Since Ichin and Utaha didn't have class first period that morning, the two of them stopped by the cafeteria after arriving at campus to grab a bite.
Ichin bought two sandwiches—one for each of them—and they sat together eating leisurely.
Checking her phone, Utaha asked, "There's still about an hour until second period. Ichin, where should we go?"
After swallowing his bite, Ichin suggested, "How about the library? Read for a while and the time will pass quickly. Just sitting outside would get boring."
Though he wasn't nearly as frequent a visitor as Utaha, Ichin had been to the library a few times and liked the atmosphere there.
Utaha agreed happily—she was a regular there anyway.
After finishing their sandwiches, they headed to the library, each grabbing a book and reading quietly for over half an hour. When the time came, they went their separate ways to class.
When Ichin entered his classroom, plenty of students were already there. After greeting a few close classmates, he chose a seat toward the middle-back and took out his textbook.
That was when a few guys who often played games together crowded over.
"Hey Ichin, when's your company's new game coming out? I really want to play Dark Souls!"
"I'm looking forward to Titanfall, but there's been zero news. When will you announce something?"
Ichin chuckled at their eager curiosity. "Don't worry, games take time to make. As for Dark Souls, we don't have a set release date yet—it's still in development. But Titanfall should have new information revealed around July or August, so be patient. Oh, and besides those two, we've got another new game in the works—scheduled to release before Titanfall. It's an online multiplayer battle game. Pretty fun. If you're interested, look out for the public network test in June."
Development on Fall Guys was moving at lightning speed. With everyone at the company contributing ideas, stage design was progressing smoothly.
The plan was to hold public online tests in June and August to evaluate server performance. If no issues cropped up after those, the game could be ready for release around September or October.
The moment his classmates heard about a new title, they got excited.
Unfortunately, the bell rang and they had to return to their seats, saving the questions for later.
Of course, Ichin couldn't actually tell them details about Fall Guys. Even as the company's boss, he had to keep what was confidential, confidential.
—
After classes ended in the morning, Ichin met up with Utaha and Yukino, and the three had lunch together in the cafeteria.
Their schedules were similar in the afternoon—each had only one early class. Ichin and Utaha had just two periods total, while Yukino had a full morning and one afternoon course.
After lunch, Ichin bought juice for the two girls and asked Yukino, "Once your class is done, are you going to study at the library, or come to the company with us?"
Yukino thought it over. "I'll come with you. I studied at the library yesterday, and I don't have any urgent assignments. I can finish them tonight at home."
Utaha checked the time. "Yukino, after class, do you want to grab milk tea before heading over? A new shop opened near the company—it's been really popular."
"Milk tea, huh…" Yukino hesitated, but in the end couldn't resist. "Alright, let's try the new place."
She liked sweets, though she usually had strong self-control. Drinking milk tea today just meant she'd have to spend more time on her fitness ring workout later tonight.
After class, the three went straight to the company, stopping first to line up at the new milk tea shop.
As for the rest of the company, no worries—they always ordered their own afternoon drinks.
Sure enough, when they walked in, almost everyone had a milk tea in hand already—just not from the new store.
Spotting theirs, Yagami Kou asked curiously, "How's that place? We wanted to try, but the line's too long. With so many of us, we had to order from other shops instead."
With over a hundred employees, they usually split orders among several stores—otherwise, a single shop couldn't handle it. Large orders of thirty-plus cups were already a strain, though the local cafés welcomed them gladly—big money for the day.
"It's pretty good," Ichin said, shaking the taro ball milk tea in his hand. "Tastes almost the same as what I've had back home. Kou, everything going smoothly with development today?"
"No worries," Yagami Kou replied cheerfully. "Both Fall Guys and Dark Souls have their frameworks solidly built. We're developing step by step—no major issues. But there is one bit of special news."
"Oh? What is it?"
She pointed at the Switch on her desk. "Persona's NS version just passed five million copies sold."
"That fast? Already five million?"
Last summer, the Switch version of Persona had already broken three million sales, but afterward its growth slowed.
Then came the year-end TGA Awards, where Persona swept three major prizes. The surge of attention, paired with an official 20% discount on the Switch store, boosted sales again.
This year, discounts on Switch had been rarer—another 20% off during the spring sale, but that was it.
Nintendo rarely slashed prices deeply for their platform's hot titles—especially not to 50% or lower—within a year of release.
On PC, Persona sold at roughly the same price as console, but thanks to excellent optimization, it ran on relatively modest hardware. Plenty of players opted for the PC version.
All those factors explained why Switch sales slowed.
Even so, breaking five million in just one year was extraordinary.
After all, the Switch's top ten bestselling games were all Nintendo's own. Even the tenth—New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe—had sold over nine million copies.
*
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