บท 305: Tetris III

In any case, Alexander still had other progressive business matters to discuss, and hugging it out by the non-coin-eating Tetris machine that have been set up in the CREED HQ lobby was not part of it.

"Finally, I got out of that." Alexander said in relief while turning to Miss Marker, his next appointment for the day. "You could have intervened a minute earlier, you know."

"It's not that bad, little boss. Little Milla was just expressing her thanks to you and I didn't want to put a stopper in that." Miss Marker reasoned.

Perhaps Miss Marker is among the many friends that the little girl has among the Creed employees.

"Let's just move on." Alexander's left those things on the back of his mind though and focused on a different but Tetris-y matter. "We're off to a good start with Tetris, aren't we?"

"We are with how things are going, little boss." Miss Marker brought up her signature folder of data once again. "The reception of the game is more than positive and staples of the gaming industry are attracted to it."

That was either good news or bad news. Still, Alexander has his priorities. "I take it that arcade shops are requesting to buy their own Tetris machines already."

"A lot of them are." Miss Marker could still note how their phones have been constantly ringing. "It is going to take a while to establish ourselves but we could still facilitate everything with proper channels."

She added. "There is bound to be a problem on our unit production side but we have limited the supply as you wanted and are just handpicking which arcade-specializing business we are going to partner with."

"Do give me a list of those on the potential arcades and make sure that our reach is as strategic and as widespread as we can." Alexander reminded but also remembered something. "What about the remaining batch of arcade machines that we haven't been able to deliver on the first round? Before we move on to the gaming industry, it's important to appease our test market."

"They are given the priority and they are more than willing to wait since we are gifting those Tetris machines away for free." Miss Marker remarked but also inquired. "Is it really a good move for us to do that, little boss? It wouldn't help much with the company accounts."

"Just take it as a free sample move and building rapport with the store owners that have been more than accommodating to us." Alexander didn't have her concerns as he understood the rationale behind the 'gift'. "With their help, we have been thriving as a force in comic books. Besides, with them unabashedly earning spare change from our free gift, we have effectively broken through the barrier and enable Creed to reach out to the video game community."

In essence, the free arcade machines for the comic book store's owners were just a marketing move. It felt much more effective than the usual advertising that is done through newspapers and whatnot.

Of course, it has to be said that the arcade market is a complex thing and Alexander didn't want to invest more effort in it.

The shipping and production of such heavy machines, then the maintenance, and then the split-profiting in terms of accumulated pennies are not that ideal of a business model.

Alexander took part in it because it was necessary and that's it. Doing the barebones and earning considerable cash flow from it is more than enough.

He had a much more ambitious goal in mind when it comes to video games and arcade machines are just supplementary to the whole thing.

"Arcades aside, little boss. Software retailers are probing about when Tetris will be computer compatible." Miss Marker has been made aware of these kinds of requests as well.

"I'll be able to port it or make a true PC version but hold out on the requests for now." Alexander said so... since computer games are things that he is trying to stay away from. Computer games do become the mainstream but the ease of Tetris piracy is problematic enough and his Tetris game code isn't exactly computer friendly.

It had chaos written on it or it was actually written in chaos. Then again, he had his solutions to that. "What about the progress on the Chaos project and the Chaos units, Miss Marker?"

"We've been facilitating with the Graphics Group for that and they've been able to bring it out to the cost-efficient version and effective specs that you've requested them to do. The product team just needs your approval on booting up the mass production that you've halted." Miss Marker was quite dutiful when it comes to these Chaos units. "Oh, and the Graphics Group's Mr. Catmull along with Director Lucas has been requesting for you to finally finalize the agreed-upon deal."

"Have the prototype be sent to me for re-checking. As for Mr. Catmull and Mr. Lucas, I'll tell them that I'll be there as scheduled." Alexander just left it at that. Of course, he was quite looking forward to that finalized deal as well.

After that, Miss Marker discussed other concerns and she proceeded to give him a run-down on the other standard matters that are being processed by the company.

Also, after that, he had to go through the standard Saturday meetings with all the other CREED HQ operations leaders as well.

Alexander still has a lot of other responsibilities to head to. Responsibilities like checking the Chaos unit prototypes, briefing the Creed Animations team on the next course of projects, and feeling a bit ambivalent about the profit rundown that had been given by the company accountants.

Of course, there was also the discussion with Mr. Legalities about the Tetris copyright and all the other game franchise copyrights that he had plundered from the hands of their supposed developers and publishers.

With all that they've covered, Alexander has to admit that with the upcoming addition of Creed Games... his usual business will be given an extra layer of heft to it.

It was getting more and more apparent that managing multiple markets, products, and endeavors at once is a tall order.

Then again, Creed Entertainment was built to be a multi-faceted entertainment company and its operations are expected to be able to match that.

Even an addition like Creed Games is about covering multiple avenues and the many aspects relating to video games.

After all, video games aren't just about game development, computer embeddable, and arcades.

Also, Tetris is technically just a Creed Game and it isn't exactly enough to fit the plurality of Creed Games.

Fortunately, Tetris wouldn't bear that burden alone for long since it wasn't just comic book franchises that Mr. Legalities and his team had been hard at work on. They worked on securing game franchises as well.

It has yet to be revealed to the public yet... but Creed Games may have just monopolized the most popular games of the future already!

In essence, Alexander has been hoarding all the best sellers for a while now. When, where, and how he'll release them is ultimately based on his whims.

It isn't exactly fair to know a lot about the glorious paths that gaming history will take... but hey... all's fair in business and wars.

Alexander was going to win and he was going to win big.

Of course, Tetris was just the beginning of the gaming empire he has in mind. It won't be long til he'll be stacking up one successful franchise over the other for maximum effect.

Maybe Tetris' puzzle stacking gameplay itself is the perfect prelude and imagery of what's to come.