Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

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So this 2000 million registrations are less of a marketing ploy and more of a retention effort for existing players. The subtext is roughly: our game is thriving! Join now! Don't hesitate!!

This is actually very important for anime and manga fans.

After all, for anime and manga fans, choosing a game is, to some extent, choosing a waifu (wife/girlfriend). Of course, they hope their waifu is both beautiful and popular.

If someone is called a "loose woman" (a derogatory term for someone who has been sexually harassed), then going out to have sex will be a psychological burden.

On the other hand, there are concerns that if a game doesn't have a large following, the developers might run away with the money or the game might not be able to keep up with the subsequent content.

While most games don't require much effort in this area, it's worth doing something that can be done in a convenient way.

~~~

With a peak concurrent user count of 800 million and 2000 million registered players, these two sets of data are like a mountain of gold piled up in front of countless game developers.

Whenever everyone thought...

When the potential of anime-style games has been fully explored, Xinghuo always jumps out to slap them in the face and say, "This is nothing."

Data is cold, but popularity is not.

Besides players, those in the industry were the first to experience the tangible impact of these numbers.

Japan, Sakura Building.

As usual, Misawa Sachika entered the building.

Since the launch of Fate/stay night, the hottest topics in the Japanese voice acting community have basically revolved around this game.

The discussion included both the game itself and the voice actor event that took place when Fate/stay night aired.

reason?

It's very simple. With the explosive popularity of "Destiny's Path", the voice actor live broadcast program held by Spark when the server was launched also became very popular. Some veteran voice actors had actually gradually become less active.

After the program aired, it suddenly received a lot of attention.

Among them is Rie Kugimiya. As a veteran voice actress, Rie Kugimiya has actually been gradually fading out of the voice acting circle in recent years, but thanks to this event.

During a casual chat in the middle of the game, a sentence came up.

"Huh? I thought Kugimiya disease was referring to me being sick..."

It suddenly went viral, and inexplicably, its popularity rebounded by a large margin.

That's why.

Many voice actors have been jumping on the bandwagon of Fate/stay night lately, since the game is really popular.

No joke at all, on the way to the Sakura Building by subway, Misawa Sachika saw advertisements for the trajectory of fate everywhere, whether on the train or at the station.

She even saw a bald, middle-aged man in a suit holding a phone while riding in a car, grinning smirk.

Looking at his phone screen again, it turned out he was on the character interface of the game "Fate/stay night," trying to adjust the view to an angle where he could see the female character's underwear...

"This could be a topic of conversation during today's recording..."

That's right, Sachika Misawa also has her own Spark spin-off program.

In Japan, getting a spin-off program from Spark is a pretty impressive achievement, even after the Spark Building was expanded.

Not to mention that Misawa Sachika's show has been airing since the beginning of 17.

And that's why she got the chance to participate in the show.

It's still because of her nickname.

Pay-to-win girl.

This nickname comes partly from the fact that she voiced Kuroyukihime in "Accel World".

Another reason is that she spent too much money on in-game purchases in a game called "Marry Colle," which left her with no money for daily life, so her agency ordered her to stop spending money on in-game purchases.

If observant players search for the game "Marry Colle", they will easily find that it is a completely male-oriented game.

The main gameplay revolves around winning over female characters.

Sachika Misawa, who enjoys this kind of game, is practically Spark's target audience in the Japanese market.

And unsurprisingly, she was captivated by Xinghuo the moment he landed in Japan.

Of all the games, Misawa Sachika's favorite is Battlefront Girls.

Because she often talks about Battlefront Girls, she often recommends Battlefront Girls to others and her own fans.

Misawa Sachika's misfortune turned into a blessing in disguise, and her career development was slightly better than in her previous life.

She has appeared in at least all of Spark's games, and with the recent wave of voice actor idolization, as well as her talent in broadcasting, she has also gained some recognition.

In 17, they secured a collaboration with Spark, and their own voice actor program was also launched as part of Spark's spin-off programs.

The title is simply "The Daily Life of a Money-Grubber Girl".

This program is divided into two segments: live broadcast and pre-recorded broadcast. The live broadcast is on Mondays, mainly featuring games.

Then, on Fridays and weekends, there is a talk show similar to a radio program.

Chapter 440 Pressure

To be fair, Sachika Misawa does have some talent in radio broadcasting, and occasionally she can even go viral with some amazing moves.

For example, not long after the show started airing in 17, she revealed that because her agency restricted her from spending money on in-game purchases, she secretly contacted the official Spark Entertainment account, hoping that Spark Entertainment could secretly convert a portion of her salary into in-game currency for her distribution.

This sounds outrageous, but she actually showed her chat history with Xinghuo's HR department.

After the show's popularity soared, when he heard from the staff that they had received a business order from Spark, he practically jumped for joy.

His exaggerated expression of shock was captured and turned into a meme, which is still circulating on the internet today.

Many Spark players, especially those overseas, may not recognize Misawa Sachika unless they pay special attention to voice actors, but they are very familiar with this meme.

According to her previous work schedule, she would go to the Sakura Building twice a week.

She does one live broadcast every Monday night and two episodes of the show every Tuesday. As her popularity gradually stabilized and her audience became more stable, recording this show basically became her daily work.

As I walked, I kept thinking about what I had seen on the tram, considering what topics I could use to tell the story on the show, and how I should tell it.

Occasionally, I'll also flip through the notebooks in my bag.

The reason she treats her show this way is largely because her situation, or rather her career development, has not been going well lately.

