"Monster Hunter: World sells 4.3 million copies in its first week, setting a new record for the series."
"Bayonetta surpasses 1 million sales on launch day, with first-week sales expected to exceed 3 million—what a great success!"
"Yeah!"
Inside the headquarters of Gastar Electronic Entertainnt, cheers and celebrations echoed throughout the building.
The developnt teams behind Bayonetta and Monster Hunter were thrilled.
Sales had far exceeded their expectations, and the overall player feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
In this generation of Monster Hunter: World, the hunting difficulty had actually been eased a bit.
So of the more cumberso chanics from previous gas were simplified to match the fast-paced modern era. This made the ga much more accessible to a broader audience.
...
...
If they had only relied on the core fans, total sales probably would have plateaued at 3 to 4 million.
While that's still a success for a typical ga, within Gastar, it just wouldn't have been enough.
So, beyond fulfilling Takayuki's vision, the dev team also had personal ambitions—they wanted to break new ground with sales.
And greater success ant better bonuses.
With Monster Hunter already selling over 4 million in its first week, if the montum held, selling over 10 million within a year didn't feel like a dream.
As for Bayonetta, a brand-new IP surpassing a million sales on day one was an incredible achievent.
Even for a giant like Gastar, high-performing new IPs were sothing to be proud of.
Granted, so of the attention ca from more... "borderline" appeal.
Many players bought the ga purely for Bayonetta's character design.
So didn't even know what the ga was about—they saw her, and they bought it.
But then, once they started playing, they realized it wasn't just flashy visuals—it had solid action gaplay and a compelling story. They were hooked.
"Bayonetta is so gorgeous! I want her to be my wife!"
"Stop dreaming. Bayonetta would never go for soone like you. Soone like —that's her type!"
"I think Bayonetta wouldn't mind if a girl loved her too. Please, Bayonetta, accept my confession!"
From the mont Bayonetta launched, the main topic of discussion was her character design.
Her appeal was undeniable.
In the ga, Bayonetta fights using her own hair as a weapon—even her sleek black bodysuit is woven from her hair. When she uses her ultimate attacks, her outfit transforms into weapons and lashes out.
That ans when her hair attacks... she's essentially naked.
For a certain kind of fan, this was absolute eye candy.
While the ga never shows any actual nudity, it didn't stop people from imagining it—and that fantasy absolutely helped boost sales.
On the second day, sales hardly dropped. In fact, they continued to rise.
But of course, where there's love, there's hate. Especially from the usual troublemakers.
Not long after release, critics who had been silenced by player backlash returned to voice their complaints.
They accused Bayonetta of "blatant objectification of won," claiming it dehumanized the female image.
"This kind of thing must be stopped!"
A state senator in the U.S. publicly condemned Bayonetta, claiming Gastar Electronic Entertainnt had gone too far in pursuit of profit.
His comnts quickly gained traction, boosting his poll numbers—so he doubled down, considering it a useful political move. He even started exploring ways to push new legislation in Congress and the Senate to crack down on such gas.
But he was clearly overestimating his influence—things weren't that simple.
Gastar wasn't so rootless foreign company in the U.S.
Their U.S. headquarters was based in California, and the governor wasn't about to let so opportunistic politician ddle in a company that brought so much economic value.
In fact, there had been a similar case years ago.
At the ti, other critics tried to accuse Gastar of stifling local developers and creating monopolies.
It looked like the company was going to face heavy sanctions.
But thanks to the then-governor of California and strong ties with the Morgan Group, Gastar was shielded from the backlash—and nothing ca of it.
This ti, over sothing as petty as "political correctness," there was even less chance of it going anywhere.
Gastar paid substantial taxes in the U.S., and it wasn't as if they were crushing Arican developers—those developers just couldn't keep up in quality.
This was a matter of industry performance, not corporate abuse. Any baseless crackdown could set a dangerous precedent and hurt international business relations.
Plus, Gastar was widely seen as a well-behaved company. It focused purely on its field, never stirred up trouble.
So the senator's campaign fizzled quickly.
The forr California governor—now a well-established U.S. senator—had far more power and connections than a low-level state politician. Just one word from him shut the whole thing down.
And then the Morgan Group got involved again, publicly backing Gastar.
As a result, the "political correctness" crusade failed spectacularly—and ironically, all the dia attention only boosted sales.
After all, if a ga was powerful enough to get politicians all riled up, it must be doing sothing right.
So people beca even more curious: What kind of ga could cause such a stir?
In its second week, Bayonetta's sales held strong, successfully surpassing the 5 million mark.
The 10 million milestone no longer seed out of reach.
Following Bayonetta's success, Surrey Electronics quickly launched a new ga featuring a similarly styled female protagonist. From looks to posture, she bore a strong resemblance to Bayonetta.
Clearly, Surrey had discovered the sa "wealth code." And seeing that Bayonetta had survived the attacks of the politically correct crowd, they felt confident moving forward.
anwhile, the market responded positively.
Players were increasingly drawn to beautiful, stylized gas—and before long, more and more female-led titles began flooding into the market.
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