….
Pete's voice crackled through his earpiece from backstage.
"So. Did we kill them?"
Regal looked out at the room. At the chaos and the joy. At the thousand small moments of disbelief happening simultaneously across ten thousand faces.
"Yeah," he said quietly, almost to himself. "Yeah, I think we did."
….
He walked back to center stage within a few seconds. The lights came up. And the screaming - which had not stopped, had not even dipped - hit him full force all over again.
He raised both hands. The universal calm down gesture.
But it didn't work. He tried again, laughing now, pressing his palms downward like he was physically trying to push the volume into the floor.
Nothing.
"Man—" He shook his head, grinning into the mic. "This is why I love you guys. The absolute best. And I gotta be honest… I am supposed to be up here trying to settle you down, doing the professional thing, but let's be real." He dropped the act entirely. "I'm proud of you. I can confidently say… I have always had the best audience. Every single time."
That, of course, only made them louder. But it was a different kind of loud now - warmer, looser, the sound of a room that had just shared something massive and was still buzzing from the contact high.
Somewhere in the middle rows, a voice cut through clearly enough for the stage mics to pick up: "Regal, you really got better with speeches!"
Regal pointed in the general direction of the voice. "Thanks, man. I really did come a long way, right?"
And he had. Just a few years ago, he used to open events with some version of "I'm not really good with this kind of thing…" - awkward, stiff, visibly uncomfortable under the lights.
"Anyway." he said, letting the energy settle just enough. "Should I even be asking how the trailer was?"
The scream that followed answered that question definitively.
"Yeah. Thought so." He waited for the noise to dip. "Alright, here's the plan. We're going to do a quick Q&A - media first, then a few from you guys. A short one. And I promise we will play the trailer again at the end. Sound good?"
Even before he'd finished the sentence, crew members were already moving behind the stage - adjusting lighting, bringing out two chairs and a small table with water bottles, setting up for the Q&A.
Regal settled into one of the chairs.
The other belonged to Pete, who walked out from backstage to a round of applause that clearly caught him off guard. He gave the crowd an awkward wave - the wave of a man who was far more comfortable behind a monitor than in front of an audience - and sat down.
Two people on stage now. The man who built the vision and the man who built the game.
….
A moderator in the front row stood with a mic, directing questions from the press section.
The first one went to Pete.
"Pete. How long has it been since you have had a proper night's sleep?"
Pete laughed. He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his face with both hands before answering.
"I would actually rather not disclose that information." he said, still grinning. "Because I am fairly certain it could get my boss put behind bars for overworking his employees."
He glanced at Regal. "This man tempts you with every benefit imaginable… every perk, bonus, and fancy dinner… except for a leave of absence and a full night's sleep."
Regal raised his hands in mock innocence. The crowd laughed. Pete shrugged the shrug of a man who had made his peace with exhaustion a long time ago.
The next question was also directed at Pete.
"We have just seen what you are building, and I think it's safe to say this is unlike anything the industry has attempted before. We got every detail in that trailer… the scope, the features, the numbers. But one thing was missing. Can you give us an exact release date?"
Pete nodded slowly, like he'd been expecting this one.
"Let's be real/" he said. "Adding a release date to that trailer wouldn't have cost us much effort. It's a line of text on a screen. But here's the thing:
"We are still working. And I can't predict exactly how many more years this will take." He paused, choosing his words carefully. "I would much rather sit here today with no date than throw out a random one and then have the gaming community rightfully chew us out when we miss it. That's not how we want to operate."
He held up a hand before the follow-up could come. "But… if you are asking me for a window, not a promise… I would say two to three years. Somewhere in there. That's not a commitment. That's my honest gut feeling based on where we are right now."
The room murmured. Two to three years was longer than some people hoped but shorter than others feared. And the honesty - the refusal to manufacture a date for the sake of headlines - landed well. People respected it.
Then it was Regal's turn.
A journalist near the front stood up. She had the tone of someone who'd done her homework.
"Regal. This same question has been asked to you multiple times over the years, and every time you give a slightly different answer. So I would like to ask it again, just like everyone before me."
She paused. "You are a Director. A story writer. A producer. A CEO. An author. Recently an actor. And now… gaming. Why? Why invest in games now?"
