Tokyo: My obsession with China led me to become the king of Japanese entertainment.

The golden joystick chickened out; that was Sakurada Jun's first reaction.

He remembered clearly that in his previous life, the Golden Joystick Award would not release the voting percentages for the ultimate award, Game of the Year, until around 2025.

Moreover, the process of creating something from nothing has a clear trajectory that can be traced.

In 2021, to celebrate its 50th anniversary, the Golden Joystick created two special awards: "Best Game of All Time" and "Best Hardware of All Time".

It goes without saying that the voting for these two awards will generate huge controversy, and no matter who wins the awards in the end, there will be a huge war of words.

Therefore, in order to reduce controversy, Golden Joystick chose to announce the percentage of votes for these two awards for the first time.

Of course, considering that in that selection, masterpieces such as Ocarina of Time and Mario 64 did not make the top five, and the best of all time was ultimately given to Dark Souls, the Golden Joystick's attempt to shift the blame did not seem to have much effect.

After that, the Golden Joystick began to release the specific vote percentages for some awards little by little, until 25, when it finally released all the votes for all awards, including Game of the Year, which were decided by player votes.

But in this life, the Golden Joystick skipped this gradual process and released all the votes for the awards all at once.

"Looks like it's almost certainly going to be the Game of the Year." Jun Sakurada couldn't help but chuckle.

Obviously, unless there's a problem with the Game of the Year, the Golden Joystick would never bother to go to such lengths to release all the vote counts.

Since only the most important Game of the Year award was announced, it wouldn't be appropriate not to announce the others, so they released everything at once.

So here's the question: what's the controversy surrounding Game of the Year...? Could it be that The Last of Us Part II, which players dislike, won the Players' Choice Award?

It's really not.

The fact that The Last of Us won an award certainly didn't meet players' expectations and would likely draw their ire, but it does fit players' stereotypes about the media.

A top-notch production, a disgusting plot that caters to the censors, and a sequel to Sony's first-party ace producer—from any perspective, it deserves an award.

Players might grumble a bit about it being a "fake" ranking or a "fake" award, but it's not that controversial. Plus, it has Naughty Dog's core fanbase and online trolls protecting it.

The media and industry insiders welcomed it with open arms.

Most importantly, while the Golden Joystick award is still up for debate, the other side is almost certain to award the prize to The Last of Us Part II.

If everyone gives it, then the one with more authority and greater fame is obviously the one more likely to be targeted, while the one with the gold joystick is unlikely to get anything.

After all, the nail that sticks out gets hammered down.

For example, in the previous life, the Golden Joystick Award was also given to The Last of Us Part II, and didn't most people still criticize it? At most, people would say that the Golden Joystick Award was just following the crowd.

However, Golden Joystick chose a path that almost completely abandoned its private maneuvering, directly using vote counts to silence public opinion. There is basically only one possibility:

There was someone who really blew the votes out of the second-place finisher, and the difference wasn't small.

This led Jin Yaogan to believe that as long as the voting results were released, he could shut everyone up.

:

Considering the voting results in this lifetime, Jun Sakurada felt that he must have won the lottery.

"No, it's true that I've never won an award but never lost a vote. I guess I'm still just a player when it comes to online traffic." Jun Sakurada couldn't help but laugh at himself.

To date, the awards he has received have mostly been nominations from those selected by judges, while he has won numerous awards from those selected by the public vote.

Last year I created a monster survivor game, which ended in a draw with Outer Wilds.

This year, the entire Hundred Demon Brand was further defeated by The Last of Us.

With China and Japan as their two strongholds, they would be far ahead in any voting system.

However, it is precisely this overly close approach to fans, which may be seen by some as pandering to them, that is probably not well-liked by academic old-school scholars.

So far, Jun Sakurada's only real academic award seems to be the Japan Record Awards Newcomer Award last year.

But... who would care?

If players like it, are willing to spend money to buy it, Jun Sakurada earns enough, and maintains a good relationship with his fans, then that's enough.

He is popular but not vulgar, and everyone likes him. Who does the academic old man think he is?

If you deserve an award, then you should win it big.

It's just that after he set this precedent, will other teams or investors also launch a few genius internet celebrity producers to rack up awards?

Finding a young prodigy like Jun Sakurada might be difficult, but finding someone with a good online presence and who can interact easily to help with prize draws isn't that hard.

"I've won the gold medal... It doesn't really matter whether TA wins it this year or not, TA has no right to award me the medal." Sakurada Jun couldn't help but stretch.

He won nothing at TA last year, and this year he won't be as bad, but he'll probably only be able to compete for a very few awards, such as the Independent of the Year.

Furthermore, there was no offline ceremony, so Jun Sakurada couldn't even go to the event to make his presence known and build connections.

Then it does become a bit of a double-edged sword.

I'll prepare some pre-recorded acceptance speeches from the annual indie game award winners and show them to the organizers; that should be enough to complete my task.

"Golden Joystick of the Year..." Jun Sakurada exclaimed, about to log out of the official account, when he suddenly saw something and paused in his hand movements.

November 24th... That's an interesting date.

If nothing unexpected happens, the nominations from the other side should be released around the same time, right?

How about... we set up a trap?

……

Hideo Kojima got out of the car humming a song, looked at the small villa in front of him, confirmed the address, and then went up to knock on the door.

