Aaron awoke to several messages from his bank.
"What the hell?!" he yelled unable to contain himself.
Master of Arcadia had gone viral. Despite releasing only the base game, with the artwork still incomplete for the BDSM expansion DLC, the game had already racked up over 2,000,000 sales, earning a massive 40,000,000 dollars.With a deep breath and massive effort, he contained the mix of excitement and suspicion, and calmly knocked on Andre's bedroom door.
"Hey Aaron what's up?" asked Andre sleepily opening the door.
"Master of Arcadia just grossed 40,000,000" said Aaron calmly.
"What the hell? We didn't even market it!" yelled Andre.
Aaron's phone buzzed with a group call from Harry, James and Mario.
"We went viral." he said answering the call.
"We did more than that! It's all over YouTube and mainstream gaming outlets!" said Harry excitedly.
"It's not all good press though, lots of them are slamming the art saying it's misogynistic." grumbled James.
"That's SJW snowflakes for you. Pay them no attention." said Mario.
"Yes well, let's spend the semester break getting the BDSM expansion done." said Aaron and the others nodded emphatically.
----
"How are we going to distribute the expansion?" asked Harry as they worked on the artwork one day.
Using their new-found cash, he, James and Mario had splurged on new digital drawing tablets, music workstation equipment and more powerful laptops to create even better art and music, and they were quickly improving their original designs and creating the more complex and higher quality animations, music and sound effects required for the BDSM scenes.
"I have been working on a new company website, we will host the expansion there, and include a link to the site in the game itself" said Aaron already deep in the code for the new update.
----
The semester break passed quickly, and a week before classes were to commence, the update was ready. Aaron rented a warehouse on the outskirts of the city and installed a server rack with redundant power and internet backups to serve the game updates.
To cover their bases, Aaron updated the base game with clear warnings about buying the expansion, emphasizing that the game can still be enjoyed in its current form and that the expansion includes elements that audiences find offensive. He also purposely set a high 100 dollar price on the expansion to deter potential bad customers.
If the base game's launch was viral, it was nothing compared to the updated and expanded game. Revenue crossed the 500 million dollar mark. Game journalists, feminist influencers and various Gamer Gate proponents raised hell, calling the game an affront to women and society. Yet sales through both Steam and Sirius Software's servers remained strong.
"Damn. I'm sure glad you told us to not promote the game using our accounts, we would have been doxxed like hell." commented Harry, awe and respect for Aaron's foresight evident in his voice.
"Once bitten twice shy." said Aaron as he scrolled through article after article calling Master of Arcadia a rape simulator.
Andre entered the loft with a Japanese man in tow. "Gentlemen, this is Mr. Kazuya Honda. He represents SEGA and wishes to negotiate an investment and a localization deal with you." said Andre, introducing the man who bowed politely.
"Hello Mr. Zakhrov I have heard that you are the mastermind behind this game" said Mr. Honda with a heavy Japanese accent.
Aaron nodded. "I thank you for your interest Mr. Honda, but we are still students. I cannot speak for my colleagues, but I wish to finish my education. I cannot commit to a sequel or a contract for any other games at this time." he said.
"I understand Mr. Zakhrov, and we are not looking for an obligation at this time. We wish to acquire the rights to publish and localize your game for the Japanese market." replied Kazuya.
Aaron thought for a moment.
"Very well, SEGA will have exclusive publishing and localization rights to _Master of Arcadia_ and any other future projects Sirius Software develops for the Japanese market. However, we retain all source code and intellectual property rights. SEGA will also manufacture and sell physical media for our games in both the Japanese and International markets. Does that sound good?" he asked.
Kazuya's eyes widened at the mention of physical media. This kid was a kindred spirit! He felt that digital distribution platforms carried too much risk for games and other content to be censored and taken down.
"That sounds excellent! Mr. Esposito and I will handle the paperwork." he said shaking Aaron's hand.
----
"What the hell do you call this?" demanded Sarah Clarke slamming a tablet showing screenshots of Master of Arcadia in front of Ivan in the staff room at MIT.
Ivan stared coldly back at her.
"None of my business. Aaron Zakhrov has been legally emancipated. I have no responsibilities over what he does." he said calmly.
"Do you have any idea of what I can do to you?" hissed Sarah. Her attempts to pull Master of Arcadia from Steam and shut down Sirius Software's servers had been futile. The base game which was available on Steam, did not violate any terms of service, and the expansion was not on any cloud hosting service making it impossible to shut down using her influence. She had launched a senate inquiry into Sirius Software, using Emily to accuse Aaron of statutory rape and Sirius Software of unethical business practices, but the process was moving too slowly for her liking.
"What? Are you going to whip me half to death like you did Michael Eddington? Go ahead! I daresay I deserve it for abandoning my precious son when he needed me the most." said Ivan bitterly. He had come to deeply regret his decision to support Annette, who had become even more extreme in her ideology and had all but alienated him from Mikaela, his daughter.
Sarah raised her hand to strike him, but it was caught by a large, hulking man in a black suit.
"Sarah Clarke. I am inspector Duncan from Interpol. You are under arrest for human trafficking." he said in a British accent, twisting her arms behind her and into handcuffs.
----
"Talk about poetic justice!" chuckled Andre putting down the newspaper. The headline was that Senator Clarke had been arrested by Interpol for running a massive human trafficking ring in Europe and Africa. He looked at Aaron sadly. "Would you like to reconnect with your parents? Now that Sarah Clarke has been arrested, there is no further need for estrangement" he said.
Aaron shook his head. "Ivan and Annette seem happy with their daughter. I will not disrupt their happiness" he said coldly.
Andre sadly shook his head. It appeared that Aaron's heart had frozen solid where his parents were concerned.