Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

A large number of such things.

"Look at the Girls Frontline, they can still reach the top in revenue even with fair spending."

"Exactly, exactly, FATE's management is just too outrageous."

"Can't you learn from others, ZSFM!"

"Second, second!"

"If the developers don't fix it, I'm quitting the game!!"

"Stop spending money on in-game purchases!! Let them see our resolve!"

Japanese gamers can be quite scathing when they're being sarcastic, and given that they're true to their word, FATE/GO's revenue in Japan has plummeted recently.

Enraged, Shoji Akihito lost his temper and, under pressure from the financial burden, issued an apology and bowed in respect.

On the other hand, he became increasingly angry the more he thought about it, so he reported Xinghuo Games.

"What kind of nonsense is this? Are you sure this is true?"

A day later, Lin Li, after getting off the plane, looked at Yao Meng and was completely dumbfounded when he heard her words.

What the hell?

Your game revenue has dropped, what does that have to do with me?

Besides, what's the big deal? You're just going to report a tax violation?!

be sick.

“I also think this is unreliable, but it seems to be true, and I found a message that also confirms this claim.”

"Tell me more about it."

"Just last month, DEWorks reviewed the FATE/GO project..."

On the bus, Lin Li listened while also thinking.

He came to Japan this time mainly for two things.

One issue is dealing with the lingering problems after the tax authorities come to the company. Procedurally, the person in charge of the head office needs to sign a guarantee.

Secondly, it was also to reassure the staff of the Japanese branch.

This is actually nothing serious.

More importantly, it's about figuring out why DEWorks suddenly pulled this stunt.

This is the key.

Xinghuo Games is, after all, a foreign-invested enterprise. If this matter isn't addressed, people will start filing tax complaints at the drop of a hat, and the company will be unable to continue operating.

"The current producer of FATE/GO, Akihito Shoji, the owner of DEWorks, seems to have believed during a business analysis meeting that our presence has lowered FATE/GO's reputation and player numbers... which is why we're being targeted..."

Looking back at FATE/GO from a hindsight perspective.

It's as if this game became an instant hit from the very beginning.

But actually.

The production of FATE/GO actually had two distinct phases.

From its launch until 16, which is now, FATE/GO was essentially no different from those games that made a quick buck by leveraging an IP.

At this point, drawing a card requires four Saint Quartz. One Saint Quartz costs 120 yen, so four Saint Quartz would cost 480 yen, which is about 30 yuan at the 2016 exchange rate.

It costs 30 yuan per draw, and there's no guaranteed minimum payout.

The cost of in-game purchases is evident.

In addition, this version of the game does not have double speed, the character models are rough, the animations are stiff, the drop rate of fodder dungeons is terrible, and stamina recovers only one bar every 10 minutes, making the experience of spending money extremely poor.

In addition, the Japanese server frequently crashes, sometimes several times a day during peak periods.

The fact that it survived the first year was entirely due to the dazzling IP halo of Fate.

Many fans were only holding on by sheer willpower, and by the end of 15, many people had realized that this game was just a third-rate game that used the Fate IP to make a quick buck and run away.

Many people abandoned the project.

The producer during this period was Akihito Shoji.

In the previous life, this situation continued until the beginning of 16, when FATE/GO's reputation in Japan was getting worse and worse, and its revenue was declining. Only then did DEWorks take action to change things.

As the owner, Akihito Shoji handed over the operation of the game to another producer familiar to FATE/GO players.

And so Yosuke Shiokawa stepped onto the stage.

Yosuke Shiokawa, who came from Square Enix, had far more experience and ability than Akihito Shoji. After taking office, he started from the bottom code and carried out a major overhaul of the entire FATE/GO.

The version that Chinese players played in the previous game was FATE/GO, which had already undergone a preliminary rework.

If we follow the timeline of past lives.

Yosuke Shiokawa joined DEWorks in early 2016, and should have already demonstrated some capabilities by now, so how could there be an operational failure?

Lin Li thought about it carefully for a long time before asking Yao Meng.

"Is Akihito Shoji still running FATE/GO? What about Yosuke Shiokawa?"

Yao Meng was also stunned when he heard the question.

"Yosuke Shiokawa? Isn't Yosuke Shiokawa with our company?"

"What the hell!?"

Now it was Lin Li's turn to be dumbfounded.

"Yes, it was at the end of February this year. I personally negotiated with him. His previous employer was Square Enix. It took a lot of effort and money to poach him from the headhunter."

"He's now the head of operations planning for our Japanese branch. I think he sent you a separate report email... You didn't miss it, did you?"

