June and July of 2001 became another important period for the video-game industry, even though ZAGE itself did not release many new titles during that time.
In June, ZAGE only released one major PC game.
Baldur's Gate 2.
However, calling it "only one game" almost felt unfair because Baldur's Gate 2 was not a small release at all. In this world, the Baldur's Gate series had already been enhanced compared to the version Zaboru remembered from his previous life. Because ZAGE owned the technology, tools, and development structure to improve it much earlier, the second game arrived with far better presentation, stronger mechanics, smoother interface design, and improved visuals compared to the version from Zaboru's old world.
The foundation was still the same kind of deep fantasy role-playing game Zaboru remembered. Players created their character, gathered companions, explored dangerous locations, accepted quests, made moral choices, and fought using a party-based combat system inspired by tabletop RPG rules. But this version felt more polished and more accessible without losing its complexity.
The environments were richer.
The spell effects looked more dramatic.
Companion dialogue was more reactive.
Quest branches were easier to track.
The inventory system no longer felt like a punishment created by ancient demons.
The writing also became one of the biggest reasons players loved it. The game offered a huge fantasy adventure filled with political conflict, ancient magic, strange monsters, personal revenge, party drama, and memorable companions. Players did not simply control a silent hero moving from quest to quest. They traveled with characters who argued, joked, complained, supported each other, and sometimes made the journey feel like a chaotic fantasy road trip.
Some companions became extremely popular almost immediately. Players discussed their personalities on ZAGE Forum, argued about the best party combinations, and created long threads about which character had the strongest story. Some fans loved the serious and tragic characters, while others preferred the ridiculous ones who made every dangerous situation feel like a tavern fight waiting to happen.
The combat also became highly praised. It was tactical enough to satisfy serious RPG fans but not so clumsy that new players immediately gave up. Battles against mages, dragons, demons, assassins, and powerful monsters required preparation, party coordination, buff management, spell counters, and proper positioning. A careless player could still be destroyed quickly, but a smart player could feel like a genius after preparing the perfect strategy.
That was one of the reasons Baldur's Gate 2 became such a respected game.
It rewarded thinking.
It rewarded exploration.
It rewarded reading.
And most importantly, it rewarded players who treated the world seriously.
Many players loved how large the game felt. Even after dozens of hours, they could still find new quests, hidden areas, secret items, strange NPCs, and unexpected story outcomes. Some players joked that Baldur's Gate 2 was not a game but a fantasy life sentence.
Zaboru laughed when he saw that comment.
Honestly, he agreed.
Sales were strong from the beginning. PC players in Japan, the United States, Europe, Korea, and several other regions praised the game heavily. In the West especially, Baldur's Gate 2 became one of ZAGE's strongest PC RPG releases of the year. It helped strengthen ZAGE's reputation not only as a console giant, but also as one of the most important companies in the PC gaming market.
As usual, Zaboru assigned Team Tempest, the ZAGE USA team responsible for the project, to shift focus after release. Instead of immediately forcing them to begin another new PC title from zero, he wanted them to support ZEPS 4 projects and prepare technology, assets, and RPG systems that could be reused in future console development.
For Zaboru, this was more important than people realized.
ZEPS 4 was not simply another console.
It was the next battlefield.
By this point, ZEPS 4 development was progressing steadily, and the overall improvement across ZAGE's development teams had become massive. Every branch had grown stronger. ZAGE Tower in Japan, ZAGE Campus in the United States, ZAGE Hub in Korea, and ZAGE Base in London were no longer working like separate isolated offices. They were beginning to function like parts of one enormous creative machine.
One of the biggest reasons was ZAGE's internal workflow.
With Unreal Engine 4 already ready for internal use, many teams had begun tinkering with it even before ZEPS 4's final hardware was fully prepared. The engine was still not perfect, and it was not on the level of the 2020s technology Zaboru remembered from his previous life, but for 2001 in this world, it was absurdly advanced. Developers could build environments faster, test gameplay systems more efficiently, reuse tools between projects, and share improvements across multiple teams.
Zaboru also pushed ZAGE's online collaboration system hard.
Using ZAGE's impressive internet infrastructure, internal servers, shared development folders, and Slack-like communication tools, developers from multiple countries could work on the same project far more smoothly than most companies believed possible. A designer in Japan could discuss a combat mechanic with a programmer in the United States. A UI artist in Korea could share prototype menus with Team OMNI in London. A producer could check progress, assign fixes, and compare builds without waiting for slow physical document exchange.
Of course, it was still not as seamless as what Zaboru remembered from the 2020s.
Video calls were not always perfect.
File transfers could still be annoying.
Time zones were still evil.
Sometimes developers misunderstood each other because messages lacked tone, and sometimes entire meetings were delayed because someone forgot the difference between Tokyo time and London time.
