Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

"The difficulty of this task will increase considerably then."

After Yuya Ohno actually followed this logic, you know what? He found that playing games during holidays wasn't so easy to get disturbed.

Same today.

As soon as he left the bedroom and went downstairs, he saw his mother preparing food, so Hiroshi Ohno followed her into the kitchen.

A mother is naturally happy to see her son enter the kitchen.

Yuya Ohno then brought up another matter.

"Mom, I'm going to my classmate's place tonight, so I might be back a little late."

Yuya Ohno would occasionally visit his friends' houses, and his mother would usually just nod in agreement. However, this time, his mother asked an extra question.

"What to do?"

Yuya Ohno scratched his head.

"We'll just watch some TV together, like the Spark New Year's Eve Gala..."

Going to a friend's house is not just about watching TV together; it's mainly about playing games together. However, it's not easy to say this to my mother, so I casually mentioned the Spark New Year's Eve Gala.

After all, playing games with friends versus watching TV together, although both involve playing, seem to have a subtle difference in the level of harm in the eyes of parents.

Yuya Ohno thought that was the end of it, since his mother had only asked casually and certainly didn't care about these things.

Unexpectedly, this time her mother actually responded.

"Is it the Spark New Year's Eve Gala that's going to air on TV Asahi tonight?"

"Huh?! Mom, how did you know?"

Like a Chinese high school student who suddenly hears that his mother also plays Honor of Kings, Yuya Ohno was stunned for a moment.

"What's there to know or not know? The TV station has been showing previews for the past two days, and there are also reports in the newspapers. I see a lot of celebrities watching. Watching program previews is quite interesting."

"real or fake?"

Yuya Ohno really didn't expect that, just like his mother wouldn't usually ask too much about his hobbies, Yuya Ohno naturally rarely cared about what his mother was watching on a daily basis.

So when the two lines suddenly intersected, he was quite surprised.

After helping his mother wash the vegetables, he didn't even go back to his room to play games; instead, he started flipping through magazines in the living room.

"Wow, it really is! It's mentioned in magazines and newspapers..."

Japan has a much higher number of television subscribers than China, largely due to NHK's mandatory subscription model.

This is like how people in China have to pay 99 yuan every month to watch CCTV.

If you don't pay, no one will watch this TV, but if you pay, people will at least watch it.

Otherwise, wouldn't this money have been paid for nothing?

This is especially true for Japanese housewives and older people.

Housewives constitute the largest group among these, with approximately 539 million households in Japan as of 2022, accounting for about 35% of all households.

A large number of housewives support television stations, which in turn enable them to produce entertaining television programs, which in turn expand the television audience.

This ultimately led to a somewhat distorted yet relatively prosperous market.

As more people watched television, many interesting things emerged, such as television guide magazines and newspapers listing the broadcast schedules for various television stations for the following day.

These types of magazines and newspapers often include "reviews".

Normally, Yuya Ohno wouldn't look at these things, but today, he excitedly started flipping through them.

"A world-class lineup of stars, the Spark Games New Year's Eve Gala is a must-see."

This is the headline in the entertainment section of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.

It also details the celebrity guests for the New Year's Eve gala. Goodness, the celebrity guests range from Jackie Chan down to Satomi Ishihara, Yui Aragaki, Mai Kuraki, Ayumi Hamasaki, and a whole bunch of foreign superstars in katakana.

The name alone takes up an entire square.

The next section featured headlines such as "100 million people watched it worldwide! It sparked global discussion." and "The all-star cast is worth over 100 billion yen, a rare sight in the world, the most dazzling gala."

Yuya Ohno hasn't watched the gala these past two days because he's been working on his progress. He did hear a lot of friends mention it yesterday, but at that time, he was still thinking about finishing the main story of Destiny's Path.

Whether you're playing Battlefront Girls or Touhou Fantasy World, the emergence of Spark in Japan has, to some extent, filled a market gap.

For most junior high and high school students in Japan, the PS4 is not that widely available, and even someone like Yuya Ohno, who worked part-time to buy a PS4, still struggles to afford games.

I only buy a few games that I really like throughout the year.

Therefore, games like Spark, which can be played without any barriers to entry, naturally became incredibly popular. This is also the fundamental reason why domestic anime-style games, led by Genshin Impact, were able to quickly establish themselves in Japan in the past.

Chapter 497 Asahi, who takes money to do things

However, in this timeline, the Starfire takes root even more fiercely than in Genshin Impact.

It also has a wider coverage.

The increase in games, in turn, put Yuya Ohno in a happy dilemma, and he even found himself with not enough time. But do you think playing free games has reduced his investment in games?

The answer is no.

Because I really couldn't help it.

Putting aside other things, I definitely have to buy monthly subscriptions for the games I mainly play, and I also occasionally buy skins, so I've spent quite a bit of money, but it's relatively painless to spend it.

For example, the average price of a game in Japan is between 8000 and 9000 yen. For instance, Monster Hunter Rise is priced at 7990 yen, and the Japanese version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms 8 Remake is priced at 9680 yen.

The monthly pass for Spark costs 790 yen (approximately 50 RMB in 2020), which is basically the price of a bowl of ramen. Some nicer skins cost around 1890 yen, which is about the price of two bowls of ramen.

So for Japanese players, even though they spend money frequently, it doesn't really hurt that much. The money just disappears without them even realizing it. That's roughly the feeling.

Most of the friends that Yuya Ohno knows play Spark games, but they may play different games. Some people like to stick to one game and keep playing it and spending money on it.

