"Takayuki, these gas are nothing but trash. Yet by riding on the cyberpunk culture we worked so hard to build, they’ve actually made quite a bit of dirty money."
Ayano Tsukino walked up to Takayuki and slapped several ga covers down onto his desk.
Takayuki glanced at the posters on the table, then nodded. "The cover designs aren’t bad."
"Were you even listening to what I said?" Ayano Tsukino asked angrily.
"Of course. But this kind of thing is pretty normal—popular culture is always going to attract copycats."
"But these cyberpunk-style gas are ruining the whole genre. I’ve already seen people starting to hate cyberpunk-related culture because of these gas."
The covers on the desk all looked more or less the sa.
Neon lights, mixed with a dystopian sci-fi art style—an easy way to highlight a cyberpunk atmosphere.
It reminded Takayuki of his previous life. Once cyberpunk beca popular, every company wanted to make cyberpunk gas, every company wanted to label their work as cyberpunk.
But in the end, only a handful were truly rembered. The rest were just opportunists who rode the wave to make a bit of quick money.
And people like that usually didn’t have much of a future.
"Ruining a genre’s reputation really is a problem. If this goes on, more and more people will start thinking cyberpunk is just trash culture. Just like..."
Just like when video gas first beca popular, bringing with them a flood of clones, knockoffs, and terrible gas.
The Atari crash might have been triggered by Atari releasing so poor-quality titles.
But the rampant spread of bad gas at the ti was also one of the main causes of the collapse.
Now cyberpunk culture seed to be showing similar signs.
If these garbage gas were allowed to keep promoting ’cyberpunk,’ players might start thinking cyberpunk itself was worthless and not even worth playing.
That would be extrely harmful to its long-term developnt.
"We have to find a way to deal with these people. We can’t let them keep making money."
"Not letting them make money?" Takayuki said. "That’s cutting off soone’s livelihood. There’s a saying I like: cutting off soone’s inco is like killing their parents."
"But the money they’re making isn’t honorable," Ayano Tsukino said with a frown.
"Co on—let’s play these gas first."
"...What?"
"Buy all of them and actually play them properly."
"What are you trying to say?" Ayano Tsukino was confused.
"You can’t just call sothing a garbage ga with one sentence. You should seriously play it first, then judge whether it’s good or bad."
"But just look at those covers—"
The covers were highly homogenized, all neon-lit sci-fi styles, like products rolling off the sa assembly line.
That was exactly why Ayano Tsukino disliked them so much.
She had also poured trendous effort into the developnt of cyberpunk herself. Leading her ’Stanford legion,’ she had worked tirelessly to solve countless technical challenges, helping bring such an outstanding ga into existence. Takayuki treated Cyberpunk 2077 like his own child—how could she feel any differently?
She had already developed a deep emotional attachnt to Cyberpunk 2077.
"A cover can’t fully determine whether a ga is good or bad. Let’s experience them first, then make a proper decision."
"But aren’t you already really busy right now—"
"Ti can always be made. Playing other people’s gas is also part of the job. It helps us understand competitors and other developers, and gives us a clearer picture of the overall ga developnt market."
"I can’t argue with you," Ayano Tsukino said helplessly. "Do whatever you want. I just hope you find a way to really deal with these gas."
Takayuki replied calmly, "If we truly wanted to suppress these gas, it wouldn’t be difficult. They rely on major platforms to publish their gas—and right now, we are the platform. We represent the platform. With a single sentence, we could ban them outright. But being a platform also cos with responsibility. Removing all of them without justification wouldn’t be appropriate. That’s why I want to play them one by one."
Ayano Tsukino studied Takayuki’s expression carefully.
"Why are you staring at like that?"
"I’m wondering whether you really want to deal with these gas... or if you’re just looking for an excuse to slack off."
"You guess," Takayuki said with a smile.
Ayano Tsukino decisively ignored his counterquestion and asked instead, "Are you coming ho tonight?"
"Of course. Playing gas doesn’t stop from getting off work on ti. I’ll be ho as usual."
"Then I’ll cook and wait for you."
Ayano Tsukino left, while Takayuki logged into his Battle platform and began searching for the trash cyberpunk gas she had slapped onto his desk.
Up to this point, Takayuki had always defined himself as a player—and that would never change. As a player, if you don’t properly play a ga, how can you be qualified to judge whether it’s good or bad? So he had to play them first.
Takayuki believed there had to be more than just garbage among them.
Even in the vast ocean, there was always a needle—you just had to find it.
That said, with the recent acceleration in release pace on the Battle platform, overall ga quality really did seem to have dropped significantly.
Battle had developed extrely rapidly over the past few years. At this point, thousands—if not tens of thousands—of new gas were being added every year.
Yet genuinely good gas were becoming fewer and fewer.
On the PC Battle platform, ga review standards weren’t as strict as on ho consoles, mainly because the platform had originally positioned itself as being friendly to ordinary developers, giving them more freedom.
But now, that freedom seed a bit too excessive.
Once this issue was dealt with, he’d need to add several new positions—but that could wait.
Takayuki clicked on one of the gas and entered its main nu.
The ga was called Cyberpunk: Tomorrow’s Star.
Its core gaplay revolved around managing pop idols in a cyberpunk world.
That was actually a pretty good concept.
Even if it was likely just a reskinned simulation-managent ga, it at least seed playable.
With that thought in mind, Takayuki entered the ga and began playing.
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