Chapter 58
Chapter 58
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Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: Acceptance Speech
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"This year's Game of the Year award goes to Soul Hunters by Savior Soft!!!"
Clap, clap, clap.
The wide auditorium echoed with applause.
"Congratulations, Huck."
"Thanks."
As I stood up from my seat after being called, Scarlett—who had come with me—along with Jason, Rogers, Jackson, and the other early members of Savior Soft offered their congratulations.
'Ha... Who would've thought I'd end up at an awards ceremony.'
Was it thanks to my past life experiences?
I never got nervous in front of world-renowned scholars or even the heads of top global corporations.
But this time was different.
Ricardo Garriott glaring at me from his distant seat like he wanted to kill me.
On the other side, Mr. Shigeru from Nendo was clapping while looking my way, and there were other prominent game developers like Satoshi from Scanix joining in the applause.
All of them—people who would become legends in the gaming industry in the future—were applauding me as I headed up to receive the award.
'It's been a while.'
If I said I'd never dreamed of a moment like this as a game director, that would be a lie.
Back when I first joined Nothing in my past life, there were nights I fell asleep imagining scenes just like this.
But,
— Hey, who do you think you are, Shigeru? Bringing me an open-world RPG proposal?! Fix it right now!
In my past life, I quickly learned that dream was nothing but pie in the sky.
My role at Nothing wasn't developing new games; it was maintaining and updating existing ones.
Of course, I wouldn't deny that even that had its own joys.
Even if countless users cursed me out, keeping games alive—games that held their old memories—felt meaningful in its own way.
Still,
"Soul Hunters from Savior Soft is a masterpiece without equal, featuring graphics ahead of their time, dazzling action, and a fresh setting that we've never seen before..."
As I climbed the stage, I wondered if I was dreaming.
Countless audience members filled the view from the podium.
Among them sat the very people I had admired and respected in my past life.
One of them—Ricardo Garriott, whom I'd recently roasted in that interview—was actually a developer I liked too.
Sure, his later years were a bit iffy, but the legacy he left influenced games I enjoyed.
"Congratulations, Huck."
"Thank you."
Once I reached the stage, Nolan Bushnell—the AIAS chairman—approached and shook my hand.
Nolan Bushnell was the creator of the legendary game Pong and the founder of Atari, which shocked the gaming industry.
Though retired now, he'd accepted the AIAS chairmanship this year and was the one presenting the award to me.
"Well then, please give us your acceptance speech."
"Yes."
Bushnell handed me the trophy and stepped back. A podium with a microphone was set up in front of me.
"Heh... Can everyone hear me okay?"
I leaned into the mic for a quick test, and my voice filled the auditorium.
Seeing the audience smile and nod, I took a deep breath and cleared my throat.
"Hello, I'm Huck, CEO of Savior Soft—the company that made Byte Office and brought me here today."
The audience smiled at the light joke.
Even though Savior Soft had achieved enough success to win Game of the Year, the public still largely saw us as a software company, thanks to Byte Office and our other programs.
"For a side-project game to snag the top award... looks like the gaming industry doesn't have much star power either."
In Korea, that line would've made headlines calling me crazy the next day. But this was America—Las Vegas—no problem at all.
"Phew... To be honest, I'm still in disbelief."
Now it was time for my unfiltered true feelings.
"The gaming industry has seen dazzling growth and progress over the years. Even Pong, created by our AIAS chairman Bushnell over there, has become a relic of a bygone era."
Bushnell shrugged at my words.
"But it's because of works like that we have cutting-edge games like Savior Soft's Soul Hunters today."
I paused and looked out at the audience.
Thanks to the foundation these people built, the industry would keep growing for decades.
And like them, I wanted to lay a foundation for the future.
"But with all that growth comes plenty of ills plaguing the industry. From piracy to low-quality games stuck in the Atari days, distribution issues, and conflicts between console makers and developers."
For the first time, a murmur—not laughter—rippled through the crowd.
They probably hadn't expected me to touch such sensitive topics at an awards ceremony.
"That the gaming world now has a meaningful event like this—akin to the Oscars—and that Savior Soft was chosen as its first flagship winner... feels almost like a sign from above."
I glanced at the trophy in my hand, then locked eyes with Scarlett, Jane-sunbae, Rogers and Jason, Jackson in the audience.
