Agreeing to Create Bad Games, What the Hell Is ‘Titanfall’? Chapter 171: Private Meeting

The heated atmosphere quickly spread.

Tuesday.

The final day of the Higashitsu Gaming Festival.

“Executive Director Moriya, you called ?”

Yuki pushed open the door to Kora’s ga division executive director Moriya Tetsuya’s office.

At that mont, there were two others present in Moriya’s office.

They were not outsiders—

Sato Muneki.

Okura Kazu.

Yuki smiled as she took in the scene.

Great, after more than a week of rest, the Silent Hill PT team was finally all gathered again.

No need to ask, this was definitely the sign that the full developnt of Silent Hill’s official version was about to kick off!

It made sense.

Silent Hill was currently at its peak popularity.

Countless players were clamoring for the release of the official version.

Add to that the terrifyingly high login rate of the motion-sensing pods, and it was obvious even without thinking much that this ga would be a guaranteed hit.

It seed the higher-ups had seen the current hype around PT and felt there was no ti to waste; they wanted to push forward with cooperative developnt quickly.

With this in mind, Yuki smiled and nodded, sitting down alongside the other two main developnt supervisors, ready to wait for Executive Director Moriya’s developnt briefing.

However!

Moriya’s expression was not one of excitent or anticipation; instead, it looked sowhat gloomy.

“Everyone’s here, so let’s start a closed-door eting,” Moriya said.

“You all know the rules for closed-door etings, right? No objections?”

Upon hearing this, the three were montarily stunned.

The closed-door eting system was a common internal eting format used by Kora and many other large companies.

Such etings were neither public nor transparent and left no eting records.

They were usually held when discussing confidential or sensitive matters that were inconvenient to disclose publicly.

Moreover, participants were expected not to reveal any information from the eting outside.

It was basically an unspoken company rule.

The three were no strangers to this kind of eting.

But the question was…

Why hold a closed-door eting all of a sudden at this ti?

For a mont, a sense of unease crept into the three’s hearts.

They exchanged glances and nodded, tacitly agreeing to the eting’s format.

Then Moriya took three thin project proposals from his drawer and handed them to the three:

“These are the preliminary proposals for the official Silent Hill ga. Read them carefully and return them. We have plenty of ti today.”

Yuki took the proposal Moriya handed over and frowned slightly as she looked at it.

On it was written—[Silent Hill Project Proposal (Draft)].

Exhaling quietly, Yuki began to read carefully…

First, regarding the ga’s setting, the official version would continue the “Surface World” and “Otherworld” settings established in PT.

The protagonist of the official ga was nad Jas, an outstanding plastic surgeon.

One day, by chance, he received a letter from his wife inviting him to a small town called Silent Hill, ntioning many things from their past.

At first glance, the letter seed quite ordinary.

It looked like a divorced wife wanting to et again.

But the horrifying truth was that Jas was not divorced; he was a widower—his wife had died three years ago.

This was a letter from his deceased wife.

So, harboring complex emotions, Jas went to Silent Hill.

There, he witnessed the most bizarre and surreal sights.

All kinds of strange and monstrous creatures appeared one after another, very powerful, repeatedly putting Jas in life-threatening situations.

Among these monsters, there was one especially strong.

She was a woman wearing an apron but had lost her head. Like a nightmare, despite being killed countless tis, she repeatedly resurrected.

Finally, after fighting through, Jas reached the place indicated in his wife’s letter.

It was a mansion on the town’s outskirts.

Upon entering, players would see many group photos.

And the protagonist in those photos was none other than Jas and a woman wearing an apron.

Exactly!

Jas was the culprit behind another murder case of a wife ntioned in the PT radio—using his plastic surgeon skills to change his face and evade capture indefinitely.

This ti returning to Silent Hill, he aid to utterly eliminate the inexplicably “resurrected” wife.

In the end, Jas completely killed the headless wife in the very sa kitchen.

But as fate’s cycle of retribution went,

Though his shot thoroughly killed his wife, it also ignited the liquefied gas in the kitchen.

Eventually,

In a massive explosion, Jas received his final punishnt and was utterly destroyed.

Click.

The proposal draft ended there.

Yuki closed the proposal, her expression sowhat complicated.

