Zaboru remained standing near the presentation screen after the question appeared in large silver letters: WHY SHOULD A PLAYER CHOOSE DIGITAL? For several seconds, nobody in the room said anything. The financial side was already obvious. Digital distribution dramatically reduced manufacturing, packaging, freight, storage, unsold inventory, and retail costs. From ZAGE's perspective, digital games were extremely attractive. But Zaboru had no intention of building a system where only the platform holder benefited. If players looked at a ¥4,500 physical copy with artwork, manual, Blue-Ray Disc, case, something they could display, lend, resell, or collect, then looked at an identical ¥4,500 digital copy that existed only inside their account, convenience alone would not be enough for many people.
Zaboru chuckled softly as memories from his previous life began flooding back. Steam had already proven something hilarious about human psychology. Players loved discounts. Not merely reasonable discounts, either. Once digital storefronts began offering games at absurdly low prices, something strange happened: people stopped buying games exclusively because they wanted to play them. They began buying games because the price itself felt too good to ignore.
The Steam Summer Sale.
Winter Sale.
Weekend Deals.
Publisher sales.
Flash discounts.
Bundles.
Seventy percent off. Eighty percent off. Ninety percent off.
Zaboru still remembered opening Steam in his previous life, seeing some game he had never cared about discounted to a few dollars and immediately thinking, Well… at that price, why not? Then he bought it.
Never installed it.
Months later, another sale arrived.
Another game.
Another why not?
Then one day his library had become an enormous digital graveyard filled with games he sincerely intended to play "eventually."
Eventually never came.
Zaboru almost laughed aloud remembering it.
Damn Steam. They really turned buying games into its own game.
ZAGE Steam already existed in this world and already used discounts more aggressively than conventional physical retailers, but Zaboru had intentionally prevented it from reaching the absurd sale culture he remembered from his previous life. Part of that restraint had been strategic. PC digital distribution was important, but he wanted the real cultural explosion around digital ownership to happen when ZEPS 4 entered millions of homes. Once console players became comfortable attaching purchases directly to a ZAGE ID and building permanent digital libraries, the behavior could expand much faster.
Zaboru pressed the presentation remote.
The next slide appeared.
DIGITAL DISCOUNTS
Zaboru smiled. "First answer is the obvious one. Price." He pointed toward the numbers. "Digital games have infrastructure costs, obviously, but there is no physical disc to manufacture for each sale, no case, no printed manual, no freight, no shelf space, no warehouse full of unsold copies. That gives us much more freedom. If a game normally sells for ¥4,500, there is nothing stopping us from occasionally dropping the digital version to ¥2,000, ¥1,500, maybe even significantly lower when the title is old enough."
Sayuri immediately studied the projected margin models. "Not permanently."
"Definitely not permanently," Zaboru replied. "I don't want people trained to never buy games at launch because they assume everything becomes ninety percent cheaper next week. Discounts need timing. New releases maintain value. Older catalog games become more flexible. Seasonal campaigns, anniversaries, publisher promotions, special weekends, genre festivals—we can experiment."
Shinsuke nodded. "That also gives Marketing another way to revive older titles. A game that stopped receiving attention six months ago can suddenly return to the front page."
"Exactly."
Zaboru clicked again.
The screen changed to a ridiculous illustration of a tiny cartoon gamer sitting in front of an enormous mountain of game boxes while throwing money toward another game despite clearly already owning too many.
Above it appeared:
THE DISCOUNT HOARDER
Yuna stared at the image. "The what?"
Zaboru began laughing. "Discount Hoarder. Hehehe. Trust me, this type of customer is going to exist."
Sayuri raised an eyebrow. "You created a customer classification based on someone buying things they don't need?"
"That is approximately half of modern commerce."
Nobody could argue with that.
Zaboru leaned against the table and continued. "People like collecting things, and people love feeling like they received value. Those two instincts become very interesting when digital games start getting huge discounts. Imagine someone loves JRPGs. That is his thing. He buys practically every major JRPG we make. But racing games? He does not care. It doesn't mean the racing games are bad; he simply doesn't enjoy racing enough to spend ¥4,500 on one."
