YOO had already fallen from the clouds.
That was the consensus among most people.
And even though YOO had completely fallen, to the average person it still remained a giant — just a dying one now.
The various industries once controlled by YOO were quickly redistributed, most of them falling back into the hands of the zaibatsu.
The YOO company itself still retained some value. The remaining leadership barely managed to hold the line, preserving their core asset — their internet portal. Everything else had to be abandoned, as those areas were simply too expensive to maintain.
Without any new capital injections, YOO simply couldn't afford to keep investing in so many ventures.
As YOO's business partner, Surei Electronics couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy.
But they quickly wiped their tears and took in more than half of YOO's game development teams.
...
...
In particular, the teams that had developed the shooting game and the FIFA-style football game were absorbed 100%.
These now-rootless developers had lost their backing and had no choice. Being brought into Surei Electronics was probably the best outcome for them.
Surei was generous even to those unfortunate teams who weren't formally absorbed — offering limited funding and better revenue-sharing contracts, inviting them to create exclusive titles for Surei. Of course, the funding was limited — at most, about a million dollars. That would be enough for a small team of twenty to thirty people to make a slightly higher-end game. Surei couldn't do more than that. If those teams couldn't prove themselves, they'd be abandoned without mercy.
Some of the bolder teams decided to cut ties altogether — choosing to emulate that mysterious solo developer known as "Nintendo Is the Damn Overlord of the World," the creator of Stardew Valley and Loop Hero.
If that guy could make two excellent games solo, then with their years of development experience, they should at least be able to make a few decent-quality titles and scrape by — even if they didn't have his creative genius.
Now that BattleNet had become a hot indie game platform, it welcomed them with open arms. The platform was open to any individuals or teams aspiring to create great games. Submissions were welcome, and Unreal Engine usage was free. Of course, if they earned a certain amount of revenue, BattleNet would take a share — but for these rootless developers, this was already the best possible outcome.
Aside from those, another group was absorbed by Brown Entertainment, a company dedicated to game development.
Hack Brown had always been an ambitious man — calmer and more conservative than Nagao. His company moved cautiously but steadily. Joining a company like that wasn't a bad choice at all.
Finally, around a dozen individuals were quietly taken in by the Morgan Group. These were recruited in total secrecy. They signed NDAs, and everything was kept under wraps. However, Morgan Group did inform their partner, Gamestar Electronic Entertainment. It seemed Morgan was starting to take interest in the game industry, especially intrigued by the user engagement potential.
And just like that, a gaming giant that had only recently risen to prominence collapsed overnight, and its remnants were absorbed by Surei Electronics, Brown Entertainment, Morgan Group, and Gamestar Electronic Entertainment.
The video game industry now appeared to be split among four powers.
The arms race in gaming seemed to pause for a while, as each company moved into a phase of digestion and consolidation.
What the others were doing was unclear, but inside Gamestar Electronic Entertainment, a new round of intense preparations had already begun.
The GS1 console had been on the market for six or seven years. Sales had now reached 110 million units.
That was essentially the upper limit for a home console.
The FC (Famicom) was a special case — that didn't count.
With the GS1 aging, its performance was beginning to lag behind current development standards. Developers now had to make compromises to work around the console's limitations.
That said, the GS1's price was no longer as high as it had been. You could now buy one for just $99.
Its market penetration had basically peaked.
According to data, the average ratio of game sales to console sales had stabilized at 7:1, which was quite solid.
Overall, since the GS1's release — including game revenue — it had generated over $5 billion in total profit for the company.
Now, players were starting to crave better-looking games. They were no longer satisfied with what the GS1 could offer.
And it made sense. The GS1 was roughly equivalent to a PS2 in terms of performance. The only reason it had survived this long was because the video game industry in this world had essentially started from zero.
If a better console didn't come soon, players would start jumping ship. Gamers were notoriously hard to please — they could switch loyalties over a single game. Rumor had it that some new companies were ambitiously working on higher-performance consoles, but the sudden internet bubble had disrupted their funding, and many of their projects were now stalled or delayed.
This was the perfect opportunity. It had become absolutely necessary to develop a better console while the timing was right.
The engineering department had been working on this in secret for a while now. In fact, development had formally begun a year ago. Airi Hayasawa had even pulled multiple all-nighters because of it.
"Takayuki! It's done! Come look at my creation!"
Inside the new Gamestar HQ, the engineering division occupied five full floors — more space than any single game development department.
Everything built here was top-secret — the most important department in Takayuki's eyes.
Airi Hayasawa, the head engineer and pillar of the department, was also the board director in charge of engineering.
Only she could execute Takayuki's plans with such loyalty and speed.
In front of Takayuki now was an unhoused prototype of a brand-new console.
It used the most advanced processor available in the current world, and incorporated a variety of cutting-edge hardware innovations.
Its performance was roughly between a PS3 and PS4.
It couldn't support 4K, but at 1080p, it ran beautifully.
Takayuki picked up the controller and launched a built-in test game.
It was a simple demo: a character walking around a city, able to attack pedestrians at will, steal cars, and drive freely.
Of course, it was an early test build, and many elements were still rough. Sometimes the car would suddenly fly into the air. Sometimes the character would stretch like a rubber band — with the head flying off the map while the feet remained planted at the original location. Bugs were everywhere.
But it was still a powerful showcase of the console's capabilities.
The new machine could render many more polygons, making characters look smoother and more lifelike. The sense of realism was on a whole new level. For this world, it could truly be called next-gen graphics.
Takayuki was very pleased.