"Oh—my God!"
"Did you guys watch this year's VGA???"
"Take-Two dropped an absolutely massive bombshell!"
The VGA ceremony had barely ended when countless related posts began popping up like whack-a-moles across numerous video game groups on MySpace.
Uh—yes. MySpace had once again become the world's largest social networking site. Although Facebook had surpassed it in size at the beginning of the year, who could blame Facebook for angering Isabella in the middle of the year, only a few months earlier? The moment Isabella opened her mouth, Facebook was reduced to ashes. Since MySpace had never caused trouble for its users, it once again became the public's favorite and received countless embraces.
Yes. Even though Microsoft carried out a protective rescue of Facebook, acquired the company, expelled its entire core team, and renamed it Microbook, none of that could stop users from leaving. Once trust collapsed, rebuilding it was extremely difficult.
As for why ordinary people continued using social media even though they knew it carried the risk of privacy leaks—well. Every living creature risked choking whenever it ate. Even the fiercest tiger in the world, had choked three times, but that did not mean all living creatures should refuse to eat, did it? So, when universal connectivity represented the future, ordinary people had no real choice.
Ah, no—even many powerful figures had no choice. For example, a CEO. If he wanted to use Starlink, he had to embrace smartphones. Under those circumstances, the only way to avoid being watched was to cover the camera with tape. Yes. If the foreign-worshipping bootlickers insisted on claiming that Apple offered perfect security, they should first ask their ancestor to remove the tape from his phone.
Returning to the main subject: the moment those astonished questions appeared, the major gaming groups on MySpace immediately erupted. There was no helping it. Who made the VGA the Oscars of the gaming industry? And who made the previous year so packed with major releases? Blizzard released The Burning Crusade in January; Sony launched God of War II in March; Take-Two released BioShock in August; Microsoft unveiled Halo 3 in September; Valve released the greatest game bundle in history, The Orange Box, which included Portal, in October; and Activision delivered Call of Duty 4 in November. Any passionate video game fan wanted to know which title would be named the year's best game.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, the fact that BioShock ultimately emerged victorious did not surprise anyone. After all, BioShock was genuinely excellent. It was also the spiritual successor to the once-popular System Shock, so it already had a large group of die-hard supporters.
But Take-Two had also revealed a trailer for a new game during its acceptance speech? And that trailer was connected to its new owner, Isabella Haywood? Most importantly, Take-Two's new game actually looked quite interesting?
This—
"Oh! Of course I watched the VGA! I saw Overcooked too! That trailer genuinely blew me away!"
"Exactly! Overcooked looks fantastic! The trailer was actual gameplay footage! Its cartoon visuals really made it feel like an animated film, and the character models were recreated incredibly well!"
"Yes, yes, yes! Just watching the Overcooked trailer made the game look fun! It seems like the kind of game you can play alone, cooperatively, or competitively! Although the theme is cooking, the core gameplay is about clearing stages! And judging from the demonstration, it looks very simple to play. It isn't trying to teach anyone how to cook! It's just a game!"
"Yeah~ Yeah~ Yeah~ I also think Overcooked's design is excellent! I'm genuinely tired of games that try so hard to respect the source material that they copy everything from it exactly! Those things aren't games at all!"
"And there's more—the environments in Overcooked really caught my attention! What do you guys think?"
"Damn! I know exactly what you mean! Honestly, when I saw the little animals from God of Cookery chopping vegetables aboard a pirate ship, passing ingredients between speeding trucks, frantically moving around a slippery kitchen on an ice field, and rapidly serving dishes in a fiery underground world, I was completely fucking stunned! It was incredibly imaginative!"
"Motherfucker!!! I was shocked when I saw that too! I immediately thought the producer had an incredible imagination, because I noticed that the recipes seem to be tied to each environment!"
"What??? The recipes in Overcooked are actually connected to the stages?"
"Uh—it looks that way—because I noticed that every stage in the trailer featured different dishes—"
"OMG—so when the little guys travel into space, what food will they make? Smoked alien?"
"Ahem. Compared with smoking an alien, I think burning an alien's ass with a cigarette might be more entertaining."
"Hahahahaha—I think so too—"
"…"
"…"
The appearance of Overcooked excited countless video game enthusiasts. Take-Two had produced a good trailer that made Overcooked look like an excellent game. However, while laughing and looking forward to it, everyone also felt that Overcooked did not resemble a game Take-Two would make.
As for the reason? It was simple: the style of Overcooked was completely incompatible with Take-Two's usual tone. In the past, Take-Two had mainly produced violent games centered on crime. For example, GTA? Its violence was known throughout the world. Then there was Max Payne. The game's main storyline revolved entirely around the drug Valkyr. There was also Red Dead Revolver. That game was basically the story of the ruthless Western legend Clint Eastwood. And then there was Midnight Club. From the title alone, any normal person could tell that the game was not particularly respectable.