The room quieted. This was the kind of question that invited a rehearsed corporate answer - diversifying the portfolio, expanding the brand, reaching new audiences. The kind of answer that says nothing and everyone forgets immediately.
Regal didn't give that answer.
"My aim has always been the same." he said. Then he smiled slightly. "So… let me answer your question with a question. Does gaming have nothing to do with storytelling?"
He let that sit for a second.
"Whatever the medium: film, books, comics, animation. My job has always been the same. Tell a story. Deliver it to an audience. Make them feel something."
He leaned forward slightly. "So there was no way I could ignore games. Because I believe… genuinely believe… that games have the opportunity to tell stories on an even deeper and more personal level than anything else. You are not watching a character make a choice. You are making it. That's a different kind of storytelling entirely. And I wanted to be part of it."
He paused. And then he said something that made every journalist in the room reach for their notebook.
"And there is one more thing I will add. Games have a much bigger future potential than any other medium." Another pause–
"Including cinema. Unfortunately."
The room shifted. A filmmaker? One of the most successful filmmakers of his generation - to publicly state that games would surpass cinema?
And not could? But would?
The journalists were already writing their headlines.
And the thing was - he wasn't wrong. Everyone in the industry knew the numbers even if they didn't say them out loud.
A blockbuster film's entire lifetime box office collection could equal what a major game generated on its first day of launch. The economics weren't even close anymore.
And Regal, rather than pretending otherwise, had just said it into a microphone in front of ten thousand people and a wall of cameras.
Pete, sitting next to him, gave a small nod. The nod of a man who had heard his boss say this privately a hundred times and was watching the world hear it for the first time.
A few more questions from the media followed - technical questions about the engine, questions about the team size, questions about whether Story Mode and Free Roam would ship simultaneously or in phases.
Pete handled the technical ones, while Regal handled the vision ones with the honesty that had become his signature.
….
Then the mic went to the crowd.
"We have got time for a few from you guys." the moderator announced, and hands shot up across the room like a forest growing in fast-forward.
The first mic went to a young woman about six rows back. She stood up, visibly nervous, holding the wireless mic with both hands.
"Regal—"
"Yeah?"
"Will you marry me?"
The room erupted. Laughter, cheers, whistles. Pete buried his face in his hands. Regal, to his credit, didn't flinch. He just smiled.
"What's your name, miss?"
"Jessica." She was blushing so hard it was visible from the stage. "It's Jess. For close people."
"Okay, Miss Jessica…" He emphasized the full name, keeping the distance playful but clear. "I am already engaged. So… nope."
The delivery was perfect - warm enough that she wouldn't feel humiliated, firm enough that there was no ambiguity.
The crowd laughed. Jessica sat down with the expression of someone who had absolutely expected that answer and didn't regret the attempt for a single second.
The next question came from a man further back, and it shifted the room back to business.
"When is the next Harry Potter movie coming?"
Regal nodded. The next film in the series was [Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix] - a project that had been main focus in the background of every conversation about LIE Studios for months.
"We are working on the script right now." he said. "And we are actively looking for a new director to lead the kids through this one. So hopefully… pretty soon."
He tilted his head. "That's the honest answer. We are not rushing it. But we are not sitting on it either."
A few more questions followed: about merchandise, about whether the game's soundtrack would be released separately, about whether there were plans for additional Harry Potter games beyond Philosopher's Curse.
….
As promised, the trailer played again.
It hit differently on the rewatch.
The first time was a shock - the overwhelm of seeing something you didn't know was possible. The second time was appreciation. People caught details they had missed.
The way a painting in the background of one shot tracked the player's movement with its eyes. The way the music shifted keys when Thomas entered a room that wasn't safe. And the way a student NPC in the Great Hall was reading a specific book - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - with a page actually turning under their thumb.
The small things. The things that separated a game from a world.
When it ended, the applause was just as loud as the first time - the recognition that hundreds of people had poured years of their lives into something, and it showed in every single frame.
….
Regal stood at the edge of the stage one final time.
He looked out at the crowd - still on their feet and clapping.
Soon after, the event ended with a grand success.
….
.
[To be continued…]
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