She glanced at Okura, then at Sato.

She noticed their expressions were much the sa as hers.

Objectively speaking,

This proposal’s completeness was decent.

It had a clear beginning and end, a complete story, focusing on a cause-and-effect retribution the.

But the premise was—

Don’t attach the na Silent Hill to it.

“This…”

After carefully organizing her words for a long mont, Sato finally spoke:

“Pardon for asking, Executive Director Moriya, but is this… Mr. Gu’s proposal?”

Seeing all three looked at him, Moriya shrugged ambiguously and asked in return, “What do you think?”

The three looked at each other, all feeling a bit awkward.

In the end, Yuki spoke up: “I don’t think so.”

It wasn’t that it was bad.

But it looked… too ordinary.

You have to understand, the reason PT had such outstanding horror effects and buzz was largely due to its vague and mysterious taphors, its cryptic storytelling style, and the ambiguous, open-ended finale.

This “Gu-style” ga format always added a layer of mystery, as if a veil separated the player from the ga.

But now!

In this proposal version!

That veil had been removed.

What Yuki and the others saw was just a story centered on monster fighting and adventure, with a straightforward good-versus-evil karmic retribution plot.

Perhaps the only unique point was letting players play as the villain once.

Other than that, there was nothing remarkable.

Upon hearing Yuki’s words, a helpless look appeared on Moriya’s face.

He sighed and then asked:

“So, what do you think if this is taken as the official Silent Hill proposal?”

Hearing this, Sato clicked his tongue: “Executive Director Moriya, when you say ‘what do you think,’ what aspect are you referring to?”

“Sales,” Moriya replied concisely.

“It will definitely be affected,” Sato said bluntly.

Moriya nodded, looking at Sato: “Elaborate?”

“This proposal is obviously not from Mr. Gu,”

Sato, having said so much, saw no need to hold back and spoke frankly:

“If this was released as an independent ga, no problem.”

“But if it’s released as the official version of PT, calling it a disgrace might be harsh,”

“But it will definitely damage the Silent Hill IP’s reputation.”

“Now, PT has been elevated to a godlike status by dia and players’ analyses.”

“The unique charm it carries cannot be matched by this ordinary proposal.”

“When that happens, criticism and sales decline are guaranteed.”

After hearing Sato, Moriya nodded and then asked:

“How much do you think it would affect sales?”

Sato thought for a mont: “It’s hard to say, because in this case, player subjective factors dominate. Conservatively, about 20%.”

Hiss—!!!

At those words, Yuki and Okura both gasped sharply.

Just by switching to a sowhat ordinary script, the ga’s sales could drop by one-fifth!

And this was only a conservative estimate!

“What about a higher estimate?” Moriya pressed.

“That’s hard to say,” Sato shook his head this ti, signaling he couldn’t predict: “If they really use this proposal, halving sales wouldn’t surprise .”

With that, silence fell in the office for a long ti.

After a while, Yuki slowly asked:

“So, Executive Director Moriya… are we going to develop the official Silent Hill ourselves?”

With Moriya’s words having reached this point, no matter how slow-witted, the aning was clear!

The higher-ups actually wanted to ditch Golden Wind and take all the Silent Hill official version’s sales profits for themselves!

And in response!

Moriya slowly nodded.

Although!

He was already prepared in his heart!

But!

When Yuki saw Moriya Tetsuya nod, she couldn’t help but feel a surge of anger!

What the hell kind of stupid move was this?!

Ditching Golden Wind ant ditching Director Sam too!

Fine!

You’ve seen how hot Silent Hill is now and the wide player support. Wanting to ditch sharing profits and keep everything yourself, that’s understandable!

After all, this was Kora’s usual style!

Besides, switching directors mid-project wasn’t new.

But!

Before ditching soone, did you even think about who gave this ga its soul?

The “King of Horror” crown was on SamGu’s head!

Not in our Kora’s hands!

“This… this…”

Yuki could hardly understand the higher-ups’ move:

“Forgive for being blunt, Executive Director Moriya! This is like us making cars but—”

…

“—ditching the engine manufacturer!”

Ti rewound to yesterday!

Kora conference room!

