After Nintendo's showcase, the schedule moved on to individual publisher presentations. Sony's event wasn't happening today—it was set for tomorrow.
Ichin glanced at the program lineup. Up next was Bandai Namco's presentation. Since he was interested in their Super Robot Wars announcements, he decided to keep the stream going.
Now that his studio's game had been revealed, the others who had gathered around earlier returned to their own activities.
During a break in the presentations, Ichin took the opportunity to answer some viewer questions while also hosting a giveaway—this time, 20 copies of Slay the Spire for the Switch.
"Will Hollow Knight and Metroid Dread release around the same time?"
Seeing this question pop up in chat, Ichin thought for a moment before responding.
"Probably not. Metroid Dread is set to launch on October 8th, while Hollow Knight is planned for late November to December. By that time, the hype for Metroid will have cooled down, so it won't really affect us. Also, while both games share some similarities in genre, the gameplay experience is completely different. You don't have to worry about them feeling redundant."
"The Switch demo is up! I'm already downloading it!"
"Me too!"
Seeing the excitement in the chat, Ichin smiled.
"Thanks for your support, everyone! The demo covers a small early-game area, with a playtime of around 30 minutes—though experienced players might finish it even faster. Oh, I forgot to mention in the PV: on Switch, whether you're playing in handheld or docked mode, the resolution is maxed out, and the game runs at a stable 60 FPS. As for PC, the resolution supports up to 4K, but ultrawide isn't available yet—it'll be added in the full release. Frame rates are uncapped, depending on your system's performance."
His words reassured many players who were concerned about the Switch version's performance.
After all, anyone who's played on the Switch knows its hardware limitations. Even though Nintendo's first-party games are fun, performance issues—low resolutions and unstable frame rates—are often unavoidable.
Take The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, for example. If the Switch had just a little more power to maintain a solid 60 FPS—or even a stable 45 to 50 FPS—the experience would improve significantly.
Of course, that was just wishful thinking. The reality was that the Switch's hardware wasn't getting any better.
With a small sigh, Ichin remarked, "Right now, we can optimize Hollow Knight to run at a stable 60 FPS, but as our future projects grow in scale, the Switch's hardware won't be able to handle it. The optimization workload would be way too heavy."
He hadn't shared it with the audience yet, but he had already decided on his next project after Hollow Knight.
A Persona game.
It would be a tight fit for the Switch's specs, but whether or not a Switch version would be feasible—that would only become clear once development actually started.
Before long, Bandai Namco's showcase began. Unlike the main event, this was a smaller, dedicated stream hosted by Bandai Namco themselves.
And right from the start, they went all-in on their biggest title: Super Robot Wars 30.
As a mecha enthusiast, Ichin had always loved the Super Robot Wars series. However, it was practically impossible to create a game that pleased all fans of the franchise. There were always missing elements, reused assets from older games, or other compromises that made each new entry feel slightly lacking.
On top of that, turn-based strategy games had been declining in popularity for years. Even though Super Robot Wars had a passionate global fanbase, the last three entriesV, X, and T—hadn't achieved major sales success.
Watching the battle animations of various mechas appearing in the game, Ichin was thrilled to see Victory Gundam make an appearance, but he still felt a little frustrated.
"Sigh, in the end, it's the limitations of the genre. The Super Robot Wars development team just doesn't get enough budget to make major improvements. Still, SRW 30 looks decent—playable, at least."
Shinoda, sitting beside him, curiously asked, "But don't they make tons of money selling toys and merchandise?"
"It's complicated. Ever since Bandai and Namco merged, they have too many different business divisions—games, toys, merchandise, movies, and so on. Games are just one part of it, and Super Robot Wars is an even smaller part within that. So, how much budget do you think they actually get? Let me give you an example—right now, I can put all our resources into making one game. But if our studio grows and we have three development teams, then the budget has to be split across multiple projects. Before a game recoups its costs, we'd have to consider external funding to keep development going, which comes with its own set of complications."
"Ugh, that sounds really complicated," Shinoda groaned, shaking her head. She exhaled and said, "I think I'll just stick to playing games and not worry about this stuff."
After watching the Super Robot Wars stream, Shinoda lost interest in the later segments and went back to playing games. Hazuki, on the other hand, was getting ready to head home.
As she left, she took Hifumi, Iijima Yun, Mochizuki Momiji, and Narumi Tsubame with her—along with Mozuku, who had been lounging on Ichin's lap the entire time.
Meanwhile, Aoba made a quick escape, clearly not wanting to stay in front of the camera any longer. She grabbed Sakura Nene and left for the day as well.
Ichin checked the time and figured it was about time to end the stream.
Facing the camera, he said, "Alright, that's it for today's stream. Cologne Game Show will still have online broadcasts tomorrow, so I'll be streaming again. We can check out any new game announcements together and just chat. For now, we'll wrap it up here."
With that, he ended the stream.
Stretching his arms, Ichin turned to Utaha beside him and asked, "It's getting late. Are you heading home?"
Utaha tilted her head with a playful smile and gestured to the other side of the room. "Over there—they don't seem to be ready to call it a night yet."
Sure enough, over in the programming area, Umiko, Shinoda, Rin, and Yagami were still hard at work. Even Eriri hadn't left.
Curious, Ichin asked, "Eriri, you're not going home? It's pretty late. Won't Aunt Sayuri call you?"
Eriri, currently gaming with Umiko, turned her head and replied, "Nah, it's fine. I already told Utaha—I'm staying over at her place tonight!"
"...Huh?"
Ichin blinked in surprise and looked at the girl beside him. "She's staying over at your place?"
Utaha playfully poked Ichin's cheek. "What? Getting impatient already?"
"Uh… no, not exactly."
Ichin shook his head. "It's just… isn't this Eriri's first time staying over at your place?"
"Yep! Honestly, I'm looking forward to it. I bet we'll have some interesting late-night conversations."
Seeing how excited Utaha was, Ichin decided not to say anything more. He shut down his computer and headed upstairs.
...
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