In fact, to be more accurate...

After voicing the role of Kuroyukihime in 12, she thought she could soar to fame with this popular role, but she never expected that her debut would be her peak.

This is partly due to the lack of support from her agency, and partly due to the recent wave of idolized voice actors.

Many voice actors, especially female voice actors.

The work pressure is immense; Misawa Sachika was already feeling this pressure back when she was playing Kuroyukihime.

At that time, her manager forced her to do all kinds of idol work every day. In addition to voice acting, she also had to grit her teeth and learn singing and dancing skills that were very difficult for her.

What chilled her to the bone was that there was no one to consult with from beginning to end; the agency only cared about its current schedule and didn't pay attention to their physical and mental well-being.

In her previous life, Misawa Sachika was also someone who was highly self-critical and liked to put pressure on herself. Back then, Kuroyukihime was criticized for reading in a flat and monotonous way.

The pressure on Misawa Sachika was considerable, and this was partly the reason for her subsequent depression and suicidal thoughts.

Effort is not the problem.

The problem is that after putting in the effort, there's no hope in sight.

New voice actors are paid low salaries, so animation teams prefer to use newcomers. Once they gain experience and their prices increase, the animation team will look for the next batch of newcomers.

Animation companies exploit newcomers' aspirations for the voice acting industry, draining them dry. Often, voice actors are unable to support themselves through their main job and have to take on other part-time jobs.

Of course, voice actor companies aren't stupid either.

They train voice actors so that they can use animation to increase their popularity and then use the extra income from this side business.

In order to monetize their popularity, voice actors who originally didn't need to appear in public are gradually stepping into the spotlight under the arrangement of their agencies, singing, dancing, releasing photobooks, selling CD albums, doing radio programs, opening paid membership live streams, holding small concerts or stage events... taking on jobs like crazy.

This phenomenon became even more serious after Spark Games entered the market, and the intensification of competition and idolization among voice actors intensified.

Especially for female voice actors, idolization and popularity are inevitable. In addition to practicing voice acting, they also need to practice singing and dancing, pay attention to their appearance, and update their social media accounts.

Some people have adapted to this very well. For example, Kana Hanazawa, Ayane Sakura, and other popular voice actors have all done quite well after the idolization of voice actors.

For every person who can adapt, there is someone who cannot.

Sachika Misawa was one of those who couldn't adapt. After becoming popular as the voice actress for Kuroyukihime, she immediately entered the so-called voice actress dilemma.

Her agency offered her a price for accepting orders, so in the eyes of animation companies, she was already considered a popular voice actress. Therefore, due to cost considerations, she was often rejected during Misawa Sachika's auditions for this reason.

Especially in 15 and 16, Sachika Misawa left Style Cube and moved to Space Craft Entertainment.

During this period, she only took on voice acting roles for three animated films.

Moreover, at this time, her biggest source of income, the one that could help relieve her stress, was BanG Dream!, but she didn't get the role of Aoba Mocha.

It was during this period.

She became obsessed with Spark's games, which led her to get a job at Spark's games. So, in Misawa Sachika's heart, she and Spark were quite destined to be together.

Moreover, the biggest change that Xinghuo brought her was gaining a group of Chinese viewers.

Compared to the fussy and meddlesome Japanese otaku, Chinese viewers are much simpler.

As long as you can create something interesting, and you're a girl, plus the popularity of Kuroyukihime from 17 hadn't completely faded yet, and the character UMP45 she voiced in Battlefront Girls was also quite popular.

Misawa Sachika started her live streams early and still managed to gain quite a few fans.

The show successfully stood the test of time and became a regular program. Although the show did not make Misawa Sachika a popular voice actress, it at least provided her with a regular outlet for her emotions.

Moreover, as Spark's games continued to expand, she was able to consistently secure jobs within Spark's games.

After her agency went bankrupt at the beginning of the year, Sakura Studio gave her a work contract. Although it was for a voice acting program, it relieved a lot of her pressure.

At least it's not like my previous life where I had absolutely no way out.

Therefore, Misawa Sachika's mental state in this world is much better than in her previous life.

He is someone whose life was slightly altered by chance because of the emergence of the spark.

Sachika Misawa was naturally unaware of this, but she still had a strong affection for Spark, and therefore always attached great importance to the program.

With a head full of mixed thoughts.

As Misawa Sachika entered the building, she was greeted by a cacophony of noise.

Just as she was wondering, she heard the voice of her friend, Sumire Uesaka.

Good morning! Chika, you're here too?

"Uesaka?"

Misawa Sachika was about to reply with "What a coincidence!" when she looked up and realized...

The Sakura Building was exceptionally lively today, with voice actors from all over Japan, basically all of whom were quite famous, gathered here.

"Huh? What's going on?"

Hearing Misawa Sachika's question, Uesaka Sumire was also surprised.

"Oh? You didn't know? Lin Sang is coming here today, and I heard she's going to participate in the recording of everyone's program..."

Chapter 441 The Exploding Spark

"...Is it...today?"

Of course, Misawa Sachika knew about this. Although she was currently a free agent, just like Uesaka Sumire, meaning she didn't have a management company, the staff at Spark would still contact her.

However, her program was not selected during the preliminary rounds, which is why she didn't realize it at first.

Thinking back on this incident and looking at the scene again, listening closely, one can tell that the group of people standing here are all waiting for Lin Li, and the topics of their discussion all revolve around this.

"Is President Lin really going to participate in our program recording today?"

"Of course, our director was talking about this last month."

"Even now, I still feel like it's a bit unreal."

"I heard that Lin Sang is going to stay here all day today? I wonder if it will be our turn to perform?"