Super Spender

Chapter 716: Chapter 710: Terrifying Sales

Finn Lewis paused his speech, prompting silence from everyone below. They never imagined hearing about these matters from Finn Lewis. This called for an acknowledgment of Flame Nation’s powerful and efficient handling of such issues.

At least so far, every aspect of virtual financial assets has been thoroughly dealt with, including the stringent crackdown on piracy. Until now, virtually no one who attempted to play pirated games escaped punishment as the enforcement system of Flame Nation was incredibly robust.

Such a system is capable of dealing with matters worldwide, let alone within Flame Nation. While not much of Flame Nation’s assertion that virtual assets are still private property has been put into practice, most people have already reaped benefits from this policy.

This has discouraged many companies from creating fraudulent games or services at the expense of the consumer. Even if they profit initially from deceptive practices, the money eventually ends up back in the hands of the consumer.

“Today is a special day for gamers all over the world, indeed a historic one. Today marks the official launch of a new type of game, an unprecedented holographic game. As indicated by the name of the Virtual World Corporation, this game serves as the ‘second world’ for all players,” the journalist from “Players”, the biggest game media in the North Federation, announced on television.

He was reporting from the open-beta press conference that Virtual World Corporation was holding in the North Federation. The event drew tens of thousands of players, thanks to a prior closed-beta test, which ultimately bolstered the status of this game, aptly named “Second Life”.

The game was so lifelike that it exceeded the expectations of many players. Unlike the games Finn Lewis played with his troops, “Second Life” possesses features similar to the player’s statistics panel, which can be summoned at will. Although this does lessen the immersive experience a bit, it significantly reduces the potential of developing a gaming addiction.

Becoming too engrossed isn’t good as it can lead to mental instability. To this end, having such a feature enhances the appropriateness of the game, making it a good fit for most players. In addition, various videos released from the closed-beta testing period were disseminated globally, spreading rapidly after the press conference. The entire period from the time of that initial press conference to the public testing lasted no more than one and a half months.

In that brief span, an astounding 700 million units of the VR glasses produced by Virtual World Corporation were sold! The thought of such a massive figure was enough to make company executives dizzy. 700 million units nearly equal a tenth of the world’s population.

This proportion is quite high, considering there are regions so underdeveloped that such technology is unlikely to become widely adopted. Sometimes, these areas account for a significant portion of the global population. The number of impoverished people, earning less than 1 Federal coin per capita, amounts to roughly 700 million worldwide. Those above this income bracket couldn’t possibly afford to buy this, either.

Despite Finn Lewis practically giving it away, the text can’t be acquired by everyone. Therefore, the number of people worldwide who can’t afford it is probably around two billion. This means that almost every family among the remaining five billion people has an average of one unit. Accordingly, it can be described as terrifying.

At the same time, it is a bit baffling. When Finn Lewis didn’t start selling the headset, people couldn’t comment on its price. However, as soon as it went on sale, some experts bought one to investigate its interior.

According to a senior engineer who wished to remain anonymous, the technology within the headset was quite advanced. Much of it was produced in collaboration with other mobile phone companies, so the cost of those parts was known. This engineer mentioned that the estimated production cost of the VR glasses was around 2,000 Flame Nation coins.

Even if Virtual World Corporation manufactures the glasses itself and employs advanced technology to reduce costs, the final production cost would still amount to about 1,000 Flame Nation coins. Based on this estimate, Virtual World Corporation suffered a loss of 700 Flame Nation coins for every pair of glasses sold.

The sale of 700 million units resulted in a total loss of 490 billion Flame Nation coins, which is roughly equivalent to 90 billion Federal coins. This is due to the current appreciation of Flame Nation currency and depreciation of Federal currency, which has narrowed the exchange rate gap.

Are they really willing to lose 90 billion Federal coins just to sell a product? This seems utterly reckless! Moreover, Virtual World Corporation even provides free Wi-Fi service for its glasses, causing a significant reduction in data fees and forcing global communication service providers to expedite the development of their new networks.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

The service providers rushed to Flame Nation to negotiate with Virtual World Corporation in an attempt to acquire the most advanced communication technology, or at least the second-best, to enhance their global competitiveness.

However, most players did not pay attention to these details. Instead, they focused on how badass Finn Lewis was for suffering a loss of nearly 500 billion Flame Nation coins in selling a product. Many people couldn’t believe this price, but a bank employee from Flame Nation revealed that Finn Lewis had transferred approximately 500 billion Flame Nation coins from his personal account to the Virtual World Corporation’s account.

Although it was unclear what this money was used for, everyone could guess that it was probably to offset the company’s losses. Despite being privately held with Finn Lewis as the largest shareholder, Virtual World Corporation does have other shareholders.

For instance, Mr. M owns a portion of the company’s shares; other entities own some too. Finn Lewis owns just over 80% of the company, but that leaves a considerable amount to other shareholders, who would naturally demand an explanation for such a significant loss.

So, when the bank employee disclosed this information, reporters quickly approached Mr. M for comments. With Finn Lewis’s consent, Mr. M confirmed in front of the media that the holographic VR glasses were indeed being sold at a loss exceeding half of the production cost, though he didn’t disclose the exact figure.

When probed further about why they still decided to sell, Mr. M responded helplessly that even though Finn Lewis owned most of the shares of Virtual World Corporation, the sale wouldn’t have been approved if there were objections from the others, since the loss was not in the millions but the billions. However, in the end, it was approved.