At first, YOO had a lot of money and was willing to spend it to secure enough market share for itself.
However, with Takayuki from Gamestar Electronic Entertainment around, he had been tirelessly advising Bob not to be too aggressive. Even though they had a lot of funds from investors, they still maintained a relatively conservative stance.
This had prevented their video platform from dominating the market.
Simply relying on a Final Fantasy 7 animated movie wouldn't be enough to truly change everything. They needed a wide variety of films and media content to attract a majority of users.
On this front, Facebook could purchase many copyrights, and YOO could do the same.
However, now, Nagao had already pulled some of that funding, which lightened the load for Facebook's video department, instantly eliminating one competitor.
The difference in purchasing video rights between the two wasn't as significant anymore. With Facebook's better viewing experience, users began to slowly return to their platform.
As for YOO, their newly funded game development team worked even harder to develop games.
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Nagao didn't just pour all the money into the development of the football game; several other games were also in the development stage, all of which required financial support.
He believed that as long as the games were completed, their sales would definitely be high.
It was with this belief and attitude that he continued to invest in them.
However, the more funds Nagao invested, the more Takayuki and Gamestar Electronic Entertainment invested.
Gamestar Electronic Entertainment wasn't just developing a football game. During the same period, they also announced the development of a first-person shooter game: Counter-Strike, and a brand new installment of the Need for Speed series: Need for Speed 5.
Both games appeared to be massive investments.
Especially Need for Speed, the graphics of this game looked like they were from an entirely new era, with quality that rivaled the graphics of Need for Speed 9.
Even though the gaming consoles were still roughly at the PS2 level, this game was originally designed for the PS2 era, but with Gamestar Electronic Entertainment's ample funding, the graphics for Need for Speed became more realistic.
This time, the marketing wasn't just about game advertisements. There were many demo areas for the latest Need for Speed across Europe and the U.S., where players could experience the top-tier graphics of GS1 for free. This was essentially pushing the gaming console to its limits—so much so that even the frame rate couldn't stay at 30 frames per second, which was stable for previous games.
However, players in this era were more tolerant of frame rates, and compared to frame rates, they were far more likely to be impressed by the visuals. Therefore, occasional drops in frame rate were still acceptable as long as the graphics were stunning.
In addition to Need for Speed, there was also Counter-Strike, which focused on competitive play.
This game originally came from a mod of the Half-Life game, but Counter-Strike later became more popular and Takayuki decided to create it in this world, letting players experience a game that had been popular for over 20 years in his previous life.
With racing, shooting, and sports games all covered, it wasn't enough. Other development teams were also releasing their own projects under sufficient funding.
For example, the latest Pokémon game, the latest Monster Hunter game, and a mysterious game that would only be revealed at the end of the year. This game was being promoted as the work of Takayuki, the "God of Games," and it would be a horror-themed game.
Altogether, Gamestar Electronic Entertainment had at least ten games in development, and each of them seemed to be a big-budget project.
If YOO didn't keep up, they were destined to fall behind.
Although Nagao didn't want to keep pushing so aggressively, to keep up with Gamestar Electronic Entertainment and prevent himself from falling too far behind Takayuki, he had no choice but to continue investing.
Even if his investment didn't match Takayuki's, it couldn't be too far behind.
The more he invested, the more nervous he became.
How much money does Gamestar Electronic Entertainment really have?!
How is it not running out?
These games were definitely big-budget projects. The least expensive of them, Monster Hunter, cost at least $40 million, not including the advertising and promotional costs.
Where did Gamestar Electronic Entertainment get all this money?
For years, Takayuki had adhered to a strategy of saving money, keeping funds in hand so he never had to worry. Though this sometimes made his development slower than anticipated, had he spent those funds, his expansion could have been faster. But Takayuki was used to saving money.
After all, his position was solid enough now. He was already at the top, and there was no need to think about expanding further. He just liked making video games, and occasionally branching out into game-related projects, but his primary focus was still on gaming.
It was like an arms race. Takayuki had poured all of his saved funds into developing multiple big games.
He certainly didn't want his position to be challenged, so even if it meant spending all his money, he would do whatever it took to maintain his status.
This was a battle to see who would break first.
And it seemed that, in the end, the outcome was tipping in Takayuki's favor.
On a plane to the U.S., Nagao sat in first class, his mind heavy with thoughts.
Just a few hours earlier, the Wall Street capital giants behind him had called him to go to the U.S.
On the phone, he could tell their tone wasn't particularly friendly.
Previously, they had been very lenient with him. YOO's portal development had been progressing extremely fast, with the user numbers skyrocketing geometrically, and these capital giants had been very supportive of him, continuously providing funding.
But recently, it seemed they were starting to become dissatisfied with his operations.
They started expressing a desire to take a more active role in the management of his company.
They no longer trusted him.
Damn it. He couldn't help but think of his two former predecessors, Hackbrown and Myron Kess.
These two had lost control of their companies due to too much capital infiltration.
He had thought that he didn't need to worry about these things, but now it seemed he had been too naive.
These bloodthirsty capital giants weren't easy to handle.