Chapter 116: Lunaria Softworks
Chapter 116: Lunaria Softworks
Of course, saying it collapsed was a slight exaggeration, and it still maintained competitiveness in several fields. But it was true that, due to repeated similar failures, it had shrunk noticeably compared to its heyday.
But in the case of its greatest success, the PlayStation, it had used CDs, a popular medium, from the very beginning and quickly adopted the trendy 3D graphics of the time. That made it even stranger, because it did not seem like a company that failed to understand the strength of mass appeal.
(Translator’s Notes: PlayStation — Sony’s first home video game console, originally released in Japan in 1994. It became strongly associated with early 3D console gaming.)
Of course, once that game started doing well too, it suddenly tried to forcibly integrate a previously multiplatform game into Sony accounts and got heavily criticized for the mistake.
If Masayoshi Son and SoftBank had existed in this world as well, WET would not have needed to struggle so hard to find partners. SoftBank would have come carrying investment money on its own. But even similar worlds were not identical in every way.
(Translator’s Note: Masayoshi Son — Founder of SoftBank, a Japanese entrepreneur known for major technology and internet investments.)
(Translator’s Notes: SoftBank — Japanese technology and investment company that partnered with Yahoo to establish Yahoo Japan in Insu’s previous-life history.)
In the end, the company Parallel Soft found was a software developer called Lunaria Softworks. It had originally made enterprise programs and had recently begun focusing on game development.
It was not a large company. Its annual sales were roughly one billion yen. After confirming this, Seongcheol frowned slightly and said,
“Isn’t this company too small?”
“But none of the large companies want to work with us. And we don’t exactly have a lot of funds right now either.”
Hyein reacted as though this might actually be better. They were already burning through funds quickly because of investments in WET and TLF Online.
It was only because the internet around the world, including Japan, showed signs of major growth that they could not miss the opportunity and were trying to reach out somehow. If not for that, they would not have attempted this kind of expansion.
And if the partner company was small, there were advantages to that too. At the time of establishment, Japanese regulations meant they had to give the Japanese side a larger ownership stake, but stock transactions were not prohibited. Once the situation allowed, they could purchase the other side’s shares and regain management control.
In any case, Hyein and Seongcheol moved as quickly as possible out of concern that competitors might appear in Japan, and established WET Japan.
Lunaria Softworks was not originally a company with a particularly clear identity.
It had an identity as a software developer, but its initial main business, enterprise software, had not performed very well. It survived by doing whatever it could, and only barely gained some breathing room after its games started doing fairly well.
However, the success was not great enough for the company to completely shift its direction toward games all at once. So although it intended to keep developing games, it had never stopped looking for other business opportunities.
Then a joint venture request arrived from Parallel Soft, a rising star in the IT industry.
“We absolutely have to seize this!”
Director Kenichi Takahashi argued forcefully, his bald head reddening.
This was a company that already dominated the American market. Of course, America and Japan were different, so success was not guaranteed, but they calculated that it would achieve at least some degree of results. Even if it did not, there would still be some benefit from the cooperative relationship itself.
“This partnership is guaranteed to be profitable.”
This was Takuya Inoue from the game development department.
The existing employees agreed, and so did the game development team, which had recently joined, achieved results, and secured its position within the company.
That was only natural. Parallel Soft was the company that developed the TLF series and created TLF Online, which had just shocked the entire world. Leaving aside admiration and fan sentiment, if they formed a cooperative relationship, Lunaria would gain enormous benefits not only in game development but also in marketing.
Of course, this joint venture was not easy. Lunaria had gathered a fair amount of funds from its previously released RPG, but it still lacked enough capital to establish a company for a major business like a portal site.
Even so, President Ryuji Fujimoto decided to stake the company’s fate on this matter.
That was why he accepted Parallel Soft’s proposal to purchase 40 percent of Lunaria’s shares under the pretext of financial support.
In truth, this was partly so Parallel Soft could strengthen cooperation with the local company, but it was also meant to avoid handing too much initiative to the local side and to lay groundwork for the future.
It was a somewhat sinister plan to secure control by buying back WET Japan’s shares later, or, if Japan’s regulations ultimately did not loosen, by acquiring Lunaria as a workaround.
Lunaria was not stupid, so it was not as if they failed to notice this completely.
But to a small company like Lunaria, especially one struggling for survival, even that looked like an opportunity.
“Lunaria Softworks?”
Insu had been too busy preparing for TLF Online’s official launch and only heard the details about the Japanese joint venture a little late.
Of course, he had continued to hear about their plan to enter Japan and the fact that they were looking for a joint venture partner. He had also heard that they had finally found one after great difficulty, but he had no time to pay attention to it and temporarily forgot.
Then detailed information, introductions, and developed products related to Lunaria arrived at Parallel Soft, naturally bringing the company back into his sight.
They’re on the SI side.
He had found it a little odd when he heard that they were a company securing funds through game development, but they seemed more likely to have synergy with WET and TLF Online than expected. Their technical ability also did not seem bad.
Of course, there was a difference between a closed, limited corporate environment and an online environment, but both shared key elements such as server-client structures, data processing, and security.
They might be able to help with things like server stabilization too.
Thinking that his dad and mom had made a good choice after all, Insu shifted his attention toward the game side.
RPGs. Typical Japanese-style RPGs.
They had been developing games since 1992, and they had released as many as twelve titles so far. Their development capability seemed quite substantial. Most of those games were RPGs.
