Chapter 68: Xianyu Digital

a.m., Tianba Studio.

Lu just pushed the door open and saw Ba holding a box cutter, continuously slicing a large box printed with AMD logo.

"What is this thing?"

"A test graphics card sent by Su’s team, supposedly a yet-to-be-released mysterious 7000 series." Chen Ba continued to unpack without looking up.

series new card?

As soon as Lu heard this term, he was instantly interested, and walked over to Chen Ba and asked, "Isn’t the RX7000 series graphics card not yet released? How did it end up here?"

"Who knows!"

After struggling a lot, Chen Ba finally tore off the tape, took out the foam filler from the box, and carefully examined a simply packaged graphics card placed before him.

It really is a 7000 series!

And the card sent this time is the top-of-the-line RX7900XTX and RX7900XT.

"What does XTX mean as a suffix?"

Lu was puzzled by the naming convention of adding an X after XT and didn’t understand the difference between the two cards.

"Probably different positioning and specifications."

Chen Ba was also too lazy to delve into the naming conventions of A cards. Since it’s a new card, Su wouldn’t send him a second-hand card at her level.

Handing the RX7900XT to Lu, Chen Ba instructed, "Take it for a test run on ’Path to Immortality,’ focusing on the performance and power consumption aspects of the game."

"Okay!"

Lu, holding the new graphics card, ran off to test it eagerly.

Chen Ba didn’t follow, instead, he sat in his ergonomic chair, frowning, thinking about the origin and handling of this batch of A cards.

AMD suddenly approached, hoping Tianba Studio would cooperate in testing the game performance of their new graphics cards, and the benefit is this box of new graphics cards.

Just like Old Huang.

While developing the game ’Star Emperor,’ Chen Ba didn’t gain much else, but graphics cards were piled up in the warehouse.

There are N cards, A cards, public versions, and co-branded cards sent by Daren Shuo, Desolate Rainbow, and Shrunken Star...

They can’t use many of these graphics cards in the studio; most are left unopened and gathering dust in the warehouse.

Such a shame!

Why not sell them?

But technically, the graphics card manufacturers sent these cards to Tianba Studio for game performance testing, and selling them might upset them.

Chen Ba vaguely felt it was inappropriate.

But with so many graphics cards, they definitely won’t use them all; leaving them unopened to gather dust in the warehouse is a waste.

Either send them back or sell them off.

Electronics depreciate, and quickly at that, so these graphics cards really shouldn’t be sitting in the warehouse gathering dust.

He decided to call the graphics card manufacturers, mainly to explain the situation and seek their opinions.

First is Daren Shuo.

When Chen Ba contacted them and expressed his idea, they didn’t care at all and said if he wants to sell, go ahead; if it’s not enough to sell, he could take stock from them!

"Huh?!"

Chen Ba was shocked.

It’s normal for them to allow him to sell these graphics cards, since they’ve been sent out, they shouldn’t care how they’re handled.

But what does it mean to take stock if it’s not enough to sell?

"We’re a game studio, not graphics card dealers!"

Chen Ba felt insulted, and angrily questioned, "Are you serious? How about the price for taking stock; can it be cheaper?"

Ahem!

Need to earn to support the team, nothing to be ashamed of!

Through collaboration with Daren Shuo on the co-branded graphics card, Tianba Studio and Daren Shuo have a great relationship, allowing Chen Ba to take stock at a relatively discounted price.

This gave him an idea.

’Star Emperor’ servers need to be maintained, and in-game purchases haven’t opened up much yet, why not open an online shop, leveraging relationships with various graphics card manufacturers, selling some graphics cards to make a living.

"Since it’s impossible to stop players from hardware spending, let’s develop a new spending channel!"

Gritting his teeth, Chen Ba instructed Yang Dong, "Once our online shop is up, remember to copy the store template into the game."

Players not cutting Source Stone, not willing to spend?

Alright alright!

Then I won’t sell stats, or skins, selling graphics cards should be fine?

"The idea is feasible, but... aren’t we a game studio? How come we’re opening an online shop to sell graphics cards?" Yang Dong was speechless.

"Well said!"

Chen Ba applauded, and after a moment said, "Normally we’d sustain the server by selling skins."

"But is ’Star Emperor’ normal? Do you think these players would spend on skins? They’d only spend on graphics cards! To keep the servers running, we have to go down this road!"

As he spoke, Chen Ba suddenly got excited.

Even though a game studio not engaging in in-game purchases but opening an online shop to sell graphics cards sounds more and more abstract and ridiculous, one can’t deny Tianba Studio’s great advantage!

With their relationships with various graphics card manufacturers, what product can’t be acquired?

Other dealers can only sell one brand card in their store, Tianba Studio as "connected players," regardless of brand, whether A card or N card, all can be sold.

Not satisfied?

Not satisfied, go find graphics card manufacturers, if that doesn’t work try finding chip sellers Old Huang and Su, let them see justice.

Would graphics card manufacturers stand by and watch ’Star Emperor’ shut down?

Don’t know about connections, eh!

Anyway, Tianba Studio is doing this business just as a small venture, only wanting to make some small money to sustain ’Star Emperor’.

Chen Ba doesn’t expect this store to generate much revenue for the studio, at most covering server maintenance costs.

But that’s enough.

As long as this online shop exists, even if ’Star Emperor’ players don’t spend, there won’t be a shutdown risk, and it can operate healthily for a long time.

"Then I’ll go submit the documents."

"Don’t rush!"

Reaching out to stop Yang Dong, Chen Ba said, "I haven’t told you the name of this shop yet."

"Oh right!" Yang Dong realized, "Have you thought of the shop name yet?"

"I have, Xianyu Digital!"

Chen Ba shared his idea, "Get someone to design the shop template, set up several sections: Great Emperor’s Choice, Immortal King’s Selection, True Immortal’s Must-have..."

Forget about Great Emperor Venerable.

This kind of high-level graphics card, selling it doesn’t make much money, pure waste of time.

Since the shop’s named Xianyu Digital, the graphics cards sold must be among the best, at least capable of achieving immortality on ’Path to Immortality’.

"By the way!"

It seemed Chen Ba thought of something, further instructed, "Every customer who places an order with Xianyu Digital gets a free ’Star Emperor’ cdkey activation code."

How much does one game cost?

Free! All can be given!

If you’re spending at Xianyu Digital, you evidently possess the ’potential for immortality’. For a prodigious youth like you, not sending you to ’Path to Immortality’ for honing is a waste.

Buy a graphics card, get a game, consider it a way to bring new players to ’Star Emperor’, preventing the game from cooling down after a while.