Chapter 79 - #79: Sony’s Call

Chapter 79: Chapter #79: Sony’s Call

Following the conclusion of the E3 gaming expo on June 13th, the official seven-day countdown for Bloodborne had begun.

Ethan’s flight had just touched down at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Before he could even collect his luggage and get a moment of rest, his personal cell phone started buzzing with an unknown number.

"Hello? Am I speaking to the Founder of Sprout Studio known as Nova?"

"Speaking. Who is this?" Ethan frowned. His personal number was strictly private, and the voice on the other end was entirely unfamiliar.

"I am the regional director for Sony PlayStation. You are an incredibly talented individual, Nova. Do you have a moment to chat?" The man’s voice was smooth, carrying a distinct tone of practiced corporate appreciation.

After reading through the comprehensive dossier on Ethan’s rapid rise to power, the Sony executive had decided he absolutely needed to acquire this designer.

That desire had only intensified after learning about Ethan’s aggressive development style.

The man had poured his entire accumulated fortune into funding Bloodborne, operating without a safety net.

The urge to bring a wildcard like that under the PlayStation banner was overpowering.

PlayStation hadn’t produced a truly earth-shattering, system-selling exclusive in quite some time.

While the executive didn’t genuinely believe a single indie designer could topple Sony’s iron grip on the industry, he absolutely refused to sit back and watch Xbox monopolize the hottest talent in the market.

"I understand. But I don’t have the time to talk right now. You can forward any business inquiries to my studio’s official email," Ethan replied, his expression completely flat.

He perfectly understood the nature of the call.

Sony wanted to discuss a partnership or aggressively poach him away from Xbox.

But he absolutely despised the tactic of bypassing official channels to cold-call his private cell phone.

Finding an unlisted number wasn’t difficult for a multinational behemoth like Sony, but that didn’t make it any less irritating.

"Ah... excuse me?" The Sony executive stammered, clearly taken aback. He let out a sharp breath, genuinely shocked that he was being brushed off so casually.

"Nova, we want you to develop for PlayStation. The financial backing and infrastructural support Sony can offer you will eclipse whatever Xbox is giving you by several magnitudes."

"Furthermore, we possess a vastly superior market share and a much larger install base. We can give you the ultimate platform to fully showcase your talents."

Hearing the executive’s aggressive persistence, Ethan just smiled faintly. "I appreciate the offer, but I have absolutely no intention of changing platforms right now. I’m very happy where I am. I don’t just have business partners here; I have genuine friends."

"Are you sure about that, Mr. Nova? Don’t you think that you’re perhaps... wasting your talent there?" The repeated rejections were clearly starting to grate on the executive’s nerves.

He let out a cold sneer. "Perhaps the sudden, artificial spike in Xbox hardware sales has given you some kind of false confidence?"

"We are not desperate for good games, Mr. Nova. We were simply offering you the privilege of a larger stage."

The executive’s thinly veiled arrogance actually made Ethan laugh.

"As I said, I’m not interested in leaving. Have a good day."

Walking a few paces behind Ethan in the airport terminal, Ivan and Carter remained completely silent.

Neither of them was a fool. Based entirely on Ethan’s side of the conversation, they knew exactly who was on the other end of that phone call.

Ivan unconsciously clenched his fists, keeping his eyes glued to the floor as he walked.

He knew exactly what was at stake. If it came down to a pure bidding war, Sony could offer financial incentives and royalty cuts that Xbox would struggle to match.

In a direct comparison, Sony’s market advantage was overwhelmingly oppressive.

As a game developer, how could Ethan not care about total sales volume and install bases?

Passion was important, but developing video games required massive capital. Higher sales meant better studio expansion, larger budgets, and premium salaries for Sprout Studio’s employees.

In the pursuit of a dream, who said you couldn’t have both the art and the money?

But as Ethan repeated the words ’no intention of changing platforms’ over and over again, Ivan slowly relaxed his clenched fists.

