Very difficult for people to see. The new way they wanted to create the game for one of ID Software's series, in which they already held an advantage across the entire European market. However, a curious step for them was to conduct a separate line of research in order to converge into the world of computers, and all of that carried a single idea behind it, though it was entirely premature to say how much both Crash and Resident Evil would have a high impact by 1998. The second zombie saga not only already had the first game circulating widely, but the second installment was also available, a title that emphasized the origins of the franchise, effectively doubling the game's difficulty.
For now, Tomb Raider was only a dream, as they sought to create a game of a higher level than the first, adding a storyline centered on a sexy villain who possessed great skills and initially acted as Lara's companion, but who, by twists of fate, ultimately became her enemy after a dispute that filled them both with an inert, lingering resentment.
Those were the tasks of Teams One, Two, and Three at ID Software, which together counted some three hundred employees, six companies working behind the scenes making adjustments, and Epic Games, which would focus on perfecting the game engine, Lux Fire 1.0, whose sole destiny was to completely shatter established game mechanics.
The fourth team was devoted to creating a counterpart to Nintendo's approach, refining open worlds with childlike cartoons, environments built around franchises, karts, minigame competitions, and short stories set within level-based worlds that developed their own vision of deep mechanics and a gentle, charming aesthetic. They used cartoons to replicate Mario's system. For example, they produced a remarkable reinterpretation of Mario World, using the Luxury mechanic to create different examples of levels and gameplay.
Super Mario 64 featured the Luxury Mix, using a tower structure in which each floor represented a semi-open world that required the completion of missions. Fairy essences replaced triple jumps, short flights took the place of long leaps, and instead of castles, magical towers were used. The blend drew from Celtic mythology and the playful use of levels with simple, accessible mechanics.
The fifth team focused on an RPG system and open worlds, based on the most fundamental principles of role-playing games: moving players through open environments and assigning statistics in a 3D space, or at least partially so. They used the animated One Piece franchise to traverse a field, then directed the adventure toward arena battles, quests, minigames, and short videos that brought life to the experience, replicating the fights and characters of One Piece, League of Legends, and Divinity.
In contrast to ID Software's RPG, which leaned toward a more conventional, turn-based strategy RPG organized by levels and presented with a romantic tone, Pokémon Orange—set on an island of regional Pokémon—became one of the wonders that began to emerge as a profitable franchise, surpassing Baldur's Gate. Pokémon sold between two and three million copies, but generated even more revenue through peripherals. This allowed campaigns to grow increasingly ambitious and made room for different types of exploratory games, sending a real shock through the gaming industry by producing periodic releases every year to year and a half.
On the other hand, Parallax had already produced Spyro and now held Jak and Daxter and Ratchet & Clank as its main events, while expanding its staff to fifty members and opening the door for Epic to enhance each of these games, as Raven Software took charge of developing Divinity.
-The third largest video game company,- whispered Richard Boll as he read the article naming the powerhouses of the industry. The trick was to keep growing: hiring more and more people, expanding the company to five hundred employees. For that reason, they would create a seventh team dedicated to producing even more games. Each day, titles arrived in waves, indecipherable in their volume, all emerging from ID Software.
In no less than five hours, they would create the sixth team, which would focus exclusively on developing horror games. Only horror games, at a time when video games were entering a new life within the scale of mass production, with more than twenty franchises in their hands that were about to be transformed into video games.
***
Microsoft was now fully in development as the Xbox console neared completion. The investment had paid off, and they had created a computer dedicated solely to video games. It was a common, distant logic that danced across multiple angles.
Tom knew this would revolutionize hardware systems across companies, and that the best computers would come to represent a blend of Apple's renaissance, while Microsoft would remain at a distance, prioritizing software systems and content over the machines themselves.
-It seems bigger than we expected,- commented Tom Doyle.
-It's revealing,- whispered Braim Chard, watching Resident Evil on the screen.- The second installment of the series surpassed everything seen before, from the way the characters moved and performed their actions to the very mechanics of the game.
-Ten years ahead of its time,- remarked Tom Doyle.
-I'll speak with Mr. Gates, but I fear our share has gone straight down the drain now that Billy can do the most with the least,- replied Braim Chard as he studied the operating system.
-He holds sixty-five percent control of the company and five percent in preferred shares that he bought at double the original price. He completely stabilized the weight of the company and invested heavily while it was generating profits for the tech sector, leaving us utterly mistaken about the implications of selling machines,- whispered Tom Doyle, now understanding why Billy had wanted to exchange parts, to give and provide so much: as long as the machines sold, they would make money, and he only handed over a few bills in return—computer games that would serve as a taxable base.
-I want a purchase, or perhaps we can call it an investment,- Chard whispered delicately, already considering what remained within his grasp.
To be honest, he was no longer concerned with the finer details. He needed to call the liaison, a woman even tougher than Billy himself: Anne.
-Bill has no interest,- Doyle replied.- Perhaps he only wants to stay in his own field; the industry is a risk, and this seems like a foolish fight in which he only wants to provoke the technology companies.
...