The day after Cyberpunk: Edgerunners aired.
Takayuki arrived at the company on time that morning. The first thing he did was pour himself a cup of tea, then leisurely handle some basic paperwork in his office.
After that, he played a couple of rounds of a recently popular game.
At ten o'clock, it was time for the executives' briefing meeting.
The purpose of this meeting was to report on the company's recent overall situation.
Takayuki didn't pay too much attention to day-to-day operations. With Matsuhashi Minoru as his capable assistant, he felt very reassured.
What he cared about most were game sales and the development progress of recent projects.
"Hmm, this game's pretty good."
Takayuki had just finished playing a rather hardcore platforming game.
It could be considered an advanced version of Super Mario—adding more variables to jumping mechanics and even incorporating roguelike-style random elements. If you really wanted to play it well, it actually required some skill.
It reminded him a bit of a low-spec version of I Wanna Be the Guy from his previous life—not nearly as brutal, but still difficult enough to make players' blood pressure spike.
Takayuki noticed that more and more games like this were appearing lately.
Clearly, a lot of players' masochistic tendencies were slowly awakening.
Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing… hard to say.
Hmm… probably a good thing.
That way, he could go ahead and make Dark Souls.
Takayuki couldn't help but smile—a smile eerily similar to that of a certain game producer from his previous life.
Beep. Beep.
The alarm went off.
Takayuki glanced at the time. The ten o'clock briefing was about to begin.
He closed the game interface and took the elevator to the conference room.
By the time he arrived, the other executives were already there—and Takayuki Aya was present as well.
This was her first time appearing at the company since giving birth to Takayuki Yume.
Sawazawa Airi immediately went over to her, fussing over her health with concern. The two were clearly very close and were now sitting together, whispering to each other.
As for Takayuki Yume, Takayuki's mother and a nanny were taking care of her, so there was nothing to worry about.
"Everyone's here early. Good morning, everyone."
"Good morning, President. Even the boss's wife is here today—how did you not even know?"
Everyone was chatting and joking. The atmosphere was very relaxed.
Takayuki shrugged and looked at Aya. "Looks like I'm becoming an irresponsible husband."
Aya rolled her eyes at him, though there was a faint smile at the corner of her lips.
"Alright, let's officially begin. We'll start with a brief overview of the company's current status and basic operations."
The first to speak was Matsuhashi Minoru.
She was currently in the United States, and even though it was already nighttime there, she still attended on time.
She was the most serious among them, methodically reporting the company's recent situation.
After about ten minutes, she summarized:
"Overall, the company's operations remain in very good condition. Several long-term live-service games are performing well. The theme park construction is progressing steadily, with strong government support. The next few theme parks should be completed ahead of schedule.
Here, I have to mention the infrastructure capabilities of Huaxia—their efficiency in steel-structure construction is truly impressive. Without their support, our theme park projects probably wouldn't have finished early."
So the title of 'infrastructure powerhouse' for Huaxia still held true in this world.
Takayuki sighed inwardly, feeling a bit of pride—though he kept it to himself.
Matsuhashi Minoru continued:
"Overall revenue and profit have remained very stable. President, have you considered pushing further? Some game companies have recently expanded microtransactions and developed many ways to generate huge profits. We certainly have the capability to do the same."
Takayuki replied casually, "Aren't we already doing that? Dead or Alive: Beach Volleyball sells characters, Candy Bliss sells items—aren't those already making us a lot of money?"
Each of those games brought in several hundred million dollars annually—roughly equivalent to the revenue of a game selling over ten million copies.
That was already an excellent result.
"But we could go even further—"
"There's no need," Takayuki said. "Money can't be earned endlessly. Our company's principle is to make meaningful, high-quality games. As for money… are we really lacking it?"
Everyone smiled.
They really weren't lacking.
And video game revenue was only one part of Gamestar Electronic Entertainment's overall business.
The theme parks had already begun turning profitable.
The powerful brand influence of their games was also taking effect, with merchandise sales booming across the board.
According to global statistics on the most influential cultural IPs, Gamestar Electronic Entertainment alone occupied five of the top ten slots—each one capable of generating over ten billion dollars in revenue.
And several of those IPs hadn't even been fully tapped yet.
Companies that relied heavily on microtransactions didn't necessarily make more money than Gamestar.
If Gamestar abandoned its principles to aggressively push predatory monetization, it could actually damage its brand value and downstream revenue—making it a losing trade.
"Alright, I understand," Matsuhashi Minoru said, not pressing further. Takayuki's reasoning made sense.
"Okay, company overview is done. Now let's hear the development progress. Especially the key projects. Yukio Kiuchida, you're from the First Development Department—let's start with you."
Kiuchida Yukio cleared his throat.
"President, development is proceeding steadily. The planned expansions and additional character backgrounds for Cyberpunk 2077 are all in development, and progress is very good. You can rest assured."
Takayuki nodded and prepared to move on.
He was already confident in Kiuchida's team. With the solid foundation of Cyberpunk 2077, they could produce excellent work even without his direct involvement.
But Kiuchida wasn't done yet.
He looked a little excited.
"President, there's something else. Did you check the official backend data yesterday?"
"Backend data? What data—Cyberpunk 2077?" Takayuki asked.
"Yes," Kiuchida nodded vigorously. "After two months on the market, Cyberpunk 2077 should have naturally cooled down by now. But yesterday, the concurrent player count suddenly surged, and sales jumped to an entirely new level."
Takayuki immediately understood.
"Because of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners?"
"That's right," Kiuchida said excitedly. "President, you're incredible. This promotional move actually brought a two-month-old game back to life."