:

A few days earlier, after he called to congratulate Jun Sakurada, the latter quickly called back and invited Hideo Kojima to attend one of Jun Sakurada's parties that day.

According to Jun Sakurada, he happened to have two award/nomination announcements from different fields on the same day, just a few hours apart, so he simply called a group of friends for a get-together.

After calling around, I realized he didn't have a single friend of his age in the gaming community, so I simply asked Hideo Kojima if he was interested in coming.

Hideo Kojima thought that apart from you, the only people in the gaming industry who are considered your peers are gamers. He had never heard of anyone in the game industry who could get close to winning Game of the Year before the age of 20.

However, he has always been a person who loves to join in the fun, especially enjoying associating with game producers he admires.

Moreover, having been seething with anger about something this year, and having only vented his frustrations online once, he really wants to have a "proper exchange" with Jun Sakurada offline.

Upon arriving at the villa, they were relieved to find no loud music or flashy lights.

If Jun Sakurada is after SilverAsh, then Hideo Kojima will be in an awkward position.

As Hideo Kojima rang the doorbell, wondering how to introduce himself to Jun Sakurada's friends in the entertainment industry, the door suddenly opened.

A familiar face appeared before him, instantly causing Brother Island's brain to freeze.

"Ah, it's Mr. Kojima! Please come in, please come in!" Minami Hamabe recognized Hideo Kojima at a glance and immediately put on a warm smile.

Jun Sakurada mentioned to Minami Hamabe more than once that there was a big shot in the gaming industry who was a huge fan of Minami Hamabe, and the two had also had some online exchanges.

However, this was the first time they had met in person.

"...Yeah, it's not right if Sakurada throws a party and doesn't invite Minami-chan..." Hideo Kojima followed Minami Hamabe into the villa with mixed feelings.

Sure enough, there was no smell of alcohol as I had imagined, and there was no smell of alcohol in the air. There were less than ten people scattered around the room, some playing games, some eating, and some chatting.

"My junior is a minor, and there are people here today whom he doesn't want to drink too much. In addition, we need to prepare for the possible awards ceremony later, so we didn't prepare any alcoholic beverages for today's gathering."

Minami Hamabe explained to Hideo Kojima in a very familiar manner.

This kind of work is usually done by Takizawa Rin, but since Kojima Hideo is a huge fan of hers, she has become more like an idol.

However, the more she acted this way, the more complicated Hideo Kojima's emotions became.

This is how the host behaves...

"Kojima-san is here! Please forgive me if I haven't been a good host!" It wasn't until Jun Sakurada, wearing an apron, came out of the kitchen to greet him that Hideo Kojima composed himself.

But the first thing that finally came out was:

"Next month, we would greatly appreciate it if you two could grace us with your presence at Kojima Studio's fifth anniversary celebration!"

I feel that if it weren't for Jun Sakurada still being around, Hideo Kojima would have bowed to Minami Hamabe.

:

His standard fan attitude was hilarious; no wonder he's the kind of man who can wear that kind of t-shirt to express his love for his idol.

It wasn't until Minami Hamabe gave her her consent that Hideo Kojima began to look around and observe the guests at this rather austere "gathering".

Most of them were young people around the same age as Jun Sakurada, both men and women. I didn't know many of them, but I had met some of them once before.

For example, the chubby boy eating fruit over there is probably the soundtrack for Jun Sakurada's first work, "Yokai Survivor".

Despite being a gathering of young people, they didn't exhibit the wildness typical of young people. They were mostly either playing games or eating, a rather uninspired and uninspiring way of gathering.

To be able to organize a celebration party like this, Jun Sakurada... is a truly upright person.

Hideo Kojima's mood improved considerably.

However, aside from these young people, his attention was more focused on the only two adults over thirty present besides himself.

One of them was dressed formally despite it being a party, displaying a meticulous attitude. Coupled with his handsome face, which, despite his age, still ranked among the top in terms of looks tonight, he looked like an elite who had stepped out of a serious Japanese drama.

The other one was the complete opposite, with messy blond hair like a monkey's head, dressed in a very rock and roll style, and shoveling a drink into his mouth like he was drinking alcohol.

Even though he hadn't drunk any alcohol and couldn't possibly be drunk, his expression carried a hint of drunken daze.

"Those two are... Hideaki Takizawa? And Takahiro Moriuchi?" Hideo Kojima recognized the two people.

"Yes, the reason there are no alcoholic beverages today is not only to prevent paparazzi from taking pictures, but also to prevent him from getting drunk."

Jun Sakurada nodded, subtly pointing to the monkey's head, his expression slightly complicated.

"If I had to pinpoint the reason, at least half of it is because of him."

"Him?" Hideo Kojima was taken aback. "Speaking of which, I haven't had a chance to ask you what other prizes you have to claim besides the gold joystick."

To be honest, he wasn't quite sure what the other award that Jun Sakurada had mentioned he might be announcing this year was.

Mainstream Japanese entertainment awards such as the Japanese Drama Academy Awards and the Japan Record Awards have either already been announced or will not be announced until the end of December, so there is currently a lull in the awards season.

He was curious what other awards Jun Sakurada might have that would bring him double joy.

Jun Sakurada shook his head slightly: "It's not certain yet. Today is the day the nominations are officially announced, and we're waiting for that news."

"As for whether we can win, the probability is about 50%."

"What?"

"Grammys".

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First update! Extra chapter today! Last day of the monthly ticket lottery, everyone lend me your support!

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