Chapter 478: The Golden City! Yangge Star touched his piano! |
Golden City!
As soon as these words were spoken!
The meeting room fell completely silent!
Looking around, from Moriya Tetsuya to Lu Bian and Da Jiang, then to Jiang Yun, Sato, and all the other executives, everyone wore serious expressions.
Because they all clearly understood exactly what President Gu meant by "Golden City" at this moment.
The first time you hear this name, you might think of it as some kind of spiritual symbol.
Like an oasis in the desert, a tower among ruins, a camp in the post-apocalypse,
It's a utopia, a nihilistic ideal land, an ivory tower embodying the ideals and sincerity of Golden Wind's game developers.
It's both meaning and concept.
It's merely an abstract description of reality, not literally requiring climbing to the summit of Mount Tai, the leader of the Five Great Mountains.
Indeed.
Such understanding is naturally correct.
The "Golden City" from Gu Sheng's mouth does carry such meaning.
But at the same time!
The executives of Golden Wind also clearly understand—
[Golden City] is far from being just an abstract concept.
It is the ideal land for Golden Wind's game developers.
Simultaneously, it is also the utopia for global gamers.
A true gaming paradise, a virtual utopia.
Time rewinds, turning back to the beginning of "Golden Engine Project Establishment"—
...
That night.
All was silent.
It was already approaching 10 PM.
Golden Wind had long passed its official closing time.
Plus, with nothing to do recently, employees had all clocked out and left early.
On the surface, Golden Wind appeared leisurely and calm.
But in reality, everyone in the company knew their current "nothing to do" status wasn't because they were on vacation, subjectively having "nothing to do."
But because news of the Illusion Engine blockade had spread, forcing them into "nothing to do."
It wasn't that they didn't want to work, but that they had nowhere to start.
The entire company was dark, only the president's office light remained on.
Amid swirling smoke, four people frowned deeply, completely at a loss.
"...That's roughly the situation,"
Gu Sheng exhaled a puff of smoke, stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, and turned on the air purifier behind him:
"The Illusion Engine price change is set in stone, causing massive impact on Chinese and even China-based enterprises. Right now, it's not just us feeling anxious—the higher-ups are even more anxious than us,"
"That's essentially what Jiang Yingcai said on the phone."
The shadow of malicious blockade hung over their heads like storm clouds before a downpour.
Hearing this, Moriya, Lu Bian, and Da Jiang across from him felt even more burdened.
Their current situation was already difficult enough.
Now, upper management was pressuring them too, emphasizing that with great power comes great responsibility.
However, there wasn't much to complain about.
After all, the upper official channels were currently their protective talisman, the foundation keeping them undefeated domestically.
When you enjoy rights, you naturally must bear obligations—there's no such thing as a free lunch, which is only reasonable.
But the problem was—how could they break through this predicament?
"The engine absolutely must be developed, otherwise today it's Illusion Engine choking us, tomorrow it could be Daydream Fantasy Engine doing the same,"
After a moment, Moriya spoke:
"But the problem is, given our current situation, if we develop our own engine, it definitely won't keep up with our game quality standards."
Looking across the gaming industry, basically all companies with self-developed engines have game production quality that always follows their engine's performance level.
You wear pants that fit your butt size.
But Golden Wind's current situation is having too big a butt, while the pants haven't even been sewn yet.
Look at what games they've previously released—
"Sekiro" "Peak Kingdom" "Resident Evil" "Call of Duty"
All standard 3S-level masterpieces!
Only Phantom Dream 5 and equivalent engines can support them!
Now asking them to make an engine?
At best, they could replicate Garden Warfare's quality—impossible to meet their standard 3S-level masterpiece requirements!
Current Golden Wind was like a high-speed train—if you want it to accelerate, it can max out power and keep charging forward.
But if you want it to immediately slow down to green train speeds, that's absolutely not easy.
"But the engine must be developed,"
Lu Bian spoke up:
"This isn't just our task anymore—it's the higher-ups' task too,"
"According to Old Gu, for the current Cologne exhibition we can still manage without an engine by manually crafting games, relying purely on gameplay to get by,"
"But for June's CJ Exhibition, we absolutely cannot participate without an engine,"
"Even if we had the skill to manually craft 3S games, the higher-ups wouldn't allow handcrafted games."
For a moment.
The situation reached an impasse.
Gu Sheng, sitting behind the desk, brainstormed rapidly.
With tomorrow being the non-public joint meeting hosted by China Digital Entertainment Association.
If they couldn't think of a good solution today, morale at tomorrow's meeting would likely waver even more.
What to do?
Moriya was right.
Given their current capability level, creating an engine rivaling Phantom Dream 5 would absolutely take three to five years minimum.
