Agreeing to Create Bad Games, What the Hell Is ‘Titanfall’? Chapter 208: Yamamoto Me

"What's up?"

Hearing Little Nezha's cautious voice, Gu Sheng turned around to look at Shen Miaomiao.

"So... could you sleep on the sofa?"

Shen Miaomiao forced an awkward yet polite smile.

Gu Sheng: ?

"Why should I sleep on the sofa? What did I do wrong?"

Gu Sheng instinctively responded.

But then he realized his reply seed a bit ahead of its ti.

"What I an is..." Gu Sheng spread his hands. "Why would I sleep on the sofa when I have a perfectly good bed?"

"Because... uh... because..."

Shen Miaomiao stamred, her voice getting smaller:

"Because uhmm ahhh..."

Gu Sheng fell silent.

It took him a full five seconds to process!

"Wait, are you the Onion King now?" (Overcooked NPC)

Gu Sheng looked utterly exasperated:

"Or did you stuff shoe inserts in your mouth?"

"I'm not the Onion King! You're the one with shoe inserts in your mouth!"

Shen Miaomiao jumped up from the sofa:

"Why do you have to be so an! I'm saying I want to sleep on the sofa! Got it?!"

"Wait what???"

Gu Sheng was baffled:

"Because you're sleeping on the sofa, I have to sleep on the sofa too? That... that makes no sense!"

"My logic is the only logic that matters!"

Shen Miaomiao ignored him and slapped the sofa:

"Co here!"

Gu Sheng was speechless: "This feels like training a dog."

"Then—"

Shen Miaomiao thought for a mont and slapped the sofa again:

"Please!"

"Nice! What commanding presence!" Gu Sheng gave a thumbs up, then clasped his hands in salute: "Big Bro!"

Not to be outdone, Shen Miaomiao responded: "Little Bro!"

"After you!"

"After you!"

"This sworn brotherhood—"

"HAHAHAHA you're impossible..."

Seeing Gu Sheng swagger over, Shen Miaomiao burst into giggles and lightly kicked him:

"Go wash up already, it'll be dawn soon..."

By now Gu Sheng had figured out why Little Nezha insisted he sleep on the sofa.

No need to ask—their previous Escape experience must have left her with so psychological trauma.

As the saying goes, what you think about during the day haunts your dreams at night.

Little Nezha was probably afraid of being chased by psychopaths in her sleep.

Tick... tock... tick...

The clock hands moved steadily in the living room.

Deep, even breathing filled the space.

The first light of dawn crept through the curtains, sliding across the polished floor, rolling over the fluffy carpet, and tiptoeing onto the sofa.

It gently brushed the girl's long lashes, slid down her slender neck, and finally ca to rest on her curled-up knees.

"Mmm... no... don't chase... don't chase ..."

Soft murmurs escaped as the girl seed to experience a tense chase in her dreams, her curled legs beginning to twitch.

"DON'T CHASE!!!"

The next mont, the half-asleep girl suddenly jerked, her long legs straightening out as she completely forgot there was another person on the sofa.

Whoosh—

Her smooth calf extended, toes curling tight from tension—a perfect rabbit kick!

anwhile, the unfortunate soul on the sofa let out a soft groan: "Hmm?"

He opened his bleary eyes to look at the girl.

Oh dear.

The warden's long-awaited prison guard had arrived.

The only flaw was the speed.

Buzz—THUD!!!

......

"Wake the hell up! What ti do you think it is? How can you still sleep at a ti like this?!"

SLAP!

A data report smacked Yamamoto in the face, jolting him awake from his chair!

"Se... sensei!!!"

His bloodshot eyes opened to see Uekoe Kagemasa standing before him.

Yamamoto Tsunashiro shuddered and imdiately stood up, bowing deeply to Uekoe.

Yes.

Yamamoto hadn't gone ho yesterday—he'd slept in the office.

Not just yesterday.

The day before that, and the day before that...

He'd been camping in the office for a full week.

No choice.

With the escalating situation and the combined assault from Yiyou and XunTeng—one overt, one covert—they were completely overwheld.

Kora was a giant in the industry.

But Yiyou and XunTeng were no pushovers either.

And now the two had joined forces!

"Sensei... what... what did you need for?"

Facing the frowning, furious Uekoe, Yamamoto trembled with genuine fear.

"What did I need you for?" Uekoe glared. "Let ask you—it's been twelve hours since Silent Hill's release. How are our sales?"

