Chapter 509: The World's First Interactive Streaming Motion-Sensing Game! |
Upon hearing this, everyone present couldn't help but perk up!
The key point had arrived.
By now, they were already "thoroughly familiar" with Golden Wind's game formats and styles.
Next.
As the hosts of this Higashitsu Gaming Festival, they were also, without a doubt, Golden Wind's "prey" at this exhibition.
Komera really should be asking themselves where their path lies.
After all.
This wave of offensive from Golden Wind was just too brutal!
"...We must find our own core selling points to have a chance of standing toe-to-toe with Golden Wind," said Kojima, who had just delivered a fierce analysis.
However, before his words could even finish, Yuma Ohashi, the successor to Moriya Tetsuya and currently Komera's Executive Director of Game Affairs, hesitantly raised his hand:
"Perhaps this is a bit abrupt, please forgive me, but I still want to say—why must we engage in a head-on confrontation with Golden Wind?"
Back when Golden Wind wasn't this strong, we still couldn't beat them!
Now they're like a freaking "Devastator (the robot formed by multiple Constructicons combining in Transformers)," why do we have to go looking for that kind of trouble?
Now that we've confirmed they're making a dark fairy tale horror-thriller game, can't we just avoid them?
Let's do something with less risk!
Soccer, rally racing, even conventional shooting games!
The three major categories—guns, cars, and balls—Golden Wind hasn't touched any of them this time!
A vast market is waiting for us to conquer!
Why must we stubbornly fixate on picking a fight with Golden Wind?!
However!
Seemingly seeing through Yuma Ohashi's concerns, Seiichi Nakamura slightly frowned, then waved his hand:
"The current situation does not allow us to deliberately avoid Golden Wind."
"If this were E3, Cologne Gamescom, or the CJ Exhibition,"
"Director Ohashi's idea would be perfectly fine, except for the Higashitsu Gaming Festival."
"But unfortunately, this is the Higashitsu Gaming Festival."
"Whether from the perspective of public opinion, Vivendi, or from players to investors, countless eyes are watching us."
"If we retreat at this moment,"
"What awaits us will be a significant discount in market confidence and sluggish stock prices and market value."
"Uh... this... this..."
This statement rendered Yuma Ohashi completely speechless.
Was Seiichi Nakamura right?
Of course, there was no problem.
Historically, among the four major game exhibitions, apart from the Cologne Gamescom in Germany having a stronger comprehensive nature, the performance of the host at the other three major exhibitions is the most closely watched.
Look at CloudPower at the Los Angeles E3, look at Golden Wind at the Huaguo CJ Exhibition, look at Komera at the Tokyo Game Expo.
The host's performance can even, to some extent, affect the development momentum and investor confidence of the manufacturer group for the entire year ahead.
So, Seiichi Nakamura was not wrong.
They needed to gain an advantage in this exhibition, in the contest with Golden Wind, to rebuild market confidence and secure more resources from Vivendi.
But the problem was—!!!
Yuma Ohashi opened his mouth, but ultimately didn't dare to speak out.
He really wanted to ask President Nakamura—have you considered the possibility of us failing again?
Avoiding the fight might indeed have a slight impact on our capital value.
But what if we get knocked down by Golden Wind again this time?
You have to know!
Starting from "Silent Hill P.T." three years ago!
Our Komera hasn't gained the slightest advantage against Golden Wind!
Although not as miserable as Illusion Engine not long ago, we've still been on a continuous decline, a steady downward slide!
So far, just layoffs, we've already done three rounds!
If we suffer another defeat this time!
I'm afraid even our once-proud three [Peak Studios] will be affected!
Have you thought about that?
Perhaps Seiichi Nakamura has.
Yuma Ohashi guessed.
But in the end, Nakamura still chose to take a risk.
Apart from wanting to fight back for a chance to turn things around, more of it came from pressure from the upper echelons of Vivendi.
"We will also make a horror-thriller type work."
With one sentence!
Seiichi Nakamura established the main tone of the new game!
Unquestionable, autocratic, and dictatorial!
Seeing the boss speak like this, even if Yuma Ohashi was still worried, he couldn't open his mouth now.
Sighing inwardly, he turned his gaze to Takasugi Isao across the table, wanting to ask about his attitude with a look.
However, Takasugi Isao's eyes seemed somewhat distracted at the moment, as if thinking about other things. He didn't show any reaction to Seiichi Nakamura's autocratic decision, and it was unclear what he was thinking.
And right at this moment.
Tap, tap, tap—
The sound of Seiichi Nakamura tapping the table, along with his words, pulled the distracted Takasugi Isao back:
"Then next, please let Team Leader Takasugi introduce to us the advantages brought by the new generation of [Safety Valve Technology]."
"Ah? Ah! Oh, oh, oh—yes,"
Hearing his name called, Takasugi Isao snapped back to attention, cleared his throat with a thoughtful hum, and began:
"As everyone knows, the [Neural Safety Valve] is a technology that our Komera has always been dedicated to researching and advancing,"
"And in this KMN-4, the new generation safety valve has also passed testing and can be perfectly adapted..."
