"It's more or less how I imagined it. A console and handheld hybrid."
Airi Hayasawa couldn't help but ask, "But if that's the case, its performance won't match a proper ho console, right? Are you planning to abandon ho consoles, Takayuki?"
"Of course not. Ho consoles are for large-scale, graphically intense gas. There are still plenty of players who care about visuals—we can't ignore them."
"But then, those high-graphic gas won't be able to run on the Switch, right?"
Takayuki nodded. "That depends, but to bring them to the Switch, we'll definitely have to scale back the visuals significantly."
The Switch would focus more on gaplay innovation, using relatively low developnt costs to explore fresh and experintal ga ideas.
Even if they lost $30–50 million on a title, it wouldn't be too painful.
Besides, Takayuki already had a long list of Switch-style ga concepts. Supporting a hybrid console with both handheld and ho functionality wouldn't be a problem.
...
As for the ho console space, that would be reserved for high-budget, industrial-grade productions—top-tier visuals like in football gas, Need for Speed, and the upcoming Assassin's Creed.
Since the vision was already set, Airi didn't ask further. She simply followed up, "So, Takayuki, when do you plan to announce the console?"
"We can start leaking so info now—subtly. It'd be great if Myron Case caught wind of it."
Yuki Uesugi raised an eyebrow nearby. "President, you're hoping to catch Myron's attention so he'll stop focusing on Facebook's phone?"
Takayuki shook his head. "No way—Myron isn't that dumb. I just want him to realize... the sa way he took over the handheld market, I'll take it back."
Takayuki was full of confidence.
Facebook was just the beginning. The real goal was to let more players experience truly fun gas.
His long-term vision was still a bit hazy to those around him, but as long as they followed his instructions, they knew everything would fall into place.
He then turned to Airi and said, "Don't rush developnt. In ti, so chip manufacturers will probably co to us. When they do, we can na our price."
Airi nodded. "Understood. We'll focus first on the console's functional design and system integration."
With that, she left the fifth dev division, sketch pad in hand. Takayuki, anwhile, returned to overseeing the developnt of Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core.
This ga was a classic of its ti and considered one of the top five must-plays on the PSP.
Looking at the feedback online, fans of Final Fantasy VII were already beyond excited to learn more about the Crisis Core prequel.
The story wasn't too complex: it was the life and death journey of a soldier nad Zack.
But within that tale were rich emotional threads—family, love, ntorship, betrayal. And through it all, players would witness Final Fantasy VII's main villain Sephiroth's fall into darkness.
When Takayuki handed the story draft to Uesugi, he was blown away. He said it perfectly captured the tone and soul of the Final Fantasy series.
The ga itself also evolved on top of traditional turn-based chanics.
Just from the story alone, Uesugi predicted Crisis Core would sell at least as well as NieR: Automata. Both had emotional depth and aningful thes—solid contenders as modern classics.
While Takayuki imrsed himself in developnt, outside the studio, a quiet storm was brewing thanks to a leaked rumor from Gastar Electronic Entertainnt.
On Facebook, an anonymous "uncle insider" account posted a blurry image—one that looked like a handheld console. In one corner, the Gastar logo was faintly visible.
At first, no one believed it. People thought it was just another fake leak for attention.
After all, Gastar was notoriously secretive. Rarely did anything leak from them.
Only massive companies like Surry Electronics had the resources to maybe sniff out clues about Gastar's projects.
And even then, Surry wouldn't spill anything. Not only was there no benefit, but it could actually boost Gastar's hype and hurt their own console sales.
So the leak was mostly dismissed as a daily internet rumor.
But shortly after posting, the image was deleted.
The account that posted it? Gone too.
Soon after, a new Facebook account appeared and claid to be the sa "uncle insider." He said he'd been warned by Gastar and even received a legal letter demanding deletion.
He couldn't say much more. Within 30 minutes, that account and ssage vanished as well.
But this back-and-forth drew even more attention.
"Wait... Gastar sent a cease-and-desist letter? That's serious."
Could it be? Was Gastar really working on a new handheld?
The excitent was palpable across the gaming community.
Players had never stopped loving handhelds.
In recent years, Gastar hadn't given handhelds the sa attention—no longer delivering yearly masterpieces like before. So handheld fans had grown frustrated.
But with the rise of smartphones, most players understood Gastar was avoiding direct conflict.
It seed the smartphone era had arrived—and Gastar might permanently exit the handheld space to focus on ho consoles.
So just as fans were starting to accept that reality... boom. This rumor hit.
Of course they were excited.
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