There are also "omnivorous" foodies like Yuya Ohno.

However, regardless of the player, the coverage rate of Destiny Trails is really high, so high that the theme song of Destiny Trails was performed at this year's Kohaku Uta Gassen.

But no matter how high the rankings are, in the minds of Japanese gamers, this influence is still concentrated within the gaming community.

Therefore, when Hiroya Ohno saw that TV Asahi was actually going to rebroadcast the Spark New Year's Eve Gala on television, he was quite surprised.

Although the Spark New Year's Eve Gala featured many theme songs from Japanese games, the hosts spoke Chinese...

~~~

That night.

A large crowd gathered backstage at TV Asahi.

Normally, most TV stations are closed for the New Year's Day holiday.

But at this moment, Asahi TV was quite lively.

The most important reason is that Tomoki Murayama, the executive director of TV Asahi, is also at the company. If the top leader is working overtime, then other department heads and team leaders also have to work overtime.

The minister and the team leader are both working overtime, so how can ordinary members stay at home doing nothing?

So, after this series of events, Asahi TV appeared to be very lively at this time.

The reason why Murayama Tomoki is here is actually quite simple.

Because he made the decision to broadcast the Spark New Year's Eve Gala on TV Asahi, and he was under a lot of pressure when he made that decision.

Of course, more importantly, after accepting Xinghuo's annuity and making this decision, he was somewhat uncertain about the outcome.

No matter what, this is one of Japan's five major television networks.

Rescheduling other programs during the 10 PM rush of the holiday to air a New Year's Eve gala hosted by a multinational corporation has drawn criticism, even from within the company itself.

Moreover, as Yuya Ohno said, the host of the show is Chinese, and there are a lot of Chinese and English elements in the program.

If the ratings are good, that's fine, but if the ratings are bad...

Then he will also be implicated.

Despite his worries about being implicated, Murayama Tomoki did not regret it, since he hadn't taken all the gifts from Hoshino; everyone from top to bottom received some.

However, it would be good if he could receive the gifts smoothly, so these past few days, he hasn't done anything else but keep an eye on the show's launch.

He also used all the resources at his disposal to promote the gala.

We'll find out the final result soon.

A large crowd gathered in the screening room, watching numbers constantly flashing on a screen.

As the numbers ticked, Tomoki Murayama's heart pounded along with them.

"here we go!!"

"Here it comes, the first statistic: 9% in time-sharing viewership."

"Time-sharing viewership rating: 11.9%!!!"

"Time-sharing viewership rating: 12.0%!! It hasn't dropped, it hasn't dropped!!! It's still rising, it's still rising!!"

In Japan, viewership ratings are calculated based on how many people in the broadcasting area are watching the program. For example, if there are 100 people in the area and one person is watching, that's a 1% viewership rating.

In the early days, manual statistics were collected by signing confidentiality agreements with selected users. Now, with advanced technology, we can directly determine what users are watching by observing the digital signal feedback from the TV box.

The large screen displayed the television broadcast, while several data screens next to it showed data such as ratings and viewership share.

"15%!!! Wow, that's amazing!"

Upon seeing the 15% figure, Tomoki Murayama immediately felt relieved.

He clapped with a smile, and soon cheers and applause filled the office!

A viewership rating of 15% is beyond everyone's expectations.

It even exceeded Murayama Tomoki's expectations. Keep in mind, this is already 19 years ago. Even for popular dramas, apart from those with twisted characters like Hanzawa Naoki, a viewership rating of 15% is already quite good. Moreover, the Spark New Year's Eve Gala was decided on a last-minute relaxation.

"The celebrity effect is still very strong..."

In large entertainment industries like Japan and China, it's already very difficult for a single celebrity to create a star effect.

However, as the saying goes, quantitative change leads to qualitative change.

The combined influence of these celebrities at the Spark Gala has exceeded a critical threshold. Therefore, even though the gala had many game elements and some programs required subtitles, it still attracted a large audience.

Seeing the ratings, everyone felt a little relieved.

Murayama Tomoki was relieved.

Is there a better win-win situation than getting paid to do a service while also gaining some fame?

If everyone who asks him for a favor were like Xinghuo, would the world still be in turmoil?

"Spark truly lives up to its reputation as a multinational giant; they're impressive..."

~~~

"The Spark Games Gala was featured on Japanese television."

"Japanese news is abuzz with news about Spark's path to becoming a Japanese giant."

With viewership differing by a tenfold, can the TGA maintain its prestige?

"94% of players were satisfied with the Spark Awards Ceremony."

"The Spark Glory Star Special Sale is now open for a limited time! All the star-studded lineups from the Spark Awards Ceremony are included, with huge discounts!"

Three days after the end of Xinghuo's New Year's Eve gala, a wave of excitement had already passed, but with Asahi TV's re-broadcast, domestic media outlets have started buzzing again.

Actually, when you think about it carefully, this whole thing is pretty absurd.

But it's not entirely absurd. After all, Japanese TV stations also import domestic dramas, but there's a difference between importing and direct TV broadcasting like this.

In addition to Japan's TV Asahi, several domestic TV stations, including Chongqing TV, Shanghai TV, and Qiongzhou TV, also rebroadcast Xinghuo's New Year's Eve Gala.

This sparked another wave of discussion that went viral.

Chapter 498 Hell

In addition to the hardware, performances, and events that Spark is about to launch.

Another topic that has generated a lot of discussion on the global internet is whether The Game Awards (TGA) is still the most influential awards ceremony.