"Why do you need so many people?" Hayakawa Ueto looked calmly at the man.
Currently, Surrey Electronics had over a dozen development teams in its game division.
Each team averaged around 200 people, which was already considered quite large by industry standards.
Without these sizable teams, Surrey wouldn't even be able to compete with Gamestar Electronic Entertainment—they would've been completely crushed already.
Hayakawa understood that having enough developers was crucial to improving game quality.
However, the size of a development team also had its limits. Around 200 people per team was the standard. Anything more might be unnecessary.
So when someone suddenly asked for a 1,000-person team, that sounded excessive.
...
...
"This is related to a game development class I once attended," the man explained.
"A game development class? What kind of class?"
"Well... I hope you don't mind, President—it was a class held by Gamestar Electronic Entertainment. I had the chance to attend, and even met Takayuki in person."
He said it cautiously, clearly worried that mentioning the rival company would upset Hayakawa.
But Hayakawa remained composed.
Attending a Gamestar class? So what—he had attended one himself.
Though he did so quietly, and no one besides Gamestar knew he had been there.
From that experience, Hayakawa knew firsthand that Takayuki was the real deal. You could learn a lot from him. It was foolish to reject valuable lessons just because of competition.
In fact, this was something his own father had once told him.
Hayakawa nodded. "Go on."
"In that class, I learned a new approach to game development—industrialized game production. Everyone had a specific role. The idea was to simplify and streamline all the repetitive and tedious tasks, so developers had more time to focus on gameplay and detail. With 1,000 people, not only could we complete a high-standard game quickly, but we'd also have 1,000 minds contributing to the design and features."
In short, the idea was to achieve a leap in quality through sheer manpower.
"President, I know this would mean higher labor costs, but I truly believe it's a chance to evolve. By the way, have you heard of Gamestar's new game Assassin's Creed?"
"Of course," Hayakawa replied instinctively. "It's gotten quite a bit of attention lately."
The game was already well-known in the gaming community.
But perhaps because he was tired of hearing Takayuki's name, once Hayakawa learned that Assassin's Creed was another Takayuki project, he just assumed it was bound to succeed.
The man smiled shyly. "Actually, I also took part in developing that game—just for a short time—but it was a great honor."
"Hm?" Hayakawa looked surprised. "You helped develop Assassin's Creed? Why?"
The man quickly explained, "It was part of that course. The class lasted seven days, and we had over 1,000 participants from all corners of the game industry. During the course, under Takayuki's guidance, we collaboratively built the prototype of that game. We completed the entire framework in just one week. We sparked a lot of creative ideas during that process. I might be bragging a little, but I'd say we contributed to Assassin's Creed's success in our own way."
That was a surprising revelation.
Hayakawa had never heard about this before.
He turned to the others. "Did any of you take that class too?"
Two of the newly promoted staff raised their hands.
"President, we did. If you play the game and check the credits at the end, you'll even see our names listed there."
Hayakawa fell silent for a moment, then suddenly looked up again.
"Wait—you said you built the core framework of the game in just one week?"
"Yes. It was kind of a miracle, honestly. Without Takayuki, I don't think we would've believed that game development could be so smooth with enough people. The coordination was incredible."
Hayakawa nodded thoughtfully. "Takayuki really is something else. I can't imagine anyone else pulling that off. But… it's still hard to believe."
That Assassin's Creed could be built in just a week? Even just the framework?
He hadn't played the game yet but had seen the trailers. The highly realistic visuals had impressed him.
Still, like before, he simply assumed the game's success was inevitable because of Takayuki.
But now… he realized he had overlooked something important.
Was Takayuki's success purely personal?
These people said they had contributed to Assassin's Creed too.
He made a note to go home and try Assassin's Creed for himself.
His past assumptions had kept him from studying his competitor's work. That was a mistake.
Learning from others was what someone in his position should do—not waste time.
"So, President, what do you think about the suggestion? Increasing the team size?"
"I'll need to seriously consider it," Hayakawa replied.
Bringing in that many new employees, especially when the department had just been restructured, was a major move.
He had the authority to let people go—but not full control over how many people he could hire.
Unless he was certain the idea would work, he couldn't greenlight it.
For now, he would go back and thoroughly study Assassin's Creed first.