Game of Love (The Remingtons, Book One: Love in Bloom Series)

Chapter Eighteen, Game of Love

Chapter Eighteen

DEX HEADED INTO the conference room with a full heart. He knew how much courage it took for Ellie to come to his office. He also knew it meant she was really trying with regard to their relationship, and that thought chipped away at the anxiety that had been prickling his mind for the past twelve hours. He half expected her to bolt from his life, but his mother's words had really hit home. She's the one you probably need to trust the most right now. Maybe his mother was right. He needed to put his faith in Ellie instead of expecting the worst.

The full conference room, the strained faces, and the quiet that came over his employees when he entered the room pushed his thoughts of Ellie to the background and brought the issues with their release date to the forefront.

Mitch's voice broke the silence. "We should wait to release."

Dex stood in the doorway, mulling over the ramifications of delaying the release date. Angry fans. Bad press.

"They're doing the next big thing rollout. We can't win. I knew we should've gone out later. One week after they launch, we should release. I suggested that two weeks ago," said Mike Talen, one of their programmers.

"What do we gain by doing that?" Dex asked.

Mike looked around the room, as if someone else might offer up the answer. Dex crossed his arms and waited for him to respond.

"We become the next big thing," Mike said.

"How about going out a month after instead of a week? We can see what they roll out and tweak our system to beat it?" Regina suggested.

Dex walked around the room and felt the eyes of his employees trailing him. He'd been thinking about Ellie's project—and Thrive—ever since she'd first mentioned the idea of writing a proposal for a grant to develop educational software. He'd even mentioned it to Mitch, and Mitch had been excited about the possibility. The idea had sparked Dex's interest for more than just the intellectual challenge of developing such a program. It offered a way to balance out his misgivings about the gaming industry. With his and Mitch's design and development skills and a few key staff members pitching in, they could make a kick-ass educational software program that felt more like a game than a method for teaching.

As he surveyed his employees, he saw a team of loyal, dedicated, hard-working, intelligent people. A bright and worthy team he had personally selected. The decisions Dex made today would affect every person in that room, plus the ones who worked for Thrive but weren't present. Dex didn't take these obligations lightly, but then again, no matter how relaxed he looked on the outside, he never took anything lightly—ever. Expanding development into new areas would potentially provide security for his staff, if the expansion didn't cost them too much of their game-development time. The idea was a tricky one, and testing the viability of it on a small scale was inspiring. Even if it meant that he put his own capital into the initial development and prototypes, together—with his team and Ellie—they could potentially change the face of education for low-income kids. The idea renewed his enthusiasm and bolstered his confidence.

"Who here believes in our product?" Dex raised his hand. "Show of hands."

Every person in the room raised their hand.

"Great. You can put your hands down now." He circled the far end of the conference table. "Who here thinks our product is better than KI's?"

Again, the same show of hands.

"What's the chance of error on the release?" He looked at his programmers. "Statistically speaking? Percentage?" Dex already knew it was near zero, but he wanted to make a point.

"You're not an indie developer anymore, Dex. Chances with our team are safely two percent or less," Mike said.

"He's right. I've looked over the beta testing. We've nailed it." Regina gnawed on the end of her pen with a nod.

"And what do we lose by postponing?" Dex had circled the room and stood at the front of it again.

"If their game kicks ass and we don't leave enough lead time after they release, users might not jump as quickly to check our game out and we could lose a huge market share," Mitch said.

After a minute of silence, Dex asked, "What about our fans? Do we not create these games for our fans? Isn't that the whole damn reason we're in this business? To bring games to the fans that they'll stay up all night playing?" Pissing off their mothers, girlfriends, wives, teachers. Shirking responsibilities and letting their muscles atrophy.

"They'll get over it. Companies delay all the time," Mike said with a wave of his hand.

Dex set his palms on the table and narrowed his eyes, dragging them slowly across each and every face in the room. "They'll get over it." He let the words sink in, then pushed from the table and crossed his arms, speaking louder. "They'll get over it." He stared at Mike. "They'll fucking get over it?" Dex took a slow stroll to Mike's side of the table. "Let me ask you something, Mike. If you waited three years to buy something you wanted, and you found out it was going to take a month longer in production, how would you react?"

Mike shrugged.

"Really?" Dex lifted his brows, feeling the eyes in the room boring into him. "Because if I had to wait a month for anything, I'd be pissed. And as a teenager, I'd have bashed the company on as many forums as possible. Even if I went back to those same forums a month later to retract what I'd posted, those initial posts still exist. Our rep is tarnished, and rightly so."

He took a deep breath and let it out loud and fast. "Our product is ready. It's rolling out to reviewers, and we have buyers standing by. I didn't set out to let people down. I set out to create the best damned games I possibly could, without the bullshit excuses that I hated as a kid. And to a kid, any reason to delay a game release is a bullshit excuse. That is what Thrive Entertainment is all about. Making our fans happy. Live. Play. Thrive. They can't play if we're holding up the release to play marketing games."

"But, Dex, it's been shown that the second game out can make a killing," Lisa, a thirtysomething blonde and their financial marketing consultant, pointed out.

"How close to breaking even are we with preorders?" Dex asked.

Lisa shook her head. "More than two million preorders. We're long past clear, and we've broken preorder records. There's no failing unless our game fails."

Dex nodded. He held up his palms toward the ceiling, then weighed them like two sides of a scale. "Let's see. We believe in our product. We've tested the hell out of it. We can make fans happy." He lowered his right hand. "Or...we play scared and piss off fans, maybe sell more, maybe not." His right hand dropped lower. "Seems to me it's a no-brainer."

"Dex." Regina crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. "It's a risk."

"It's a calculated risk, and it's the one we're taking. If we cower to KI's bullshit, it says we don't believe in our product. I believe in our product."

And I believe in Ellie.

Dex took one last look around the room and said, "So that's the game plan. Let's go out there and make it happen. Regina, I'm taking off." Dex had created his world. Now it was time to make something more of it. He could use this world he created for fun or for good. I'm choosing both.

"Wait. We have the podcast at six and a marketing meeting at eight." Regina shot a look at Mitch.

"Yeah, I know. I've got something I need to take care of. Mitch, you take the podcast. Reg, you can handle the marketing."

Dex headed out the door—and toward his future.