Everyone followed the example.
Zaboru continued, "Now imagine one of those racing games is extremely well reviewed. Everyone says it's excellent. Maybe he's heard about it a hundred times but still doesn't care enough to buy it. Then one weekend he opens Z-Store and sees it normally costs ¥4,500…but today it costs ¥900."
Shinsuke smiled slightly. He already understood.
Zaboru spread his hands. "Suddenly his brain changes. He doesn't think, 'I don't like racing games.' He thinks, 'Wait… this game everyone says is amazing is only ¥900?' Then comes the dangerous sentence."
Yuna sighed. "Might as well buy it."
Zaboru pointed at her enthusiastically. "Exactly! Hehehe! Maybe he plays it. Maybe he discovers racing games are actually fun. That's great. But maybe he downloads it, launches it once, then goes back to his JRPG and never touches it again. Either way, he still feels satisfied because he bought something worth ¥4,500 for ¥900."
Sayuri looked thoughtful. "The purchase itself becomes rewarding."
"Exactly. The player feels like they won."
Shiki nodded. "Even though from our perspective we generated revenue from a customer who otherwise would have generated zero revenue for that title."
"Exactly."
Zaboru's smile widened. "And then the library begins growing. Five games. Twenty. Fifty. A hundred. Eventually the customer starts looking at the number itself and feeling proud. Their game library becomes a collection even though there are no physical objects."
Yugo finally spoke, fascinated by the idea rather than joking. "So digital ownership creates a different kind of collector."
"Yes. Physical collectors love shelves, boxes, manuals, limited editions. Digital collectors love libraries. Numbers. Completion. Seeing all the games attached to their identity."
Yuna remained skeptical about one part. "I understand the psychology, but you're extremely confident people will buy games they don't even intend to play."
Zaboru looked toward her and chuckled. "Yuna-san, sometimes human behavior doesn't need ten years of data before you can predict it. I am one hundred percent certain gamers will do this."
Naturally, he could not explain that he had personally been one of them.
Yuna stared at him for several moments before sighing. "You know, Boss, you've said enough ridiculous things over the years that later turned out to be correct. I'm not going to waste energy arguing over this one."
Yugo nodded seriously. "I believe it too. Boss-sama can predict the future"
Zaboru sighed how can Yugo said that with poker face is beyond him and apparently other executives already used to this.
Sayuri, however, returned the discussion toward the financial risk. "There is still a physical-retail problem. If digital copies regularly become substantially cheaper, physical retailers could lose customers. We already discussed not starting a price war against our partners."
Zaboru nodded. "Which is why the discount structure matters. Physical games are not disappearing. Honestly, I don't think physical games will ever completely die as long as we continue giving people reasons to value them."
He changed the slide to several mock-ups of ZEPS 4 physical releases. Large illustrated covers filled the screen, accompanied by manuals, reversible artwork, small inserts, maps, character guides, and collector bonuses.
Zaboru continued, "ZEPS 4 physical releases will still receive good artwork. We are not stopping printed manuals just because some accountant realizes removing thirty pages saves money. If a game benefits from a map, include one. If the developers want character art, put it inside. If there is interesting background information, use the manual. I want opening a physical ZAGE game to still feel like opening something… and then smelling those manuals and artworks its should be an external experience…"
Shinsuke nodded approvingly. "Then physical becomes the premium ownership experience while digital emphasizes convenience and flexible pricing."
"Exactly. They can coexist."
Sayuri sighed. "For a while."
Zaboru looked toward her.
She continued, "Eventually, if internet infrastructure continues improving the way we expect, digital distribution will take more and more market share. Some retailers dependent almost entirely on packaged software will deteriorate."
Zaboru's expression became slightly more serious. "Yeah. Probably. I don't like pretending every technological transition is painless. Some businesses disappear when the world changes. But that doesn't mean we should deliberately freeze progress to protect every old model forever. We can transition responsibly, give retailers room, continue physical releases, let them sell hardware, accessories, merchandise, prepaid Z-Store cards, collector editions, maybe even offer in-store digital purchase systems later. But we can't refuse to move forward."
