Aoki Haruhi was really not in any rush.
The current results were more or less within his expectations; when Pokémon was first released in his previous life, the initial performance wasn't great either.
Although he had done a lot of groundwork in this lifetime, it was like making soup—it required time and a fermentation process.
The anime had only aired 3 episodes. While it had a certain level of popularity, it hadn't yet achieved massive influence.
As for Kimura's commercial, it had a certain appeal, but Kimura wasn't yet a red-hot, national-level idol.
Additionally, there was another very important point—
To some extent, Pokémon's sales were dependent on the sales volume of the Sega GP. Before the hype for Pokémon had really taken off, Sega's new handheld had only sold 600,000 units so far. It was impossible to achieve massive success on a platform with only 600,000 units, right?
Therefore, Aoki Haruhi remained very calm. After waiting for a while longer, letting it ferment, Pokémon's performance would naturally improve.
After all, this was the world's number one IP!
There is one more point that Aoki Haruhi had not analyzed—
Elementary school students have limited purchasing power, and the office workers who do have purchasing power have not yet been attracted to Pokémon.
This creates a purchasing vacuum in the interim.
After some time, when elementary school students begin to beg their parents to buy them handheld consoles and copies of Pokémon, and the office workers with purchasing power are influenced by those around them and gradually get hooked...
That is when this game will truly take off.
Right now, it is equivalent to the fire having been lit; it is in the process of waiting to spread.
"Huh? How could this be?" Hattori Yuji sat in his office, completely baffled.
It had been over a week since the release, and Pokémon hadn't even managed to sell 20,000 copies. You have to understand that other P Corporation games usually reached sales of 70,000 to 100,000 by this point.
Hattori Yuji clutched his chest, the pain intense.
That bastard Aoki Haruhi...
I threw the game cartridge in the trash, so why didn't Pokémon fail to take off?
Sigh.
As expected, Pokeni is only ever good at other types of games; whenever they develop an all-ages title, it never ends well.
It was the same with Noble Academy, and now it's the same with Pokémon.
However...
He glanced at the new Sega handheld console sitting on his desk.
Could it be because I didn't throw away the game console?
Meanwhile, over at Sega, Nakayama Hayao didn't look very happy either.
He wasn't feeling troubled because of Pokémon; Sega hadn't pinned their hopes for the handheld's launch on Pokémon in the first place. When they were discussing the collaboration, Nakayama hadn't really cared much about what Pokeni was developing.
Everyone was in the same boat, each developing their own games for the new handheld platform, and that was all there was to it.
Sega was doing it, Pokeni was doing it, and Sony was doing it too.
It was just a matter of who could come up with a product that could truly leverage the handheld's performance and become a breakout hit.
For Sega, it didn't matter who it was, as long as a game like that appeared, it would give them a boost.
But so far, it seemed no such game had emerged.
What bothered Nakayama was that the growth rate of Sega GP's sales hadn't been as good as he had imagined.
Theoretically, color screen handheld consoles were undoubtedly the trend of the era. Even though Nintendo stubbornly insisted that color screen technology wasn't mature enough and that it wasn't yet time for color screen handhelds to become mainstream, claiming they weren't afraid of the impact of color screen handhelds at all.
However, Hayao Nakayama knew very well in his heart that Nintendo was likely as anxious as an ant on a hot pan right now, desperately trying to turn the Game Boy into a color screen game console, and they were probably already developing one.
Sega's new handheld console completely crushed Nintendo in terms of performance and was priced the same as the GB, but its only weakness was the lack of games, especially major titles.
The fact that it had managed to sell over 600,000 units so far, with sales continuing to grow, was mainly thanks to Sega's own "Sonic the Hedgehog."
"Damn Konami! Damn Namco!" Hayao Nakayama was extremely furious. "These guys talk a good game, but in the end, none of them have taken any action!"
Seeing the poor sales of Pokémon, the editor-in-chief of Famitsu finally breathed a sigh of relief.
That's because, once again, Famitsu only gave Pokémon a low score of 29.
This magazine truly is a model of unwavering integrity. Even in the previous life, when facing a major overlord like Nintendo, Famitsu didn't give Pokémon much face, giving it a score of 28—even lower than it is now.
In its bi-weekly issue, Famitsu evaluated the game like this:
[Because this game was developed for a handheld console, its graphics can only be described as barely satisfactory.
