Monday arrived, and Gamestar Electronic Entertainment's weekly meeting proceeded as usual.
Each department methodically reported on their recent game development status, hardware development progress, and various issues they were facing. Everyone brainstormed together, pooling ideas to come up with solutions.
Takayuki listened quietly from the side. He didn't interfere in areas like business operations—that was best left to professionals. Only when it came to game development would he give clear directions.
"Development of Resident Evil 6 has officially been put on the schedule. Our team has already entered full production mode."
"The maintenance of Cyberpunk 2077's online mode and the development of subsequent expansions are also progressing steadily. We haven't encountered any major problems."
"There are some issues on the Grand Theft Auto V side. One of our game features has a bug that conflicts quite severely with other systems. We're hoping someone can assist us in solving it."
Takayuki said, "The Stanford unit has been relatively idle lately. I'll have them help you resolve it."
"That would be perfect. The Stanford unit is very reliable."
The person in charge of IP licensing and operations held up a document and said, "Sales of our merchandise have recently stalled a bit. We may need to reduce some of our peripheral production orders."
Joining remotely, Matsuhashi Minori asked, "Why has merchandise sales dropped? Are our products no longer appealing?"
The IP operations manager replied, "That's possible, but I think it's more likely because the Olympics have taken up too much public attention recently. People's focus has shifted to the Games."
Matsuhashi Minori nodded. "That makes sense. In that case, I'd suggest launching some Olympics-themed merchandise. We could ride the wave of popularity a bit."
The IP operations manager said with some concern, "But wouldn't that feel a bit forced? Could it hurt our brand image?"
Matsuhashi Minori looked unconcerned. "This is just a straightforward business adjustment—it doesn't rise to the level of damaging our image. You can design merchandise that's related to the Olympics while still tying into our IPs. Or you could even directly license our IPs out and earn some licensing fees. If you want to be more cautious, you can first release some of the designs online and let players and netizens judge whether these are the kinds of products they want."
While taking notes, the IP operations manager asked, "Then what about our currently unsold products? Can we sell them off at lower prices? At least we'd recover some cash flow."
"Unsold products? Which ones specifically?"
"Some of the small items we produced earlier—things like towels, keychains, ceramic mugs, small figurines. We tried making a batch because the costs were low, but the sales performance wasn't great."
After thinking for a moment, Matsuhashi Minori said, "Then sell them at a discount. The warehouse storage fees might end up costing more than the products themselves. There's no need to keep them for too long. If they really won't sell, just destroy and discard them."
At this point, Takayuki's eyes shifted slightly as an idea came to him. He said, "There's no need to rush this."
As Takayuki spoke, everyone turned their attention to him.
"Takayuki, do you have a good idea?" Matsuhashi Minori asked.
"I've thought of a way to sell these items. Hear me out."
"Simply put, it's a lottery—but not a simple one. We put a large batch of products into a single prize pool. Every lottery ticket guarantees at least one item. The prizes are divided into different tiers. If someone has a collector's mindset, they can just buy all the tickets and obtain everything in the pool. This format can be called an 'Ichiban Kuji.'"
"Ichiban Kuji…"
Takayuki's explanation was simple and straightforward, and everyone quickly understood what he meant.
The goal was to maximize the remaining value of these products.
Selling clearance items through a lottery format actually did sound like a good approach.
"Wouldn't that be a bit like gambling?" the IP operations manager asked with concern.
From the second development department, Shiratori Umi said bluntly, "Gambling is kind of a human instinct. We'd be clearly pricing everything and displaying all the prizes openly. Anyone who looks into it will understand this is just a clearance method. I think the president's idea is pretty solid."
Matsuhashi Minori's mind was spinning quickly—profitability was always her top priority.
Takayuki's games didn't necessarily need to make money, but in follow-up operations, she had to find every possible way to ensure that games and related products turned a profit.
The suggestion Takayuki just made sounded very workable.
"Let's do as the president suggested. At least try it first. We'll set up Ichiban Kuji draws at several of our official flagship stores. Of course, we can't be too greedy—that would hurt the company image. The average value of the prizes must not exceed the original retail value. In other words, if a prize pool contains items worth 100,000 yen in total, then the total price of all lottery tickets must not exceed 100,000 yen. That way, no one can reasonably complain."
At its core, Ichiban Kuji was just a way to clear inventory. Matsuhashi Minori understood that it couldn't become gambling-focused—that would distort its purpose. Clearance was the main goal; everything else was secondary. At the same time, some genuinely valuable items needed to be added—things consumers would truly like, such as high-quality character figures.
When it came to business operations, Takayuki only needed to offer a spark of inspiration, and Matsuhashi Minori could expand it into countless methods, increasing operational diversity.
After dealing with these matters, Takayuki fell silent again, waiting for further reports from other game development departments.
Matsuhashi Minori continued, asking, "How is the progress on adapting our IPs into film and television?"
"It's moving forward steadily. Uncharted and Metal Gear Solid are both being produced according to plan."
Beyond merchandise, film and television adaptations had now become another source of revenue for Gamestar Electronic Entertainment.
As the company's fame grew, expanding into new industries could bring unimaginable returns.
All the excellent games created in the past were like seeds being sown. Game sales were the sprouts that emerged and grew strong. The surrounding merchandise and film adaptations were the smaller branches growing from those sprouts—crucial components in turning seeds into towering trees.