But compared to normal companies in 2001, ZAGE's system was almost ridiculous.
Many rival companies still relied too heavily on local teams, face-to-face meetings, paper documents, physical prototypes, and slow approval chains. ZAGE, meanwhile, was already becoming used to cross-country development. This allowed the company to move quickly, share knowledge across branches, and avoid wasting time solving the same problems repeatedly.
Zaboru had designed much of this system based on what he remembered from his previous life.
He knew how powerful remote collaboration, shared engines, version control, online communication, and strong documentation could become. His version was still primitive compared to the future, but it was already enough to give ZAGE a terrifying advantage.
Inside the company, developers were becoming increasingly excited.
ZEPS 4 projects were entering more serious stages.
The hardware team under Zanichi continued working with terrifying focus.
Game teams were experimenting with larger environments, stronger physics, improved animation blending, online features, better cinematic tools, and new controller functions.
Some developers even joked that ZEPS 4 felt less like a console and more like a monster Zaboru and Zanichi were raising in a basement.
The joke was not entirely wrong.
Meanwhile, on Apple's side, the iPlay received another major update.
Most of the existing issues had finally been fixed or improved. System stability became better, the interface became smoother, controller response improved, several compatibility problems were reduced, and the online store no longer felt like it had been built by a tired intern during a thunderstorm.
Apple's engineers had clearly worked hard.
Unfortunately for Apple, the update still did not make players excited.
The problem was simple.
Fixing a bad launch did not automatically create passion.
Many players looked at the update and said, "Good, but where are the games?"
That question continued to haunt Apple.
The iPlay was no longer as embarrassing as it had been at launch, but it still lacked a strong identity. Players did not know whether Apple wanted it to become a family console, a stylish multimedia machine, a serious gaming platform, or an expensive box for people who wanted to feel different from ZEPS owners.
In August, however, Apple announced that it would release a new game as a kind of apology for the iPlay's poor launch. They openly admitted that the early experience had not met expectations, though they phrased it in Apple's usual elegant way. The company promised that the new release would show more clearly what the iPlay was capable of, and they even announced a discount for the game during its release period.
The public reaction was mixed.
Some players appreciated the apology.
Some mocked it.
Others became curious because Apple sounded unusually desperate.
But one thing became clear.
Apple and ZUSUGA had not given up on the console market yet.
They had been wounded, mocked, and pushed far behind ZAGE, Sonaya, and even Microsoft, but they were still standing. Steve Jobs was clearly not the type of man who would retreat after one humiliation. If anything, the iPlay's bad launch seemed to have made Apple more stubborn.
Meanwhile, Microsoft's X-box was slowly becoming better.
Unlike the iPlay, the X-box did not suffer from the same level of public embarrassment after launch. It still had problems, of course. It was heavy, expensive, and did not yet have enough exclusive games to truly threaten ZEPS 3 or GameStation. But Microsoft had money, patience, and a clear willingness to improve.
System updates made the console more stable.
Online features were gradually improving.
Developer support became stronger.
Microsoft continued reaching out to third-party studios and offering favorable deals, technical assistance, and funding support some rumours said that they snatched many ZAGE exclusive third party studios.
Even though there were no major new exclusive releases yet, rumors had already begun spreading that many third-party studios were working on X-box exclusive titles. Some were Western shooters. Some were racing games. Some were PC-style RPGs. Some were strange experimental projects that Microsoft hoped could separate the X-box from Japanese-dominated console culture.
Players began to understand something important.
The X-box might not be terrifying yet.
But it could become terrifying later.
Microsoft had entered the console market seriously, and unlike smaller companies, it had enough money to survive years of losses if the long-term reward looked promising. That alone made many people inside the industry pay attention.
In gaming magazines and online forums, comparisons between ZEPS, GameStation, X-box, and iPlay became increasingly common.
ZEPS remained the king.
GameStation still had strong brand power and was rebuilding momentum thanks to games like Sherif Juan 5.
X-box looked like a dangerous future challenger.
iPlay looked injured but not dead.
For players, it was exciting.
For executives, it was war.
And in the middle of all this, one person's name continued appearing again and again.
Zaboru Renkonan.
Even when ZAGE only released one major game in June, the industry still moved around him. His company created the strongest engines, owned the strongest platform, influenced PC gaming, shaped online services, and even affected rival companies through his public comments.
Many journalists began asking the same question.
Could anyone truly rival Zaboru?
That question eventually reached Hikaru Kurata.
In mid of July when Zaboru was still in Milan Italy, Hikaru Kurata, the president of Sonaya, was being interviewed by one of ZEMITSU's journalists about the current state of the video-game industry and his rivalry with Zaboru.
To be continued.
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