The zombie craze triggered by Resident Evil lasted for quite a long ti, and during this ti, many companies showed interest in following up on the idea.
This breakout mont also made people in the gaming industry realize for the first ti that video gas could have an extraordinary level of influence and reach.
Even though gas capable of sparking such viral monts are few and far between—only achievable under the perfect combination of timing, opportunity, and talent—so companies still took the chance to ride the wave and earn extra profits.
Brown Entertainnt, under Huck Brown, was the first to respond. Zombie gaplay naturally fits well with shooting gas, and Huck Brown quickly realized this, adding a new "zombie mode" to their top shooting ga. The trend caught fire quickly.
And this rapid move to capitalize on the trend brought him huge benefits.
Players weren't content with just one Resident Evil ga. While Gastar was enjoying the main course, Huck Brown got to sip the first bowl of soup—rich and satisfying.
Other companies followed a bit later, but still managed to make a bit of money here and there.
While the zombie craze was still ongoing, sothing else unexpected happened—Gastar's president, now 31-year-old Takayuki, held a relatively low-key wedding.
His bride was none other than Aya Tsukino, his longti colleague.
The news ca as a bit of a shock to the industry.
The "God of Gas" had finally found his match. But for those inside the company, it wasn't surprising at all—most had already seen it coming. Only outsiders were caught off guard.
Aya Tsukino was one of Gastar's earliest employees and one of its most critical tech leads—equal in status only to Takayuki himself, the relentless workhorse Makoto Matsuhashi, and head of engineering Airi Hayazawa.
The wedding was held at a church and followed a simple, Western-style ceremony. Takayuki didn't care much about the formality—what mattered most to him was the person, Aya Tsukino.
Years of working together had helped Takayuki clearly understand the kind of person he loved, and Aya had always strived to be a strong support in both work and life.
Naturally, the bond between them deepened over ti.
Airi Hayazawa had once felt a bit of disappointnt, but she had long since accepted things. After all, she no longer had to worry about her future—she was now wealthy in her own right. Working at Gastar, a company with such a free and open atmosphere, there were no rumors or pressure. She didn't need to marry just for the sake of it. In her heart, she had only one person she cared for—and if she couldn't be with him, she was content staying single. Life would still be good, and she would never need to worry about money.
The wedding lasted a single day, and for the first ti since Takayuki's reincarnation, he t his biological father.
After all, no matter how reluctant he might be, a father would always attend his son's wedding. Otherwise, Takayuki's mother, Masako Takayu, might literally twist his head off.
His father had once been a rising star in the financial world, frequently rubbing elbows with aristocrats thanks to his stellar investnt returns. He had genuine talent in finance.
But after earning enough money, he chose to pursue a writing career instead.
Unfortunately, his talent didn't translate well to literature. Over a decade of writing produced little success. Even now, his pen na was virtually unknown, much to his dismay.
He often tried to talk about his past financial achievents, but no one really rembered them.
However, the mont he said he was Takayuki's father, he would imdiately be showered with praise—"What a great son! The shining star of the industry!" This left him a little wounded in pride.
Ti waits for no one. His era had passed.
Still, seeing his son get married made him very happy.
Masako Takayu was, of course, overjoyed as well.
She was very satisfied with her new daughter-in-law, Aya Tsukino—smart, capable, and fully supportive of Takayuki both professionally and personally. She was sure Aya would give birth to a bright child one day.
The wedding lasted only one day. Executives from all over the ga industry attended, while those with lesser status simply weren't invited.
Even rival Hayakawa Ueto ca to offer congratulations, a testant to Takayuki's dominant position in the industry.
But Takayuki's life wasn't just about love—his career mattered just as much. So, just three days after the wedding, he was back at work.
Aya Tsukino also resud her duties. Everything returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.
Next on Gastar's agenda was the developnt of its new ga console, as well as the continued growth and improvent of the PC platform.
The new console would still take so ti—at least another six months before the design could be finalized.
That was the engineering team's job. Takayuki could only offer guidance and ideas at critical points.
The ga developnt teams were also preparing for the new console, slowing down current projects. This gave Takayuki so breathing room to focus on expanding the PC BattleNet platform.
So far, the PC BattleNet platform had gained modest fa, now hosting over 1,000 gas. About a third of those were small-scale indie titles.
Thanks to attractive revenue-sharing policies, even two- or three-person indie teams had a chance to make money.
These gas didn't need massive sales—at an average price of $10, selling just 10,000 copies would be enough to keep the studio afloat and begin their next project. This created a healthy developnt cycle.
Still, Takayuki thought the entry barrier was a bit too high.
"The threshold is still too high," Takayuki said, tapping his fingers on the desk in the PC BattleNet operations office, frowning in thought.
"Threshold? What do you an, sir?" asked Bellred, the platform's operations manager.
"I an the barrier to ga developnt is still too high. That's why we don't have enough gas on our platform."
"Huh?"
Not enough gas?
Bellred was stunned.
Wasn't this already a lot? The PC platform already had over a thousand gas—GS1, a top-tier console, had just recently surpassed the 1,000 mark itself. This was already quite impressive, right?
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