Video Game Tycoon in Tokyo-Chapter 974: The Madness of the Amusement Park

At this moment, Gamestar Park had already become the most envied attraction in the eyes of countless amusement park owners.

A country's Prime Minister was publicly promoting it—and during the Olympic Games, no less.

That level of publicity was maxed out.

Even if you had the money, you might not be able to buy that kind of promotion.

They could only imagine: if their own parks ever got publicity like this, they'd probably laugh in their sleep.

However, the Japanese Prime Minister's endorsement also drew criticism from the Olympic Committee.

They felt that such behavior turned an event meant to symbolize public good and peace into a tool for profit.

But there wasn't much they could do—at most they could vent their dissatisfaction in some media, but that was it.

At its core, the Olympics is a business too. The Olympic Committee didn't survive all these years on idealism alone—they need to make money as well.

...

...

Still, no one had expected the Prime Minister of Japan himself to personally promote an amusement park. That really was pushing the limits.

Were video games really that popular now? Popular enough to make a Prime Minister do this?

Some members of the Olympic Committee had already begun to reassess Gamestar Electronic Entertainment.

It seemed this company wasn't quite what they had imagined.

At this point, Gamestar was clearly the biggest beneficiary.

Just on that day, search volumes for Gamestar-related keywords exploded online.

Many people were frustrated: why hadn't Gamestar gone public in the U.S.?

If it had, they would've driven its stock price through the roof.

A company endorsed by the government clearly wasn't ordinary.

Meanwhile, Gamestar Park's related sweepstakes also saw a massive surge in participation.

Previously, each giveaway had about 30,000 to 50,000 participants, all competing for just a few dozen opening-day tickets.

But now, that number had surged into the hundreds of thousands.

Still, only about two thousand people met Gamestar's eligibility criteria.

And the lottery portion depended heavily on luck.

Even so, players were still desperate for a chance to experience Gamestar Park.

If they couldn't attend opening day, they'd settle for the second day.

Soon, Day 2 tickets were sold out within just half a day.

And Day 2 had 100,000 tickets available.

That meant the second day would see double the number of guests as opening day. Wait times across all attractions would roughly double too—but even that didn't dampen players' enthusiasm.

It wasn't just those who missed out on Day 1 tickets rushing to buy Day 2 tickets.

Even players who had already won Day 1 tickets were choosing to go again the next day.

After all, they were already in Japan—it wouldn't make sense to only visit for a single day.

Back in the day, Gamestar Carnival had lasted several days too.

Many players bought multi-day passes back then.

With Day 2 selling out in half a day, Day 3's 100,000 tickets sold out in just one day.

Then Days 4, 5, 6, 7... all the way up to Day 14 followed. Each day's 100,000 tickets sold out within one to two days.

Player enthusiasm had reached a whole new level.

Seeing the situation, Gamestar Interactive's theme park operations team immediately reached out to the Tokyo government for help.

The visitor volume was getting so out of hand that Gamestar's staff could no longer maintain order alone.

So they called in the government.

This many tourists also meant a massive amount of revenue flowing into government hands. When Tokyo officials received the report from Gamestar Interactive, they were so excited they nearly jumped for joy.

They immediately organized a team of order-keeping park staff, urgently calling in experienced personnel from various regions to Tokyo.

Gamestar was paying competitive wages, and the Tokyo government added extra bonuses for the emergency recruits.

They also promised: if any of these temporary workers wanted to stay long-term, Gamestar would prioritize hiring them.

In a short time, players, tourists, service staff, and government employees all surged into Tokyo.

Officials in other cities were dumbfounded.

Was this park really that magical?

Why didn't the parks they had introduced through investment have the same kind of appeal?

Some of their parks were clearly larger than Gamestar Park, and had more attractions too.

But what they didn't understand was this: such a terrifying volume of visitors wasn't created overnight. It came from over twenty years of presence and reputation in the video game market.

Every player had dreamed of a true gaming-themed amusement park.

And once they learned that the park had been created by the undisputed giant of the gaming industry—Gamestar Interactive Entertainment— their excitement became impossible to contain.

"Honestly, the traffic to Gamestar Park is way more than I expected," said Takayuki, as he looked at the freshly updated data in front of him with some amazement.

There were still two days left before the park's official opening.

Yet tickets had already been sold out through the next two weeks.

And people were still buying.

Since tickets for later dates no longer had purchase restrictions, anyone could buy them—so the number of buyers exploded.

At first, scalpers tried to buy up tickets for resale.

But after Gamestar implemented ID-bound purchases and banned ticket transfers, scalpers pretty much disappeared.

While they couldn't be eliminated entirely, the system was enough to prevent widespread scalping and let more real fans get their tickets at normal prices.

Standing next to Takayuki, a marketing executive sighed and said, "President, I think we were too conservative. I really think we should ride this momentum and add more special events."

"Special events?"

"Yeah, like developer meet-and-greets at the park, or live concerts of game soundtracks. Things like that would definitely increase player engagement."

"Hm. That's a good idea. Go for it. We can even invite some of the actors who've worked with us before to make appearances. Don't worry about the money."

Takayuki was clearly in high spirits.

Seeing that so many players loved the idea of a game-themed park made all the effort worthwhile.