At a closed-door eting chaired by President Uekoe Kagemasa!

As ga division executive director, Moriya Tetsuya raised the sa doubts as Yuki!

This move was absurd!

However!

Before Uekoe Kagemasa could speak,

Yamamoto Tsunashiro, sitting nearby, darkened his face:

“Executive Director Moriya, are you saying that with my more than twenty years of industry experience and as a senior ga designer, I am not qualified to replace a greenhorn and lead the official Silent Hill developnt?”

Exactly!

As President Uekoe’s ‘disciple and student,’

Yamamoto Tsunashiro was trying to usurp the position and take charge of both projects!

Now that the official version of Yakuza Frenzy was progressing steadily,

He could easily take over the explosively popular Silent Hill project!

This way, both hot projects would be his!

Coincidentally!

Since Silent Hill beca a hit, Uekoe Kagemasa had been thinking about how to kick Golden Wind out of the project.

After all, this IP was too hot!

Once released, it would likely beco a phenonal horror ga, possibly the highest-selling horror ga ever!

And such an enticing project!

They still had to split 30% of net profits with Golden Wind!

For a pure businessman like Uekoe Kagemasa, this was unacceptable.

Forget 30%.

He didn’t want to share even 10%!

Uekoe didn’t understand gas.

To him, Gu Sheng was basically an external “business manager.”

Gu Sheng brought them a big contract at Kora, and as compensation, he requested 30% revenue sharing during the project follow-up.

Uekoe naturally didn’t want to share profits.

After all, he had another top business manager—Yamamoto Tsunashiro.

And this manager had more seniority, more experience, and crucially, was not an external hire and didn’t require such a high share.

So, without much consideration,

Uekoe imdiately agreed with Yamamoto to kick out Golden Wind and develop Silent Hill independently!

“This… this is too reckless, President!”

Moriya was stunned!

Uekoe didn’t understand gas, but he did!

He knew very well how special Silent Hill was!

“The unique psychological horror experience of Silent Hill was pioneered by Sam, who was also the master designer of this concept. Replacing him, I think, uh…”

But before Moriya finished,

Yamamoto interrupted him!

“Haha, Executive Director Moriya, your words are a bit too harsh,”

Yamamoto laughed:

“Changing directors mid-developnt is nothing new,”

“There are many projects where directors were replaced halfway for various reasons, and the gas still landed smoothly without quality issues,”

“Besides, PT is just a demo; changing the designer before the official version developnt is actually a good ti.”

After speaking, Yamamoto looked proudly at Moriya.

Moriya ignored him and stared at President Uekoe: “President, this ga really cannot change directors, after all, Sam earned the ‘King of Horror’ title through this demo, and if now…”

However,

Moriya didn’t finish!

Yamamoto spoke again, interrupting once more: “That’s just an empty title. Today he’s the King of Horror, tomorrow I can be too…”

“Shut the f*** up, you bastard!”

Bang!!!

Moriya finally lost it!

He slamd the table!

Pointing right at Yamamoto’s arrogant nose, he yelled:

“Who the hell do you think you are?! How dare you interrupt ?! You want to die?!”

His explosive roar imdiately made Yamamoto shrink back!

Who was Moriya Tetsuya?

An executive director!

The highest-ranking executive inside the company after President Uekoe Kagemasa!

And who was Yamamoto?

A ga designer!

His rank was nowhere close to Moriya’s!

Though Yamamoto was the president’s disciple and attended this closed eting,

Rank-wise, Moriya could scold him like a dog without care!

“What a piece of trash…”

Seeing Yamamoto no longer daring to speak up, Moriya snorted coldly and glared at him fiercely:

“From now on, shut your filthy mouth. When I’m talking with President Uekoe, I don’t want to hear a single word from you, understand?”

Yamamoto lowered his head, shrinking, and glanced at President Uekoe beside him, seemingly wanting to say sothing.

But Uekoe waved his hand: “Get out.”

“But, sir—”

Slap!

Without hesitation!

Uekoe Kagemasa slapped Yamamoto hard across the face!

He imdiately silenced him.

Then, flicking his hand, raising an eyebrow:

“How many tis have I told you? Use titles at work! Get lost!”

“Ha… Hai—!!!”