We get through the remaining planning, ordering room service so we don’t have to break. Then we each head back to our rooms to leave Anders in peace and to get ready for the evening’s show. The audience will be industry professionals, overwhelmingly dressed in jeans and t-shirts. There is no need for anything fancy, but I change my wrinkled, travelled in clothes for clean black trousers and one of our promotional t-shirts. I slip a jacket over to style it up.
The others are waiting in the lobby. I blink my eyes. Scarlett didn’t get the memo. She’s in a tight-fitting black dress and a push-up bra that adds two cup sizes. Around her neck, nestling in her cleavage, is the titular icon from our game,The Obsidian Sigil. She looks stunning; every gamer's wet dream. I’m worried about how safe it will be to take her into a room with hundreds of them.
If Anders is anything to go by, not safe at all. He can’t seem to take his eyes off her chest. So much for his proposal to me just a couple of weeks ago. Inexplicably angry, I stalk between them on the way to the hotel exit and it seems to break the spell. Anders steps back and Piotr offers Scarlett his arm in a display of gentlemanliness. It’s a wasted effort on his behalf. She was pleased as punch with Anders’s attention. She only has eyes for one man. My boss.
At the venue, we separate. Anders is making an appearance after the trailer, and he disappears behind the scenes. Therest of us enter the enormous hall, which is dominated by the massive screens on the stage. The lighting gives the illusion we are stepping into a crystal, all bright white, blue, and deep black shadows. A multitude is threading its way among the seats. We take ours and wait.
This is a major coup for us. The big AAA game releases will always have the money and clout to buy showtime. Indies like Cerium would normally be relegated to the pre-show. But we were lucky enough to score one of the wildcard slots and even luckier to have a short interview segment. Although I suspect that may be down to Anders being good video candy.
As the main show starts, the auditorium lights dim, and a hush descends. The host walks out onto the stage to polite clapping. This is an audience of professionals, not rabid fans. Each interviewee and trailer will be met with the same level of applause, only varying slightly when a big studio has a major presence here.
The big guys go first and I wait. After years with Cerium, I’m familiar with the most significant games and their universes, even though I don’t play. Mostly, I don’t have the time or the energy but also it doesn’t appeal. I’ll swap sweets on a phone screen if I’m bored and stuck in a queue, but I don’t live to game like most of Cerium’s employees.
I came to the company as a temp replacement for Anders's previous assistant. I’m not sure anyone expected me to last long, least of all Anders, so I was never properly interviewed. I suspect I wouldn’t have passed the keen gamer quotient if I had been. But after two months, my contract with the agency was quietly ended and replaced with a full-time one with Cerium.
Three years later and I’m sitting with some of the movers and shakers in the company, watching the culmination of years of work. A name catches my attention because I’ve heard it recently; Wobbegong. Their trailer starts to play mostly a movietrailer with very little game footage. I’m not sure what this means, or if it means anything. But as it draws to a close, I can’t help giving a shocked gasp, echoed by Piotr and Scarlett beside me. Their release date is featured prominently across the screens. It’s two days before ours.
“Fuck me!” Piotr mutters. “That can’t be a coincidence.”
“But how could they have known?” Scarlett whispers. “Only a handful of us know.”
“We’re fucked!” Piotr groans. “If we release on our planned date, we’ll tank. The focus will already be on Wobbegong. If we pull the date forward by a few days, we look like the bad guys. The community will trash us. If we push it back, we haven’t got time for the game to generate enough momentum before the holiday season.”
It’s not good news and my mind flits to how Anders is faring, alone behind the screens. He must be feeling sick to his stomach, but he can’t let any of that show. The next trailer is ours and he’ll be on immediately afterwards. The video plays. As the demons swoop and snarl, the cinematic quality of the game is dramatically evident. The scenes cascade and the ultimate threat is revealed, the epic breadth of the world unveiled.
It’s not far short of brilliant. Anders might just be a genius.
As the trailer draws to a close with an invitation to pre-order, the host steps back into the limelight and announces Anders Anderson.
His black-clad figure appears. He takes a couple of paces, then swings up his arms and cartwheels into position beside the host. A laugh whips around the audience, and a spray of spontaneous clapping breaks out. The host grins. “Well, all I can say is, wow!”
“I’m just so excited to be here, I might have gotten a little carried away.”
Some of those interviewed have come across as smug, some as inarticulate. Not Anders. He’s relaxed, seemingly unconcernedby the bomb that Wobbegong has dropped as they chat back and forth, talking about the game footage. Then the host says, “So the game is on pre-order, but any update on when it’s going to be released?”
Anders grins, his dimple winking, and says, “We haven’t finalised a release date yet, but it won’t be long now, folks.The Obsidian Sigilwill be out by the end of this summer!”
I freeze. Beside me, Piotr chokes as the crowd claps and cheers. “Did he say summer? No! We agreed on October. Summer is two months earlier. No-one releases in summer. Everyone’s on vacation.”
I hope Anders has turned off his phone because half of our developers will be calling him. The other half will be busy having a heart attack. Even I’m astounded at how casually he’s moved the release date, especially when he’s the one demanding a game with fewer bugs. But I’m also objective enough to realise he had little choice.
“Ballsy.” Scarlett’s comment is full of admiration. And I have to agree with her. This is the job of a CEO: to make the hard decisions, to make them fast, and then to make them happen. Although Anders might find the last of those far more difficult than the first.
Anders retreats, the host moves on to the next trailer, and Piotr collapses with his head back, puffing through his nose. I hope Ahmed is handling it better back home, but I doubt it. He had to be pushed to October as it was.
My phone buzzes in my pocket. I pull it out. Ginny.WTF?
Exactly.
I’m up early the following morning, although as I’m in charge of Anders’s diary, I know he and Piotr have already left. I’mrelieved to see no sign of Scarlett at breakfast. I make sure to eat well – there’s no guarantee I’ll have time for food once my feet hit the deck of the exhibition hall.
It was a subdued group from Cerium that made its way back from the venue last night as the enormity of Anders’s promise to the gaming community soaked in. We parted ways in the hotel lobby, but when I reached my room, I saw Anders’s sweater.
Figuring he wouldn’t have made it to bed yet, I turned around and took it to him. He answered my knock, his demeanour upbeat. When he saw it was me, all pretence of false cheeriness left his face. He looked drained. This is the hard part of leadership.
“Come in,” he invited. But I dared not. The temptation to offer him a different kind of comfort was too great.
I shook my head and held out his sweater. “I need my bed. You need yours.”
