Very few companies were actually willing to agree to sell their gas at significantly reduced prices.
In this world, most ga developers had found it relatively easy to make money—provided their gas were of solid quality. Good gas naturally led to good sales.
This world hadn't gone through any major economic recessions before, and people generally had decent disposable inco. In fact, this world felt more like a peaceful version of Takayuki's original world.
And that's exactly what he liked about it—peace was the greatest gift for ordinary people.
With peace, ca spending power. Even if people occasionally hesitated before buying a ga or console, they rarely hesitated when a truly good ga ca along.
So in this kind of environnt, most developers weren't eager to offer even older titles at a big discount. Even for gas released two or three years ago, 10–20% off was the norm—still far from what Takayuki had originally envisioned.
...
And because this world's ga industry had never faced a true global recession, these companies had never experienced the desperation that cos with an economic crisis.
When money's tight, even choosing to spend on entertainnt becos a luxury.
These days, most popular gas were still priced at $40–50 or more. Many players simply couldn't keep up anymore.
In the end, only a few companies—those with good relations with Gastar—agreed to participate in the discount campaign.
What surprised Takayuki a little was that Suri Electronics also agreed to join.
Not only that, but they actually took the discount event pretty seriously.
Seeing Gastar roll out its sumr sale, Suri launched a similar promotion of their own.
Suri hadn't been doing all that well recently. So when a potential revenue-boosting opportunity ca along—even at the cost of lowering player confidence in full-price purchases—Hayakawa Ueto still went ahead with it.
It confird again that Suri Electronics was a formidable rival, one that Takayuki couldn't afford to take lightly.
As long as Hayakawa was in charge, Suri would keep advancing steadily, always looking for a chance to overtake.
"Sumr Sale Festival! Gastar Electronic Entertainnt's first-ever ga sale event for gars! Co browse your favorite gas—and while shopping, you might randomly receive digital items for Battle or console platforms!"
Across Facebook's video and social platforms, Gastar's ads now dominated pri placents.
Though ad fees remained non-negotiable, Facebook was partially owned by Gastar. This gave them priority ad placent, allowing them to queue ahead of others for the most valuable ad slots.
With such strong resources in hand, Gastar's ads always made a lasting impression.
It was sumr—when both kids and adults were too lazy to go outside. It was simply too hot, and most just wanted to stay indoors with the air conditioning on.
And if you were staying in, there weren't many things to do—video gas were still one of the best options.
But recently, many gars had started to feel a sort of ntal fatigue.
Maybe it was because there were too many gas to choose from—so many that it all started to feel empty.
There was even a term circulating online: "Digital ED"—a reference to the lack of excitent or stimulation from playing video gas.
Cookie-cutter gas couldn't hold attention anymore. Players would try them briefly, then drop them.
Only a handful of tiless classics were still selling strongly.
"Discounts? Ha! You think you can fool money out of that easily?" a middle-aged man scoffed at a sumr sale ad on his computer.
Sales like this had happened before, and the discounts had never been impressive.
A $50 ga at 10–20% off still felt unaffordable.
He had a few gas he'd wanted to try, but every ti he saw the price, he walked away.
A $50–60 ga might offer 50–60 hours of gaplay—technically a good value—but in a struggling economy, that hardly mattered.
People had less and less disposable inco, and fewer people were willing to spend on gas.
Even lifelong gars were tightening their wallets.
Newcors—especially kids with shrinking allowances—were forced to turn to free-to-play mobile gas like Candy Crush.
anwhile, retro titles on Facebook mostly appealed to nostalgic older players. Newcors who grew up playing Final Fantasy VII Remake had little interest in pixelated 8-bit gas—unless those gas offered sothing truly unique.
As the ads continued to roll out, forums started buzzing with discussion about the upcoming sale.
"Only a few days until the sale. Anyone planning to pick sothing up?"
"I've always been interested in Sekiro, but I heard it's really hard. I'm scared I'll just get stuck and waste my money."
"Then buy the physical version so you can resell it afterward."
"Nah, too much trouble. I'd have to wait for shipping, install the cartridge, and everything. I'd rather just play sothing else."
"Yeah, I've been finding gas more and more boring lately."
"Is it the gas that are boring—or sothing else?"
"Maybe it's just too much entertainnt? These days I spend most of my ti watching videos. By the ti I realize it, the day's already over. I don't even think about gaming."
"Looks like there's nothing exciting about this sale."
"Just a few small discounts, right? Still can't afford anything. I'm not interested."
"Exactly!"
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