Chapter 14 Squaresoft

[3rd Person POV]

After Masafumi Miyamoto sold the video game company he founded called Squaresoft, he was happily looking over other industries he can join. He was paid extremely handsomely for it and he decided it was well worth it considering how low their sales have been for the past few years. He assumed it was a dead end. For months, he was worried about how to sell the company before he reaches bankruptcy. 

It was only supposed to be a side project that somehow blew up. He originally wanted to branch off from his fathers electronics company. At first he thought it would be a big opportunity. But as crime rates went up, their sales went way down. People kept losing money so very few of that hard earned money ever went to entertainment such as games. 

After their initial success, their sales and stock went on a downward trend. Despite being one of the biggest game companies, they still had to face reality that games aren't being sold that much anymore. 

But after Wayne enterprises made an offer they could not refuse, Masafumi Miyamoto jumped at the chance and thought he was finally free of the burden.

"Hahaha! I don't know why Wayne wanted that company but I'm really thankful he took it off my hands! Now I can start over again. They must be idiots if they think they can revive that industry when we can't even maintain it. They'll probably curse me to death once they run it to the ground but I don't care! I'm out. Sucks to be him! hahahhahaa!" *Cough*

Little did he know, it will become one of his biggest regrets in his lifetime.

---

Squaresoft Office Japan

Tetsuya Takahashi and his girlfriend Kaori Tanaka were surprised to find out that the company they were working for was suddenly sold. Even more surprised that the new owner was overseas. They thought that it was end of the road and that they would probably be replaced soon so they were getting ready to pack their things.

"Where do you think we can go from here? This was our dream job so it's damn depressing just quitting like this..." Said Tetsuya.

"I know but what can we do, the new owner isn't even japanese. I was told he was an american so we can't even plead our case unless we go through all the procedures and schedule an appointment. We don't even know if he'll hear us out. We can only pack up and get ready to leave." Kaori said in a sad tone.

"With this economy, I don't even know if we can get hired by our competitors. Argh! Can't believe I might return to being a salary man." Tetsuya said dejectedly.

The door to their office suddenly opens and Hiromichi Tanaka one of their producers there suddenly exclaimed. "Tetsu! Kaori! Stop packing up! We got word from the new boss that you guys, along with a few more of us aren't getting booted out and in fact, being assigned a project!" 

""Nani?!""

They quickly confirmed it with the rest of the staff and they got an email of a list the new owner is calling, for a conference call regarding a new project. Among the list of employees that were called were the original Xenogears staff that Venom remembered and made sure to include. He wanted to be sure to get the highest accuracy to the original and get the authentic experience and what better way than to get the original team who made it originally in his world. 

Of course Venom still made sure there was no Xenogears in this world. Not even Final Fantasy for some reason. He guessed it might be related to influences of villains, crime and meta humans running around in their unique costumes. But just to be sure, Venom still asked them if they had current or future ideas that they had already noted down but not produced yet and none of it indicated that any of it was to become Xenogears or Final Fantasy. So he proceeded to start with the planning. 

"You all should have received some files I sent through email. Have them distributed to the entire team before we begin." Venom said and waited for a bit until they all have a copy.

"The files I have given you are the concept art, game loop, and details of the project I want you all to create. I have a very specific vision for this one and I want everything to be accurate according to the script you have at the end there. This will be on PC platform initially and we will also develop a specific controller for this that will be sold as a bundle for this specific game and separately as well."

As the team looks into the concept art, they are surprised at how detailed they were. Clearly the new owner had a vision and a full story already planned ahead. The entire script was also already completely written. They were astonished at the level of design and detail. 

'H-how did he think of these?! The characters are all so unique and the environments are all so compelling, yet I feel as though it's quite similar to my preferred style of playing games!' Tetsuya thought. He saw the "gameplay loop" which was the repeatable base game that the story and entire game is built around. ' This fits right into the current graphics we have on recent games and yet we don't see a lot of this type! So it's a turn based game with a lot of combos to discover and a huge world map that players can explore yet bound to a compelling story so intertwined with religious and scientific themes!'

