Cyberpunk 2077 was an extrely replayable ga.
Under normal circumstances, after a ga’s release, its popularity usually lasted about a month.
If it stretched longer, maybe just a bit over a month at most.
But Cyberpunk 2077 contained so much content that whenever its popularity seed about to dip, a large number of players would discover new gaplay chanics or new sources of fun, keeping the ga’s overall hype alive.
This was actually easy to understand. To date, this was the most expensive ga ever developed. While other ga companies were still producing "big-budget" titles costing around one hundred million dollars, Gastar Electronic Entertainnt had gone straight for a developnt budget of one billion dollars.
After compiling the data, Takayuki estimated that the total cost of Cyberpunk 2077 had already exceeded one billion dollars.
And several developnt teams still hadn’t been disbanded.
Their next tasks were to develop more character backgrounds...
...and to update the ga’s main storyline.
In addition to the existing main plot, a brand-new main story branch would be added, allowing the protagonist to explore other areas before reaching the final ending.
This new explorable region would be nearly the sa size as Night City itself.
On top of that, Cyberpunk 2077’s online mode and long-term post-launch operations were already being planned. Takayuki intended for Cyberpunk 2077 to be a long-term live-service project.
In the future, the online mode would also beco a powerful revenue generator.
About one month after Cyberpunk 2077 was released, other ga developers felt the timing was finally right and decided it was ti to launch their own gas.
They enthusiastically began their promotional campaigns.
But once their gas officially launched, the sales figures for all of them dropped by at least 30% compared to expectations.
Gas that were supposed to sell one million copies ended up selling only six or seven hundred thousand.
For ga companies, that was a significant loss.
At first, they couldn’t figure out the reason. They didn’t understand why players weren’t buying their gas—based on past trends, sales should have been solid.
Was it just as Takayuki had once said—that industrialized, assembly-line gas also had an upper limit?
As more and more of these formulaic big-budget gas were produced, players gradually beca fatigued, finding such productions increasingly dull—much like Hollywood blockbusters overloaded with special effects.
Simply piling on flashy effects couldn’t generate matching returns. Only when story, visuals, pacing, and overall quality were all up to standard could a work truly win people over.
Many ga companies found themselves deeply conflicted.
They had finally discovered a guaranteed money-making formula and enjoyed a few good years—was it all going to vanish just like that?
The reality, however, was that most players were still deeply imrsed in Cyberpunk 2077.
Even those who weren’t fully imrsed would subconsciously compare newly released gas to Cyberpunk 2077.
And after that comparison, the other gas beca almost unplayable.
Once you’ve tasted gourt food, it’s hard to go back to sothing bland.
Of course, this only lasted for a while.
Even the finest food becos tiring if you eat it too often, and eventually people start craving burgers and cola again.
Still, so companies refused to believe it and continued releasing gas over the following month.
Their results were still far from ideal—but a clear trend began to erge.
As the release of Cyberpunk 2077 grew more distant, the sales of gas released afterward gradually crept closer to their expected numbers.
Only then did these developers realize that Cyberpunk 2077’s popularity still hadn’t cooled down.
Only after players gradually grew tired of Cyberpunk 2077 would large numbers of them begin considering new gas.
There was nothing these developers could do about it. After all, Gastar Electronic Entertainnt was simply too powerful, with no real rivals in the video ga industry.
The only thing they could do was wait patiently for the hype to fade before releasing their own titles.
As a result, Mickford, Suri Electronics, and Brown Entertainnt all decided to delay the release of their flagship gas.
These flagship projects had massive investnts behind them—any small mistake could lead to serious operational trouble for their companies.
Not every company had the sa confidence and capital as Gastar Electronic Entertainnt.
...
Takayuki finished arranging the day’s developnt plans. Several developnt departnts were about to receive new tasks.
The Mario series was Gastar Electronic Entertainnt’s ultimate trump card. Takayuki decided to release a new-generation entry in the Mario Maker line, featuring improved visuals and expanded gaplay options.
Overall, this ga wasn’t particularly difficult to develop. It mainly relied on players to spontaneously create the ga’s full form themselves—essentially a beginner version of ga modding, where players only needed to focus on designing fun stages.
The power of the masses was imnse. When enough people contributed their creativity, even more interesting and enjoyable content could erge.
The Legend of Zelda was also part of the developnt plan. Before Takayuki crossed into this world, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom had just revealed a rough overview of its gaplay.
Even that brief showcase alone had made the ga incredibly appealing, driving countless players into a frenzy to buy it.
Although Takayuki no longer had the chance to personally play Tears of the Kingdom, recreating it in this world using a mature industrial system posed no real problem.
And Takayuki felt a small sense of pride—his version of The Legend of Zelda would at least have much better graphics. The performance limitations of the Switch that players once complained about had been completely solved in this world.
The latest handheld console had performance approaching that of a PS4 from his previous life, easily supporting 1080p resolution at 60 fras per second.
As for other ga developnt plans, they were mostly standard sequel projects.
These included a new racing ga, a new football ga, and a new basketball ga.
All of them had stable player bases—so long as quality didn’t drop and graphics improved, sales were guaranteed.
This round of planning also included a project in cooperation with the Japanese governnt.
After careful consideration, Takayuki temporarily abandoned the idea of producing film-adaptation gas.
He couldn’t lower his standards just to satisfy governnt requirents by making generic, reskinned gas.
If he was going to do it, it had to be sothing distinctive.
Speaking of distinctive ideas, there happened to be a new ga genre perfectly suited for developnt right now.
This genre could be described as a "variety compilation" ga, rging many different gaplay styles into one. The ga’s na would be:
Tokyo Olympics.
The na was simple and straightforward, clearly telling players that this ga was made in response to the Tokyo Olympics. In the ga, players would be able to experience a wide range of events typically seen in a real Olympic Gas.
Takayuki planned to put real effort into this project. First, he would incorporate many of his company’s well-known character IPs into the Olympics, allowing players to control famous ga characters as they competed in Olympic events. The IP appeal would make the ga more attractive.
Next, he would send developnt teams to visit Olympic teams in multiple countries, gathering firsthand information about each nation’s athletes—their personalities, strengths, and weaknesses—to deliver the most authentic gaplay experience possible within reasonable limits.
Takayuki lowered his head and focused on writing the project proposal for the Olympic ga, planning to release it before the Tokyo Olympics began.
A developnt team of one thousand people should be able to complete it within a year.
Then—
Beep. Beep.
Just as Takayuki continued working on the proposal, the phone on his desk rang.
He answered it while still writing.
"President Takayuki, this is Oki, the newly appointed station director of Tokyo Television."
"Oki?" Takayuki paused. "What about the previous one?"
"Oh, the forr director has been promoted to a standing director position at the newspaper group."
"Then congratulations, Director Oki. Sorry—I’ve been quite busy lately and haven’t been keeping up with Tokyo Television matters. Let’s have a al together soti."
"Haha, thank you for the congratulations, President Takayuki. But I’m not calling just for that. There’s sothing I’d like to discuss—wasn’t there an animation project you collaborated on with the previous director?"
An animation... oh right—Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
Takayuki nodded. "Yes, there was such a project. Did he hand it over to you?"
"Yes. He specifically instructed to treat this collaboration seriously. I’m calling to report that the animation production team has inford that the full series is already completed and can be scheduled for broadcast at any ti. However, since this project isn’t led by us, we can’t decide on the broadcast schedule ourselves, so we wanted to report to you first."
It’s finally finished!
Takayuki’s eyes lit up.
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