But Old Lu was also right.
Time waits for no one—the higher-ups wouldn't give them three to five years to develop an engine.
"Hmm......"
Gu Sheng felt completely stumped.
Da Jiang also grumbled: "Damn Vivendi, causing trouble now... People should leave room for future meetings... Aren't they afraid we'll completely block them out once we rise up?"
Hearing this.
Moriya couldn't help but laugh bitterly:
"Xu Jun, this isn't the time for angry words. If possible, of course everyone would want to completely surpass Illusion in visual performance and compatibility, become the world's top engine, directly block out the Vivendi system, but we currently..."
At this point.
Moriya shrugged, patted Da Jiang's shoulder and sighed: "Can't do it..."
Just as he finished speaking!
Moriya offered Da Jiang a cigarette.
Just about to light it!
Suddenly, Gu Sheng spoke up:
"Hiss—that's a great line of thinking—Da Jiang."
Huh?
Instantly.
All three on the sofa were stunned, looking at Gu Sheng simultaneously.
Even Da Jiang couldn't help but be dumbfounded:
"Sheng... Brother... I... was just... saying that casually..."
Of course he knew he was just venting!
If they really had that capability, wouldn't they have already dug up that damn Konik's ancestral grave along with his daddy Vivendi's!
Why wait until now?
They just didn't have that strength!
Da Jiang grinned wryly: "Forget completely surpassing—we can't even surpass them in any single aspect, right!"
However, upon hearing this, Gu Sheng's eyes shone even brighter, as if a dance star had touched his piano!
"Key man!"
Gu Sheng pointed at Da Jiang:
"Exactly right, darling! You're absolutely correct—if we could create an engine that completely surpasses Phantom Dream 5 in all aspects, then from then on, forget CloudPower, even the entire Vivendi system would be under our control!"
"And right now, although we can't surpass them in any single aspect,"
"We can create an unprecedented performance feature in a blank area, temporarily surpassing Illusion through groundbreaking impact,"
"For example—"
Physical destruction!
Exactly!
The foundation for Golden Engine's proud, globally unique physical destruction effects was born right here!
Next, Gu Sheng stood up, hands on the table, leaning forward as if suddenly enlightened and inspired, declaring loudly:
"Traditionally, all engines, whether self-developed, commercial, or even free,"
"Manufacturers striving to survive in the gaming industry would focus on improving specific performance aspects,"
"Like rendering, like audio, like augmented reality, network interconnection frameworks, even input and output,"
"And traditional immersive engines ultimately have limits, so—"
Ore wa ning gao ya... Sorry, wrong script.
"So we won't make traditional engines anymore!"
Huh?
What?
Say what?
Three confused faces!
Moriya's trio looked at each other, expressions full of bewilderment.
No more traditional engines?
What did that mean?
Facing their confusion, Gu Sheng raised one finger:
"We're making a comprehensive modular engine."
The engine's overall priority would be compatibility.
First, establish reputation through [Physical Destruction] effects, announcing initial engine development victory with stunning performance.
Later, through corporate partnerships with different engine manufacturers, relying on top-tier compatibility features, continuously absorb and integrate other engines' superior technologies, achieving mutually beneficial industrial collaboration.
Before that, considering compatibility, engine modules like visuals, audio, network interconnection would temporarily use the most mediocre universal basic modules, awaiting replacement by superior technologies.
Exactly.
This explains why Golden Engine, upon initial announcement, was shaped like a bucket—capable in everything but excelling in nothing except physical destruction!
Not because conditions didn't permit.
But because they needed compatibility as their primary fundamental principle!
Meaning!
Fundamentally, Golden Engine wasn't an engine, but a framework—a super framework capable of being compatible with most global engines!
For this world's "immersive engine" technology, this was completely achievable!
And once they someday truly achieved this level of engine integration!
Then an ultimate, magnificent, and incredible project could dominate the global gaming scene with absolute superiority!
After all, this would be an ultimate immersive engine compatible with multiple manufacturers' top technologies.
Meaning, over ninety percent of the world's games would be developed using this modular engine.
By then, "Golden Engine" could evolve into a "hub"—a hub connecting all virtual worlds created by global game development companies.
And Golden Wind would become the dance star with highest authority within this massive "hub"!
To achieve this unprecedented accomplishment!
They must also embrace the determination of pioneers!
At this point, Gu Sheng slowly stood up, speaking solemnly:
"Everyone!"
"The so-called determination means being able to carve out the path forward in dark wilderness!"
"And our Golden Spirit will be sufficient to support us reaching the glorious throne of the Gaming King!"
"That is our city of ideals, that is the utopia of gaming, that is our—"
"Golden City!!!"