Chapter 35. We Need Tsubaki Furuhara-Sensei!
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The sales of Prestigious Academy throughout September could only be described as a complete disaster.
Even though distributors had ordered 5,000 copies from Pokeni, not even 1,200 had been sold after two weeks.
Sales on the first day were decent, mostly because many were new fans from Onmyoji and were eager to try Pokeni's new release.
But a large portion of them gave up as soon as they realized it wasn't an adult game.
Only a few bought Prestigious Academy out of curiosity. While they admitted the game had some fun elements, it simply wasn't what they were expecting.
As a result, the reviews were generally mediocre.
With no positive word of mouth—and in fact burdened by the expectations set by Onmyoji—Prestigious Academy ended up sinking like it was trapped in a swamp, completely unable to gain traction.
"400 copies?!"
When Hattori Hiroyuki heard the sales figures from his own game retail store, he was utterly stunned.
"Yes, President," said Secretary Fujiki, pushing up her glasses with a regretful tone. "Even though we placed Prestigious Academy in a prime sales position, there just weren't many customers interested."
"Maybe... maybe Pokeni just doesn't have what it takes to make high-quality games?"
"It's starting to look that way." Hattori Hiroyuki covered his eyes with his hand, his head buzzing with disbelief.
Looking at it now, maybe the success of Onmyoji had just been a coincidence, or perhaps it was due to President Tsuda's push behind the scenes. In truth, Kiyoshi Yuuma probably had no real talent for game development.
So once DUN pulled out of the investment and President Tsuda stopped participating in game development, Pokeni's true colors were exposed?!
After thinking it over for a long time, Hattori couldn't find any other reasonable explanation.
"Ugh, how stupid. I actually believed in someone like Kiyoshi Yuuma, thinking he could make another hit just because he did it once. I really was too naive, huh?"
…
"Ugh, how stupid to give up on galgame titles."
Over at their rival company Blue Wings, chief planner Mizutani Takashi couldn't help but smile when he heard about Pokeni's poor sales performance.
Yes, there was nothing more satisfying than watching your former company suffer a massive flop.
His own project Street Pickup had been bashed by players and sold poorly. He'd been suffering from insomnia and mental stress ever since.
Although the company president hadn't said much, Mizutani could clearly feel the deep disappointment behind the silence.
After all, Blue Wings had hired him to make money, not lose it.
The only reason he hadn't been let go yet was because they hadn't found the right timing or excuse.
But now…
Seeing Prestigious Academy crash this hard gave Mizutani a sliver of comfort and restored a bit of confidence.
They made a hit like Onmyoji, and then followed it up with something this bad, and he didn't even know what to say anymore.
"If it were me, I would've never abandoned galgames."
Since the first title did so well, the obvious move should've been to strike while the iron was hot.
But Kiyoshi Yuuma's thought process was just bizarre. What made him think switching genres was a good idea?
"Ridiculous. Completely ridiculous."
Well, at least now Street Pickup didn't look quite as terrible by comparison.
Mizutani thought to himself.
Just then, Blue Wings' president happened to walk by the hallway and caught a glimpse of Mizutani Takashi's smug face.
He couldn't help but frown deeply.
You've got some nerve laughing at others.
Didn't our Street Pickup flop just as badly?!
This guy really has no shame left at all…
"Eh? President, what are you doing here?" Mizutani flinched in surprise as his eyes caught Kobayashi Shigeru in his peripheral vision.
…
At the same time.
Tokyo.
Pokeni Co., Ltd.
In the President's office—
A sigh echoed.
"What?! How could this happen?!"
It shouldn't be like this.
Kiyoshi Yuuma couldn't believe the data reported by the operations department.
In his previous life, Pocket Academy had millions of downloads. So how come in this era, they couldn't even sell a mere 2,000 copies?
In the past few days, the feedback from distributors had been less than ideal.
Not just bad, it was downright terrible.
"President, this is the player survey we conducted," said Takahashi Kazuma, the head of the operations department, as he placed a stack of documents in front of Kiyoshi Yuuma.
The player survey is a good way to review and analyze, allowing the company to quickly and accurately identify a product's strengths and weaknesses and make future adjustments accordingly.
Kiyoshi Yuuma took it and began flipping through the pages carefully.
The more he read, the more unbelievable it seemed.
And the angrier he became.
[As a game, its playability is quite high. As a simulation management game with chibi pixel style, I think even elementary school students could find fun in it.]
[But, as a Pokeni product, this is clearly not what I wanted. I was hoping for an experience similar to Onmyoji.]
Takahashi Kazuma stood silently by his side.
In fact, the comments in the survey had already been toned down by the operations team. The real player feedback was even more aggressive than what he was seeing.
"We followed up to ask: what kind of experience were they hoping for?"
The player's answer was:
"Beautiful girls. Amazing storylines. It absolutely must be a galgame."
Takahashi Kazuma added that final line.
Kiyoshi Yuuma's brow furrowed deeply.
Damn it! I switched to making Prestigious Academy because I wanted to go mainstream! If I were going to keep making galgames, why go through all this trouble?
As he continued to read the other player comments, most were negative:
[Rather than say it fell short of expectations, it's more like it was a disappointment. I really don't understand—why not use a great producer like Tsubaki Furuhara? Why let a half-baked amateur like Kiyoshi Yuuma take over?]
[Fine, make a new game, but why abandon a good galgame and replace it with a simulation?]
[It's obvious the upper management at Pokeni has no idea what players expect from Pokeni.]
[We need Tsubaki Furuhara-sensei!]
Turning another page—
The closing line was still:
[We need Tsubaki Furuhara-sensei!]
…
Seeing this, Takahashi Kazuma beside him dared not say a word, struggling to suppress his laughter.
Kiyoshi Yuuma took a deep breath. His mind buzzed with confusion and frustration.
Damn it...
These aren't the players I know.
This shouldn't be the outcome!