Sayuri nodded.
Then Zaboru changed slides again.
GAME SHARING
His expression changed noticeably.
"Well, this one…" He smiled more softly. "This one is actually important to me."
Yugo looked toward him with curiosity.
Zaboru continued, "Digital games have one disadvantage compared with physical games that bothers me. With a physical disc, sharing is simple. Your friend wants to play? You hand him the game. Your brother wants it? Give him the disc. Digital ownership naturally makes that harder because the license belongs to an account."
Shiki nodded. "And if we make digital licenses transferable without restrictions, account selling and piracy become immediate problems."
"Exactly. So instead, we build sharing into the account system itself."
The slide changed to a simple diagram containing two ZEPS 4 consoles.
Zaboru pointed toward the first console. "Every ZAGE ID can designate one ZEPS 4 as its Primary ZEPS 4. Any user account playing on that machine can access the digital games owned by the primary account."
Then he pointed toward the second machine. "Meanwhile, the account that actually purchased those games can still log into another ZEPS 4 and access its own library there."
The room became noticeably quieter.
Shinsuke leaned forward. "Wait. So two people can effectively use the same purchased game?"
Zaboru nodded. "Yes."
Sayuri immediately looked at him.
Zaboru laughed softly. "I know, I know. Finance department just felt physical pain."
But Yugo was no longer smiling.
He stared at the diagram.
Zaboru continued, "Imagine two friends. Friend A owns a digital copy of a game. He makes Friend B's ZEPS 4 his account's Primary ZEPS 4. Friend B can now play that game on his own account because the console has access through Friend A's primary license. Meanwhile Friend A still plays his own purchased game on his own ZEPS 4 while logged into his ZAGE ID."
Yugo slowly looked toward Zaboru. "So… if two kids can only afford one copy…"
"They can split the cost."
Yugo became silent.
Zaboru noticed the expression immediately but continued. "Obviously, there need to be limits. Primary-console changes will not be unlimited. Fraud monitoring already exists under ZAGE ID. If an account constantly switches primary consoles across dozens of machines, different cities, or suspicious usage patterns, our fraud team investigates it. We don't immediately ban the person because false positives happen, but we can temporarily restrict primary-console changes. I do not want account sellers turning this into a business."
Shiki nodded. "Reasonable. We can also establish cooldown periods and device verification."
"Exactly. The point is sharing between normal people, not creating a gray market where one account sells access to fifty strangers."
Sayuri stared at the diagram for several more seconds. "Economically, we are potentially cutting one sale into two users."
"Yes."
"Possibly significantly more depending on household usage."
"Yes."
"And you still want this."
Zaboru nodded without hesitation.
Yugo finally spoke. His voice was quieter than usual. "Boss-sama… why?"
Zaboru looked toward him.
Yugo continued, "I understand the argument about digital value. I understand discounting because lower prices can generate purchases that wouldn't happen otherwise. But this…" He pointed toward the two-console diagram. "This is deliberately allowing people to avoid buying a second copy."
Zaboru leaned against the edge of the table. For once, there was no mischievous grin and no marketing excitement in his expression. "Because ¥4,500 sounds cheap to us."
Nobody interrupted.
Zaboru continued, "Everyone sitting in this room is successful. Most of us can buy a game without thinking about whether we can still afford dinner afterward. But there are kids who can't. Students who save allowance for months. Families with two children where the parents can afford one game, not two. People working low-paying jobs who love games just as much as we do but have to choose between entertainment and something actually necessary."
Yugo's eyes softened.
Zaboru smiled faintly. "I know ZAGE is a business. We need profit. Employees need salaries. Developers deserve bonuses. Games cost money to create. I'm not pretending we can give everything away for free. But if there's a way to make gaming slightly easier for people without destroying the business, I want to do it."
The room remained quiet.
