With Fortnite exploding in popularity, Nintendo began drawing more and more attention from the outside world.
And naturally, the center of that attention was the company's owner and CEO—Mr. Nintendo himself.
Because the nickname "Nintendo Is Damn Well the Ruler of the World" was simply too long, people had gradually gotten used to calling this mysterious boss just Nintendo.
Among the general public, most people could only guess at who Nintendo really was. They knew he was probably Japanese, but beyond that, no further information could be found.
Of course, government agencies definitely knew—after all, founding a company, paying taxes, and other procedures all required strict real-name registration.
But as long as the company had not officially gone public, there was no requirement to disclose the operator's full identity to the public, at least not in the short term.
By now, there were already people online who genuinely regarded Mr. Nintendo as a "ruler of the world."
Fortnite was simply too addictive. Breaking three million concurrent players was the clearest proof of that.
Some people even started comparing Nintendo with Takayuki of Gamestar Electronic Entertainment.
In recent months, Gamestar Electronic Entertainment hadn't made any particularly big moves. Most of its releases were iterative updates to existing games, with few truly new ideas. As a result, people began to think the company was gradually living off its past successes—though fans still loved its games.
After all, no one could resist titles like Mario, Final Fantasy, or Pokémon.
As long as the quality didn't completely collapse, those franchises would always have loyal supporters. That kind of foundation was something Nintendo simply couldn't catch up to at this stage.
Still, if things continued developing this way, many believed Nintendo was qualified to challenge Gamestar Electronic Entertainment's position.
Some people even deliberately stirred the pot, hoping Gamestar Electronic Entertainment would take the initiative and release a few blockbuster titles to put this upstart company in its place.
Yet Gamestar Electronic Entertainment remained silent. Even its boss, Takayuki, had been nowhere to be seen recently—rumor had it he'd gone off to enjoy some private time with his wife.
By now, he was already a proven success. Being a hands-off boss wouldn't affect his life in the slightest—he'd never have to worry about money again. But perhaps because of that, he seemed to have lost some of his drive.
This left many Gamestar Electronic Entertainment loyalists feeling disappointed.
It seemed that Gamestar Electronic Entertainment would no longer enjoy the constant highlight moments it once had.
By contrast, Surui Electronics had been extremely active lately.
The sudden emergence of Nintendo made Surui Electronics feel a genuine sense of crisis.
One game.
Just a single game—and it had climbed straight to the top.
Recently, Fortnite had been sitting at the top of the Battle.net best-seller rankings for extended periods.
Only when GTA V or Cyberpunk went on sale or released new expansions would it temporarily drop.
Under normal circumstances, the number-one spot was almost permanently occupied by Fortnite.
The value of that top ranking spoke for itself.
If this trend continued, Surui Electronics genuinely feared being overtaken.
And on top of that, Nintendo also had Lorenzo—the former richest man in the world and former CEO of the Morgan Group—backing it.
Building a new game console wasn't out of the question at all.
Because of this, Surui Electronics' game development team had been working harder than ever, terrified of being surpassed and gaining yet another powerful competitor.
At the same time, Surui Electronics urgently announced that it, too, would begin developing a battle royale game.
Beyond its own explosive success, Fortnite had also shown the rest of the industry a clear path forward.
It turned out battle royale didn't need so many complicated systems.
Simple guns.
Simple health values.
At most, add armor.
Everything else could be thrown out.
Then add a shrinking-zone mechanic on a timer, forcibly driving players together into constant conflict—and suddenly, the game became incredibly fun.
Adding too many unnecessary systems only drove players away.
In reality, most players were simply chasing straightforward enjoyment.
Overly complex games weren't necessarily a good thing.
So for a while after that, companies across the industry all tried to ride this wave and cash in on battle royale.
They each used every trick they had.
But for now, Fortnite still stood head and shoulders above the rest.
At this point, Myron Keyes could no longer sit still.
This game was simply too popular.
So popular that many users were choosing not to buy Mikuford's hardware simply because the Mikuford platform didn't have Fortnite.
That hit Mikuford right in the vital spot—one more blow like this, and it could suffocate outright.
"We must find a way to get Fortnite onto our platform. Go negotiate with Nintendo again. This time, everything is negotiable!"
This was the highest-level order Myron Keyes issued to his subordinates.
Thirty percent revenue share not acceptable? Fine—Mikuford would take twenty percent.
Twenty percent still not acceptable? Then ten percent.
That was the bottom line. But even if ten percent failed, Mikuford wouldn't give up. They would find other ways to secure Fortnite.
Benefits beyond revenue sharing—whatever it took.
In short, they would do everything possible to get Fortnite onto the Mikuford platform as quickly as possible, by any means necessary.
After issuing the order, Myron Keyes sat in his office with a dark, unsettled expression.
He truly hadn't expected this.
He hadn't expected a single game to wield such massive influence.
According to the data Nintendo had publicly released, Fortnite already had over fifty million registered users—and the number was still rising.
Concurrent players were on track to reach four million.
This was a level even the original Fortnite in Takayuki's previous world had never reached.
The main reason was that this Fortnite had an unbelievably perfect launch—almost no competitors—and it was already at the mature stage of its previous incarnation.
It had rich gameplay systems and an abundance of content.
Even if players didn't enjoy battle royale, the other modes were just as fun.
There was even a more comedic obstacle-course-style mode similar to Fall Guys or Human: Fall Flat, built entirely around pure fun.
On top of that, this mode allowed players to create their own maps, with extensive customization options. Many players had already begun contributing their own custom levels.
The mod-like structure kept the game bursting with vitality.
"Call the game division over."
Finally, Myron Keyes picked up the phone and instructed his secretary to summon the head of the game department.
The department's spin-off process wasn't finished yet, so it still belonged to Mikuford. Other employees might have stopped caring about this boss who had effectively abandoned them, but the department head still had to show up.
Before long, the head of the game division arrived at Myron Keyes' office.
"Tell me," Myron Keyes asked bluntly once the man arrived,"how much do you know about Fortnite?"