And in reality, it was an illegal street-racing game similar to Road Rash. Every level contained only a starting point and a finish line. As for how the player left the starting point and reached the finish line, the designers did not care. The game's greatest rule was that there were no rules! Players did not need to race linearly along a fixed route. They could use any means necessary to win, including sabotaging opponents, taking shortcuts, or making intimate, high-speed contact with their rivals and knocking them directly into the sea. Yes—that game was actually the inspiration for The Fast and the Furious.
When every designer at Take-Two seemed like an outlaw, the company had suddenly created a cute, chibi-style game? This looked strange from every angle! However, after discussing it briefly, everyone decided that it did not matter. After all, the video game industry was not as foul as the entertainment industry. There was no such thing as a player who only played one genre of game.
Players who mainly enjoyed FPS games would also play action games and RPGs in their spare time. Players who mainly enjoyed MOBAs would occasionally play a few rounds of real-time strategy games. Even players who liked strategy and turn-based games such as Civilization could accept a well-made mobile game. Therefore—Take-Two had made Overcooked? Then it had made Overcooked. That was all.
However, while hardcore gamers discussed and criticized every detail of the Overcooked trailer, Isabella's fan community turned into a boiling pot, leaving the ants inside running around in circles.
"Isabella made a new game? When did this happen? Why didn't I hear anything about it?"
"Exactly! When did she make a new game? Didn't she only just buy a game company?"
"OMG! So she bought a game company because she wanted to make games? And now there's already a trailer? Isn't that insanely fast?"
"…"
"What is Isabella's game called? Overcooked? Is it a spin-off of God of Cookery?"
"Okay! Okay! Okay! Stop talking about useless things! Can someone tell me where I can watch the trailer for Isabella's new game? Which media outlet posted it? Right now, I only want to see what they turned God of Cookery into!"
"Exactly! Is there a video online? Does anyone have a link?"
"…"
Although the video game industry had already become an important part of the global entertainment industry, not everyone in the world played video games. Therefore, when the promotional trailer for Overcooked premiered at the VGA, it was utterly bewildering news to people who did not follow the gaming industry.
Most of Isabella's fans were not dedicated gamers, so when they learned that the game spun off from God of Cookery had already reached a playable state, most people's first reaction was to wonder what the hell they were hearing. Their second reaction was: learn more! Learn more! Find out immediately!
And just as they grew increasingly anxious, wishing they could instantly catch up on everything they had missed—
"Pop!"
An official Overcooked account appeared on YouTube. The first video on its homepage was the promotional trailer for Overcooked that had premiered at the VGA.
Then—
"Ahhhhh—this game is so cute! Capybara Api's design is hilarious! When he stands still, he actually uses his hand to scratch his butt—my God—that's so cool!"
"Ohhhhh—I absolutely love Atu—she looks so cool—and she even has a boxing glove tucked into her belt? So if she encounters a vegetable she can't cut, does she karate-chop it into pieces? Hahahahaha!"
"My God! My God! My God! I hereby declare that Bella is still the cutest one! The way she runs around holding a spatula is illegally adorable! And she looks even cuter carrying a pot!!!"
"Waaaaah—when does this game go on sale? I want to buy it!"
"I want to buy it too! But what do you play this game on? I don't normally play games, so I don't have a PlayStation, Xbox, or Wii at home. I only have a computer. Can this game be played on a computer?"
"I think it probably can? Surely it'll be released on PC?"
"Oh! That would be fantastic!"
"But I'd rather be able to play it on a phone! An Apple phone, for example? It would be great if I could play it while lying in bed, like a Nintendo game! Just like holding an NDS!"
"Oh—I think that's a great idea! You should leave a comment on Isabella's YouTube channel!"
"Hm? Would leaving a comment actually help?"
"Of course! What if she sees it?"
"Yeah! If she sees your wish, she might actually make it happen! You have to understand that Isabella is completely insane! When she says she'll give away iPhones, she does it. Even if you live in Antarctica, she'll put the phone in your hands if you win! And then there's the charity website she created. The list of recipients is updated every month! Hundreds of people have already received funding! And the coolest part is that every donation is linked to a specific person! If you follow the information on her official website, you can even find the actual recipients! That's unbelievably, unbelievably, unbelievably insane!"
"Oh—I can confirm that it's true. Someone at our school received financial support from Isabella's charity! And apparently, the amount she received was after taxes! That's completely outrageous! Motherfucker, even when the federal government gives you financial assistance, the IRS still comes after you for taxes! But when Isabella gives to charity, she pays the taxes for you! Seriously—thank God! Thank Isabella!"
