23
Mumbai
Sundeep returned that afternoon. He looked as much a zombie as he had when he left in the morning. The imminent collapse of the game was too much for him to bear. The future of Indiscape was riding on Townsville. Investors had pumped in huge sums of money, wagering on the game’s success. It was also about pride. Indiscape was now one of the world’s top ten gaming companies. That would change if they couldn’t resurrect Townsville.
Varun was in Aditya’s room when Sundeep walked in.
‘Hey, Varun, how was the party last night?’ Sundeep asked, trying very hard to smile.
‘Good, sir. You were missed. I know very few people here and you are one of them.’
‘I know, I know. I was stuck in office last night. And, by the way, I’m Sundeep. I’m not as old as your father, so don’t call me sir!’
‘Yes, of course!’
Sundeep looked at Aditya. ‘I’ll just check if the game designers are here. We can meet them and decide on a plan of action.’
‘Call me once they are in the conference room,’ said Aditya.
Sundeep nodded. He looked at Varun. ‘Why don’t you join in too?’
Half an hour later Aditya walked into the conference room with Varun, and took his position at the head of the table while Varun retreated to a corner.
Aditya went straight to the heart of the matter. ‘Townsville has not got the traction we had hoped for. We have invested a lot of money in this game. It’s a make-or-break game for Indiscape. Twenty-three thousand MAUs is hardly a number. What do you think happened?’
‘People are still playing Mafia Dons. We were hoping that they would give Townsville a try and migrate to it but they haven’t,’ Sundeep volunteered. ‘We had put up teasers for the game on the Indiscape.com home page, Aditya, inviting people to try it. Most of the MAUs have come via plug-ins on our home page, so far and some via Google Ads. We significantly overestimated the conversion from our home page.’
Aditya thought for a moment. ‘Do you think there could be a problem with the game design and construct?’
‘Prelaunch research reports were positive.’
‘Do we know how many people clicked on the game teaser on the home page?’
‘Sixty-two thousand.’
‘Hmm . . .’ Aditya paused. ‘Look, even if all of them converted to MAUs, it still would have been less than the 200,000 that Mafia Dons had in the first week.’
‘True.’ Sundeep nodded. It was fast turning out to be a conversation between Aditya and Sundeep, with the others listening in.
‘Which means your hook is not working. Sixty-two thousand clicks on your teaser on the home page is too low a number. You need to get that up. Get more customers to see your game. If they experience your game, they will continue playing it. If they don’t even experience it, how will they become sticky and active users?’
‘I agree: promotions are a problem. We need to diagnose which aspect of it has not worked,’ confessed Sundeep.
‘Let’s increase our advertising spends. Let’s be visible all over the net.’
Sundeep looked at him, a bit worried. ‘Aditya, we had a budget of 25 million dollars for this game, of which 18 million dollars have been spent on game design, special effects, execution and hosting. We have already committed over 4 million dollars in spends to various online portals across the world. We hardly have anything left.’
‘Well, 4 million dollars is not getting us anything in our campaign.’
‘For Mafia Dons, our budget was 5 million dollars for everything,’ Sundeep commented.
‘That’s because when Mafia Dons was launched, you had no competition. An online game was a novelty. People were excited. Advertising online was cheap compared to today,’ Varun spoke up from his corner. Everyone turned towards him. ‘Isn’t it obvious? Things have changed. I’ve played Mafia Dons. I was hooked to it from the first second.’
‘Varun . . .’ Sundeep began, ‘it’s not all black and white.’ He wasn’t too pleased with Varun’s unsolicited intervention.
‘True, sir, but games are played by instinct. One has to touch that nerve in the gamer. The hook. Promotions and ads must be placed where the customers are. On sites that customers visit. I’ve been on the net over the last few days. I haven’t seen a single ad for Townsville except when I access Indiscape.com to play Mafia Dons.’
‘What are you trying to say, Varun?’ Sundeep was beginning to sound irritated.
‘Hold it! Hold it! Hold it!’ Aditya interrupted the two of them. He didn’t want them to battle it out in front of the entire group. He turned to the designers and said, ‘I think there is a consensus that it’s not about the game design. We will meet you guys once we have some clarity on what we want to do.’
After the last person had left, he turned to Varun, ‘You need to be careful about what you say and in front of whom.’
‘I’m sorry but I thought you were seeking opinions. I will keep my mouth shut.’
‘It’s okay. What were you saying?’
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24
Mumbai
‘I think you’re stuck in a time warp,’ began Varun. Diplomacy was clearly not his forte.
Offended, Sundeep turned towards Aditya. He was dying to retort but was unsure. The last thing he wanted to do was antagonize Aditya by taking on Varun. Aditya didn’t seem bothered by Varun’s tone. He encouraged dissent. ‘Dissent fuels debate,’ he always said. Even when he ran NYIB.
‘What do you mean?’ Aditya asked.
