Sonaya HQ Japan
Hikaru Kurata had just watched The Eight trailers. His forehead throbbed with frustration, and in a burst of rage, he slamd his coffee mug to the ground. "DAMN! DAMN YOU, ZAGE! DAMN YOU, Michael Jackson!" he roared. Then he paused, took a deep breath, and steadied himself. Clenching his teeth, he admitted what he already knew—ZAGE had long surpassed Sonaya in gaming. But this crossed a line. ZAGE had dared to develop a Michael Jackson ga—and Michael Jackson had a contract with Sonaya! "Damn this. Can I sue them? No—better talk to Junpei first." Hikaru Kurata muttered through gritted teeth before storming out to find him. He approached Junpei without hesitation and requested an urgent eting.
"Junpei, did you see the newest ZAGE trailer?" Hikaru asked, his voice tight. Junpei looked at him with concern—his boss’s face was flushed with visible frustration. "Yes, boss, I saw it." Junpei said with casual tone.
Hikaru Kurata took a breath, trying to steady himself. "What do you think?" he asked quietly.
Junpei Hoshida replied, "Honestly, I still don’t know how they did it. Eight gas in two months? And they all look incredibly polished. I can’t wrap my head around how Zaboru pulled it off—and so consistently. That’s what blows my mind." Junpei Hoshida sighed.
"Yeah, I know damn well they are AMAZING, JUNPEI!" Hikaru shouted, then smacked the desk. "YOU DON’T EVEN NEED TO TELL THAT , YOU DUMBASS!"
Junpei wasn’t even afraid and only looked at Hikaru Kurata with casual eyes. Hikaru then sighed, relaxed a bit, and caressed his forehead.
"Sorry about that. I shouldn’t have thrown a tantrum."
Junpei nodded. "It’s okay, boss. If it helped you let off steam, then it’s worth it."
Hikaru Kurata shook his head. "Releasing eight gas at once already grinds my gears—but making a Michael Jackson ga? That’s what really pushes over the edge."
Junpei replied, "True, boss. Michael Jackson is a legendary artist. But do you really think a ga based on him will sell? I an, who in their right mind makes a video ga about Michael Jackson?"
Hikaru Kurata nodded slowly. "Yeah, you’ve got a point. Still, we publish his music. You’d think he’d show us a bit more respect."
Junpei added, "Sure, but if I rember right, we don’t have the rights to use his image in gas, correct?"
Hikaru sighed. "Yeah. I didn’t think that far ahead."
Junpei smiled reassuringly. "No worries, boss. We’re still putting out four gas this month—two of our own and two from developers we’ve acquired. We may not top the charts, but we can definitely hold our ground."
Hikaru nodded again. "Alright then, Junpei. Just make sure our gas deliver. I expect the best."
Junpei gave a firm nod and went straight back to work.
anwhile, other developers who had beco ZAGE’s third-party partners were also watching the trailer for The Eight. One of them was Triangle Soft, a studio known for consistently producing strong JRPGs for ZEPS, ZGB, and ZEPS 2. Their most recent title was Jewel Sword 2. Among their leadership was none other than Hironobu Sakaguchi—yes, that Hironobu Sakaguchi, the legendary creator of Final Fantasy in Zaboru’s previous life. In this world, he had been born in 1967—five years later than before—and Zaboru had no idea about this anomaly. Apparently, several renowned developers from Zaboru’s forr tiline had not only joined ZAGE but had also found hos at other companies, like Hironobu here.
Hironobu Sakaguchi was watching the trailer on his CRT TV at Triangle Soft offices.
"Wow. ZAGE is on a really different level. They’re really insane. Eight gas in two months. It’s really impressive."
Munegai Katsuki, one of the head ga designers, also smiled and nodded.
"Yeah, it’s really great. They really are different from us, huh?"
Hironobu smiled and said, "It’s not that we’re slow. It’s quite the opposite—ZAGE is just built differently, in my opinion. Still, that Tales of Phantasia stuff is really great. ZAGE is experinting with the JRPG genre. It’s a random encounter, but a real-ti battle. It’s quite unique."
Then Munegai asked, "Should we create sothing like this too?"
Hironobu chuckled and said, "Not really. I think JRPGs should be turn-based. It’s really suited for the genre."
Munegai chuckled and nodded, clearly agreeing with him, but then he chid in, "Still, sotis we can try a new genre, right?" Hironobu chuckled and nodded, "True, but we should understand that we are not ZAGE, so we should focus on what we best at"
anwhile at BANZ, Kurokawa Satou was chuckling, drinking cola, and laughing out loud.
"HAHAHA! Zaboru is really sothing else!"
He genuinely admired Zaboru for creating gas like Star Fox. To Kurokawa, true gas were shoot-’em-ups—pure action, tight chanics, no fluff. That belief was the foundation of his studio, which specialized exclusively in shoot-’em-up titles.
"Raiden Trad, huh? Looks like a simple shoot-’em-up on the surface—but I know better. That ga’s got serious depth." Kurokawa took another bite of chicken and chased it with a long sip of cola, eyes still locked on the screen.
All the other ga developers reacted in a similar way. They were really admiring ZAGE because they were constantly innovating and releasing an insane amount of gas every month.
anwhile, in the U.S., Michael Jackson watched the trailer with clear excitent. "Whoa! That’s —in video ga graphics!" he exclaid, grinning ear to ear. "Hehehe, I can’t wait to see what Zaboru’s cooking up for !" Even the simple gaplay footage from the Moonwalker ga had him thrilled. He was already certain—he’d be buying it on day one.
"Maybe I should promote it a little?" he mused aloud.
His secretary, Kimberly, frowned. "That would be outrageous, Michael. If ZAGE wants promotion from you, they need to approach you with a proper agreent."
Michael sighed. "Sotis it’s not about money, Kimberly. I genuinely want to promote it myself."
Kimberly shook her head. "That could spell trouble with Sonaya. They publish your music, rember?"
Michael sighed again, the weight of politics and contracts wearing on him. Even supporting sothing he loved has beco complicated these days.
"Sonaya is in the gaming industry too?" he asked.
Kimberly nodded. "Yeah, they’ve been a rival to ZAGE. Though in terms of quality and quantity, ZAGE is far superior. Still, Sonaya has its own unique fanbase—if I’m not mistaken."
Michael asked, "Do you think it’s possible for us to create our own distributor? Or maybe ask ZAGE? Zaboru seems like a chill guy when it cos to this stuff."
Kimberly sighed and replied, "It’s true—ZAGE’s owner, Zaboru, actually encourages people to take inspiration from his gas. He doesn’t restrict it, as long as the gas are good. I’ve also heard that publishing costs for third-party developers at ZAGE are way lower than at Sonaya. It’s on the border of being very cheap. Zaboru might be seen as naive in business circles, but he’s genuinely loved by fans and his partners."
Michael laughed. "Yeah, I know. He’s that kind of guy. I really admire him. And I think you need to respect him more, Kimberly — he’s already a billionaire, you know?"
Kimberly sweated. "Y-yeah, I know, Michael. It was really my mistake to disrespect him like that. At the ti, I just didn’t realize he was already a billionaire."
Michael chuckled. "Glad you understand. Well, maybe he doesn’t care about that kind of stuff anyway. Let’s go."
And with that, Michael and Kimberly headed off to their next task of the day.
anwhile Zaboru himself is right now thinking about planning for September gas aside from Diablo and Virtual Cop that ZAGE USA is on the way to create them.
To be continued
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