A few days later, Mikuford officially announced its latest business transaction to the public.
Mikuford's game division—including all employees and assets—would be packaged and sold to Nintendo.
In return, Nintendo would bring Fortnite and several subsequent titles onto the Mikuford platform simultaneously, and also promised that some exclusive in-game items would be sold specifically on Mikuford's platform.
Myron Keyes was in a very good mood when he announced the news.
On the very day he returned, he gathered several major shareholders to discuss the matter.
At first, they were unhappy about the game division being sold off at what they felt was a bargain price.
But following Takayuki's suggestion, Myron Keyes dragged the group into playing a few rounds of Fortnite. After that, they all tacitly accepted the acquisition.
They might not personally like the game, but they had to admit one thing—its popularity was absolutely insane.
A game capable of massively expanding the user base, if not launched on the Mikuford platform, would be Mikuford's biggest mistake.
Not long after the announcement, Mikuford's stock price rose accordingly, more or less offsetting the losses from the acquisition. The shareholders had nothing more to say after that.
Nintendo truly was an excellent partner.
On the day he successfully convinced the shareholders, Myron Keyes excitedly called Takayuki to share the good news, informing him that the acquisition of Mikuford's game division could officially proceed.
Once an acquisition proposal was submitted, it still needed to go through financial regulatory review and various reassessments—a process that normally could drag on for quite some time.
That was when Lorenzo's influence came into play.
He used his connections to forcibly accelerate the acquisition process.
Myron Keyes was somewhat puzzled as to why things were moving so fast, but he didn't think too deeply about it. He assumed Nintendo was simply desperate for talent.
After all, they previously had fewer than two hundred employees.
Then, at the very end of Fortnite's fourth month after launch, the acquisition of Mikuford's game division was officially completed.
It was a relatively small acquisition, and it was U.S. capital acquiring U.S. capital. The scale wasn't massive, and with Lorenzo's connections, the efficiency was remarkably high.
It was also perfectly timed—completed just before Nintendo's personnel information was officially disclosed.
At this point, everything was settled.
The speed was so fast that Suri Electronics and several other major game companies were caught completely off guard.
Suri Electronics was the first to lodge a protest, because this suddenly created another powerful competitor—one backed by strong capital.
But their protest had no effect.
This was, after all, just a small acquisition. A few billion dollars sounded huge, but to large corporations, it wasn't anything special.
There were many acquisitions that year larger than this one.
"Finally… we're leaving Mikuford."
Outside Mikuford's headquarters, a group of game developers stood there, gazing at the building with mixed emotions.
To be honest, they still felt some attachment to Mikuford.
But at the same time, there was a sense of relief.
The environment here had been extremely stifling.
You had to deliver results.
Myron Keyes allowed the hardware and systems divisions to play the long game, but he would never tolerate the game division failing to produce returns for an extended period.
"Let's go. This place no longer belongs to us. All our things have already been loaded and moved to Nintendo's new building. From now on, that's our home."
The middle-aged man—still officially the head of the game division—offered a few words of comfort.
Then he was the first to turn and walk away from Mikuford's entrance.
Some people still had lingering feelings.
But once someone took the lead, the rest no longer hesitated. One by one, they turned and left Mikuford's building.
From that day on, this place was no longer their home.
Their new home was Nintendo.
Before they even left the building, Nintendo had already packed up and transported all the game division's resources.
IP rights, game development technologies—everything had been bundled and acquired together.
For the sake of "out of sight, out of mind," Myron Keyes even threw in the remaining six months of Mikuford's Unreal Engine license.
In return, Nintendo promised to develop a small online social game within one month to boost Mikuford's platform influence.
Takayuki had already decided—he'd just make a classic farm game.
That genre was already everywhere. He could add a bit of novelty, but mostly it would just be enough to placate Mikuford.
Meanwhile, these employees honored their agreement and stayed at their posts until the very last day.
Even though everything at their desks had already been cleared out, they still sat there the entire morning.
When noon arrived, they boarded the buses headed for Nintendo's new office building.
To welcome the new employees, Lorenzo personally paid for a new building and increased his investment by another three percent.
Takayuki had effectively gained access to all of Lorenzo's financial resources for free—contributing nothing more than Fortnite.
But Fortnite's influence had already proven that Lorenzo's investment was the right call.
In just three months, the investment had paid for itself, and the cash flow was extremely healthy. Going forward, it would be a steady cash cow.
The new office was located on the outskirts of the city, in a newly designated development zone.
The building had been constructed in advance specifically to attract companies like Nintendo, so rent was set at the lowest possible rate. With Lorenzo footing the bill, it was practically free.
"I wonder what the new company will be like."
"Do you think we'll be treated differently? After all, we're kind of like… refugees."
"Definitely not."
The middle-aged man—still acting as the department head—continued to reassure them.
This time, he no longer hid anything.
"In fact, the identity of the company acquiring us is beyond your imagination. I kept it from you until now as part of the strategy, but there's no need to hide it anymore."
"Hide what?"
Everyone looked confused.
"Does Nintendo have another identity?"
Someone joked half-seriously, "What, does Nintendo's boss have some huge hidden identity or something?"
"Haha, no way. He's just a pretty famous indie game developer, right?"
No one really believed it.
The department head simply smiled mysteriously."His identity truly exceeds your imagination. Oh—we're here. Our new boss is waiting for us. You should already be able to see him. He's your future boss."
Everyone immediately leaned toward the bus windows.
A brand-new building drew closer and closer into view.
At the entrance, over a hundred people were already waiting, each holding a bouquet of flowers. Nearby hung banners welcoming the new employees.
And standing at the very front of the crowd—
They saw a man.
He wasn't wearing a mascot head.
The moment everyone clearly saw his face, all breathing seemed to stop for an instant.