Lin Li glanced at Yao Meng, and Yao Meng glanced at Lin Li in return.

"Let's change the subject."

Chapter Seventy-Nine: Let Me Dig a Little Deeper

Upon learning that Yosuke Shiokawa was working at his company, Lin Li's first reaction was to wonder what to do about FATE/GO.

After all, he had played FATE/GO in his previous life.

I also joined in criticizing YCFM [Yanchuan Fei Ma] for a while.

The problem is, compared to Yosuke Shiokawa, Akihito Shoji is even more... well, you know.

If this world had a power value system, then Shoji Akihito's operational ability might only be slightly better than Hanaka's.

This operational and development capability is clearly insufficient to support the entire FATE/GO ecosystem.

In fact, in the previous timeline, it was only after Yosuke Shiokawa took over that FATE/GO was able to revive and then explode into glory.

In the early days after Shiokawa took over, there were many problems with the design and operation of the FATE/GO game.

Upon taking office, Shiokawa's first action was to repair the battle scenes and even rewrite the underlying code.

Subsequently, the servers for FGO were changed, which resolved the issues of lag, disconnections, latency, and frequent server crashes.

Later, the number of items required for gacha pulls was reduced, and in terms of the gacha pool, some very common low-level Servants and low-level exclusive servants were removed from the stone gacha pool, and a 4-star pity system was added, etc.

Regarding the plot, before Shiokawa took over, the FATE/GO story had progressed to Chapter 4. The first four chapters (except for the prologue where Kinoko Nasu was in charge of the plot) had a notoriously low script quality.

At the time, Akira Shoji understood FATE/GO as a lightweight "mobile game," and thought there was no need to create so much plot or provide so much explanation.

After Shiokawa took over, after five chapters, FATE/GO clearly invested more in the story, and the quality improved.

In order to retain core Type-Moon fans, Yosuke Shiokawa has given away many popular Servants in his operations.

Artoria, Scáthach, and Jeanne d'Arc were all given as event Servants.

It was precisely this series of actions that stabilized FATE/GO, which was on the verge of collapse in early 16, leading to the explosive growth of FATE/GO in 17 and 18.

but now...

Because of a series of butterfly effects.

Perhaps it's because headhunters want to make more money.

Or perhaps something happened to Yosuke Shiokawa himself.

In short, Yosuke Shiokawa, who should have gone to DEWorks, ended up "refreshing" his own company, Lin Li.

It felt like using a Saint Quartz picked up from the roadside and instantly creating Jeanne d'Arc.

A great general was acquired for free.

Although he only found out now, Lin Li's mood instantly improved by more than half.

He then quickly realized what was happening.

Since Yosuke Shiokawa didn't go to DEWorks, the current producer of Fate/GO is still Akihito Shoji.

Does that mean that the current FATE/GO is still the original dark version?

I finished dealing with matters related to the Japanese tax authorities during the day.

That evening.

Lin Li did nothing but download the current version of FATA/GO.

One person started playing.

First ten minutes.

"Wow, I really miss those days."

ten minutes later.

"What the hell is this?!"

As it turns out, FATE/GO without Yosuke Shiokawa's modifications is truly anti-human.

"Wait, if this is the version, why not just launch a Chinese server..."

"What if I die suddenly...?"

Lin Li put down his phone and suddenly thought of a question.

Then another question came to his mind.

"If this continues, it might not just be the Chinese server that will be affected; the Japanese server might also be doomed..."

"this...."

~~~

Remaining time.

Lin Li saw an interview with Shoji Akihito circulating on the Japanese internet.

That was an interview after he apologized.

“We are different from other companies. The game framework we create around an IP is different from other games.”

"I admit that there was a problem with our reward distribution mechanism in the last event, but I still have to say that it is very foolish to compare the pay-to-win prices of Battlefront Girls with FATE/GO."

It seems that Akihito Shoji still has no intention of changing his operating strategy.

The comments section below these interviews and reports was mostly filled with complaints from FATE/GO players.

This shows that, given the current decline in FATE/GO's reputation, the official apology was not thorough, and players did not back down because of the apology.

All of this information is being conveyed to Lin Li.

If things continue like this, FATE/GO may not reach the same level as its predecessor.

Simultaneously.

In interviews, Akihito Shoji mentioned the frontline girls multiple times.

This also proves that this person is both stupid and incompetent.

Clearly, Akihito Shoji could also sense the crisis, but the problem was that his abilities were limited and he couldn't completely change the situation.

So all he could do was rage in a fit of impotence, and incidentally smear his competitors.