In principle, the [Neural Safety Valve] technology didn't seem worthy of being touted as a selling point.
Safety, right?
Who would make the safety of their motion-sensing pod a special selling point for a major promotional push at a game exhibition?
Therefore.
"Safety" was never the main promotional point of Komera's technological upgrade this time.
The most impressive aspect of this technological upgrade actually lay in its [Universality].
You have to understand.
Current motion-sensing pods, due to their unique connectivity and unparalleled immersion, inherently have certain requirements for users.
Users with conditions like "heart disease," "asthma," "epilepsy," "severe motion sickness," and other illnesses are identified during the motion-sensing pod's startup scan and testing.
Even psychological conditions like "depression" and "PTSD" can be judged and screened by the motion-sensing pod through partial testing and accessing networked medical record data.
Therefore, the universality of motion-sensing pods has always been relatively low, which is also one of the reasons their market penetration is lower compared to PCs.
But!
With the advent of the new generation [Neural Safety Valve] technology upgraded by Takasugi Isao's team!
The universality of motion-sensing pods will see significant progress!
The self-adjusting neural safety valve can automatically set critical thresholds based on the physical and mental state of different users,
allowing many patients suffering from such conditions to experience the stimulation and immersion of motion-sensing pods within an absolutely safe range!
Of course, extremely severe cases still won't work; those critically ill patients who might keel over from a simple clap in front of them are still denied access.
But even so!
The universality of motion-sensing pods will be greatly enhanced!
And this!
Is the core selling point of the [Neural Safety Valve] technology improvement—
Let more people experience motion-sensing pod games!
This is a killer move to fundamentally increase the sales of manufacturers' games and supporting equipment!
Simultaneously, it is also the confidence behind Seiichi Nakamura's willingness to confront Golden Wind head-on!
The customers you can attract, I can attract too!
The customers you can't attract, I can still attract!
This is our brand new generation of [Neural Safety Valve] technology!
It will lead motion-sensing pods into an era of "suitability for everyone"!
"...That's basically the situation,"
After finishing the introduction, Takasugi Isao looked at Seiichi Nakamura and gave a slight nod:
"President Nakamura."
Without a doubt, this was a very powerful technology.
Increased universality meant preemptively capturing a broader blue ocean market.
If, at this time, it could be paired with even stronger technology and unparalleled immersion...
Takasugi Isao's thoughts drifted again.
It seemed a massive virtual world suitable for everyone was already within reach.
Hiss—
Speaking of which...
Takasugi Isao remembered the [Made in Heaven] that was still being discussed on industry forums a few days ago.
This company was originally used to secretly acquire Illusion Engine.
But unexpectedly, after the acquisition was completed, this company wasn't immediately merged into Golden Wind's parent group. Instead, it changed its registered location back to Huaguo, simultaneously altering its company name and slogan.
Visual Rendering
Physics Simulation
Artificial Intelligence
Sound Reverberation
Network
Security and Stability
Reality Augmentation
Like a secret code, the slogan listed all the most core technical modules of a game engine.
There were rumors that the reason [Made in Heaven] was preserved and triggered this series of major information changes was because Golden Wind was preparing an extremely terrifying and colossal plan.
There were even so-called "internal leaks" suggesting that currently, Golden Wind had already transferred some core elites from its three major studios—"Golden Experience," "Steel Chain Fingers," and "Melancholy Blues"—moving their affiliations into [Made in Heaven], and had begun selective recruitment to attract top-tier game industry talent from around the world to join.
Regarding this, Golden Wind had maintained silence.
Even when he personally called Moriya, all he got was Moriya's ambiguous answer: "Trade secret, inconvenient to disclose."
God knows what kind of terrifying project they were planning to create.
Takasugi Isao was very curious.
He even wanted to go to Huaguo personally to ask Moriya face-to-face, to get to the bottom of it.
This curiosity was like a woman's long hair accidentally slipping into one's underwear, making one restless and unable to sit still.
So much so that he hadn't paid attention to the main content of the meeting.
He only caught fragments like "horror-thriller genre," "rebooting the Silent Hill IP," "global network simultaneous online," "player-voted development choices," and other snippets.
And finally, at the end of this entire morning-long meeting, the grand name of the new work that Seiichi Nakamura finalized with a decisive slap on the table—
"Excellent! This will be an unprecedented innovation! A game form never seen before, and it will perfectly align with our core selling point of higher universality!"
Seiichi Nakamura seemed very satisfied, even a bit excited:
"Since the situation has reversed, then let Golden Wind see our resolve in adversity, see the innovation in gameplay that belongs to our Komera's Nakamurai Studio!"
"I announce the project initiation of the world's first interactive streaming media motion-sensing game, the project is named—"
"Silent Hill: Ascension"