Constrained by the hardware limitations, it is unable to showcase any particularly exquisite visual effects.
The playability of the game itself is mediocre at best. The combat is standard, by-the-numbers turn-based gameplay, but in terms of strategic depth and customization, it is far inferior to other turn-based RPGs.
The plot also appears somewhat weak. The protagonist travels along the path of a trainer, defeating various opponents to win the championship—the goal is clear and simple, lacking any twists or emotional resonance in the storyline. Even the bond between human and pet is nowhere near as infectious as it is in the animated series.
Overall, neither the protagonist nor the plot has any notable highlights in terms of character design or narrative.]
The character development of the villains and other rivals is stronger than that of the protagonist.
The plot is almost nonexistent.
Compared to other RPGs or turn-based games, it seems somewhat inferior.
However, the game has its own unique features and highlights.
In terms of features, training your own Pokémon provides a real sense of growth. Raising a Pokémon step-by-step, especially when it evolves into a more powerful creature, brings a sense of achievement that is truly indescribable.
Moreover, Pokémon has created an extensive ecosystem where different Pokémon inhabit different environments, and Pokémon with different natures have different behavioral habits.
Even in the text descriptions, you can feel the dedication of the development team.
With over 150 Pokémon, just the design alone must have taken an immense amount of time, not to mention filling them out to make their images and habits both realistic and endearing—it's quite an impressive feat.
Pokémon FireRed and Pokémon LeafGreen, two different versions, each have their own exclusive Pokémon, allowing players to battle or trade Pokémon with each other.
This was an unprecedented achievement in gaming history.
How rich and bold an imagination one must have to develop such a system on a handheld device.
It is precisely because of these battling and trading features that Pokémon fostered interaction among players, successfully establishing connections between them. From this perspective, Pokémon had a very prominent highlight.
All things considered, it could barely be called a passing game.]
The comments from other editors were roughly the same.
The general consensus was that while Pokémon had its own originality and did quite well in terms of creature design, world-building, and player interaction, its shortcomings were also very obvious. Although you could switch Pokémon during each battle, they were still 1v1 fights. To a certain extent, this kind of turn-based game lacks strategic depth.
Compared to mainstream titles like Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, it offered fewer strategic dimensions.
In terms of innovation in battle gameplay, it was actually lacking; even with the addition of Pokémon raising elements, it wasn't enough to truly impress the editors.
On top of that, the plot was very thin—just going through Pokémon matches and winning the championship all the way...
Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen each had their own exclusive Pokémon, and players could battle or trade with each other.
To this day, the Famitsu editors still haven't quite figured it out: Pokeni's previous games had already proven that they had incredibly strong scriptwriters, so why was it that in Pokémon...
To this day, the editors at Famitsu still haven't quite figured it out. Pokeni's previous games had already proven they possessed incredibly talented scriptwriters, so why was the plot of Pokémon, of all things, so simple? It was so lacking that one couldn't even feel any ups and downs.
In contrast, the TV anime series performed remarkably well.
It was precisely because of these reasons that the Famitsu editors couldn't give Pokémon a particularly high score.
7, 7, 7, 8.
With a total score of 29, it was considered a passing grade. It was a pity it didn't reach Hall of Fame status, but the editors expressed that they had done their best.
When Editor-in-Chief Hirokazu Hamamura saw this score, he broke into a cold sweat.
The main issue was that P Corporation was completely different from other game developers; this studio was very difficult to measure using conventional rules. For instance, take The Entropic Man from last time, or The Mermaid's Heart from the time before that...
Famitsu couldn't justify giving these games high scores, yet their sales figures were inexplicably good.
Pokeni was a monster in the gaming industry, and there was no telling what strange things might happen.
If it happened again—where Famitsu gave a low score, but the game was deeply loved by players and had astonishing sales—Hamamura wasn't sure he would be able to keep it together.
If things continued like this, he and the four editors responsible for scoring might all lose their jobs.
If they couldn't provide fair scores from the perspective of the players and select games that matched what the players truly loved, Famitsu's reputation would inevitably decline.
Fortunately, it seemed they had held their ground this time.
Pokémon's sales performance couldn't be called bad, but it certainly wasn't great either.
"It seems the players' eyes are sharp," Hamamura said. "A game like this might have unique features, but its failure to sell exceptionally well speaks volumes."
