At the end of March, 【Space War】, which had finally completed all preparations at 【Jungle Game】, was released.
Lee Hyun-woo decided to keep an eye on the sales with great interest.
“29,900 won for a CD…”
The price is quite reasonable. He remembered it being a bit more expensive in his previous life.
On the evening of the release day, Lee Hyun-woo asked his younger brother about the target.
“Why do you ask so often? Well… 100,000 copies? Is that too ambitious?”
“What? Didn’t you say 300,000 copies last time?”
“Now that it’s actually released, I’m a bit nervous… If I have too high expectations, the disappointment might be greater.”
If 100,000 copies of a 29,900 won CD are sold, it would be almost 3 billion won in sales.
Lee Hyun-woo was naturally not satisfied.
“It should sell over a million copies.”
“Hyung, if it sells that much, it would be a world record.”
“Exactly, since it’s a game my younger brother made, shouldn’t it set a world record? And selling a million copies doesn’t just mean generating around 30 billion won in sales.”
“Then what does it mean?”
“It could significantly impact the industrial structure of South Korea. First, the number of PC bangs will increase tremendously.”
“PC bangs? Ah, internet cafes?”
“Right. But internet cafes are essentially places created to enjoy computers and coffee simultaneously, whereas PC bangs are industries created solely for gaming.”
As an economics major, Lee Hyun-woo had encountered various economic effects created by this game in his previous life.
Some economic research institutes evaluated that 【Space Craft】 contributed trillions of won to the economy.
Not only the PC bangs that Hyun-woo mentioned but also pro gamers, broadcasting, and many other related fields saw a rapid increase in people involved.
Thus, during that time, the employment creation alone was 150,000 people. In the short term, it was a trillion-won economic contribution, but in the long term, it had an economic ripple effect dozens of times greater.
“PC bang, huh? That name has a catchy ring to it.”
Lee Hyun-woo chuckled at his younger brother’s voice.
‘You were a PC bang owner in your previous life.’
But in this life, the probability of him running a PC bang was close to zero.
Instead, he would be one of the key figures in the explosive increase of PC bangs.
‘It’s really interesting how the links between my previous life and this life are connected like this.’
The next day, Lee Hyun-woo received a report from Han Se-jin in the morning.
“There are a total of 198 internet cafes. However, since the number is still increasing at this moment, it’s not 100% accurate.”
Lee Hyun-woo nodded while watching him refer to the notes he had written down.
A few days ago, Lee Hyun-woo had instructed him to find out the number of internet cafes.
He was curious about the starting point.
‘I need to see how much it increases from 198.’
On the other hand, Han Se-jin looked puzzled.
He thought Lee Hyun-woo would look at the sales trend of 【Space War】, which was released the previous day, but instead, he checked the number of internet cafes.
Tilting his head, he discussed it with Kang Dong-ho.
“I don’t understand the CEO’s intention this time either.”
“What… Ah, you mean finding out the number of internet cafes?”
“Yes, but he told me to check the numbers when I was reporting the release date of 【Space War】. Suddenly, as if something came to his mind, he asked me to find out how many internet cafes there are nationwide…”
“Hmm, is there any correlation between the two?”
“Could it be that he is thinking of promoting 【Space War】 through internet cafes?”
“Oh? That’s not a bad idea! If I visit an internet cafe and see someone playing 【Space War】, I’d want to try it too.”
“Right. You can try it out at the internet cafe, and if it’s fun, you buy it and enjoy it at home.”
“Why don’t we incorporate this idea into our promotion?”
“What? But the CEO didn’t specifically instruct us to do that?”
“I think he might have been disappointed by the number. Promoting to 198 internet cafes might not seem very effective.”
“Or it might be too trivial for him to handle directly. Hold on. I wrote down something the CEO said before. Ah, here it is. ‘A great idea can be harmful! Pursuing an idea that comes to mind can lead to excessive workload,’ he said, and I noted it down.”
“That makes sense too. Recently, the CEO has been trying not to create unnecessary work. But wouldn’t it be worth trying with 198? Even if we just give out CDs for free to those 198 places…”
“No, we don’t need 198. If we put it in a few places, competing internet cafes will start buying it themselves. Or they might hear about it and come to us asking for CDs to promote with.”
“Let’s have the secretarial team try it out then.”
“Yes, I think we can manage with about four staff members.”
Incidentally, the secretarial team had been reinforced.
Since they also needed to show the new employees how the secretarial team works, the two paired up seniors and new employees and instructed them to distribute CDs to internet cafes throughout the day.
This method brought about an astonishing effect.
In less than three days, the secretarial team reported that 【Space War】 was all over the internet cafes in Seoul.
“The more amazing thing is that almost all computers in each internet cafe are running 【Space War】. We distributed CDs to a total of ten places, and in three days, the number increased tenfold.”
