Video Game Tycoon in Tokyo-Chapter 852: The Year of Gamestar

Triangle Studio's blockbuster new indie game: Meow Meow Melody

A light, relaxing rhythm game featuring a mischievous cat as the protagonist. Players follow the beat and gleefully wreck a room. Produced by Oto-chan, the game was instantly loved upon release for its adorable visuals and stress-relieving gameplay.

Meanwhile, legendary producer Kazuma Yumiyose's famed series Ninja Project launched its latest installment.

With enhanced graphics, a development team of over 500 people, and a production cycle spanning over three years, this entry is a culmination of everything the series has built. To better cater to American audiences, the game is now set in New York City.

In this story, the protagonist travels through time, arriving in early frontier-era America and eventually fighting alongside modern-day allies.

The series had already spanned over ten titles, covering almost every narrative possible. This newest game serves as a temporary grand finale—and with its strong fan base, it sold over 1 million copies in its first week. Surpassing 10 million is well within reach.

This is also the first game in the series to utilize Takayuki's open-form, systematized development model.

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This new model prioritizes massive content and player retention, perfectly suited to gamers who were freshly enamored with open-world design.

Historically, even Ubisoft only began shifting gameplay styles after years of exhausting the open-world formula.

Elsewhere, Roppongi Studio launched a lineup of anime and film-based games.

Their strength lies in their abundant anime IPs—just slapping a popular name on the box guarantees tens of thousands of eager fans. Even if the game's quality isn't outstanding, fans still flock to buy them.

But with the industrialized development model, even the weakest of these games will hit at least a 3-star quality baseline. No more utter disasters.

With Gamestar Electronic Entertainment pumping out top-tier first-party titles, and third-party partners supporting with solid companion releases, Gamestar stormed the video game market like a juggernaut.

MicFort was hoping to pivot toward the personal computing market, looking to expand into portable and desktop devices.

Unfortunately, in this world, they were never given a chance.

Under Takayuki's guidance, the Morgan Group moved swiftly, rolling out operating system upgrades and new features to cut off every attempt MicFort made—outmaneuvering them at every step.

In Takayuki's original world, Apple rose to dominate global markets thanks to its surprise ascent. Back then, many rival companies underestimated Apple—until it became a behemoth too late to stop.

In this parallel world, MicFort might've had the same potential... if not for the inconvenient existence of a cheat-code-level time traveler who kept staying two steps ahead.

Myron Case felt deeply frustrated—every time he tried something, Takayuki smashed it before it could begin.

Eventually, by the end of 2010, MicFort's game division was in full retreat. They gave up on personal computers and shifted their focus back to smartphones, where they still held some dominance.

But under the relentless bombardment of dozens of top-tier game titles, MicFort didn't stand a chance. The trend-chasing gaming crowd had stopped choosing MicFort altogether.

They now wanted Facebook Phones and, of course, the ultra-cool Switch.

Despite early skepticism from analysts, the Switch handheld console became a breakout hit in 2010. The second half of the year was wholly dominated by Switch.

In hindsight, 2010 was unanimously remembered as the year of Gamestar Electronic Entertainment—a title that held for many years, as no other product would match its influence for a long time.

Within gaming circles, players affectionately dubbed 2010 "The Year of Takayuki."

Takayuki's influence kept growing—it seemed like he had no rivals.

By the end of the year, the annual Game Awards ceremony was held as usual. After years of building prestige, this awards show had become second only to the Milisen Film Awards, the Oscars of that world.

This year, however, came with a twist.

Kazuo Murakami, the show's producer, made a special decision:

Gamestar Electronic Entertainment would participate.

From Best Soundtrack, Best Action, Best Narrative, and more, Gamestar's games swept all the major categories. Only categories like Best Indie Game, which Gamestar didn't participate in, gave other studios any room to shine.

Gamestar secured a complete sweep—a grand slam across the board.

This would also become the only time Gamestar ever attended the Game Awards. After all, inviting a god-tier company like Gamestar essentially made it impossible for other developers to compete.

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Murakami explained that the Switch's success had driven the entire industry forward in such a meaningful way that it had to be recognized.

And surprisingly, all the other studios were completely chill about it. They remained quiet during the ceremony and later, during press interviews, agreed in unison:

"Gamestar deserved it."

Some even joked that just being nominated alongside them was already an honor.

As for Takayuki himself, he received an extraordinary distinction:

The Video Game Industry Lifetime Achievement Award.

He hadn't known about the award until that very moment. Sitting in the audience, he heard Kazuo Murakami call his name and announce the honor—and was briefly stunned.

But everyone else seemed to think it was the most natural thing in the world.

Even Ueto Hayakawa, who'd made time to attend, gave Takayuki a look of full approval from his seat.

Takayuki had earned this achievement.

In fact, this would be the only time the award was given to someone for the entire game industry. All future recipients would only receive the "Game Awards Lifetime Achievement," not the whole industry's.

That was Takayuki's uniquely exclusive legacy.

At the end of the ceremony, Takayuki sat at his table, surrounded by trophies and awards, looking around with a somewhat helpless smile.

"Maybe... winning too many awards all at once has its downsides too."