But the atmosphere in the design team was not so great, because just by looking at Eric Turner and Brian Clark's expressions, everyone could guess that the data after the new version went live was bad!

And not just ordinarily bad—it was especially bad!

Chapter 12: The Blame-Sharing Meeting

Although the new version had always been strongly pushed by Eric Turner and Brian Clark, it was just as important to everyone else.

Why?

Because this new version consumed a lot of manpower, resources, and money. The design, art, and programming teams had all been working overtime recently, and everyone had put in a lot of effort.

If the new version succeeded and the project's revenue increased, everyone would get a bonus, and naturally, everyone would be happy. But if the new version failed and the project's revenue kept declining, it would mean that all their hard work was for nothing.

Moreover, the code written, the concept art drawn, and the design documents produced were basically impossible to reuse, which meant everything had gone down the drain.

So, everyone in the design team looked pretty grim. The atmosphere in the programming and art teams was still okay for now, but that was only because they didn't know the news yet.

William Carter was still flipping through the design documents, as if what was happening in the project had nothing to do with him.

The new version was already enough to make Brian Clark anxious, so he had no mood to bother with William Carter anymore. He just kept refreshing the data, hoping for a miracle.

By late afternoon, just before the end of the workday, Eric Turner and Brian Clark were called away—obviously to Jason Foster's office.

By this point, the data trend was already clear. It looked like there was no turnaround, and there wasn't going to be one.

Eric Turner and Brian Clark might not get scolded when called in, but they definitely weren't going to be praised either.

After all, the entire new version was approved by Jason Foster. From the company's perspective, the failure of the new version was the responsibility of Jason Foster, the supervisor. But from Jason Foster's point of view, the responsibility should fall on Brian Clark.

Probably by tomorrow, the news about the new version would have to be shared with the rest of the project team. And even if it wasn't said outright, everyone would know—there was no way to keep it a secret.

The two of them were gone for over an hour, and even by the end of the workday, they hadn't come out. They probably got quite a bit of criticism.

William Carter stuck to his usual routine and left work on time, not staying a minute longer.

On the way home, William Carter opened the official forum for "Mecha Era" to check out players' feedback on the new version.

After all, it was a project on the verge of shutting down, so there weren't many posts on the forum. Several of the posts were event threads posted by admins, and even after two or three weeks, they were still on the first page.

Still, William Carter managed to find a few player comments that basically represented the players' attitude toward the new version.

"I logged in this morning to take a look. I was actually looking forward to the new version, but after it went live, I found it so boring! What kind of nonsense did they even update?"

"Adding new mechas is great, but I really can't afford to spend anymore. There are only three or five active people left in the guild. If I buy the new mecha, who's even going to see it? Can't the design team use their brains and do some kind of event to bring old players back?"

"Feels like this game really is dying, and that feeling is even stronger after the update."

"Added mecha backstories? Is this a joke? Who the hell wants to read backstories? And the writing is terrible!"

"Sigh, every update now is just about top-ups and spending money. They might as well write 'I want to cash out' on their faces. Feels like the design team has given up and just wants to grab one last payout before running. Don't count on it, everyone should just quit while they can."

Most of the players' comments were still relatively restrained, but the overall atmosphere was just one thing: disappointment!

Players had originally been looking forward to the new version, but after seeing it, they experienced a huge letdown, which would only push more players to quit.

Moreover, in order to boost revenue and increase profits, both of the new features in this update were related to spending money, and the cool new mechas also required spending to obtain, which only further triggered players' resistance.

Now, "Mecha Era" had inevitably fallen into a vicious cycle: poor revenue led the design team to add more spending events to try to boost income and fight for more resources from the company, but those events only pushed more players away, causing revenue to drop even further...

And once a wave of players quitting started, it was like an avalanche—almost impossible to reverse.

Back home, William Carter casually made some dinner, then turned on his drawing tablet to continue working on the concept art he'd been busy with during the day.

Actually, he already had a lot of design ideas; he just needed to turn them into concrete plans.

……

The next day, after having breakfast at home, William Carter arrived at the company on time.

Guangyi Interactive has an employee cafeteria, and the prices are much cheaper than eating at restaurants outside, but for William Carter, it's still a bit expensive. So William Carter still makes his own breakfast and dinner at home, only eating lunch in the cafeteria.

This morning, everyone arrived on time, because it was Friday and there was a regular meeting.

Regular meetings are an internal company policy. Every company is different, and even different projects have their own variations.