"I know you're all very excited right now, but what I want to say is, the achievements we've gained so far are in the past. I don't think you want to just rest on your laurels and wait for things to come to you, right? If that's the case, I'm afraid I'll be very disappointed."
Takayuki joked with everyone below, and the crowd gradually stopped smiling, but the positive energy was still present.
At the same time, their eyes were waiting for something.
Once everyone had quieted down, Takayuki took out his new game development plan.
"This time, it's a new shooting game. However, I plan to use a first-person perspective. This game will be very different from Metal Gear. This time, I hope to make a breakthrough in the narrative."
At this point, the U.S. game development team had already tasted the benefits of excellent storytelling.
So, when Takayuki told them that they would be making further breakthroughs in narrative, they all showed eager expressions.
"This game is called Titanfall. You can first take a look at the game development proposal I've prepared, which includes gameplay, background, and some of the new breakthroughs in combining gameplay and storytelling."
...
...
Printed copies of the game development proposal were handed out to the developers, who immediately gathered in groups of four or five to carefully read through the details.
This was Takayuki's personal game development plan—definitely not ordinary.
One of the leaders of the U.S. development team was Arnold Raison.
His name sounded strong, but in reality, he was just a regular middle-aged man with some hair thinning due to years of hard work.
He was, however, a passionate gamer.
In 1995, he was among the first in the U.S. to play Gamestar's games.
At the time, he was already in his thirties, but the experience rekindled the youthful excitement he had long ago.
He then threw himself wholeheartedly into game development and eventually became one of the heads of Gamestar's U.S. development team.
Arnold was also very fond of sci-fi stories.
The story background of Titanfall was set in humanity's future.
By that time, humans had already achieved interstellar colonization and left their mark on various star systems.
This sci-fi background immediately captivated Arnold.
He carefully read through the game development plan, where Takayuki had even included descriptions of classic levels from Titanfall 2.
One such level was the time-traveling mission, which was simply breathtaking when it was first presented to players. The ability to tell a story and display gameplay through continuous time travel was truly innovative and left players amazed.
Titanfall's game quality was top-notch.
But in the world Takayuki came from, the timing was a bit off.
By that time, two giant franchises in the FPS genre had firmly dominated the market, making it nearly impossible for any newcomers to break through.
These two giants were Call of Duty and Battlefield.
These franchises had strong development teams and a yearly release cycle, which allowed them to dominate the first-person shooter market, much like how Takayuki's world had evolved.
Even though Call of Duty was essentially an annual product, it easily sold millions of copies upon release, even without any major advancements.
This kind of sales was a dream for any game development team.
The industrialization of game development was reflected perfectly in these two franchises.
Call of Duty initially gained fame for its excellent single-player narrative and later for its exceptional multiplayer gameplay.
Battlefield, on the other hand, always focused on large-scale warfare, providing players with a whole new experience and capturing their attention.
However, Battlefield eventually stumbled with a series of questionable decisions.
While game development didn't always improve, players continued to buy the games as long as there was something fresh, but Battlefield gradually became the embodiment of stagnation—each new release felt like it was produced on an assembly line, and the franchise's dominance was slowly eroding.
But even with this decline, Battlefield and Call of Duty remained the two giants of first-person shooters, and it was still incredibly difficult for anyone to surpass them.
Among the many challengers to these two giants, Titanfall was a very special case.
The development team that made Titanfall was responsible for the most iconic installments of Call of Duty, namely Modern Warfare 1 and Modern Warfare 2, which solidified Call of Duty's foundation.
Later, the core developers left the team due to internal conflicts and were eventually taken in by EA to develop Titanfall.
At first, Titanfall was highly regarded by EA, seen as the potential second challenger to Call of Duty.
But it's not easy to slay a dragon, especially with EA often acting as an unwitting hindrance.
They released Battlefield and Titanfall 2 around the same time, competing with their own product, which hurt Titanfall 2's performance. At least half the blame lay with EA.
In Takayuki's eyes, Titanfall was an unpolished gem—carefully crafted but overlooked.
For various reasons, it wasn't given much attention in his world.
But in this new world, Takayuki hoped he could bring it to the forefront.
Besides, this world didn't have Call of Duty or Battlefield, and no first-person shooter was at their level.
Counter-Strike and Doom didn't count; they were evergreen titles but not dominant first-person shooters.
So, Takayuki believed Titanfall, which didn't fully shine in his original world, could achieve better results here.
"Boss, I can guarantee that if you develop this game, it will absolutely succeed!"
At that moment, Arnold, who had just finished reading the game plan, was flushed with excitement.
He could already imagine how successful the game would be once developed.
This was a new attempt, a new challenge. If successful, with all the new gameplay breakthroughs in the plan, he believed this game would definitely succeed.
It was a gut feeling, an absolute feeling of success.