Chapter 152: A Tangle of Love and Hatred

The Legend World game release hall was packed to capacity. Legend World was no longer what it used to be; this game launch event not only attracted numerous gaming companies but also drew a massive crowd of media outlets.

William White still sported his usual casual attire. Nobody bothered to complain about it anymore anyway—jeans were jeans. Who could argue with a big shot?

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Legend World. Today, you are going to witness a new era. I, William White, will lead you into the age of gaming."

Putting aside the quality of this guy's games for a moment, his talent for bluffing was probably second to none in the United States.

"Please look at the big screen. This game is Street Fighter. You will see the physical cabinets on the second floor exhibition hall. What plays now is an introduction to the game's background."

His current arcade system was quasi-32-bit. Naturally, he skipped the original Street Fighter entirely. Of course, due to memory limitations, it was impossible for him to achieve a flawless replication, and there were still some minor flaws in the graphics and audio.

Even so, this was already an extraordinary achievement. Not only did it thoroughly crush Atari and other eight-bit arcade machines, but his current trio of games was simply in a league of their own, leaving competitors with no match whatsoever.

"What? Are you unsatisfied?" After the five-minute video presentation ended, the audience sat in absolute silence. William White asked, radiating an infinite aura of supreme arrogance.

Naturally, the audience wasn't unsatisfied; they were utterly shocked. Although movie-projection equipment was used, the footage displayed showed genuine video game graphics.

Just as William White had declared, this was the dawn of a brand-new gaming era.

As the commotion in the audience subsided, William White continued his presentation.

"If you are not satisfied, take a look at the next one. This is a historical-themed fighting game, and its narrative is adapted from the famous classical epic, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Yes, it is a piece of history from several thousand years ago. The characters in the game are all based on real historical figures, and their weapons and combat indices have genuine historical references."

"The exhibition hall for this game is on the third floor. After the press conference concludes, you are welcome to try it out. No coin insertion required for playing today."

The representative sent by Atari was sweating profusely, consumed by a profound sense of despair. What kind of staggering effort must it take to recreate historical scenes from thousands of years ago using a video game!

"Very well, if you are still unsatisfied, then I have only one final title left. If you are still unsatisfied after this, I wash my hands of it."

The people who had regained their wits began to applaud. Even the legendary young Steve Jobs looked dazed and bewildered. He finally understood that this man didn't care about current personal computers at all; leave aside the Lisa project, the computer he had planned wouldn't stand a chance either.

"Raiden, this is an aerial combat game. It tells the story of the United States Air Force defeating extraterrestrials to save the world. Please look at the big screen."

Well, this was the exact channel Americans loved. Even knowing it was fictional, people still cheered, and the sound of whistling echoed endlessly.

It had to be said that Americans still harbored a deep fondness for the cowboy spirit; their ultimate source of amusement must always be saving humanity.

When this group of bumpkins marched into the exhibition hall, they were once again stunned by William White's lavish and extravagant display.

In addition to the arcade cabinets, the exhibition hall had recreated the actual gaming environments. Not only that, but there were also live actors cosplaying as the game characters. This was definitively the world's earliest instance of cosplay. Whether anyone liked it or not wasn't William White's concern—all he wanted was a sensational impact.

As for those arcade machines, they naturally blew every single competing game manufacturer out of the water. They probably didn't even have the courage to compare themselves.

Forget about Atari; Japanese game developers felt an equal sense of despair. The games they had been conceiving probably had no reason to be implemented anymore.

There was certainly no hope in the short term; they had better hurry up and make money while they could.

Sigh, if there were only some way to acquire this company, I would pay any price.

The reception banquet that followed was practically a massive wholesale order convention. Three Japanese companies collectively hauled in three hundred million US dollars in orders.

Once the banquet ended, the Japanese delegates returned to their home country. Their factory scale was entirely inadequate for the overwhelming demand, and since these were hard US dollars, they had to rapidly expand their manufacturing capacity.

Three hundred million US dollars in this era was practically an astronomical figure. Wall Street had grown numb, utterly powerless to make any further complaints.

If things continued to develop along this trajectory, next year's shipments would easily exceed one billion.

Wait a minute, this company also made home video game consoles. This business was simply too lucrative; why hadn't anyone else done this before?

Nobody had done it?

Joking aside, there were plenty of game console companies out there. The Japanese ones were doing reasonably well, but the American ones were in a miserable state—aside from Atari, which was still lingering on the brink of death, the rest had basically gone belly-up.

"President, should we still proceed with our gaming project?"

"Sigh, let's put it on hold for now. Our current mindset simply doesn't work anymore; we've fallen behind the times. But it doesn't matter. We will accumulate experience slowly, and our day will come."

"Hai, I understand!"

Nintendo's president was torn with intense inner conflict. He was entirely certain that the other two companies were facing the exact same situation. They needed to focus on perfecting product quality first, as their own accumulation was far from sufficient.

The old man's vision was wonderfully idealistic, but unfortunately, he forgot a fundamental truth: human potential is only unlocked in adversity. If money can be earned through effortless endeavors, what is the point of taking risks?

The moment you hesitate, you are guaranteed a disastrous failure. To achieve success, one must completely discard everything of the present, and only then might there be a chance of triumph.

No matter how fierce a wild beast is, if you raise it like a domestic pig, sooner or later it will become as docile as a pig. Even if some of its innate instincts remain, they will be of very little use.

Many people failed to understand William White's approach, believing he was raising a tiger that would eventually turn on him. In reality, those people were wrong; he was fattening up pigs.

This generation of Japanese people might be formidable, but their next generation would not be. Once these old men passed away, those historical companies would never manifest.

William White intended to stall their momentum. The moment any abnormal movement was detected, he would crush them at all costs. After all, he was still very young, while those old men didn't have much time left.

Glancing at the newspaper in his hand, William White couldn't help but emit a bitter chuckle. Why couldn't you folks talk about the games? What on earth was all this nonsense about?

It was true that he had made money, but what was the point of you people getting so worked up?

The citizens of the American Empire were bewildered. Since when had video game consoles become a major industry? This stuff even involved high-tech engineering—were they certain they hadn't made a mistake?

Sigh, today's journalists were truly garbage.

Yet, when serious media outlets like the Wall Street Journal published similar pieces, these people began to feel a deep ache in their bones, desperately searching their memories for those games. Regrettably, the only things they could vaguely recall were those ridiculous tennis games.

It had to be said that Americans still loved new toys. Since it was being hyped up as something so miraculous, there was no harm in going to check it out for themselves.

Steve Jobs was equally bewildered. He could finally see that William White's primary focus was not software at all; the vast majority of his resources were concentrated in the gaming sector.

"Why is this guy neglecting his proper business? If he went to develop an operating system, he probably would have succeeded by now. What a wayward scoundrel!" Steve Jobs muttered fiercely in complaint, while Bill Gates breathed a sigh of relief. No wonder the software company hadn't released any new products; their target wasn't there at all.