In the initial event where television stations boycotted electronic games, NHK, as Japan's leading television station, didn't take a clear stance, seemingly feeling it would be beneath them to do so.
Anyway, they don't rely on ratings to make money, so there's no need to confront others over the slight drop in ratings.
But this doesn't mean that the creators won't boycott electronic games.
NHK might not care about ratings, but the creators of TV dramas are affected in terms of the efficiency of spreading their own reputation.
Previously, people discussed what TV dramas they watched today and which renowned screenwriter produced a good TV drama.
And now, people's attention is diverted.
Especially in the recent period, with that Final Fantasy game.
Discussions about that game were everywhere.
Don't they understand how good it is?
It's just an entertainment product, yet it has managed to dominate almost the entire social discourse in a short period.
And this is not limited to just within the country.
In the USA, in Europe, there are heated discussions too.
Many screenwriters are generally more conservative, especially the renowned ones; it's hard for them to accept this new thing.
Especially when this thing vaguely seems to encroach on their territory.
Cutting off someone's source of income is like killing their parents, and cutting off their fame is even worse.
It's just that the expansion speed of electronic games is really terrifying.
Several TV stations joined forces, yet it didn't have any impact at all. In the end, it made those commercial TV stations look bad.
"I disagree! I absolutely disagree! How dare that game company even come knocking on my door, wanting to adapt my script? That's fine, but they even want to create a completely original story based on my script, which I've worked so hard on and achieved such good results. What does someone who makes games know about storytelling? I firmly disagree with them using my story!"
In a small meeting room at NHK, several key creators of recent legal drama series were having a small workshop.
The producer of this series usually handles management affairs beyond creation.
Cooperation with the government is something he directly agrees with.
In his view, this cooperation isn't a big deal; it's just completing an official political task.
Today, he mentioned this cooperation in passing during the routine workshop.
At first, when he mentioned the copyright cooperation with the government, the several screenwriters didn't react much.
But when he mentioned that the cooperation partner was called Gamestar Entertainment, it was like they had touched a certain switch; these screenwriters almost unanimously expressed strong opposition.
This reaction caught the producer off guard.
"This cooperation project is a copyright cooperation with the government, which is actually quite beneficial for us. It's like showing some face to the government, and your works can also become more famous in the future."
"No! What kind of thing is an electronic game? Why should we lower ourselves to cooperate with that?"
Lower ourselves? Isn't it lowering ourselves to sell identical branded large buns on TV shopping? It's just about money.
Sometimes, screenwriters, as creatures, really find it hard to understand this kind of mindset.
But the producer had to take the screenwriters' opinions seriously.
Especially one of the screenwriters who had a strong background, being a direct member of a faction in a newspaper; he was a tough guy in the TV station.
So, he had to reluctantly mention this matter to the government.
Even the government couldn't forcibly intervene in such matters; otherwise, it might lead to some unpleasant scandals.
Upon hearing about this matter, the president was somewhat troubled.
He had already promised Takayuki, but now this problem arose unexpectedly, which was a bit unexpected.
Then he tried to talk to the producer and promised some benefits.
But as long as the screenwriters didn't relent, this producer had no solution either.
He could indeed offend these screenwriters a bit, but since they're under the same roof, it's not good to offend their own people for the sake of outsiders, even though he thought these screenwriters were a bit crazy.
In the end, the president could only give up on this plan, but for a while, he didn't know how to tell Takayuki about this matter.
He had promised it to him before.
And at this moment, Takayuki was still focused on the production of two games.
Since the production content of the games has been determined, the remaining task is to proceed with the production of the games step by step.
Running two games simultaneously is quite a test for a team.
Fortunately, one of them, Ace Attorney, doesn't require too much effort. Even with a team of over a dozen people, as long as the script and the basic rules of the game are set, there shouldn't be much difficulty in development.
The original Ace Attorney game in the previous world was completed with very few people and took over eight months.
With the manpower Takayuki can currently command, accelerating development is entirely feasible.
However, while Takayuki was still focusing on the preliminary preparations for the games, the president informed him about the rejection of the cooperation.
"I'm very sorry, President Takayuki, but I've received a reply from NHK, and they seem reluctant to proceed with this cooperation. They may not really need the benefits and fame involved, so they have no plans to produce derivative works."
Takayuki was happy to have initiated this cooperation with the president, but unfortunately, the other party didn't appreciate it at all, even if the government offered some benefits.
This really made him feel helpless.
"I see." Takayuki said as he held the phone, then glanced at the employees who were working.
These employees were building the framework for the games, mainly for The Sims. Ace Attorney was being handled separately by a team of about twenty more experienced individuals.
Hearing that there was no intention from the other side to cooperate on the production of film and television works, Takayuki didn't think it was a big deal.
He proposed adapting derivative works into games as a way to give back for the government giving him a large piece of land in the most prosperous area for free.
As for adapting the legal drama, he didn't really care.
He wasn't really trying to ride on the popularity of this legal drama; Ace Attorney didn't need that kind of hype. With the game's strength alone, Takayuki believed it would still receive some recognition, even without the gimmick of being adapted from a film or TV show.
"In that case, let's temporarily suspend this cooperation, but I will continue making the games. As for whether there will be opportunities for film and television works to be adapted into games in the future, I can't say for sure. Is this okay?"
"Of course, of course." The president breathed a sigh of relief. When he was explaining to Takayuki just now, he was actually quite tactful, fearing that Takayuki might overthink it.
Now it seemed that Takayuki was quite magnanimous, not really concerned about the failure of this cooperation. It seems he had been overly worried.
He was also worried that Takayuki was still young and might be very concerned about such matters.