At this point, Takayuki miscalculated slightly.
He now realizes that he seems to have overlooked something.
In the previous life, Metroid wasn't lacking in interest, nor was it too niche; it was just unfortunate timing.
There was once a chance for Metroid to rise and shine.
Because Metroid's game quality was truly excellent, with top-notch action, ****uality, and storytelling.
However, it encountered several heavy hitters at the same time.
First was the onslaught from Sega's 16-bit console games, followed by the interception from the PCE console.
The variety of games released by these two companies at the time was dazzling, making players spoiled for choice. Even though Metroid was indeed outstanding, it still faced significant suppression under such circumstances.
And after finally achieving some success in the American market, it was immediately followed by even heavier competition, Sony's PS1.
The launch of the PS1 was truly a game-changer.
Being able to run true 3D games allowed players to experience the 3D gaming world for the first time.
Just the game's graphics alone attracted over half of the players' favor.
And as for the Super Metroid released on the SFC during this time, its sales barely reached the million mark under the continuous onslaught of this year.
Although a million units in sales is considered successful, it also depends on who you're comparing with.
Within Nintendo, who among their peers didn't explode in sales?
It was common to see sales figures of five or six million, or even seven or eight million. Super Metroid's sales seemed somewhat lacking in comparison.
So sometimes, it's just a matter of bad timing.
Just like in the movie industry in 1994.
Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, To Live, Ashes of Time, The Mask.
If these films had been released in different years, each could have dominated in their respective years, but unfortunately, they all crowded into one year.
And Metroid was pretty much the same back then.
Encountering all these heavyweights, it was a matter of who was stronger.
Speaking of which, Metroid in the previous life was also released in 1994, the same year as the clash of the titans in both the movie and gaming industries. It's really quite a coincidence.
However, these are all stories from the past.
But what about in this world?
Perhaps the situation isn't so bad.
So far, there haven't been many formidable opponents.
Now, Takayuki is the heavyweight, and who can oppose him now?
Takayuki immediately called in the team responsible for market research and asked them to provide market statistics on Metroid as soon as possible.
This includes statistics on demands for Metroid sequels found online, as well as data from various surveys regarding the frequency of Metroid mentions, and so on.
They also need to separate the statistics between the US and Japan to determine the level of popularity of the game in each region.
About three days later, the statistics department finally completed the data collection, and Takayuki immediately took a look.
Among the various types of surveys with a total of 100,000 responses, over 15% of players mentioned Metroid to some extent.
On the internet, there were over 400,000 discussions about Metroid, including posts, replies, and more.
Then there were the sales data for the first two generations of Metroid products.
The sales data for Metroid 1 in Japan now totaled 1.73 million on both the SFC and FC consoles.
In the US, because the consoles were released later, the sales data was about 400,000 units. Although it lagged behind the heavily promoted Castlevania, based on the fervor of discussions on the US side of the internet, it seemed to be doing better than Castlevania.
Castlevania was indeed a game tailored for the tastes of Western audiences, but it seemed that Western audiences were more interested in a futuristic sci-fi world, and the attraction of a medieval vampire story was not much stronger than the sci-fi background of Metroid.
Looking at recent sales data, Castlevania's sales were declining steadily, but Metroid's sales in the US were continually increasing, which was promising overall.
As for the second generation of Metroid on the GB, "Return of Samus", it sold over 1.3 million in Japan and over 100,000 in the US.
The lower sales numbers in the US were mainly due to the fact that the GB's sales data in the US was not particularly good at the moment, but it had been improving rapidly recently, so it was expected to experience a rapid increase in sales soon.
Looking at this series of data, Takayuki tapped on the table, pondering seriously.
He was considering whether it was appropriate to develop Metroid now.
Obviously, it was a very appropriate time.
Players had been eagerly awaiting, and it just so happened that they could expand the game's audience through the latest generation of the game.
Especially in the US.
In the previous life, the third generation of Metroid was very popular among US players. Although there was no sequel for eight years due to sales, the later Metroid games were specifically tailored for US players and were even more Westernized.
So there's obviously no need to worry too much about sales in the US.
"Alright, let's get ready to develop it."
Takayuki made a decision and immediately began to check the progress of game development by the development team.
Now that the team has grown larger, the biggest advantage is that it's more convenient to allocate manpower.
Even though there are ten game development teams now, each with their own tasks, most of their work is relatively light, so they can take on more responsibilities.
Seven of the ten game development teams have now entered the critical phase of game development, each responsible for different types of games. Obviously, it's not feasible to pull manpower from them at this point.
He roughly estimated that with the current capabilities, if they wanted to develop the third generation of Metroid for the SFC in three to six months, they would probably need at least fifty people.
A significant improvement is needed in everything from animation to sound effects to the basic architecture of the game.
Otherwise, simply making a game with a new story would be unchallenging.
After making the decision, Takayuki immediately pulled twenty people from the three development teams that were currently in a relatively relaxed period and formed a new game development team. He personally led the team, which was also a challenge for himself, to see if he could produce a larger-scale, higher-quality game in a relatively short period of time.
This way, they would also be prepared for the future.