Video Game Tycoon in Tokyo-Chapter 1007: Ready to Go Viral

Recruiting well-known actors and musicians was all part of preparing for the development of Cyberpunk 2077.

Back when Cyberpunk 2077 went viral, one decisive factor was the inclusion of an actor who represented cyberpunk culture as one of the game's major characters.

That actor was Keanu Reeves, who had starred in the Matrix series in the original world.

In Cyberpunk 2077, he played a hallucination with independent thought inside the protagonist's brain.

That character was a rebellious rock musician from fifty or sixty years ago in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe — Johnny Silverhand. His most significant act was blowing up the building of Arasaka Corporation, a megacorporation that monopolized almost everything, along with a group of comrades — creating a legendary story.

At the time, a particular trailer left a deep impression: after a fierce fight, the protagonist is betrayed during a deal with a fixer and dumped in a landfill. While unconscious, he sees a hallucinated figure.

That figure walks up and tells the protagonist they'll burn Night City down together. Then, the moment Keanu Reeves' face appears, the whole game reveal event erupts.

The crowd went wild.

That marked the moment when 2077's marketing went viral and took off like a rocket.

...

...

If only the quality of the game had lived up to player expectations, it could have gone down in history as a model success.

Sadly, everything fell apart due to the game's lack of polish.

Yet the game had a solid foundation. In the original world, for reasons unknown to outsiders — perhaps due to pressure from investors, or internal pressure from the development team — the final product just didn't meet expectations.

In this world, regardless of whether it meets the expectations of players, Takayuki at least wants 2077 to meet his own standards.

"Yes, that's right — it's an invitation from Gamestar Electronic Entertainment, the company behind the Metal Gear and Uncharted series. What? You've agreed? Great! I'll pass your contact info to Gamestar Electronic Entertainment. You'll get a call in a couple of days. Haha, no need to thank me — just doing a small favor. Just don't forget me when you make it big."

"Hello, is this Professor Cobb? Yes, this is Tokarev. I have a job invitation from Gamestar Electronic Entertainment. I wonder if you— Oh, you've already agreed? I didn't expect you to accept so quickly. Huh? Your child is next to you and said if you didn't agree, they'd stop talking to you? Haha, your kid has excellent taste."

"Hello? I'm looking for [Actor Name], is he currently...?"

Right in front of Takayuki, Tokarev began contacting several well-known actors and musicians. freēwēbηovel.c૦m

After Takayuki had drafted a Ready Player One-style story for Tokarev, he also started looking for suitable actors, screenwriters, and a director for the movie project he was planning.

First, he looked for a director.

Since Takayuki wasn't a film industry professional, it made more sense to leave the task to the experts. He would act as a professional consultant, providing consistent creative support — as both sides had agreed.

Finding a director didn't take much time. Tokarev quickly identified several veteran filmmakers with significant influence in the film industry.

These directors were heavyweights in the industry. Takayuki insisted that only such high-caliber individuals could manage the complexity of this type of film.

The movie would rely heavily on Easter eggs as a key element — a rather fresh and unconventional production style for film creators.

Moreover, around 90% of the film would be produced using CGI effects, which would be very costly.

Bringing all those elements together without creating a jarring or disjointed experience would be a major test of any director's skill.

And that kind of skill simply isn't something a rookie director could possess.

After Tokarev reached out to several directors and explained the groundbreaking nature of the project, they immediately expressed interest in taking part.

Still, the specifics needed thorough review before anyone could jump to conclusions.

Takayuki wasn't in a rush. Filming could proceed gradually — the movie was just a side project. His main focus remained video games.

"Takayuki, I've already reached out to a few well-known actors and musicians. They'll be in touch with you. Keep whoever you find suitable."

"Great, thank you!"

"Oh come on, no need for thanks — we're close enough for that!"

Tokarev was in high spirits.

Because this time, Takayuki had granted him the film adaptation rights to several game IPs.

Uncharted and Metal Gear.

These two IPs were already famous in their own right, and the stories of both games were solid and complete.

Takayuki required that these film adaptations remain faithful to the original works. That meant just following the game scripts provided by Gamestar Electronic Entertainment. Directors and screenwriters were only allowed to make some artistic adjustments to minor details.

Tokarev also guaranteed that he would stick strictly to the source material — absolutely no wild changes to the plot.

He didn't think major changes were necessary anyway — and they might even backfire financially.

As for casting Metal Gear, the protagonist Snake could just be played by the original face model from the game. Jobb had since become a fairly well-known character actor. If he knew he'd get to star in a Metal Gear live-action film, he'd probably accept even with a reduced fee — which would save them a lot in star actor costs.

They had to save money wherever possible.

After wrapping up the conversation about adaptation rights and licensing, Takayuki left to return to the U.S. headquarters and check on game development progress.

Development for GTA: Liberty City Stories wasn't fully complete yet.

Takayuki's plan was to turn the Liberty City Stories online mode into a continuously updated live service game.

Meanwhile, the two standalone DLC story expansions for GTA IV also had to be released soon. Once that was done, the team couldn't be idle — development on GTA V had to begin. All of this needed tight scheduling.

As soon as Takayuki left, Tokarev enthusiastically invited a few screenwriters and actors he was familiar with to his home to discuss the film project in detail.