One question!

Yamamoto froze on the spot!

How would he know the sales? He'd just woken up!

"Su... sumimasen!!!"

A ninety-degree bow and apology—the universal response in Neon.

"Then open your damn eyes and look properly!"

With that!

Uekoe Kagemasa pointed angrily at the scattered reports on the floor!

Yamamoto hurriedly gathered them up, his eyes scanning the figures—

First blow!

The mont the first sales report ca into view, Yamamoto felt his head spin!

Twelve hours!

Global sales for Silent Hill...

"Th... thirty thousand... copies?"

Twelve hours! Thirty thousand copies!

Just thirty thousand!

Even under the most optimistic projections, their first-day sales wouldn't exceed fifty thousand!

At $28 per copy, their first-day revenue would barely break one million!

But rember—Silent Hill's production cost was a whopping sixty-seven million!

And unlike multiplayer online gas that could boost sales through updates, horror gas like this peaked at launch!

Theoretically, so under-marketed gas might see sales increase post-launch through word of mouth.

But Silent Hill wasn't one of them!

Because right now, they'd already oversaturated the market with promotions—every possible channel had been covered.

In terms of marketing, this ga had reached its limit!

aning these first-day sales figures represented Silent Hill's peak performance!

Set in stone!

It would only decline from here!

Yamamoto's hands began to shake uncontrollably!

And as he looked further down, his legs gave out, collapsing him into his chair!

Because below were the sales figures for their competitor's ga!

Normally!

The competitor section would list three to five similar gas.

But since Kora and Golden Wind were locked in such intense competition!

Plus horror gas weren't exactly mainstream!

So!

The only competitor staring back at Yamamoto was—

Escape.

And according to the data, Escape's twelve-hour sales totaled...

Yamamoto's entire body trembled!

180,000 copies!

A full six tis Silent Hill's sales!!!

With first-day projections around 250,000 copies!

Twelve-hour sales: 30,000 vs 180,000!

First-day sales: 50,000 vs 250,000!

This wasn't just a loss!

This was annihilation!

A completely one-sided massacre!

Now Yamamoto understood why his teacher had angrily slapped the reports in his face first thing in the morning!

Uekoe Kagemasa had been rciful!

With these sales and costs staring him in the face, if Uekoe had ordered him to eat the reports on the spot, Yamamoto wouldn't have dared protest!

Rustle!

Hands shaking, Yamamoto flipped to the second report's comnts section—

'Escape Crushes Silent Hill! First-Day Victory All But Secured!'

'Outdated Monster-Fighting Formula—Is Kora Really Cut Out for Horror Gas?'

'Escape Receives Rave Reviews While Silent Hill Flops'

[...It's clear that without Sam, Silent Hill only achieved superficial resemblance. The soul is missing, leaving the ga as hollow as the monsters it features...]

[Being unard will always be the answer for horror gas—sothing Silent Hill's new director Yamamoto Tsunashiro clearly failed to grasp...]

[Historic Debacle! Silent Hill May Beco Kora's Biggest Financial Disaster!]

'I tried to be fair and bought Silent Hill. Now all I can say is Geneva Convention refund!!!'

'Seriously? If I wanted to fight monsters why wouldn't I just play Resident Evil 4 on PC? Leon's roundhouse kicks are way cooler than this braindead killer protagonist!'

'I'm done with Silent Hill's plot—so I'm just playing a murderer coming to Silent Hill to hide bodies? Cool idea, never do it again, your brain is needed elsewhere.'

'This feels like your brain developed ingrown toenails.'

'Lin Xiao you...'

'Don't even compare this trash to RE4—that's insulting Shinji Mikami! This is worse than RE5/6!'

'Wait? There's RE5 and 6?'

'The motion-sensing pod versions—Biohazard: Slaughter and Biohazard: Tide. Not Mikami's work. Fans call them 5/6 but they flopped hard, no surprise you haven't heard.'

'People actually bought those pod Bio gas? Then I guess buying Silent Hill doesn't make the ultimate sucker.'

'I'll laugh at anyone who bought this for a year...'

'Silent Hill was never ant to be like this!'

'Yamamoto I fucked your ancestors!!!'

'Now you know who to Fvk, right?'

'......'

"This... this is just..."

Yamamoto's chest heaved as the sarcastic comnts made his blood boil while simultaneously freezing him to the core!

No doubt!