Zaboru continued, "Two friends buying one copy together is still one sale we might not have gotten otherwise. Maybe one of them later loves the game enough to buy the sequel. Maybe they buy expansions. Maybe one of those kids grows up and becomes a developer because that shared copy introduced him to something he loves. I don't know."
Yugo lowered his gaze.
For him, games had never merely been products.
They were practically his language.
The idea that someone could love games as much as he did yet simply be unable to afford them had always bothered him abstractly.
But hearing Zaboru frame the sharing system that way made the feature suddenly feel much larger than an account-license trick.
Yugo swallowed.
"Boss-sama…"
Zaboru raised an eyebrow.
Yugo smiled, but his eyes had become visibly wet. "That's… really cool."
Zaboru blinked.
Yugo rubbed one eye quickly, slightly embarrassed. "Sorry. I just… I was thinking about being a kid. If I had a friend who couldn't buy games, I would have wanted to share everything with him. I mean, that's what games are supposed to do, right? You finish something and immediately want somebody else to experience it too."
Zaboru smiled warmly.
Yugo continued, now unable to stop himself. "Sometimes after making something, I don't even care about the sales first. I think about somebody finding the stupid secret room we spent three days hiding. Or somebody finally beating a boss we made too hard. Or two friends arguing about which character is better. That's why we make games."
Yuna quietly looked toward her brother.
This was the Yugo people sometimes forgot existed beneath the eccentricity.
The man genuinely loved games with almost childlike intensity.
Zaboru nodded. "Exactly."
Yugo looked back at the two-console diagram. "Then I really like this feature."
Sayuri smiled faintly. "Of course you do. You're not responsible for explaining the lost second sale in quarterly reports."
That broke some of the emotional tension.
Yugo laughed softly, still wiping his eye. "Sorry, Sayuri-san."
She shook her head. "I didn't say I hated it."
Everyone looked toward her.
Sayuri studied the slide again and sighed. "Financially, it is generous to the point of being uncomfortable. But I also understand the strategic side. If households and friends feel that ZEPS 4 respects them, that builds loyalty. Loyalty has economic value too, even if it doesn't appear neatly in a single transaction."
Zaboru smiled. "That's what I'm betting on."
Shinsuke nodded thoughtfully. "And from a marketing perspective, people will talk about this. Especially teenagers and students."
Yuna added, "It could also reduce some pressure toward piracy. People who simply cannot afford multiple copies have a legitimate sharing option."
"Exactly."
Zaboru pressed the remote again. The final slide summarized the launch economics.
ZEPS 4 LAUNCH PRICING
ZEPS 4 Production Cost: ¥40,000
ZEPS 4 Maximum Retail Price: ¥44,444
ZEPS 4 Game Production / Distribution Cost: approximately ¥2,800
ZEPS 4 Game Retailer Transfer Price: approximately ¥3,700
ZEPS 4 Game Maximum Retail Price: ¥4,500
Below those figures were three principles.
Physical remains valuable.
Digital becomes convenient and flexible.
Games should remain accessible.
Zaboru looked across the room. "So that's the model. We don't abandon physical games. We make physical ownership feel worth having. We push digital aggressively through convenience, discounts, and future services. And we let people share digital games in a controlled way instead of pretending every person in the world can comfortably buy every game separately."
Sayuri closed one of her folders. "The hardware margin is still painful."
Zaboru smiled. "Expected."
"The game-sharing feature still makes me nervous."
"Expected."
"The digital discount policy needs very strict timing."
"Agreed."
Sayuri nodded slowly. "Then Finance can work with this."
Zaboru's smile widened.
Yugo remained staring at the words Games should remain accessible at the bottom of the screen.
Then he quietly smiled again.
For Zaboru, the feature had partly come from remembering the generous account-sharing systems of his previous life and adapting them into something that fit ZAGE ID. But for Yugo, it represented something much simpler.
If one person loved a game, there should be a way to let someone beside them experience it too.
And somehow, despite all the numbers, manufacturing costs, margins, licensing agreements, retailer negotiations, Blue-Ray technology, and billion-yen projections surrounding ZEPS 4, that simple thought might have been the most important thing discussed in the room that day.
To be continued.
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