“Right. There are just over 100 internet cafes in Seoul.”
Han Se-jin and Kang Dong-ho listened to the secretarial team’s report with an encouraging expression.
‘This promotional effect seems incredible.’
Indeed, after the weekend, some online media outlets posted pictures of people playing 【Space War】 in internet cafes, writing articles like:
『【Jungle Game】, will it dominate the game market with 【Space War】?』
The next day, something that made the two’s eyes widen appeared.
『Is the era of computer game rooms dawning?』
“Isn’t this the PC bang the CEO mentioned before?”
“It seems like it.”
“Wow, there were already a few of them.”
“Then we should promote there too.”
They immediately called the secretarial team again.
This time, they instructed them to distribute CDs while going around computer game rooms instead of internet cafes.
But there was no need for that.
When they arrived a little later, they reported,
“There wasn’t a single computer game room without 【Space War】 installed.”
They brought back surprising news.
They wanted to deliver this joyful news to Lee Hyun-woo as soon as possible.
So both of them went into the CEO’s office and reported what had happened so far, and Lee Hyun-woo, with his eyes sparkling, said,
“Shall we find out how many computer game rooms there are?”
“Ah, yes… But I’m not sure how easy that will be. Last time, the internet cafe data was collected by the Statistics Korea, but we can’t request them to survey for us…”
This meant they had no choice but to send the secretarial team staff to check directly.
Lee Hyun-woo smiled brightly and nodded.
“That’s right. Then, someday it will be surveyed. Let’s look into it then, so don’t overburden yourself with more work.”
“Yes, CEO…”
“Understood.”
After all, it was a curiosity-driven instruction.
However, now that they confirmed the emergence of computer game rooms, or PC bangs, it was clear that reporters would keep track of how quickly they increased.
‘Let me see. As far as I know, the year 【Space Craft】 was released, the number of PC bangs surpassed 10,000.’
That meant it grew from hundreds to tens of thousands in less than a year.
So, around 1,000 new ones were opening each month, and Lee Hyun-woo would gradually start noticing them during his commute.
Sure enough, PC bangs started popping up near his home and his workplace.
And by then, instead of “computer game rooms,” the signs said “PC bangs.”
Not only Lee Hyun-woo, but also Lee Jung-woo noticed this, and one evening, he exclaimed,
“Wow, Hyung! You perfectly predicted the rise of PC bangs!”
“Shall I make another prediction?”
“Like what?”
“I bet PC bangs will increase by more than 1,000 per month.”
“No way…”
“Don’t underestimate our nation’s character. We’re a people very sensitive to trends; once a business catches on, they won’t just stand by and watch. Moreover, last year’s economic crisis significantly raised the unemployment rate. Many people will pour their severance pay into starting PC bangs.”
“Oh, that makes sense. But 1,000 is a bit much…”
“Well, let’s wait and see.”
“No, I’ll admit it. Hyung, you’re a guru at predicting these things. And honestly, I’m so happy and excited. The more PC bangs there are, the more our game CDs will sell like hotcakes, right?”
“Of course. Although each PC bang won’t buy as many CDs as they have computers, given the current popularity, they’ll have to stock up to some extent. By the way, are the anti-copy programs well implemented?”
“Of course. Yoo-chul has made it nearly perfect, but there will always be someone who manages to crack it.”
Jang Yoo-chul, who focused solely on MP3s.
Because of that, his efforts to protect MP3 copyrights were no joke.
The result was the anti-copy program for the CDs.
Of course, in the world, there might be a sharp spear that can pierce the perfect shield, as his brother said, there would be those who crack the anti-copy program.
Still, Lee Hyun-woo hoped the difficulty level of this program would be extremely high.
He wanted to boost his younger brother Lee Jung-woo’s morale by selling more than expected.
Should he be grateful?
A week later, an interim report came out.
“We’ve sold 100,000 copies in just two weeks.”
“……!”
The sales figures indeed exceeded expectations.
He thought it might be thanks to the rapidly increasing PC bangs.
‘Let me see, if it’s 100,000 copies in two weeks, that would be 200,000 copies in a month.’
The original goal was to surpass 1 million copies in a year, but it seemed they needed to adjust the target upward.
Moreover, it wouldn’t only sell well in Korea,
“Jung-woo, it’s about time to prepare for the foreign language versions, right?”
“We’ve already started long ago. The English version of 【Space War】 will be out soon.”
A gentle smile spread across Lee Hyun-woo’s face.
There was no need to say much to his younger brother, who was preparing everything well.
However,
‘Then there’s no need to mention the expansion pack, right?’
He was pondering this part.
Should he mention it or not?
‘If I mention multiple things at once, it might cause confusion.’
He decided to wait a little longer.