"So that's how it works? Then I'm going to leave a comment! I just bought an iPhone!"
"I'm going to leave one too! Oh, by the way, person above me—is the iPhone any good?"
"Uh—honestly, the iPhone's flaws are pretty obvious. Its battery life is terrible, for example, and you can't watch videos on it. But I think the iPhone represents the future direction of mobile phones because it's cool."
"Oh—thanks. Then I won't buy one—"
"That's fine. Just wait for Isabella to give them away. Trust me, she'll definitely do another giveaway when the second-generation iPhone comes out. Even if she still gives away only ten thousand of them, our odds of winning will be one in a thousand, which is much better than the lottery."
"Hahahahaha—that nearly killed me—"
Although many truths sounded disgusting when spoken aloud, in this reality, having enough followers meant you could do whatever you wanted. If only one-tenth of all Harry Potter fans bought Overcooked, it would immediately break Halo 3's sales record and become the highest-grossing game in history, without exception.
What? Someone did not believe it? Then take a look at Hogwarts Legacy. Hogwarts Legacy generated more than one billion dollars in sales at launch alone! Across the entire history of the video game industry, that pace ranked fourth overall!
Uh—yes. There were indeed three games, or rather three IPs, that generated money faster than Harry Potter. They were: Palworld, which turned Pokémon into a substitute stand; Black Myth: Wukong, which ultimately still failed to become Game of the Year; and Grand Theft Auto.
Ahem. Precisely because everyone knew the power of the Harry Potter franchise, when the promotional trailer for Overcooked received ten million views on YouTube in less than twenty-four hours, Marvel chairman Isaac Perlmutter once again became unable to sit still. He summoned his advisers to his home for a meeting. Then—
The words of his public-relations adviser plunged everyone into silence.
According to the adviser, "Based on the information I've gathered, games like Overcooked are known in the gaming industry as Nintendo-style games. In other words, family games and party games."
"Judging solely by those descriptions, you might think such games are nothing special. But in reality—they are terrifying."
"From the moment they are designed, these casual games are not aimed solely at dedicated gamers. They target people of every age, with the fundamental goal of turning everyone in the world into a potential customer."
"When students, housewives, factory workers, Wall Street professionals, and even politicians in Washington can pick up a Nintendo-style game and quickly learn how to play it, the sales potential of such a game is virtually unbeatable."
"That is also why Nintendo currently has a market capitalization of eighty-five billion dollars and remains firmly among Japan's three largest companies."
"Nintendo and Disney are alike. Because all their products are designed to appeal to ordinary people, one glance is often enough to make you willingly pay for them."
"And now—although I am reluctant to admit it, our public-relations team believes that Isabella's greatest current ambition is probably to turn Beaver Bella into an icon comparable to Mario and Mickey Mouse."
"That might be extremely difficult for anyone else, but for her—who doesn't know that Isabella is essentially Hermione Granger? Her core audience is the Harry Potter fanbase! Therefore, the Beaver from God of Cookery may soon reach a valuation of ten billion dollars. And Overcooked will probably sell at least twenty to thirty million copies."
When the figure "twenty to thirty million" was spoken, a bone-chilling cold immediately enveloped Isaac Perlmutter's mansion. This was not only because the public-relations team's sales estimate for Overcooked was absurdly high; it was also because most of the people present believed those sales were genuinely achievable. And when "absurd" and "achievable" somehow appeared together, that was simply too ridiculous!
"So, in other words, if Isabella tells me now that she does not want Marvel cooperating with Xbox games, I would have no grounds to refuse, argue, or even attempt to negotiate?"
After thinking for a moment, Isaac Perlmutter finally spoke. His bluntness caused everyone in the room to exchange glances. Finally, they all nodded.
The sight made Isaac Perlmutter draw a long, forceful breath! At that moment, he felt as though he had aged considerably!
Just as he closed his eyes and prepared to accept defeat—
"Buzz—"
A powerful vibration suddenly sounded. Everyone looked toward the noise, while Isaac Perlmutter's secretary awkwardly reached into his pocket. Just as he was about to reject the inconsiderate caller, Isaac Perlmutter raised his chin. "Answer it."
Since his boss had spoken, the secretary did not hesitate. The moment he pressed the button and answered—
"What did you say?"
He shot to his feet.
"Isabella's Beaver Entertainment has approached us with a partnership proposal?"
"She wants to renegotiate the agreement we originally signed with Lionsgate?"
"She wants to purchase the full rights to all the Marvel characters currently in her possession?"
"And the price she is offering is only 1.5 percent of all net profits from our partnership?"
"Oh, shit! Isn't that fucking robbery?"
The secretary roared. Everyone present narrowed their eyes.