….
Pete's voice crackled through his earpiece from backstage.
"So. Did we kill them?"
Regal looked out at the room. At the chaos and the joy. At the thousand small monts of disbelief happening simultaneously across ten thousand faces.
"Yeah," he said quietly, almost to himself. "Yeah, I think we did."
….
He walked back to center stage within a few seconds. The lights ca up. And the screaming - which had not stopped, had not even dipped - hit him full force all over again.
He raised both hands. The universal calm down gesture.
But it didn't work. He tried again, laughing now, pressing his palms downward like he was physically trying to push the volu into the floor.
Nothing.
"Man—" He shook his head, grinning into the mic. "This is why I love you guys. The absolute best. And I gotta be honest… I am supposed to be up here trying to settle you down, doing the professional thing, but let's be real." He dropped the act entirely. "I'm proud of you. I can confidently say… I have always had the best audience. Every single ti."
That, of course, only made them louder. But it was a different kind of loud now - warr, looser, the sound of a room that had just shared sothing massive and was still buzzing from the contact high.
Sowhere in the middle rows, a voice cut through clearly enough for the stage mics to pick up: "Regal, you really got better with speeches!"
Regal pointed in the general direction of the voice. "Thanks, man. I really did co a long way, right?"
And he had. Just a few years ago, he used to open events with so version of "I'm not really good with this kind of thing…" - awkward, stiff, visibly uncomfortable under the lights.
"Anyway." he said, letting the energy settle just enough. "Should I even be asking how the trailer was?"
The scream that followed answered that question definitively.
"Yeah. Thought so." He waited for the noise to dip. "Alright, here's the plan. We're going to do a quick Q&A - dia first, then a few from you guys. A short one. And I promise we will play the trailer again at the end. Sound good?"
Even before he'd finished the sentence, crew mbers were already moving behind the stage - adjusting lighting, bringing out two chairs and a small table with water bottles, setting up for the Q&A.
Regal settled into one of the chairs.
The other belonged to Pete, who walked out from backstage to a round of applause that clearly caught him off guard. He gave the crowd an awkward wave - the wave of a man who was far more comfortable behind a monitor than in front of an audience - and sat down.
Two people on stage now. The man who built the vision and the man who built the ga.
….
A moderator in the front row stood with a mic, directing questions from the press section.
The first one went to Pete.
"Pete. How long has it been since you have had a proper night's sleep?"
Pete laughed. He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his face with both hands before answering.
"I would actually rather not disclose that information." he said, still grinning. "Because I am fairly certain it could get my boss put behind bars for overworking his employees."
He glanced at Regal. "This man tempts you with every benefit imaginable… every perk, bonus, and fancy dinner… except for a leave of absence and a full night's sleep."
Regal raised his hands in mock innocence. The crowd laughed. Pete shrugged the shrug of a man who had made his peace with exhaustion a long ti ago.
The next question was also directed at Pete.
"We have just seen what you are building, and I think it's safe to say this is unlike anything the industry has attempted before. We got every detail in that trailer… the scope, the features, the numbers. But one thing was missing. Can you give us an exact release date?"
Pete nodded slowly, like he'd been expecting this one.
"Let's be real/" he said. "Adding a release date to that trailer wouldn't have cost us much effort. It's a line of text on a screen. But here's the thing:
"We are still working. And I can't predict exactly how many more years this will take." He paused, choosing his words carefully. "I would much rather sit here today with no date than throw out a random one and then have the gaming community rightfully chew us out when we miss it. That's not how we want to operate."
He held up a hand before the follow-up could co. "But… if you are asking for a window, not a promise… I would say two to three years. Sowhere in there. That's not a commitnt. That's my honest gut feeling based on where we are right now."
The room murmured. Two to three years was longer than so people hoped but shorter than others feared. And the honesty - the refusal to manufacture a date for the sake of headlines - landed well. People respected it.
Then it was Regal's turn.
A journalist near the front stood up. She had the tone of soone who'd done her howork.
"Regal. This sa question has been asked to you multiple tis over the years, and every ti you give a slightly different answer. So I would like to ask it again, just like everyone before ."
She paused. "You are a Director. A story writer. A producer. A CEO. An author. Recently an actor. And now… gaming. Why? Why invest in gas now?"