He looked around the room and saw that everyone was so engrossed at the files that they can almost imagine what the final game looks like and how enjoyable it would be to make and play it. Then he looked at the screen of the conference call which was projected to an entire wall in the office and he saw the owner Mr. Wayne with a mysterious smirk as if he knew he got everyone's attention completely. 

Kaori was the first to speak again and said; "Sir if we complete this project, assuming we can get people to try it out and buy it, this has the potential to launch a new wave of games genre and change the gaming industry! " She knew that the current most recent games weren't even close to this level of depth and detail. She also inexplicably feel some sort of a connection to this already, as if it blends with her style of games as well.

Hiromichi had a slightly different thought though. As a producer, he still had to look at it from a business standpoint. "Mr. Wayne, while this seems all too interesting and revolutionary, if we don't sell these, won't we still be in the red? I'm not sure if you knew but this company was already going down before you bought it, despite being one of the biggest names. Games just aren't selling anymore." He said solemnly.

Then Venom responded " That's fine. This was just the initial test run anyway. This is more of a personal game to me from the start. I want this made regardless if it will sell or not. I don't want the quality to suffer to cater for selling the product. Think of it as an art masterpiece that I want specifically made for me. It's just that I wouldn't mind if it was mass produced and sold so it can pay for the production costs. Though regardless of sales, this will be fully paid for from my pocket. But I want the highest quality you can make of this according to my wishes."

Venom paused for a bit before continuing. "Over the course of the next few months, I will coordinate with you and your team regarding more specifics, and the progress reports of this game. I also sent out a file containing a list of some music composers that I want included for this as well. You can be generous when it comes to the offer for their services according to my specific requirements. I also want you to look for Voice actors or even new talent that we can get for this game. I want the dialogue properly voiced even if it means increasing the file size of the game."

Everyone was amazed at how deep this project is looking to become. Not only was it seemingly a new type of game as they have never seen before, but it was also quite ambitious to have an orchestra for music and voice actors to voice the entire story. 

Venom thought to have the game voiced entirely considering how much bored he was about reading the whole disc 2 instead of playing it. While this time he wanted a complete not rushed version, he wanted it full quality.

Originally, the Xenogears game came in 2 discs. After the 1st disc was completed, the company ran out of time and budget that they had to make a disc 2 full of narration and text reading just to be able to complete the story instead of having a cliffhanger ending and potentially never get to make the sequel if sales were bad. The original developers compressed the content with text reading just to convey all that story without even completing the 2nd disc. 

But this time, Venom wanted the whole thing properly finished. He wanted to play it in its complete form and he was willing to throw Wayne's money to see it through. Not that he'd miss it. All his spending so far didn't even put a dent in his bank account.

Venom and the team worked through online conferences regularly and Squaresoft started to mass hire new employees and job positions related to game development. There were several openings for orchestras and musicians as well. All this new activity within Squaresoft spread like wildfire in Japan. The economy there started getting hints of a new beginning. 

Several competitor companies started getting wind of this and were confused as this was originally a dead end industry so all this activity by Squaresoft got so much attention that even competitors were hopeful. Despite being on opposing sides, they still wish this new move can jumpstart their gaming industry so they don't have to go bankrupt. 

As the days go by, most of Venom's time is consumed with his conferences and overseeing the development of the game and the controller.

Venom also started search for game companies within the US that he could potentially buy out. He also started writing the other game he wanted to reproduce in this world. Then proceeded to draw the art as well as the game system it would use.

While the nights continue to be rather tame for now. Batman is starting to make his name known to most crime syndicates in Gotham. Thugs are starting to double take doing their business in Gotham. The rumors of the so called Batman are starting to feel more real as their wallets start to slim down. While Gotham PD still ignores the existence of the batman, criminals are starting to feel fear. Fear of the dark knight that's hunting them down. 

While nothing major has happened yet, the date for Venom's visit to Kansas approaches. 

Time to visit Smallville.