Human beings have a very diverse demand for entertainment.
In ancient times, there were all sorts of tabletop games, as well as activities like cuju (ancient Chinese soccer), dominoes, beast fighting, Go, billiards, and more.
In modern times, entertainment has evolved to be experienced on screens.
Movies, entertainment shows, TV games, handheld games, music, and so on.
Video games are a product that has been born less than a hundred years ago, and it only really gained popularity in the past two decades.
Such a thing can never completely occupy everyone's time; each person has their own different ways of entertainment and needs.
However, if a product is extremely rich in features, offers a wide range of entertainment content, and is portable in the palm of your hand, while also meeting people's daily communication needs, the success of such a product is almost inevitable.
Smartphones, in this world, have gradually become more popular.
...
Before Myron Kess and Mikfo announced their first smartphone, there were already a few relatively mature smartphone operating systems in the world.
However, everyone was still like blind men feeling an elephant, slowly figuring things out.
From Takayuki's perspective, it would take some time for smartphones to become mainstream.
This is not like gaming consoles, where a product with a 6 to 7-year life cycle and a sales volume of one hundred million units would be considered a top-tier gaming product.
But smartphones? The global market absorbs more than a billion units each year.
In Takayuki's previous world, Apple's sales had already reached two hundred million units before his crossing.
Comparing the market demand, the gaming industry appears to be just a small fraction.
So when Takayuki saw Myron Kess take out that somewhat familiar yet slightly unfamiliar smartphone at the live launch event, he knew the era of mobile devices had arrived.
If there was going to be a huge impact, it would certainly be on the handheld gaming market, which was almost wiped out by the mobile phone sector in the future.
If not for Nintendo later saving the day with countless top-tier games, the handheld market in his previous world might have been relegated to niche status.
But most people in this parallel world still didn't seem to realize this.
Especially not Sury Electronics.
They had only casually paid attention to Mikfo's movements, and once they found out that they were developing a phone, they didn't think much of it. Only their mobile department seemed to care more.
Currently, Sury Electronics' focus wasn't on smartphones but on cameras, gaming consoles, and televisions.
It was just a phone; they didn't think it would have much impact on them.
At this point, Sury Electronics was still increasing its investment in handheld consoles, hoping to seize more market share while Star Electronics wasn't focusing enough on handhelds.
It wasn't that Takayuki didn't care about the handheld market; he just knew what he wanted to do first.
He wanted to present the top-tier games he was familiar with.
As for handheld consoles, the technology wasn't quite there yet, so he hoped the technology would improve a bit more before revisiting it.
So after seeing Myron Kess's groundbreaking product release, he merely smiled and returned to working on new game developments.
At the press conference held by Myron Kess, the MK1 mobile phone became the center of attention.
It looked very stylish and had a strong sense of technology.
The sounds of cameras clicking together formed a symphony, with countless reporters getting excited.
They still didn't quite understand how smartphones were "smart," since previous smartphones were generally disappointing.
But just because this phone could listen to music, watch videos, take photos, record videos, communicate, and browse the web while appearing very smooth, they were captivated.
So, on the same day, news articles flooded the media, proclaiming the new product and a new era.
However, some people were skeptical about the new product.
Because, no matter how you looked at it, it didn't seem like a real phone.
Real phones generally had numeric buttons.
Even some quirky manufacturers who didn't have numeric buttons would use some alternative method, such as joystick-like buttons or complex combinations of buttons.
But Mikfo's phone was incredibly simple, with fewer than five buttons on the entire surface, which seemed a little too few to be used as a phone.
It could work as a music player, though.
But this didn't bother Star Electronics' North American development department.
At this point, the Titanfall project was in its crucial early stages.
The team had already created a demo, but the art and animation weren't quite there yet.
Takayuki had returned to the US branch and was closely monitoring the game's development to ensure everything was perfect.
As soon as he entered the company, Takayuki saw a designer with a troubled expression.
He knew him; he was the team's art designer, and his desk was piled with crumpled paper, all discarded drafts of Titanfall.
Since Takayuki proposed the basic concept for Titanfall, the designer had been working tirelessly, trying to create a Titan mech that was both powerful and realistic.
At first, Takayuki hadn't given a clear answer, just asking the team to explore it on their own.
So the designer had been stuck on this issue for a while.
"You seem to be having problems with the design?" Takayuki asked as he walked over to the designer's desk, looking at the pile of crumpled drafts.
The designer shook his head, not looking up. "The problem is huge. We've never tried this kind of near-future setting before. It's much harder than just designing a sci-fi character or a modern character. How do we make it look realistic but also futuristic? It's really hard to strike that balance. By the way, whose idea was this concept?"
"It was the company president's," Takayuki said with a smile.
"Ah, the god of games himself? No wonder! But the task he gave us is really tough. I've been working on it for over two months and still haven't come up with a Titan mech design I'm satisfied with. It's just too difficult."
The designer was complaining, but it seemed he didn't realize that the person in front of him was Takayuki himself.