Scarlett was rubbing her forehead, already dreading the fallout. Jane-sunbae and Jason were just grinning excitedly.
Rogers and Jackson fidgeted, aware of the surrounding stares.
"Savior Soft will clean up this industry from the top down. And if anyone else wants a shot at this award in the future, I'd steer clear of the years we release games."
— Or you'll go your whole life without one.
"Really, what's the point of giving you a script if you're going to do this? The only ones excited right now are the reporters."
"It was fun, though?"
"Huck, you're just like Jason in some ways."
Hmm.
Scarlett seemed pretty heated about my acceptance speech.
'At least I didn't break into a dance.'
The word "normalize" from my mouth reminded me of the "virtue-pop" trend from my past life.
Of course, the "normalization" they used had a different connotation and a bad rep, but I was dead serious about fixing the industry's issues.
There were still so many hurdles to clear before virtual reality games.
I couldn't afford to let industry ills hold me back—not if I wanted to reach VR anytime soon.
"If you'd pulled this before the IPO was finalized, even as CEO, you'd be in the hot seat."
"I wouldn't have done a stunt like this if the IPO prep wasn't done."
"November 4th, first Tuesday of the month—that's our listing day. From now on, we have to watch even falling leaves."
Scarlett spoke to me like she was scolding Jason.
And for good reason. With the IPO just a week away, her nerves were frayed.
She hadn't even done her favorite pastime—teasing Jason—in two weeks.
'Eek!'
'Phew...'
Jason had been deeply involved in the Soul Hunters character work this time.
Not with female characters where his talents shone best, but with NPCs, which he'd taken on himself.
'How's this? An NPC yokai disguised as a human appears here. Then, when the protagonist meets this NPC, you branch it into choices like 'follow' or 'not' and...'
Surprisingly, he had real talent for regular characters too.
I approved adding his proposed character to the game, and he excitedly ran to Jackson to request the design.
The resulting NPC—proposed by Jason and finalized by Jackson—was a snake yokai disguised as an old woman.
She lures the player to a secluded spot on her plea for help, then reveals her true form and attacks. Users who encountered it reacted pretty well.
Up to here, Jason looked like a model employee—no, an exemplary one.
But,
'Jason...'
'Eek!'
'Phew... I'm only letting it slide now because I don't have time to deal with you. Just wait until later.'
He'd named that NPC character after Scarlett.
And Scarlett only found out about it belatedly this time too.
Everyone watched eagerly, expecting her to half-kill him, but surprisingly, she just glared, hands trembling, and endured it with remarkable patience.
"Seriously, the moment the IPO's done, I'm going to beat that guy tenfold."
"I won't stop you."
I silently vowed never to let on that Jason had consulted me before naming it.
'Huck! I want to put Scarlett in every game from now on!'
'Oh... That could become a Savior Soft tradition. Sounds good!'
'Right? I'll add her to the Dead Hills remake too!'
Honestly, it was a fun idea.
And Jason could take the fall as the representative sacrifice. Perfect.
"We have five anchor investors committed to buying our shares during the IPO process."
"MiniSoft, IBM, GE, Morgan Stanley, and AT&T, right?"
"Yes. They're buying a total of 10% of the shares at 1.5 times the IPO price of $200."
We're listing 100 million shares total.
Of those, 20 million are publicly tradable, and with the 10 million already pre-sold to anchors, that's nearly a third locked up.
Factoring in shares distributed to Savior Soft's founding members, I hold 40%.
'No issues there.'
As Savior Soft becomes a public company, I shouldn't run it however I please like before.
But Scarlett handled that.
'Transfer the shares but keep the voting rights with you, sir. Of course, extending that to public shares would tank the IPO price, so we'll include an agreement giving Huck voting rights on internal shares and anchor investments.'
Voting rights.
Shareholders own the company and hold voting rights, but those can be delegated.
Scarlett leveraged that: post-IPO, I'd control 60% of the voting rights.
She modeled it after Bill Gates at MiniSoft.
'Secure friendly shares with voting rights by pre-selling to anchors. Grab the board chair and CEO spots, and as long as I don't do anything illegal, no one can stop me.'
Secure funding via IPO while retaining full control.
Not easy, even knowing how.
Unless the CEO is overwhelmingly dominant, anchors and insiders won't accept such a dictatorship.
But I could.
Savior Soft was me, and I was Savior Soft.