Many of these negative reviews had to be from XunTeng's Chinese trolls!

But the problem was, with this tsunami of negativity, it was impossible to tell trolls from genuine complaints anymore!

And!

Silent Hill's disastrous sales were now an indisputable fact!

"This is just what? This is just the biggest stain on my entire career!"

Seeing Yamamoto speechless, Uekoe slamd the table in rage!

"Don't think I don't know what you were planning, Yamamoto Tsunashiro!"

"You thought having both Yakuza Frenzy and the Silent Hill revival IP would make you Kora's top dog?"

"Well you miscalculated, you fool!"

With that!

Uekoe stood up, snatched the reports from Yamamoto's hands, flipped to the last page, and slamd it on the desk!

BAM!

"Take a good look at this!!!"

Then!

Without another word, he stord out of the office!

BANG!

The door slamd shut, the gust of wind flipping the report pages as Yamamoto frantically grabbed them, his eyes landing on—

Project: Yakuza Frenzy

First-Day Projection: 210,000 copies

Twelve-Hour Sales: 78,000 copies

First-Day Estimate: 108,000 copies

Sales Drop: 48.57%

Sales halved!

Exactly!

Affected by Silent Hill's fallout, Yamamoto's other project Yakuza Frenzy had also taken a massive hit, its sales literally cut in half!

Yamamoto's greed in trying to juggle both projects had backfired spectacularly.

And!

That wasn't all!

Checking other concurrent releases, every Kora ga launched around this period had suffered collateral damage!

The smallest drops were around 10%, while the worst reached 25%!

Silent Hill—total failure!

Yakuza Frenzy—sales halved!

Other releases—all declining!

All because of his selfish ambition to beco Kora's top executive!

THUD!

Instantly!

Yamamoto's mind went blank!

His report-clutching hand fell limply onto the desk.

Just Silent Hill's sixty-seven million cost versus one million first-day revenue was catastrophic enough.

Add the ripple effects on other projects?

This ti!

The direct and indirect losses from clashing with Golden Wind amounted to astronomical figures!

[Think carefully about what you've done.]

Suddenly!

Yamamoto rembered Uekoe's parting words.

Originally!

He'd thought it was just angry disappointnt from his teacher.

But now... things were far more serious!

With losses this massive!

While theoretically this was just a failed project and bad market timing...

The numbers were simply too enormous!

To answer to the board, Uekoe needed a scapegoat!

And looking across Kora...

The most suitable candidate, most directly responsible for this disaster...

Was Yamamoto Tsunashiro himself!

Top executive?

Dream on!

At this point, whether he could even keep his job was in question!

Realizing this!

Yamamoto leapt up and rushed out the door!

"Sensei! Sensei! Let explain..."

......

"...I really didn't an to!"

anwhile!

Shen Miaomiao was carefully applying dicine to Gu Sheng's eye.

The area around Gu Sheng's right eye was swollen and purple, well on its way to becoming a black eye.

Shen Miaomiao bit her lip hard, her whole body shaking with suppressed laughter:

"Sorry sorry, really sorry..."

Gu Sheng winced and glared at Little Nezha: "You don't sound sorry at all! You've been laughing this whole ti!"

"Hey! How could you say that! Director Gu!"

Little Nezha finished applying the dicine and said solemnly:

"I've received professional training—no matter how funny, I won't laugh..."

"Really?" Gu Sheng squinted his swollen right eye at her.

"Really!" Shen Miaomiao nodded emphatically, lips still clenched. "Others might laugh at you, but I never would!"

"And if you do laugh?"

"May lightning strike !"

"No need for that, just handle all the housework this week."

"Deal!"

"Promise?"

"Pinky swear!"

She extended her hand for the pledge.

But the mont their pinkies locked!

Gu Sheng suddenly said: "Hey, look at ."

"Huh?" Shen Miaomiao looked up confused.

Gu Sheng tilted his head back:

"Young people no martial virtue, attacking this sixty-nine-year-old man... first a left front kick, then right whip leg..."

Instantly!

Shen Miaomiao's face twisted in shock, unable to believe soone could be this shaless.

"Hope you... how's your tail, reflect carefully..."

Gu Sheng patted her shoulder.

And Shen Miaomiao could hold back no longer, collapsing onto the sofa in hysterics!

"HAHAHAHA that's spot on... you absolute dog HAHAHA..."

"You did that on purpose HAHAHAHA..."

"That's cheating!!!"