Chapter 727 - 727: A Partnership

Project outsourcing was nothing unusual for people working in the game industry. It was something everyone was already familiar with. As long as the outsourcing company was competent enough, there would be no problems.

And Akane Kousaka was indeed a reliable partner. Her company had handled quite a few outsourcing projects in the past.

Kō said excitedly, "Once we outsource part of the workload, we can focus our manpower on the core parts of game development. We might even be able to work on one or two additional projects at the same time!"

Hazuki nodded.

"That's exactly what Ichin is thinking. Besides the sequels we already planned, Nene and Umiko's Hand of Fate has long been scheduled for development as well. With so many projects lined up, there's no way our company can handle every single aspect by ourselves. Outsourcing some of the work is absolutely necessary. It'll shorten development time and improve production efficiency. Starting next year, I believe our games will appear before players much more frequently."

As the person with the most authority in the company aside from Ichin and the two major shareholders, Haruno and Yukino, Hazuki naturally knew just how many game proposals Ichin had prepared.

Titles like Tales of Arise and new Persona were both planned as long-running franchises, with development scheduled to begin the following year.

There was even another project that Hazuki herself knew almost nothing about. All she knew was that it was supposed to be an open world Soulslike game.

According to Ichin, this unnamed open world Soulslike would be an enormous undertaking. At least half of the company's employees would eventually be assigned to its development team, and they would need to hire a considerable amount of outsourcing support as well.

Although such a massive investment inevitably carried risks by game industry standards, Hazuki had absolute confidence in Ichin.

One could even say it bordered on blind faith.

She firmly believed his game proposals could never go wrong.

After chatting for a while, everyone returned to work.

Utaha and Yukino didn't disturb anyone either. One quietly continued writing her novel while the other sat peacefully reading a book.

Meanwhile, Ichin spent nearly an entire hour being interviewed in his office.

Once the interview concluded, he and Hazuki took the two website editors on a brief tour of the company before treating them to lunch in the company cafeteria.

The quality of the cafeteria food completely stunned the visiting editors, further improving their impression of the company.

Not only were the games outstanding, but the employee benefits were exactly as people online had claimed.

If anything, they were even better.

The two editors could already imagine the response once the interview video was edited and released.

It was bound to generate tremendous attention.

After lunch, they didn't stay any longer.

Knowing that more interviews were scheduled for the afternoon, they hurried back to edit and publish the interview video as quickly as possible.

Not long after seeing off the two editors from the morning interview, another gaming website's editor arrived.

Ichin could only continue accepting interviews.

Less than half an hour after finishing that one, the staff from Famitsu arrived as well.

Three interviews in a single day left even Ichin mentally exhausted.

Thankfully, they were all gaming media interviews rather than general press interviews. The questions had all been provided beforehand, without any hidden traps or complicated twists.

After everything was finally over, Ichin didn't have the energy to continue working.

He simply lay down on the sofa, happily enjoying Yukino's lap pillow.

"I can't do this anymore. I'm definitely not accepting any more interviews for a while. If anyone comes looking again, Hazuki and Kō can handle them."

Gently stroking his cheek, Yukino smiled.

"This morning, we already heard Kō-san say she'd absolutely refuse to do another interview. Do you really think you can convince her?"

"Hmm..." Ichin replied. "I'm the boss. Why would I need to convince her?"

Hearing that, Utaha, who was playing her Nintendo Switch nearby, looked up at him.

"If it were anyone else in the company, they'd probably listen to you. But this is Kō-san we're talking about. Do you really think she's afraid of you?"

"That's true."

Ichin nodded.

"Then let's send Rin instead. Maybe we can arrange for a handsome interviewer. Let's see if Kō suddenly volunteers to join."

His suggestion immediately made both Utaha and Yukino burst into laughter.

That was a surprisingly devious idea.

When work finally ended, Ichin headed to a Thai restaurant together with Utaha, Yukino, and Hazuki.

Five minutes after they arrived, Akane Kousaka showed up as well.

Entering the private room, she greeted everyone.

"Sorry. Traffic held me up a little. I wasn't too late, was I?"

Ichin smiled.

"Not at all. We only got here about five minutes ago, and we're still waiting for one more person. Have a seat first, Ms. Kousaka. Let's order."

Akane sat down without any hesitation and immediately joined everyone in choosing dishes.

After ordering a generous spread of food, they chatted about recent events for a while before Haruno finally arrived.

"Ah! I knew I'd be the last one!"

After greeting everyone, including Akane, Haruno took the seat beside Yukino, poured herself a glass of cola, and finished it in one gulp.

"Ahhh! We were still stuck in a meeting right before work ended. Today was seriously exhausting. Have you all ordered already?"

Smiling, Utaha handed her the completed order sheet.

"We already did. Take a look and see if there's anything else you'd like."

Haruno looked through the order before flipping through the menu.

"Yep, this is fine. There's nothing else I want."

Before long, one dish after another arrived at the table.

As everyone ate, Ichin brought up the topic of working together with Akane.

"Outsourcing, huh? That's perfectly fine."

Akane wasn't particularly surprised by Ichin's proposal.

For a growing company whose hiring couldn't keep pace with its expanding workload, outsourcing part of the development process was perfectly normal.

The fact that Ichin had approached her also meant he recognized her company's capabilities.

"So, Ichin-kun, which parts of your projects are you planning to outsource to us? And when would the work begin?"

After thinking for a moment, Ichin replied,

"You already know our current lineup. We're working on Phasmophobia and Bloodborne. Phasmophobia is scheduled for release in September, while Bloodborne is planned for November. Once Phasmophobia launches, we'll officially begin development on our next project. At that point, we'd like your company to handle some of the simpler character and environment modeling. We'd also like you to take care of certain monster animation work. I'll provide all the detailed requirements when the time comes. As for the project's actual name... development hasn't started yet, and we haven't signed a contract, so it wouldn't be appropriate for me to reveal it just yet."

Akane nodded in understanding.

"I understand completely. That's not a problem. Our current projects still need another couple of months to wrap up anyway. Let's consider this a preliminary agreement for now."

"Sounds good."

Ichin smiled.

"Then it's settled for the time being."

...

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