Enemies and friends

When November came around, a surprising piece of news emerged from the United States.

Led by several large companies, a collective lawsuit involving many small companies and individuals was filed in California, USA.

The defendant was GameStar Entertainment, and the lawsuit covered various aspects, including monopoly lawsuits, technology patent restrictions, and image infringement lawsuits.

All these lawsuits were bundled together, and the plaintiffs initiated a joint lawsuit, indicating that GameStar Entertainment had indeed offended some people.

The main initiators were several bosses from the film and television industry.

They were the first to express dissatisfaction with the use of Unreal Engine in film and television development.

For a company, if it didn't have any lawsuits, it didn't seem like a big company at all.

Whether you did good or bad, there would always be someone looking to cause trouble for you. This was fundamentally unavoidable.

Takayuki was prepared for this. Since competitors couldn't defeat you head-on, they would try to find other ways to take you down.

So when Matsubashi briefed him on this matter, he simply let Matsubashi handle it.

Having had previous experience, GameStar Entertainment's legal department was very strong now.

Among them was a legal advisor who had served two presidents, as well as several renowned patent and copyright lawyers.

GameStar Entertainment was a generous employer, and these lawyers prioritized money above all else, especially in cases like business disputes, which didn't involve morality. They loved them because they made money and gained fame.

GameStar Entertainment's legal department was dubbed the strongest in the industry, just like Nintendo and Disney's legal departments in previous lives, because they had suffered losses in this area before and had subsequently strengthened it at all costs.

With the experience and lessons from their predecessors in previous lives, GameStar Entertainment naturally wouldn't slack off in this area.

These companies wanted to slow down GameStar Entertainment's pace, ideally even crush it completely. Who asked them to have nothing better to do than to work on film and television effects, thus making unnecessary enemies for themselves.

But while they were making more enemies, they also gained allies.

When Tukalev learned of this, he didn't consult GameStar Entertainment but instead used his own connections and relationships to trouble those film and television companies.

Now deeply cooperating with GameStar Entertainment, especially seeing the potential of IPs in electronic games, if they could obtain authorization for future filming, perhaps they could also earn a lot. He didn't want GameStar Entertainment to run into trouble.

And if he didn't do something, he'd be a bit heartless. GameStar Entertainment had helped him a lot before. Although it was a mutually beneficial matter, he still had to remember this favor.

Without GameStar Entertainment, he might as well quit the film and television industry and go back to Russia to raise pigs.

Detroit Film Group, which had also benefited from Unreal Engine, naturally also wanted to help GameStar Entertainment.

Through his influence in the film and television industry, at least several film and television companies that were wavering decided to drop the lawsuit, and some even began to promote the use of Unreal Engine.

It was really a money-saving tool. Honestly, not using it would be foolish.

At the same time, there was a person named Hunter. Originally, he was Tukalev's competitor, but instead of joining the others in suing GameStar Entertainment, he contacted Matsubashi, hoping to obtain authorization to use Unreal Engine.

If he could get authorization, he was willing to persuade some people to reduce GameStar Entertainment's enemies.

For these goodwill gestures, GameStar Entertainment would naturally reciprocate.

To Detroit Film Group, they promised to continue providing more detailed customized services for special effects production in the next ten years, aiming to improve special effects while reducing costs.

Accepting Hunter's request, they signed a ten-year authorization contract at the same price as with Tukalev, $50 million over ten years, payable annually. They would also be listed as premium partners like Tukalev, providing the best after-sales service.

As for Tukalev, as a deeply cooperating partner, GameStar Entertainment was even more generous.

From now on, they could discuss projects related to adapted movies, such as a big animated movie adaptation of Pokémon.

Tokyo TV was currently lacking a channel for movie promotion, and by simply connecting them, it would help both sides strengthen their capabilities, which was very cost-effective.

The legal matters were left to Matsubashi and the legal department to handle. After rewarding those who showed goodwill towards GameStar Entertainment, they returned to focusing on developing electronic games.

That was their main job.

Although the lawsuits seemed troublesome and diverted a lot of energy, they didn't affect the development team at all.

Games continued to be produced and released steadily.

Blood series, various sports like football and basketball, and titles like Dragon Quest 6 and Mario Land 3.

These games all landed in November, and each game's sales easily surpassed half a million, with Mario and Dragon Quest easily breaking a million in sales.

During this period, several exclusive third-party studios for GameStar Entertainment developed many high-quality games.

"When it's from GameStar, it's a masterpiece."

This phrase gradually became popular.

Because up to now, GameStar Entertainment's games had only varied in audience, but there had never been a game that everyone disliked.

Even third-party games on their consoles were of top quality. Players could buy them blindly; there were no games that weren't enjoyable, only those that didn't suit your taste.

This was quite terrifying.

It was like a film and television company producing movies that were universally acclaimed and successful, something almost impossible.

Only the electronic game industry was a completely new industry, which subconsciously made people feel that GameStar Entertainment's success was natural, without any doubts in this regard.

If this were applied to other industries, there would probably be some wild imaginations that could even come up with Takayuki being a time traveler.

However, most of the games developed by GameStar Entertainment recently were lighter in tone. The characteristic was that the development cycle was short; generally, it only took one or two months to develop a game.

With multiple studios working together, producing five or six games in a month was not a problem at all.

The reason for developing only short-cycle games now was that most of the staff had been reassigned to develop games for the GS1 and GBA game consoles.

At the same time, development kits for GS1 and GBA had also been distributed to the most loyal first-party game studios.

This allowed them to familiarize themselves with the new gaming system in advance and prepare for the development of new games.

By the time the consoles were released, they aimed to have over twenty launch titles, satisfying the appetites of the vast majority of players.