The Titanfall project was the only one Takayuki cared most about at this moment. Every step of its development had to be reported in detail, and if any development issues arose, Takayuki would resolve them immediately.
Fortunately, the development pace of Titanfall was very steady, and there weren't any major issues.
Of course, the time travel gameplay mechanic in the program design still needed some time for experimentation. This definitely wouldn't be solved in the blink of an eye.
But now, with Aya around, if any programming challenges arose, there was no better person to turn to than Aya.
Next, there was the market report for the European region from Matsuhashi.
The player market in Europe was now very stable.
Gamestar Entertainment had around 60% of the market share.
The remaining 40% was controlled by local game companies and Sury Electronics.
...
...
Such a market share was already quite good.
This was no longer the era of absolute dominance.
Back in the FC and SFC era, Gamestar Entertainment's games were truly top-notch, and their competitors were relatively weak.
But with the GS1 game console, that situation began to change.
Sury Electronics' game consoles also became more powerful, and more companies started developing quality games on their new consoles.
By this point, market share didn't matter as much. As long as players still enjoyed playing games, that was positive for the entire industry.
The European market was generally stable, and players remained loyal.
Especially for shooting, racing, and ball games, the enthusiasm was strong.
Football games were the best sellers, with Super Football Tournament surpassing ten million units sold globally, half of which came from Europe.
Counter-Strike also broke ten million units and was quickly approaching twenty million.
Need for Speed was slightly lower but was nearing ten million units.
Next, Takayuki planned to make Titanfall a blockbuster again.
Without the top-tier games like Call of Duty or Battlefield, Titanfall had a very high chance of conquering European players.
Then, there was the upcoming Super Football Tournament development system.
He planned to have a dedicated team of 500 to 1,000 people work on Super Football Tournament every year.
This would both train the team and maximize profits.
Takayuki quickly went through some files and then put aside the commercial information Matsuhashi had sent over.
Next, he looked through some feedback on other information he was paying attention to.
The first thing that caught his eye was the name of a company Takayuki was very familiar with: Mikfo.
This company was a tech firm specializing in mobile communications, chip development, personal computers, entertainment electronics, and other related fields.
The CEO of this company was an old friend: Myron Kess.
A man Takayuki thought of as a parallel-world Steve Jobs.
But he was younger than Jobs, still in his forties.
He also looked quite healthy, so he probably wouldn't suffer the same fate as Jobs.
Which meant this guy might become a formidable competitor.
As soon as Takayuki saw the name Mikfo, his focus immediately sharpened.
He turned to the second page and carefully examined the contents.
The document detailed Mikfo's current situation and upcoming products.
Takayuki was already familiar with Mikfo's current products.
But in the upcoming products, he saw a few things he had long expected.
Mobile smartphones.
In simple terms, it was the iPhone.
Myron Kess had finally reached this point.
After several years of meticulous development and team training, Kess had finally gained the confidence to develop his own first mobile smartphone.
In fact, smartphones should have emerged and become popular much earlier.
But in this parallel world, there were so many entertainment options that people's attention on smartphones wasn't as intense as in the past.
Just like when Takayuki first arrived in this world, the technology was relatively advanced, yet the video game market had no presence. It took Takayuki's efforts to carve out the market.
But regardless of whether Takayuki created the gaming market, the market itself would have eventually risen.
People's need for entertainment would inevitably turn toward video games.
And the demand for multi-functional entertainment devices like smartphones was the same. They were bound to become popular, it just took a little longer.
The report provided a detailed introduction to the products Myron Kess was about to release.
By now, Mikfo had issued numerous large-scale outsourcing and production orders.
Each step couldn't be airtight.
It would be mysterious to the general public, but for large corporations, investigating a company's product details wasn't too difficult.
Takayuki glanced through it and estimated the phone's performance and capabilities. He found that the phone's specs were already close to the iPhone 4S, and the prototype looked sleek and simple—a design that would appeal to the masses as an entertainment product.
If everything went as expected, this product would sell like hotcakes.
Takayuki wasn't surprised.
Even he would probably buy one.
Smartphones were a necessity for everyone. They were symbolic of the new era, and no one could escape them.
At the same time, Takayuki knew this would strongly impact the handheld console market.
So, the question was: should he compete head-to-head with smartphones or step back?
From a business perspective, stepping back was the most reasonable and most profitable.
Maintaining a steady market share in home consoles would be enough for survival.
However, if Takayuki looked at it from a personal perspective, there was only one answer.
Move forward!
But timing was key. With smartphones coming on strong, the right moment to respond was crucial.
He couldn't act too early or too late, and the handheld market wouldn't be easily overtaken.
For now, he would continue to solidify the home console market, complete the current development projects, and then consider how to approach Mikfo's smartphone.
Takayuki had a plan, but at that moment, Sury Electronics was completely unaware of the impending disaster.