Chapter 26 - New Product Line

War Online has been continually updated since its release many months ago.

Updates like beginner tutorials and the main story produced partly by the Hive Mind AI and viewer tools/features to keep Pro League fans engaged have been beneficial in its steady growth.

The Pro League cross-platform portal featured creators from different countries providing continuous online video content to fans worldwide.

Also, the fantasy league was a massive hit as it paid out Bitcash for winning.

Games like LoL, DotA 2, and Starcraft 2 weren't as popular as in Vince's previous life because players found them inferior in every way.

Regular users couldn't even play competing games on cross-platform.

Each Arena Pro League season would be around four months and occur twice a year.

The off-season would broadcast minor league teams vying for a top 32 spot to qualify for the APL.

Vince ensured that Future Studios would continually provide more content to their existing fanbase and foster more viewers steadily.

Advertising agencies have noticed quite a while ago that War Online catered to the most valuable demographic, young people aged 18-30.

Marketing studies found that brands exposed to potential consumers around that age were highly likely to buy their products.

Large organizations like Samsung and Sony fought for the last 16 franchise spots, and the lowest bid came out to be $200 million.

[Damn! People are high on War Online.] So Vince thought as he was reading a Future Studios report.

It was common to see random people walking around Austin wearing Prime Alliance jerseys or cosplayers dressing as their favorite player's main character.

[The esports scene in my previous life was niche at best. I would never have imagined War Online to be mainstream.] Vince thought.

Vince shouldn't have been surprised. War Online was chock full of game features yet to be explored by other video game developers in 2012.

Now that summer of 2012 was over; Future Tech had already upgraded the available drone manufacturing suites. 

Future Tech sent Hive Mind version 2 suites to Koenigsegg, SpaceX, and Tesla.

Future Tech engineers were dispatched, including the equipment on rented cargo planes.

The engineers would support Future Tech's partners and continue developing the AI remotely.

Future Tech was only leasing out the Hive Mind and reserved the right to shut down the suites if necessary remotely.

Koenigsegg required assistance with developing their innovative 'Free Valve' system using the Hive Mind AI plus mastering the manufacturing process of their exotic vehicles and engines.

Christian Von Koenigsegg offerred 10% stake in Koenigsegg Autos after hearing about Vince's deal with Elon.

Tesla shared battery and photovoltaic systems technology with Future Tech, allowing the version 2 upgrade to include more efficient batteries for each drone.

Future Tech would also have to spend development efforts advancing the current technologies provided by Tesla.

The drones sported the new Future Tech microprocessors designed and developed using Hive Mind AI, simply called AIM.

Jessica had been hard at work creating a consumer-grade operating system that could fully utilize the AI-driven processing power from AIM with Patel and the engineering team.

Rick and Sarah continued their UX design success with the beautiful yet straightforward system interfaces.

While motherboard manufacturers conformed to AIM standards, Future Tech would sell products under its own electronics brand.

[Apple will regret giving me a headache. I wonder how many Apple users I can eventually convert.] Vince pondered.

"That was an exciting match to end the Asia conference finals. Congratulations to Clear Sky for achieving the top seed." one of the announcers said.

"Thank you for tuning in to [Pro League Arena Clash Sundays], but before we leave, Future Studios would like to give the viewers a sneak peek to the future of consumer electronics."

The audience was treated to a professionally directed commercial featuring the everyday use of new mobile phones, laptops, desktops, and tablets.

One of Vince's school seniors working at Future Studios directed the video commercial.

"Whoa! The phone looks so different. It's making my iPhone 4 look small." a viewer at a network cafe said to a friend next to him.

"You can get them in so many different colors too!" the girl at the cafe replied.

The product line was competitively priced compared to companies like Apple and Samsung.

The standards and innovative designs were inspired by popular products sold in 2021. These devices boast even more advanced features with the help of AIM processors and Hive Mind manufacturing.

Vince thought that a press conference was pointless and decided to send sets of Future Tech devices to major consumer technology outlets.

YouTube channels, tech magazines, and news channels received one of each to review.

"I don't know what to say, guys, but this laptop is just superior in every way. The screen quality, high refresh rate, premium build keyboard, and 10Gig ethernet are overkill. In addition, the Future Tech operating system can flawlessly run non-native Linux, Windows, and macOS applications."

"And this is only the first product I'm reviewing today." the Youtuber added excitedly.

"The benchmark says it all, folks. I have no idea what kind of voodoo magic Future Tech is working with, but all I can say is rest in peace, Intel and AMD." the reviewer solemnly said.

"Intense workloads like triple-A games on max settings don't increase the temperature much. In addition, the specifications state that the AIM processors consist of carbon nanotubes instead of silicon."

"This provides the device with much better performance and thermodynamic efficiency."

"The onboard AI will automatically optimize workloads for the user to utilize all the compute cores within the AIM processors completely." The reviewer added.

Pre-sales on the Future Tech website were ongoing, and the release was planned to be in a month.

Future Tech had bought a fabrication and manufacturing center outside of Austin in preparation for the product line release.

Hudson's team hired 3,000 employees of varying skills and specializations for this new venture.

Most of the manufacturing will be performed by the Hive Mind, but further development and support will take more staff.

Hudson had also implemented the incorporation restructuring with the help of Ralph and Kemp-Jacobs.

All employees were allowed to renew their contract as full employees with benefits and options provided by Future Tech.

Hudson heeded Vince's instructions, and the terms negotiated were better than the industry standards.

Kemp-Jacobs was able to get special exemptions for Vince and his school friends and were allowed to work in the business regularly, after much effort from the law firm.

Vince became the youngest CEO at 14 years old as articles from Forbes and Time Magazine were being shared around the internet.

Stats last time checked:

15 million BTC (currently trades at $1,000)

$2 Billion in Future Tech

3800+ employees (Future Studios, Hive Mind AI, ARM, BitCash, Future Security)

Five company collaborators

Dozens of investments under Future Tech Holdings

EDITED