On the final day of the Carnival, Gamestar Electronic Entertainment announced the official release date for the Switch: July 1st, 2010.
This period happened to be a time when people were relatively free. With summer approaching, the demand for entertainment was on the rise. The heat made everyone restless, and people needed some kind of outlet.
And obviously, video games were an excellent option.
The end of the Carnival marked the beginning of the final four-month sprint.
At this point, the arrow was already nocked—it had to be released.
Shortly after Gamestar's Carnival wrapped up, Surui Electronics also unveiled their own new-generation home console.
When it came to handhelds, Surui had clearly taken a much bigger hit than Gamestar.
Back when smartphones first started to gain traction, Gamestar temporarily pulled out of the handheld console market. They didn't invest too much capital or energy, so now as they restarted efforts, there wasn't much pressure. On top of that, Gamestar was essentially run under a one-man rule by Takayuki. Whatever he said went. Even if the company went under, he wouldn't be accountable to anyone.
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But Surui Electronics was a different story. Their numerous shareholders would never allow one single product line to heavily drain the company's capital—let alone lose money doing so. That would only stir more dissatisfaction.
So in the short term, it was unlikely Surui would return to the handheld market. At the very least, they'd want to first observe how Gamestar's new handheld performed.
In the past, Gamestar had crossed the river by stepping on Surui's stone. Now it was Surui's turn to cautiously follow in Gamestar's footsteps.
Of course, part of this dynamic involved a quiet partnership between Surui's current president, Hayakawa Ueto, and Takayuki.
On the surface, there was little connection between the two, but behind the scenes, they had quietly formed an alliance.
They would no longer engage in open competition—at least not in the short term. Their shared goal was to fully suppress their mutual thorn, Mikfo, preventing it from making another bold push into the player market. Once Mikfo was neutralized, Surui would make its return.
Recently, Surui also reached a cooperation deal with Facebook.
Facebook would provide Surui with its own smartphone operating system.
This OS was, simply put, open source—offering far greater development flexibility compared to Mikfo's closed ecosystem.
That openness made it a fertile ground for game development.
Surui could use this opportunity to grow its smartphone business.
Sure, it meant paying Facebook a hefty licensing fee each year, but at least it meant they were officially in the game. They wouldn't be left behind when the new era arrived.
As for whether they could make any real profit from it—that was a different story.
Just a few days later, Surui finalized the decision to release their new home console between Halloween and Christmas this year.
That was also the time of year when people were most eager to spend money.
There was a reason most companies chose to release their newest products during this window—it was a strategy backed by years of market experience.
Following that, Surui and Gamestar launched into their final sprint together.
During this period, both companies doubled down, announcing one or two first- or third-party games every one or two weeks.
Each game looked impressively polished.
With this steady stream of game announcements, players hardly had any downtime. There was always something new on the horizon, keeping attention locked in.
Meanwhile, things weren't going so well over at Mikfo.
They faced direct, aggressive competition from Facebook on one side, and the hungry stares of Gamestar and Surui on the other.
Gamestar could be set aside for now—they were a game development company at their core, and their competition with Mikfo wasn't that overt.
In fact, Mikfo had mostly targeted Surui in the past.
Now it was clear Surui was looking for other ways to fight back.
Coincidentally, Mikfo was preparing to release their own new home PC.
The home PC market was something Myron Case had long obsessed over.
His previous attempt at a PC line had essentially been smothered by the rise of video games—it never made a splash.
But he still firmly believed that Mikfo's PC line had untapped potential.
Unfortunately, the competition wasn't exactly weak. Surui's home console had already drawn much of the gamers' attention.
Ever since Surui adopted the industrialized game development model from Gamestar, their progress had sped up significantly.
Large-scale, mass-produced games started rolling out.
These industrial-style games had a major downside—heavy homogenization.
But for now, players were still willing to accept that kind of game.
There were pros and cons to this approach.
On the plus side, lots of unsuspecting users were drawn in by the flashy, cool-looking visuals. They were willing to give these games a try.
These types of games had very low barriers to entry. Both new and seasoned players could quickly pick them up and have fun.
The downside was that they could rapidly wear down players' patience.
Homogenized games like this might last two to three years before players started to feel bored. If Surui didn't consider a shift in strategy soon, these mass-produced games could become a deadly poison.
Takayuki hadn't warned Hayakawa about this.
Not because he was petty, but because he figured that if he did, Hayakawa might start suspecting he was a time traveler. One person suspecting that was fine, but there was no need to share too much with a rival like Hayakawa.
The more you say, the more mistakes you make.
Besides, whether Surui lived or died wasn't really Takayuki's concern.
If Surui did rise to prominence one day, the downside of these mass-produced games might actually become Takayuki's ace in the hole—a trap he had quietly left behind for Surui to fall into.
After all, this was business. You couldn't afford to get sentimental.
Surui, for their part, fully understood this. If they ended up falling into that trap, Hayakawa would likely chalk it up to his own lack of foresight—unlike Takayuki, who had predicted it all. It would simply mean his skills weren't good enough.
As for Mikfo, the common opponent of both companies—their game development team was slowly coming together. Clearly, they were hoping to reclaim some market share through video games.
But that would be extremely difficult.
After all, the gaming market had long been split cleanly between Gamestar and Surui. Anyone else trying to break in now? It was going to be an uphill battle.