial development. But later, we unexpectedly created the LeChang gaming platform, which achieved unexpected success in China and even Asia. Therefore, some members considered whether they could add their own games to this platform. Finally, we came up with this method and successfully added online functionality to *Evolution of History*."

After saying this, Su Yi took a sip of tea and said, "Therefore, Mr. Vincent, you must first understand that all players, whether from Asia, Europe, America, or even Africa, are essentially buying the same product; only the language packs differ. The online multiplayer function is simply a patch released by the Lechang gaming platform—a platform that is not to be confused with *The Evolution of History*—specifically for *The Evolution of History*. Of course, since it comes from our studio, there's no licensing issue. The game only has online multiplayer functionality because of this patch. However, as a partner, I will try my best to resolve the problems your company faces. I can guarantee that a 1.01 update patch will be released in six months, adding a series of improvements, including LAN multiplayer functionality."

Upon hearing this, Vincent shook his head and said, "Su, the players can't wait that long. If we delay any longer, we'll be torn to shreds by their angry attitude. I want to know why the Lechang gaming platform can't support CD key binding for players outside of Asia? I think that's the best and quickest solution. We can sign the same agreement with Tiandi Software, Su. You can't favor one over the other. Our first batch of sales revenue will arrive soon, and we can pay our share first as well."

"There are two reasons for this. First, our current Lechang servers can no longer handle any more data flow."

"Su, this is easy to solve. We just need to increase the number of servers. As for the network, we can also set up regional servers in different locations. Our company can provide assistance in this regard."

"Yes, we are setting up a company to officially commercialize the Lechang gaming platform, but this will take time, though we believe we can resolve this issue soon. The second problem is that the three games currently running on the Lechang gaming platform—StarCraft, Red Alert, and Counter-Strike—as well as the soon-to-be-added Diablo II and other games, do not yet have licenses from Blizzard, Westwood, and Valve. You know, if we only expand our user base in Asia, it might not attract much attention from them, and even if they do, they won't take any action because they can't find our company. But we've already started setting up a company, and if we make too much noise globally, we'll probably receive lawyer's letters from these companies very soon."

“We have connections with these companies and can help you with negotiations,” Vincent said.

"This will take time, and you should be aware of the current situation in the Chinese gaming market. If we negotiate, they will likely require us to verify the authenticity of the CD keys, which would be a disaster for Chinese gaming platforms. And as far as I know, Vivendi, Blizzard's parent company, seems to be Yubi's biggest competitor in Europe."

This problem was giving Vincent a headache. Their company was facing increasing complaints from players, and if it was just complaints now, he could easily imagine the ensuing wave of anger if the issue wasn't resolved quickly. Thinking about this, even in the still-hot weather, he couldn't help but shudder.

Authorization, that is the question. Suddenly, a bold idea popped into his head, giving him a glimmer of hope for a solution. Suppressing his excitement, he said to Su Yi, "Su, there's a solution to every problem. There's something I need to report to headquarters, which might take an hour or two. Could you wait here for a bit? Or perhaps you'd be interested in having a pleasant conversation with Mr. Buller from Microsoft first?"

Su Yi didn't know what he meant. After thinking for a moment, he figured it wouldn't matter if he waited a little while, so he said, "Okay, Mr. Vincent, you can go do this first. I think I might be able to go see Mr. Buller."