"I understand. We have our own lineup of incredible next-generation exclusives! So, we don’t actually need you. As I said, we’re just offering you the privilege to showcase your talents in a higher stage... If you’re too blind to see that, then maybe this call has been a waste of time." The Sony executive was practically snarling into the receiver now.

"With the sheer size of the PlayStation player base, heh... I just wish your Studio and Xbox good luck, Mr. Nova."

The executive spat out one final, harsh threat before slamming the phone down.

As they stepped out of the airport terminal and prepared to head their separate ways, Ivan turned to Ethan. He looked the young designer dead in the eye and offered a deep, solemn nod.

"Thank you."

Ivan didn’t know what else to say.

In that moment, a simple ’thank you’ carried the weight of a thousand words.

Ethan and Marcus waved goodbye to the two executives and climbed into their waiting car.

Halfway through the drive back to the studio, Marcus finally couldn’t hold it in any longer.

"Was that... was that actually Sony on the phone just now?" Marcus asked.

He had suspected it, but the reality of the situation was almost too crazy to process.

Securing the flagship exclusive rights for the next-generation Xbox console had already blown his mind.

But the fact that Sony was now actively cold-calling Ethan to poach them? It was beyond his wildest dreams.

Ethan glanced over at him from the driver’s seat and chuckled. "Yeah. It was them."

Knowing exactly what Marcus was going to ask next, Ethan preempted the question. "We’re building an empire from the ground up, aren’t we?"

He was talking about Sprout Studio and Xbox.

To Ethan, the bond forged through mutual growth and overcoming impossible odds alongside his current partners was infinitely more valuable than selling out to an established giant.

Over the next few days, the pre-order metrics for Bloodborne shattered every internal projection.

Just from the initial pre-sale window alone, the game moved a staggering 2.8 million digital copies.

It was an astronomical achievement that most AAA developers wouldn’t even dare to dream of.

The live pre-order drop at E3 had been a masterstroke, and the subsequent word-of-mouth marketing pushed the hype to an absolute fever pitch.

The gaming media dubbed Ethan a visionary trailblazer.

He possessed the sheer audacity to take a plunge that no one else in the industry would risk.

No one else dared to operate like this, because no one else believed their games could actually back up the hype.

Who else could convince nearly three million players to blindly drop sixty dollars on an unreleased IP in a matter of days?

Millions of players were literally counting down the hours until Bloodborne unlocked on their hard drives.

Meanwhile, another massive segment of the community was spending their days hanging out in Thomas Vale’s stream, watching the older man trudge through the digital wilderness.

After his initial struggles with the controls, Thomas had gradually grown comfortable with the mechanics of theHunter: Call of the Wild.

Because he was retired and had absolutely zero real-world stress, he treated the stream purely as a digital hobby. Every single day, he looked happier and more relaxed.

But recently, Thomas had discovered a brand-new source of joy.

Once he realized that the tens of thousands of viewers in his chat were physically incapable of playing the game themselves, his daily broadcasts became infinitely more entertaining.

Right now, as he quietly tracked a herd of elk through the brush, his screen was completely dominated by the chat.

[

snoopdog: How long has he been playing this, dawgg?! Is this a closed beta? Why is the test period so long?!

Ripper: Thomas has been playing for weeks and I haven’t seen a single bug. The game looks completely finished! When is the release date?!

Layfon: Honestly, his marksmanship is terrible. He keeps ruining the trophy ratings by hitting the spine instead of the lungs.

kindred: Bro turned a hunting simulator into a walking simulator.

king_ramzi: A thermos of black coffee and three real-life hours later, and he’s still tracking the exact same deer.

]

"When will the game be released?" Thomas murmured, reading a superchat off his second monitor.

He had actually called Ethan to ask about this exact topic a few days ago. Ethan’s response was that with Bloodborne launching so soon, theHunter wasn’t even on the official release schedule yet.

Thomas looked at the desperate, agonizing comments flooding his chat.

A slow, wicked smile spread across his weathered face. For the first time in his life, he finally understood why his son derived so much pleasure from torturing the gaming community.

"When does it come out?" Thomas chuckled, leaning into his microphone. "Maybe... a very, very long time."

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