The room quieted. This was the kind of question that invited a rehearsed corporate answer - diversifying the portfolio, expanding the brand, reaching new audiences. The kind of answer that says nothing and everyone forgets imdiately.
Regal didn't give that answer.
"My aim has always been the sa." he said. Then he smiled slightly. "So… let answer your question with a question. Does gaming have nothing to do with storytelling?"
He let that sit for a second.
"Whatever the dium: film, books, comics, animation. My job has always been the sa. Tell a story. Deliver it to an audience. Make them feel sothing."
He leaned forward slightly. "So there was no way I could ignore gas. Because I believe… genuinely believe… that gas have the opportunity to tell stories on an even deeper and more personal level than anything else. You are not watching a character make a choice. You are making it. That's a different kind of storytelling entirely. And I wanted to be part of it."
He paused. And then he said sothing that made every journalist in the room reach for their notebook.
"And there is one more thing I will add. Gas have a much bigger future potential than any other dium." Another pause–
"Including cinema. Unfortunately."
The room shifted. A filmmaker? One of the most successful filmmakers of his generation - to publicly state that gas would surpass cinema?
And not could? But would?
The journalists were already writing their headlines.
And the thing was - he wasn't wrong. Everyone in the industry knew the numbers even if they didn't say them out loud.
A blockbuster film's entire lifeti box office collection could equal what a major ga generated on its first day of launch. The economics weren't even close anymore.
And Regal, rather than pretending otherwise, had just said it into a microphone in front of ten thousand people and a wall of caras.
Pete, sitting next to him, gave a small nod. The nod of a man who had heard his boss say this privately a hundred tis and was watching the world hear it for the first ti.
A few more questions from the dia followed - technical questions about the engine, questions about the team size, questions about whether Story Mode and Free Roam would ship simultaneously or in phases.
Pete handled the technical ones, while Regal handled the vision ones with the honesty that had beco his signature.
….
Then the mic went to the crowd.
"We have got ti for a few from you guys." the moderator announced, and hands shot up across the room like a forest growing in fast-forward.
The first mic went to a young woman about six rows back. She stood up, visibly nervous, holding the wireless mic with both hands.
"Regal—"
"Yeah?"
"Will you marry ?"
The room erupted. Laughter, cheers, whistles. Pete buried his face in his hands. Regal, to his credit, didn't flinch. He just smiled.
"What's your na, miss?"
"Jessica." She was blushing so hard it was visible from the stage. "It's Jess. For close people."
"Okay, Miss Jessica…" He emphasized the full na, keeping the distance playful but clear. "I am already engaged. So… nope."
The delivery was perfect - warm enough that she wouldn't feel humiliated, firm enough that there was no ambiguity.
The crowd laughed. Jessica sat down with the expression of soone who had absolutely expected that answer and didn't regret the attempt for a single second.
The next question ca from a man further back, and it shifted the room back to business.
"When is the next Harry Potter movie coming?"
Regal nodded. The next film in the series was [Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix] - a project that had been main focus in the background of every conversation about LIE Studios for months.
"We are working on the script right now." he said. "And we are actively looking for a new director to lead the kids through this one. So hopefully… pretty soon."
He tilted his head. "That's the honest answer. We are not rushing it. But we are not sitting on it either."
A few more questions followed: about rchandise, about whether the ga's soundtrack would be released separately, about whether there were plans for additional Harry Potter gas beyond Philosopher's Curse.
….
As promised, the trailer played again.
It hit differently on the rewatch.
The first ti was a shock - the overwhelm of seeing sothing you didn't know was possible. The second ti was appreciation. People caught details they had missed.
The way a painting in the background of one shot tracked the player's movent with its eyes. The way the music shifted keys when Thomas entered a room that wasn't safe. And the way a student NPC in the Great Hall was reading a specific book - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - with a page actually turning under their thumb.
The small things. The things that separated a ga from a world.
When it ended, the applause was just as loud as the first ti - the recognition that hundreds of people had poured years of their lives into sothing, and it showed in every single fra.
….
Regal stood at the edge of the stage one final ti.
He looked out at the crowd - still on their feet and clapping.
Soon after, the event ended with a grand success.
….
.
[To be continued…]
●──────●◎●──────●
Author Note:
Visit Patreon to instantly access 1 chapter for free, available for Free mbers as well.
For additional content please do support and gain access to 15 more chapters.
--> [email protected]/OrgoWriters
User Comments
0 comments from readers