Importance of Data

Tora-Suzuki conference meeting, the executives were reviewing the report of their video game, "Gloomy: Land of Happiness," and they were initially happy about their video game's first-day sales being quite high, even surpassing the estimated sales of other video game entertainment companies.

But as the days passed, their video game "Gloomy: Land of Happiness" started to gradually decline in sales.

Then, according to the report, the estimated sales of KiShin's "Metal Gear Solid I" were widely different compared to theirs. Although its estimated first-day sales were slightly lower compared to theirs, KiShin's video games surged in sales day by day, and if there was a decline, it was only a slight one.

"According to our survey, our video game, 'Gloomy: Land of Happiness,' is pretty boring according to the gamers' opinions. It's because the levels were too easy, and they felt that some of the levels were repetitive. Additionally, the in-game character, Gloomy's return to the Elemotion Land, was dragged out with the easy and boring levels in the Magic World."

The Tora analysis that leads a team reported out to the Tora-Suzuki executives.

"Tsk. If your Data Scientist had done a good job, this wouldn't have happened," Shiko said to Itori Tanaka, who is sitting in the center of the table.

"That's right! If the Data Scientists of Tora had really analyzed the patterns and trends in gamers' behavior, we could have developed a better video game design and made better decisions!" A Suzuki executive also exclaimed.

"It appears that the Data Scientists at Tora are slacking to not notice such a simple issue!"

Itori Tanaka, having heard the executives' complaints, mainly from Suzuki, felt a bit helpless. Nevertheless, he addressed them with a faint smile and calmness, saying, "Please calm down, everyone." He continued,

"We can't attribute everything to the Data Scientists' analysis of gamers' behavior. The video game industry was revived just five years ago, and there's still much to discover and learn. We also face limitations in storage and processing power, which hinders our ability to store and analyze large datasets. Analyzing even moderate amounts of data can be laborious and time-consuming. Since the video game industry is vastly different from several decades ago, having been revived only five years ago, predicting players' preferences is more challenging. These factors contribute to our Data Scientists being less able to predict player behavior."

Upon hearing Itori Tanaka's explanations, the Tora-Suzuki executives were momentarily silent, finding his reasoning sensible.

If Shin were here today, he would probably be laughing uncontrollably.

After all, if he were in the Tora-Suzuki position, he would probably feel just as helpless, considering that the data scientists today have limited insights. With less data and simpler tools, the depth and granularity of player insights were constrained. Predicting player behavior and understanding what they truly enjoyed or disliked about the game has been quite challenging. Data-driven design approaches like A/B testing and dynamic difficulty adjustment were non-existent. Balancing gameplay, creating engaging challenges, and personalizing the experience would have relied heavily on intuition and guesswork. And there were more issues regarding video game development.

While KiShin doesn't face most of the problems of Tora-Suzuki now, as KiShin has access to the historical datasets of Shin's previous life through Shin, the existing competitor studios in this parallel world wouldn't have access to the massive historical datasets Shin currently possesses. KiShin would be replicating known successes, and the competitor's data scientists would be building analyses from scratch on a smaller player base.

Without the wealth of data and algorithms that Shin processed, the competitor's data scientists might be less accurate in predicting player behavior and preferences. This could lead to misfiring game designs and marketing strategies.

After a moment of silence, a Tora executive asked, "What about KiShin? How could most of their video games be so successful? Do they have better Data Scientists and advanced equipment for technical storage than us?"

As soon as this question was brought up, almost everyone in the room looked at Itori Tanaka, who chuckled helplessly in response.

"We don't exactly know why KiShin is so accurate in analyzing players' preferences, but I assume it's because KiShin was the one who revived the video game industry and released the early video games that entertained gamers when the industry was pretty much 90% dead. That's why gamers have become accustomed to KiShin's video games..." Itori Tanaka provided a reasonable analysis.

"Oh? Is it like when the baby duck comes out of its egg, and the first one it sees is its mother?" Seki, who was listening while stroking his chin, exclaimed.

"Uh... Maybe, it was something like that." Itori Tanaka's smiling lips couldn't help but twitch in response...

Bang!

"That is the most ridiculous explanation I've heard today!"

Shiko banged the table, surprising almost everyone in the room. He then stated, "I don't agree with such explanations; even a kid wouldn't be fooled. If you're trying to cover up for your data scientists and your team's incompetence, come up with a better explanation."

Upon hearing this, Itori Tanaka remained calm and replied, "If my earlier explanations were hard for you to comprehend, Mr. Shiko Suzuki, then I don't know what to say anymore."

"Yeah? Because you couldn't think of any other reasons anymore!" Shiko chuckled disdainfully and muttered, "I should have gone to the car design discussions at Suzuki instead."

Suddenly, a voice was heard.

"Then let me suggest an idea."

Almost everyone was surprised, including Itori Tanaka, as the one who spoke was his younger brother, Kenji Tanaka.

"Oh? What's your idea, Kenji?" Itori Tanaka couldn't help but ask with a smile.

"Why don't we analyze KiShin's success instead of relying on our own? By closely studying KiShin's game design choices, player reception, and marketing strategies, we could gather valuable insights and adapt our own games accordingly," Kenji said with a smile.

When everyone heard it, especially Taro Ikeda, couldn't help but chuckle and said, "Isn't that just copying KiShin again? Didn't it already backfire? I mean, we could explore the same genre, like side-scrolling, but completely copying will make it too obvious to the players. We are trying to build off our own originality, right?"

Almost everyone thought the same, and Itori Tanaka also shared the sentiment.

Kenji Tanaka nodded in understanding and said, "I'm not suggesting we copy them; what I'm trying to say is we'll learn from KiShin. While KiShin dominates the video game market, we could focus on identifying and catering to underserved niche markets in the existing player base, offering fresh experiences that KiShin might overlook."