Wang Yi hesitated for a moment before asking, "Can we adjust the price of the headset? Maybe cut it in half, or even more."
Mitchell gave a wry smile. "Boss, we invested at least $1.5 billion in developing this headset. We'd have to sell several million—nearly ten million—just to break even on the headsets alone."
Wang Yi shook his head. "First of all, making a profit has never been the primary goal of this game. My original goal was simply to make a game that lets ordinary people experience the joy of basketball, and lets people who can't play because of injuries experience that joy too."
"Second, how do you know we can't sell ten million headsets? If this game becomes a global sensation, selling tens of millions of headsets won't be a problem."
"Finally, we won't make money from the game itself. We can add some ads, but we have to be careful not to force them in. My idea is to put the same ads in the game that you'd see in real life. But if a company hasn't paid us for an ad, we can just pass on it."
"Think about how many brands there are around the world. If our game becomes a hit, I'm sure they'll be lining up to work with us. Just think how much we could make from ad fees! And those ads wouldn't annoy people. They'd actually make the game feel more realistic and immersive."
Mitchell was at a loss for words.
If they were going to copy the ads companies already had and put them in the game, wouldn't they have to pay for the rights? How was it that the companies would be paying them?
Wang Yi could tell what Mitchell was thinking. Smiling, he said, "At first, we