At least this time, they had stood on the side of the players.
"Looking at it this way, it's pretty obvious that Gorotsu took bribes from Pokeni," said editor Kato Hiroshi, placing the latest issue of Gorotsu on Hamamura's desk with a mocking tone.
Hamamura flipped it open and took a look.
Sure enough, Gorotsu had a large feature on Pokémon, complete with many screenshots from the game, and had given it a high rating.
While they did mention some negative criticisms, they certainly weren't as honest, strict, or straightforward as Famitsu.
Overall, Gorotsu's praise for Pokémon far outweighed its criticisms, and they even included some detailed strategy guides in the magazine.
Although not entirely satisfied with Kato's rash assertion, Hamamura could not help but ponder the same question at that moment—
Had Gorotsu been paid off by Pokeni?
It felt as though this magazine had a special fondness for Pokeni. Every time a new game from P Corp was about to be released, or was just nearing its release, Gorotsu would always be the first to provide coverage, even digging up exclusive news that other magazines lacked.
"Hmm... don't say things like that in the future, Kato," Hamamura said, staring sternly. "We just need to focus on our own work."
Facts speak louder than words.
Pokémon's sales are the best proof.
No matter how much Gorotsu hypes it up, if the players don't like it, they just don't like it.
But gradually, as time went by, Hamamura noticed something wasn't quite right.
Because Pokeni's "Pokémon" game was particularly strange.
Although the first-week sales weren't very good, every week that Pokémon aired, the game's sales would suddenly jump up to a new level.
By the second week, Pokémon's game sales had already reached 30,000 copies.
That could already be considered strong among ordinary games.
In the third week, Pokémon's sales surpassed 100,000 copies.
The fourth week, it was 200,000 copies.
"Holy cow!!"
The editorial department of Famitsu was practically exploding.
The editors who had been in charge of scoring it earlier looked completely bewildered.
"What... what is happening?" When Kato received the latest data, his fingers couldn't stop trembling.
Previously, everyone had thought that the Pokémon game was just average, and its performance among turn-based games wasn't very eye-catching. So how, in just a month's time, had it completely turned everything upside down?
It wasn't just Kato who was dumbfounded; everyone else was equally confused.
"Does Pokeni know magic?"
"I've heard that thanks to Pokémon's strong sales, Sega's consoles are getting a boost too."
The most crucial thing is—
Such a sales trend is something Hamamura has simply never heard of.
Because games, known as the "ninth art," have some similarities to film and television.
Generally speaking, the first month after a new game's release accounts for a very high proportion of its sales, and one can make a rough judgment about future trends from the initial week's sales figures.
It's a bit like showing movies in a cinema; many viewers rush to watch them in the first month, and then the attendance rate gradually decreases as time goes on.
Although there is a long-tail effect, and future events or such can make long-term game sales higher, it's impossible for them to increase so dramatically.
Unless it's something like Nintendo's Super Mario.
It stands to reason that the fate of "Pokémon" should have been decided in its first week, but no one expected it to have such staying power—to the point where it leaves everyone in awe.
He couldn't help but think of what his colleagues just said—
Is Pokeni using magic?!
When he returned home on the weekend, he found his young daughter, who was in the first grade, lying on the floor watching the Pokémon anime.
Seeing Hamamura return, she beamed with joy, handing him his slippers and bringing him tea and water.
Whenever this happened, Hamamura knew this little one definitely wanted something.
Who would have guessed that when he asked offhandedly, his daughter perched on his shoulder and begged, "Daddy, don't you rate games? Then you must know the people who make games, right?"
"Hmm... not exactly," Hamamura said with a smile.
"Daddy, can you buy me a Pokémon?" his daughter said, pointing to the anime playing on the TV. "A lot of my classmates have Pokémon, and I want to play with them."
"Huh?"
Hamamura was bewildered.
What kind of magical game is Pokémon, anyway?!
The daughter pointed to the cartoon playing on the television and said, "A lot of my classmates have Pokémon. I want to play with them too."
"Huh?"
Hamamura looked bewildered.
What on earth kind of magical game is Pokémon?!
Please Support me by becoming my patreon member and get 20+ chapters.
[email protected]/Ajal69
change @ with a
Thank You to Those who joined my Patreon