In a typical publicly listed company, an office like this would be nearly impossible.
Most CEOs are, when you get down to it, still just highly paid employees.
Sure, they're wealthy, but they usually can't afford to stand too far apart from the rest of the staff in terms of appearance or workplace privilege.
But at Gastar Electronic Entertainnt, things were different. Takayuki could do whatever he wanted—he called all the shots.
Of course, this was also because of his imnse authority and status within the company. To the outside world, he was almost a mythic figure.
And when soone has been elevated to such legendary status, having a few "special privileges" seed only natural.
"Bob, it's been about half a year, hasn't it?"
As Bob was still marveling at the oversized ga figures and endless ga-thed elents, Takayuki had already walked over.
...
"Mr. Takayuki, it really has been a while—you look as full of energy as ever."
Takayuki replied, "No need to flatter . I'm not that old. Co on, take a seat anywhere."
Bob obediently sat down on a fake rock beside the BT Titan model. There weren't designated seats in the room—you could sit wherever you liked.
At that mont, Takayuki's assistant erged, poured tea for both of them, and quietly left.
"So, how long are you planning to stay in China?" Takayuki asked casually.
"That depends on how the negotiations go. But I don't think I'll need to stay too long. Actually, I have a bit of a connection to China—my cousin's aunt is Chinese. Maybe I can use that to build so goodwill," Bob said.
Takayuki gave no particular reaction.
Family ties don't exactly influence national decisions.
"Actually, Mr. Takayuki, one reason I ca here was to thank you."
"Thank ?"
"Yes, because of your guidance, we found a new direction. Our smartphone business is booming now. If it weren't for your ga lineup launching on our devices, I think we'd be in the sa boat as other companies who once tried to compete with MicFort—we'd have faded into irrelevance."
Bob spoke sincerely. This wasn't flattery—he truly ant it.
Takayuki had helped him imnsely along the way.
Bob had started out as just another geeky guy. His initial reason for creating a social network was to spite one of his ex-girlfriends—she had said he would never amount to anything due to his lack of social skills.
That grudge pushed him to start a social dia company.
He gained so fa eventually, but he was never the biggest na.
Without Takayuki, his company might have grown steadily, sure, but he estimated the ceiling would have been around $1 billion at best.
With Takayuki's advice and ideas, however, Facebook's growth beca explosive.
Bob's gratitude was heartfelt.
Takayuki waved it off. "No need to thank . You've got talent yourself—I only pointed the way."
Takayuki saw Bob as a reliable and obedient subordinate, which was rare.
Even now that Bob had real power and fa, he still humbly followed Takayuki's advice. Just for that alone, Takayuki was happy to keep him in his inner circle.
From Takayuki's point of view, Facebook was still just a piggy bank.
If that piggy bank ever got too full, he'd consider selling it off to expand his ga empire.
"So, ga sales seem to be going pretty well, huh?" Takayuki asked.
"Extrely well. We're making more than $500,000 in net profit every single day just from gas. That's over $100 million in yearly pure profit. I have to say—gas are a money-printing machine!"
This was only the beginning. Takayuki hadn't even introduced real mobile monetization thods yet.
In his original world, chanics like loot boxes and gacha systems beca standard in mobile gaming—bringing in insane profits.
These models exploited humanity's craving for gambling and randomness, and while controversial, they were undeniably effective.
He figured that eventually, he'd create sothing like Hearthstone.
After all, if he didn't do it, soone else would. No point in holding back.
Gaming was about making people happy—where the joy ca from wasn't as important, as long as it wasn't malicious.
Bob looked at Takayuki with a hopeful expression. "Actually... while sales are still good, we're hitting a bit of a plateau. Numbers are slowly dipping. Mr. Takayuki, do you think it might be ti to make a new mobile ga?"
Gastar's mobile team had already been working on new projects.
So had sold well, even hitting a million units on Facebook's app store.
Other developers were also eager to jump in and bring their gas to mobile for an extra revenue stream.
But core gars had a limit. It did seem like they'd hit a bottleneck.
They'd already captured pretty much all the core gaming market. There wasn't much room for more growth there.
"Hm..." Takayuki fell into thought.
It did seem like a real problem.
A slowdown in growth wasn't a huge issue in itself, but the market was far from saturated. If his side wasn't growing, that ant MicFort's was—and that ant giving the enemy montum.
That couldn't happen.
He really should think about making sothing new.
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