‘You are investing millions of dollars in creating world-class games. Every gamer who plays Mafia Dons is a fan of Indiscape. They will do whatever you tell them to. Call it control, call it influence, doesn’t matter. But I’m sorry to say that Townsville is hardly a game that a Mafia Dons player will play. It’s too soft. No guns, no blood, no gore. Technically, it may be a fabulous game but it does not draw an instinctive response from the gamer. The target markets for these two games are completely different. And yet you hope that the guy who visits Indiscape.com to play Mafia Dons will experiment with Townsville and get hooked. Even these 23,000 MAUs will dwindle quickly.’
Sundeep started to get defensive. ‘We are advertising on all the popular websites and in newspapers. We are doing everything to draw in new customers who have not explored Indiscape or Mafia Dons. Next week, our television ads are starting. What else can we do? We have explored and continue to explore every avenue!’
‘Dad, I don’t know how you guys operate in India. I am speaking as a user. The gaming community in the US is extremely mature. Gaming started many years ago with easy-to-play arcade games like Pacman and Pong.’
‘We know what arcade games are, Varun.’
‘I guess you do.’ Varun smiled sheepishly, realizing his mistake. He continued, ‘Once war and strategy games came in, gaming became more hardcore. Gaming consoles became more powerful. And games got more complicated. That’s why Mafia Dons became such a hit.’
‘It was a good game,’ Sundeep muttered. He had a look of disgust on his face but he couldn’t do much about it because Aditya had tuned in and was focusing on every word Varun was saying.
‘But all that is changing. Complicated games are being developed for companies like Sony PlayStation and Nintendo. If you want to reach out to gamers and succeed in the business, stand-alone is not the way to go. You need to tie in with Sony or Nintendo and build games for them.’
‘It’s been our policy from the beginning to not form a tie-up with these biggies. Sony or Nintendo will take over 70 per cent of the revenue from the games which will severely compromise our position and reduce our margin.’ Sundeep was arguing now.
‘Fair enough but imagine if Mafia Dons were available on Sony PSP or on Nintendo devices. Your reach in the UK, the US and Japan would be ten times what it is today. Right now you receive the entire ad revenue from the g
ames—that too is a bad strategy. Had you joined hands with these guys, you may have got only 40 per cent of the revenues from advertisements, but it would have been from a much larger pie. At the end of the day you would have ended up with significantly higher revenues and even better branding. How long will you keep pushing people to come to Indiscape.com and play games? To my mind, that’s a dying proposition.’
‘We don’t want to give away proprietary control of the games, Varun. Sony and Nintendo will start influencing our creativity and we don’t want that. We want to retain our creative licence.’ Aditya didn’t have an iota of doubt about this.
‘If that is the case, there is only one option for you.’
‘Aditya,’ Sundeep was getting restless, ‘this is a waste of time. The designers are waiting. We need to tell them what we want them to do.’ Sundeep was irritated and tired and in no mood to listen to some kid telling them what to do about a multi-million dollar business.
‘Wait, Sundeep!’ And Aditya turned towards Varun. ‘What were you saying? Only one option? What option?’
‘If you can’t get your customers to come to you, there is only one option and that is to go to where the customer is . . . social media.’
‘Rubbish,’ Aditya said. He didn’t believe in social media. ‘You mean Facebook?’
‘Yes.’ Varun was categorical. ‘I’ve always wondered why only one gaming company advertises on Facebook and no one else does.’
Aditya and Sundeep both knew that Zynga, the world’s leading gaming company, was the only one promoting its wares on Facebook. Zynga had met with a fair bit of success on account of its social media blitz but the sceptics outnumbered those who were positive about the role of social media in Zynga’s success.
‘That’s because it’s a useless piece of shit. And will die a natural death.’ Sundeep was quick to seize the initiative. He and Aditya had had multiple discussions about this in the past and right now, though he himself had made the case for advertising on social media in the past, he parroted Aditya’s viewpoint.
‘I don’t think so. A game, in the format that you have currently developed, will be useless on Facebook.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘If you have a stand-alone game on Facebook, like the ones that are there now, it will not be effective.’
‘Then how . . .?’ Aditya was curious.
‘By the end of last year, Facebook had 600 million users against 350 million the year before. When each of those 600 million accesses Facebook, he is technically sitting with a gaming console in front—his or her computer. Just imagine . . . if you were able to put a great game like Townsville on the screen in front of them and say, Come dude . . . now PLAY! That’s what Zynga did with Farmville. It was not a flash in the pan for them. It was a well-thought out strategy.’
‘Keep talking,’ Aditya said.
‘You can continue to give your customers the games for free but build them on Facebook. Let the players play them once they log in to Facebook. Make them shareable. Make it mandatory to invite their friends to play for them to move across levels in the game. Let them compete with real friends, compare their scores. Automatically post status messages when people complete a particular level. Let it come on the newsfeeds. Whenever anyone logs into Facebook, he should not miss it. It should set him thinking that if he is not playing the game he is missing out on the fun that his friends are having. The ultimate ethos for games to succeed today is . . . click click click. Simple tasks. Something for everyone. Shareable.’
‘Isn’t that too much of a hard sell? Customers may hate us for spamming their newsfeeds.’
‘As of now, customers don’t have an option. They aren’t going to turn away from Facebook because you spam them. They are just beginning to get the hang of Facebook. This will work for the next few years. And Dad, there is no point being so moralistic in this. You are not doing anything illegal. If you don’t do this, someone else is going to wake up to the potential of Facebook and do it. It’s got to be us, Dad!’
