Rise To Stardom - Chapter 181

Chapter 181: Oncoming Avalanche
“So uh, that’s everything, I guess.” Carlos thoughtfully spoke, earning nods of agreement from Owen and everyone else around him.

“$69.99 huh…” Kyle pondered out loud as he sat on the couch at SpawnPoint Studios, listening as the Studio Head, gave him a proper rundown of last year’s Game’s Con highlights and changes in the industry.

All around him, some of his employees in the Studio’s small Marketing and HR department were seated, waiting for his verdict… and so was Oliver and Camille, both of whom were currently sipping on their cups of hot coffee.

Considering he had been so busy trying to sort out his album, Oliver had figured he’d sort out a bunch of things on his ward’s behalf so as not to distract him from his main task as at the time.

The current topic of interest however, was one he had left solely to Kyle’s decision.

As for the young CEO whom was now a tad bit free, hearing that GameSoft Studios had more or less caused a pretty big shift in the videogame industry’s marketing price, came as quite the shocker to him.

But what really had Kyle concerned, was the fact that so many other big videogame companies and even some lesser known ones, were following in their footsteps, pricing all their biggest and newest IP releases at the same price.

$69.99.

It was almost as if they wanted to make it the new standard and honestly, the more Kyle thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed.

Creating video games was becoming more and more complex in recent memory and considering all the production costs that typically went into making them, $69.99, was understandable.

However, Kyle also believed that a game that was worth $69.99, needed to be fantastic… in every sense of the word.

Story-wise it had to be exceptional and gameplay-wise it had to be completely engaging, immersive and most of all, fun.

Basically, the game had to be worth every cent the gamer paid for it.

And as much as Kyle believed the [Tech Wiz] videogame was a masterpiece for the kind of game it was, it still left a sour taste in his mouth to just join the trend and ramp up the price without the gamers in mind.

And this, exactly, was why, after a few more minutes of pondering to himself, the young CEO spoke;

“Being a gamer is a very expensive hobby…”

To that, his employees nodded in agreement.

“And I think it’s safe to say, gamers aren’t plucking money off of trees to buy something they hope they’ll enjoy…” Kyle continued, earning even more nods and hums of ‘yes’ and ‘true’ from his employees.

“Which is why, for [Tech Wiz], the price will remain, at $39.99.” the CEO gave his verdict, his voice authoritative.

“However, if it ever reaches that point in time where that price no longer seems feasible for the returns in production costs at least, then we will join the trend.” Kyle concluded with a finality to his tone, earning nods of approval from everyone else.

As much as Kyle wanted to be considerate, he more than anyone also knew, that in the long run, he had to be more rational about his decisions going forward as the company’s CEO.

And if rationality was anything to go by, Kyle knew, that first and foremost, he had to keep the well-being of his employees and the company at heart, because only then, could he be able to make decisions that would ultimately, benefit everyone else.

* * *

Here’s a question;

If you’re sitting on a profitable gold mine, wouldn’t you want to dig and keep digging?

Answers may vary, yes…

… but for the Execs at Lighthouse Studios, this was the selfish creed they had been knowingly living by for the past two years now.

Ever since [Prom Perfect] had started giving them more and more returns than they had invested, especially with its low effort scripts, poor marketing and lack of expensive production expenses (save for the directors and actors whom were paid quite a hefty sum), they had decided to keep making more and more of it.

After all, it was better to play it safe and get expected returns than venture into a new project that had the uncertainty of either becoming a failure or a success, moreso, in the the current day and age where trends, changed faster than a Formula 1 racecar driver switching gears.

“Honestly, teens today are so braindead it’s beyond me. They’re as predictable as my trophy wife remodeling her room every month.” a fairly good-looking man in his late forties, stated as he and his buddies, conversed to their heart’s content at a fancy golf club for the rich.

His name was Victor Leone, the CEO of Lighthouse Studios while the rest of his buddies, were Execs from the mid-sized film studio, all of whom laughed in response to his words.

“Still, won’t [Level Up 2] be a threat?” one of the Execs who was on the much shorter side of the average male height, questioned as he leaned on his golf-stick, a pretty curious expression his features.

