Many people across continental Europe shared the same sense of obsession with Super Soccer Tournament as Carson did.
In the first week, however, sales of Super Soccer Tournament in Europe weren't particularly high.
Most players had already been drawn in by the earlier release of FIFA, and many didn't yet have the time or impulse to try another soccer game, even if they were curious.
Especially considering that playing this new game also required buying a new console, which made early adopters even rarer.
As a result, Super Soccer Tournament only just crossed 500,000 units in its first week in Europe.
At that time, the install base for the GS1 console in Europe was only around two million.
So based on attach rate, the game reached about 25% of all GS1 users—a remarkable achievement for any game's first week.
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Meanwhile, Surei Electronics had an advantage as they'd launched earlier, capturing market share first.
Their home console had already sold over six million units in Europe—an impressive number.
This was exactly why Hayakawa Ueto was thrilled.
With FIFA gaining rapid traction in Europe, he even applied for exclusive privileges from FIFA, securing a more favorable revenue share.
Previously it was a 70-30 split, but now YOO could take over 80% of the sales.
For digital sales, the cut could reach 90%. A clear show of FIFA's strong commitment to YOO.
It was a win-win situation for both sides.
Nagao Ame finally had a moment to bask in glory.
Especially after Gamester Electronic Entertainment launched Super Soccer Tournament, and though there were no official sales reports, Nagao managed to estimate the first-week numbers through various channels.
He concluded: it definitely didn't exceed one million.
That only made him more excited.
He couldn't resist hopping onto social media, arrogantly proclaiming that the European market now belonged to YOO, and Gamester Electronic Entertainment should just back off.
In the realm of football games, he, Nagao Ame, would reign as king.
"President, we shouldn't get complacent. In terms of gameplay experience… Super Soccer Tournament is actually better than ours."
While Nagao was gleefully taunting Gamester on social media, the head of his dev team approached him with clear concern.
He was a veteran developer who had once attended Gamester's game development workshops.
That made him part of the first generation of true game developers.
Later, he joined an independent studio, became a lead dev, and when YOO acquired their company, the original founder cashed out, leaving him in charge of the team.
His experience was unquestionable—more than qualified to lead a project—and his judgment of games was just as sharp.
When he finished developing their FIFA football game, he had been genuinely proud. It was the first time he'd built something entirely with his own hands, without external help. His game.
Without any competition at the time, he thought it set the bar for football games.
He even believed that Gamester wouldn't surpass them.
But when Super Soccer Tournament finally dropped, he realized how naïve he'd been.
As a developer, he could feel the real difference between games. On the surface, they looked similar—but once you played, the gap was enormous.
So the moment he played Super Soccer Tournament, he came straight to Nagao.
But Nagao wasn't pleased.
What's with this guy? Did I treat him poorly or something? Why come at me with this now?
You helped develop our game too—shouldn't you be hyping it up, not singing praises for the competitor?
Nagao frowned and said, "We've already achieved success in sales. The data speaks for itself. Doesn't that mean we've won?"
They had hit one million in their first week.
Gamester? Less than a million.
That was a conservative estimate. Based on various collected figures, their team guessed it was around 500,000.
That was a full 2x difference.
If Super Soccer Tournament was so good, why weren't people playing it?
"President, first-week sales only reflect user retention and marketing momentum. They don't fully determine a game's quality. Sometimes, huge launch numbers are simply the result of aggressive promotion—like with our FIFA. We had a huge marketing advantage. That doesn't mean the game is unbeatable."
This opinion actually came from one of Takayuki's lectures back during a game dev workshop.
In his past life, Takayuki had seen countless games with explosive launches crash and burn quickly afterward.
Some titles were fundamentally flawed but sold well thanks to studio reputation and marketing.
But the truth?
The games were awful.
After buying them, players felt cheated. Their faith in the game—and the company—would plummet.
Now, their FIFA game wasn't that bad. It was solid, even polished. But compared to Super Soccer Tournament, it felt like a game from a different era.
That game was a clean dimensional cut above.
"?"
Nagao blinked, question marks filling his head.
Why won't this guy shut up?
He got even more annoyed.
"What kind of nonsense is that? Where'd you hear it? Sales data is proof enough. Our player feedback has been overwhelmingly positive too, hasn't it?"
The lead dev replied patiently, "True, feedback has been good. And if we didn't have real competition, I'd be fine saying we're the best. But now we're clearly outmatched. I believe we should—"
Nagao cut him off with a wave.
"Enough. I don't want to hear any more. You're clearly still green when it comes to marketing. Just focus on developing the games. Leave the rest to others."
All he wanted now was to keep dunking on Gamester Electronic Entertainment online.