“They say this is their best-selling series.”
Seongcheol said this while picking up one of the packages on the desk.
[Anis Continent Story]
It seemed that after making various things, one game sold fairly well in 1993, and they had turned that momentum into a series. In just three years, six titles had come out, and one more was scheduled to release this year to conclude the series.
Insu found it interesting and was curious, so he installed it and tried playing.
It’s pretty and neat.
The character designs were quite good. The UI and overall game design were also clean. It felt like a smart model student had understood the formula of a JRPG and applied it properly.
The narrative and story were decent too.
However, there was almost no originality to be seen. It really felt exactly like a model student doing precisely what he had learned. And because it focused on the JRPG traits of characters and story, there seemed to be almost no strategic depth.
Of course, since it was an SRPG, there were basic things to think about, such as how far units could move in one turn and calculating enemy movement. But even those became simple enough for mindless charging once the characters leveled up a bit.
(Translator’s Notes: SRPG — Strategy Role-Playing Game. A genre combining RPG progression systems with tactical or grid-based combat.)
Well, it does have the satisfaction of leveling up and a satisfying sense of impact.
Insu felt a little disappointed, but it was definitely the kind of game some people would like.
Does it feel similar to Farland Story?
Farland Story was a classic game he often saw discussed among old games. It had a certain level of recognition among Korean gamers in the 1990s, but perhaps because it was a PC game, even in its home country of Japan, it only sold decently at the time and failed to remain a promising IP.
It lacked depth, but it felt light and refreshing, so it could actually appeal to the public. If it had been sold in America, China, or Europe, where the PC game market was large and people were relatively familiar with Japanese-style characters and art, it might have been more successful. But perhaps because the company was small, it did not expand overseas except to neighboring Korea and quietly faded away.
And it also seems like the kind of taste that could work in the later mobile era.
Insu found it quite interesting. It did not quite match his own tastes, but that was exactly why it felt like it could make up for something he lacked.
Moreover, since he was planning ESD, an electronic distribution system like Steam, he was very glad to form a cooperative relationship with a company that had weak distribution ability but could quickly produce many quality games.
Even if he created Steam, it would not immediately replace existing offline distributors. In the beginning, he would have to survive using only his own games and a few partner companies’ games.
Insu decided to look forward to seeing whether this company would also develop games like those made by TGL in his previous life, such as Farland Tactics, How to Become a Wizard, and Saint Eyes.
(Translator’s Notes: TGL — Japanese game company known for titles such as the Farland series and How to Become a Wizard.)
(Translator’s Notes: Farland Tactics — Japanese tactical RPG series by TGL. It became especially well known in Korea due to strong Korean localization and compatibility with the PC-centered Korean market.)
(Translator’s Note: Saint Eyes — Japanese real-time strategy RPG released by TGL in 1999, combining RPG progression with real-time unit control.)
If they don’t come out, I could make them myself.
TGL was not an extremely successful game developer, but it had clear strengths and at one point had considerable recognition. Furthermore, although it lacked creativity at first, it later gradually introduced original systems and built its own fanbase.
However, perhaps because the company’s foundation was not really in games, it was passive with investment, and capable talent kept leaving. At some point, it lost its growth potential and faded away.
But that was the story from his previous life. In this world, it had formed a connection with Insu’s Parallel Soft, so it was impossible to know what result it would face.
On June 10, 1996, TLF Online was finally officially released.
Even though the team members had completed the official version fifteen days earlier, they still could not relax. Part of it was the thought that if a problem appeared after launch, all their hard work until now might become meaningless, but there was also pressure created by the official launch itself.
Fortunately, even after checking continuously until just before launch, no special problems were found, and the download servers and game servers opened as scheduled.
“The counter is going up!”
In truth, even if people came pouring in, they were all just digital signals on the internet, so the crowd could not be seen with the naked eye as it could in reality. The only way to imagine it was through the numbers on the counters attached to the download and game servers, just as Yoonsu shouted.
For now, the fact that the counter was rising meant people were connecting normally, so the development team members, including Insu, let out sighs of relief.
Of course, several members directly connected to the game themselves, both to test it and to check player login conditions.
It’s stuttering a little, but this much is fine.
It was within expectations. It was unavoidable for people to flood in at launch time. No matter how boldly Insu had invested, expanding server capacity enough to eliminate even launch-rush lag would have been an excessive waste.
This kind of surge was a very temporary phenomenon. If they increased server capacity too much, those servers would sit idle afterward. The best option was to endure it appropriately with the delay system and queue system, just as they were doing now.
After connecting to the game, Insu immediately began looking around.
Oh. There are a lot. A lot.
Characters that seemed to be gamers were swarming all over the world. It was the moment he confirmed with his own eyes what he had only seen as numbers.
“I can’t connect.”
Insu had entered safely, but not every member of the development team was able to connect to the server.
For about an hour afterward, delays and queues continued.
<When is this going to clear up?!>
<Add more servers!!>
<Are you even running the service properly?>
Complaints exploded across internet and PC communication communities. He did not bother checking, but the customer support center was probably the same.
This was unavoidable. Just because people were inconvenienced by waiting at a popular restaurant did not mean the restaurant would infinitely expand its size until everyone could eat without lining up. After all, crowding only happened during mealtimes, and even then, only during peak hours.
However, if these complaints became too large or if access problems continued, people might lose interest in the game itself, so Insu and the team watched the situation with anxious hearts.