Aditya looked at Sundeep, whose look of irritation hadn’t changed for a minute.
‘Dad!’ Varun interrupted. ‘We must start monetizing the games. Get customers in for free, but sell them tokens, which can be used in the games. Get them to pay as they progress. Sell them cheats, which they can use to short-circuit the game levels. There are a number of things we can do once we go social.’
‘How do you know so much about gaming?’ Aditya asked.
‘A customer knows more about your product than you can ever imagine. I’m a hardcore gamer. I know more about gaming than all your designers.’ Varun’s overconfidence bordered on arrogance. ‘And . . .’
‘And?’ Aditya asked.
‘During my postgraduation, for three months, I interned with Zynga in their finance department. I worked closely with their CFO. This approach towards social media in gaming is part of their long-term plans. Anything that goes viral, for them, is a revenue spinner. That’s the reason they locked on to Facebook early on and signed an exclusive deal with them for two years. No other gaming company can advertise on Facebook till Zynga is with them.’
Sundeep was frowning. ‘Yes, I’m aware of Zynga being in bed with Facebook. But why are we discussing this if we can’t even think of execution?’
‘Because we might just have a window of opportunity. Facebook is extremely pissed at the way Zynga is behaving. They have become too big for their boots. Facebook wants to throw them out but it’s too much money to give up. If they can find someone willing to pay even 75 per cent of what Zynga pays them, they will annul their contract with Zynga. That “someone” could be us.’
Aditya looked pensive. Varun had contrarian views but he seemed to have the knowledge and the drive. If he learnt some tact, he could lead Indiscape into the future. Ironically, he sounded like the Sundeep of yesteryears.
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25
New York
Josh reached Midland Café, dressed very casually. A white tee and blue jeans helped him blend in with the evening crowd. Not too many people were in the café at the time. He sat down at a designated table and waited for a while. A few people walked in and out. He waited. Since he was not much of a coffee drinker nothing there appealed to him.
Finally a steward appeared.
‘What can I get for you, Mr Connelly?’
Josh was startled. How did the guy know his name?
‘It’s Mr Connelly, right?’ The steward smiled. Josh nodded. The steward pointed to a table in the corner where a middle-aged man was sitting. A large tweed coat enveloped his slim frame and a hat covered his sandy hair. He’d been sitting in the café for twenty minutes but Josh hadn’t realized that the man was waiting for him.
The man patted the seat next to him. Josh got up and walked to the table. Without waiting for further invitation, he pulled the chair back and sat.
‘Josh Connelly. Technology whiz. Admin at Cotton Trail. All-round hacker. Welcome!’
Josh saw his face when the man looked up and removed the hat. He was at least sixty years old. Fair with freckled skin. His build didn’t seem to be American. European maybe. South African, possibly. Josh was trying to form an opinion when the man asked him, ‘How do you manage to do all this?’
‘I can see you have done your homework on me. That too, impeccably,’ Josh commented.
‘Well, one has to. Especially when you are looking for someone to run a job for you.’
‘A job?’
‘Yeah. I’ll give you the details later . . . but we will need a team for that.’
‘Team? What are you talking about?’
‘A team of twenty people. Young. People your age would be better. Not mine, for sure. People you can trust with your life. Or know from your past exploits. Possibly illegal immigrants, who have no records. No tracks. No history. Members from your student body days at Stanford would al
so do.’
‘What are they expected to do?’ Josh was surprised that he knew every detail about him.
‘How long will it take you to put this team together?’
‘Where is the job?’
‘New York City.’
‘A month.’
‘Too long.’
‘What do you have in mind?’
The old man looked at his watch. He was old-school, the kind who looked at their watches to confirm the date. ‘Two weeks?’
‘Tough. If you want me to put together a reliable team, I need time.’
‘Time is something I don’t have.’
‘Give me three weeks at least. Anything less than that and I can’t do it.’
The old man laughed. ‘Anything is possible if the price is right.’
‘What is to be done?’
‘Okay, three weeks it is. Here’s the deal. Three Saturdays from now, I will meet you here at ten thirty before the café opens. You and your entire team. You will be told what to do once we meet. Tell all of them to carry large backpacks.’
‘What’s in it for me?’
‘Each of those guys keeps 5 per cent of what they manage to get away with. You get to keep 10 per cent of the total amount.’
‘What numbers are we talking of here?’
‘Does half a million dollars for you sound good?’
Josh looked at him with a fair bit of apprehension. ‘How do I trust you?’
‘Well, 100,000 bitcoins will be transferred to you before EOD, today. Each bitcoin is worth two dollars. Will that be enough for you to trust me?’
Josh got up. ‘I’ll email you my bitcoin public key on TOR mail.’
‘See you in three weeks.’
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26
Mumbai
Malvika had just returned home after a long session with the corporate banking team. It was Matt’s way of driving the agenda with his people—hold full-day reviews. He hadn’t invited Malvika for the session though. She had gotten wind of it at the last minute and gate crashed.
God is a Gamer Page 7