“Threat? I think not.” Victor responded as he cupped his hands above his head, watching as the golf-ball he had shot, soared through the air as he continued speaking;

“Every other day might’ve provided some sort of competition and we’d still come out on top.”

“But on Valentine’s Day, they don’t stand a chance. Not with how hard we marketed it this time and especially, not with those horny teenagers, also looking for something to excite their senses.” he definitively concluded, earning nods of approval from the other Execs.

And maybe to a certain extent, Victor was right…

However, at Silver-Line Studios, two interns in the Marketing Department were holed up around one of their fellow colleague’s laptop, a genuinely curious expression on their features.

“Well, this is… interesting…” the guy with a glasses whom had pulled up what they were all gazing at, commented as he kept studying the poll.

“Should we perhaps, report this?” the second intern, a lady in her late teens to be exact, commented, not quite sure of what to make of the information.

“I think it’s better if we don’t. Questions are gonna arise if we do.” the third intern responded thoughtfully while stroking his beardless chin.

“Yeah. Besides, it was a team effort from us to make this. And, trust me, by the time this website goes fully live, we’re gonna wanna keep our money bag to ourselves.” the bespectacled young man commented, to which both of his colleagues nodded in agreement.

All of three had been jointly working on a biased-free, real-time website for the masses that had the simple yet complex function of using real-time voting polls to track, just how much returns a new movie might make at the Box Office before it officially released.

It wasn’t a fully-released project but, they had been going through some beta-tests in more recent memory, especially on their Jeddit community of over 20,000 active netizens.

And since they were all also part of the Marketing and PR team for [Level Up 2] and had realized that the movie they had been working on might end up flopping hard, they had run it through the metrics and put it up against [Prom Perfect 3] on the website for another beta-test for their community to test it out and also, share with their families and friends.

This was why the results they had gotten, had been quite the interesting sight to say the least;

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

[Level Up 2] – – – – – – – 48% ($19,961,400)

[Prom Perfect 3] – – – – 53% ($22,108,900)

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

Considering [Level Up 2] was made on a budget of roughly thirty-five million dollars (marketing and promotion costs included), the fact that they were going to have that much… on the opening week alone, was definitely curious.

More than that though, was the fact that the gap they had expected [Prom Perfect 3] to have over [Level Up 2], wasn’t as much as they’d expected… especially since the teen rom-com was made on a fairly hefty budget of fifty million dollars.

And this was excluding marketing and promotion costs which may have put it closer to fifty-five to sixty million dollars in total budget costs.

Again, all this predicted returns, was only for the opening week and could be subject to change.

However, if their metrics were accurate enough, then that meant, that one strong tilt, would be enough to completely push either movie to success or failure in an instant.

That said, it was only later that the interns would find out why there was so much interest in [Level Up 2] despite [Prom Perfect 3] dropping in theatres on Valentine’s day.

* * *

Stuart and Miguel massaged their temples as they read the articles on their phones and then, glanced over to Gwen who gave them both a thumbs up, glee in her eyes.

“Remind me to never get on your bad side.” Stuart commented first, a bit fearful of the woman.

“Were you that pissed at what he did?” Miguel on the other hand, couldn’t help but ask as Gwen who casually closed her laptop and stretched tiredly.

“Yes. Yes, I was.” the PR manager casually stated, feeling completely fulfilled after remembering what she had just done.

It would take a while before the articles fully circulated but, by the time it did, it would be a wicked slap across the face to a certain someone.

“I mean, if he thinks he can ridicule our boss and get away with it, then we just have to make it seem like karma also bit him in the ass.” Gwen added as she loosened her coiffed, ash-blonde hair.

To that, Stuart and Miguel glanced over to each other and then sighed in agreement.

Ever since the debacle last year, Gwen had been doing some personal digging into why Justin suddenly felt it necessary to go after Kyle.

And finally, after five months, she more or less pieced together everything and then, made a bunch of articles on them, all of which she planned to share to various Hollywood magazines and tabloids.

That said, the way Gwen planned to engineer all this, was a tad bit strategic yet devious.

One that would start as a tiny snowball and then, expand into an avalanche by the time all was said and done.