Played any video games lately?
I know I have, as usual.
The more years pass, the more games I’ve played.
I just never get tired of playing them.
Even when I become an old man, I’ll probably still be playing like crazy.

Recently, I was playing a certain famous game about living a life of crime.
You become a resident of this virtual world, do whatever you want, and the consequences come flying right back at you.
And what a reaction this made-up world gives you!
It’s fun.
Don’t you think it’s fun?
This is exactly the kind of interaction that video games are beloved for.
This is overall what games are to me.

At the same time, I’m still playing those Famicom games from 30 years ago.
Compared to games these days, the art, music, and rules are surprisingly primiti-… No, they’re just simple.
But even so, they’re still fun.
While following those simple rules, you have to think fast and use your reflexes.
That’s really fun, simply put.
These are the first games I ever played.

No one knows what the future will hold, but I like to imagine video games from the future.
Right now, UGC is all the rage.
In other words, User Generated Content. Basically it means everyone creates the game together.
When I think about how far this trend could ultimately develop, maybe the future could entail concepts such as fine-tuning some data to make a computer create a game to be played by a computer, all while we just watch and grin.
Humans would only be involved in the first bit, and then leave things alone, watching without a care.
You’d just occasionally be taking a peek, but I bet it’d be fun to feel like a god.
Doesn’t that sound fun?
Maybe this is one form games can take.

Games are “fun.”
If they weren’t, we wouldn’t be playing them for all these years, now would we?
But, what is “fun”?

Past games. Modern games. Future games.
They’re all fun in their own unique way,
though you probably can’t discuss them all on the same terms.

“If the player it thinks it’s fun, then it’s fun.”
That’s probably one good way of thinking about it.
This work is ultimately for the customer, so even if I’d get criticized by being told, “That’s just commercialism and pandering to the players,” I wouldn’t care.
However, it’s very rare for someone to be able to entirely shut off their own tastes and work solely to please the customer.

To be honest, I’m not really so good at that myself.
So instead, first I’m aiming for what’s truly “fun” to me.
If I can share that “fun” with many people, then I’m happy.

“Fun above all else”

That’s what the company known as M2 stands for.
As we continue to ponder about what makes things fun,
we get satisfaction by reaching our goal of entertaining our customers.