Wednesday, 4 February 2002.
Inside one of Microsoft's offices, Seamus Blackley and Bill Gates were seated in a private meeting room with another guest—Buran Ken, better known online by the name of his YouTube channel, BuKa. Buran had spent the last few years building a reputation as a supposedly "neutral" gaming commentator, and that reputation had made his opinions unusually influential. What most of his audience did not know, however, was that he had maintained a very close relationship with Apple for quite some time. Apple had repeatedly paid him to criticize ZAGE products while still preserving his public image as an independent reviewer. He was careful about it too. He rarely made his bias obvious, which was exactly why people continued trusting him.
His most famous video had come only a few months earlier when he heavily criticized Zaboru Renkonan for refusing to personally review Apple's i-Play title, Dark Guild. Buran had framed the entire situation as though Zaboru was afraid of acknowledging competitors, and the video had spread everywhere. He had argued that someone as influential as Zaboru should not simply ignore a rival platform whenever it was convenient, and because Buran delivered the criticism calmly rather than screaming like some obvious fanboy, a surprisingly large number of viewers agreed with him. ZAGE fans hated the video, Apple fans loved it, and everyone else debated it for weeks. That controversy had made BuKa even more valuable to companies looking for a respected voice that could quietly push a particular narrative.
Now Microsoft wanted exactly that.
Buran sat across from Bill and Seamus, but there was something immediately strange about him today. His eyes were red, heavy, and surrounded by dark circles so obvious that even the room's bright lighting could not hide them. His hair was slightly messy, his posture looked exhausted, and every few seconds he rubbed one eye as though he had not properly slept in a very long time.
Seamus leaned forward slightly. "So… Buran. How was it?"
The plan had been simple. Microsoft had contacted him privately and asked him to play several ZEPS 4 launch titles before potentially paying him for a series of critical videos. They did not expect him to fabricate obvious lies; that would damage the very reputation that made him useful. Instead, they wanted him to find weaknesses, emphasize frustrations, question design decisions, compare the games unfavorably against Xbox software whenever possible, and generally cool down some of the overwhelming enthusiasm surrounding ZEPS 4.
For the first test, Seamus had specifically asked Buran to play Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Out of the twelve ZEPS 4 launch games, GTA appeared to be generating some of the loudest discussion. The trailers had promised an enormous open world, multiple cities, countryside, character progression, vehicles, side activities, gangs, properties, customization, and a level of freedom that sounded almost ridiculous.
Seamus expected BuKa to find something.
Bad mission design.
Repetition.
Empty environments.
Weak driving.
Overhyped freedom.
Anything.
Buran inhaled slowly through his nose, put one palm over his face, and sighed. "I did play it. I played GTA: San Andreas."
Bill watched him carefully.
Seamus asked, "And?"
Buran stayed silent for several seconds before finally lowering his hand. "Honestly… I hate admitting this." His exhausted expression tightened, almost as though saying the next words physically hurt him. "It's so fucking amazing."
Seamus frowned immediately.
Bill's eyebrows rose.
Buran noticed both reactions and sighed again. "I know. I know what you wanted me to say. I went into it looking for problems too. I watched the trailers beforehand and deliberately lowered my expectations because I thought ZAGE was exaggerating the freedom. I figured if I went in skeptical enough, I'd notice everything they were hiding." He looked directly toward Seamus. "But after a few hours I just couldn't do it anymore."
Seamus leaned back. "Couldn't do what?"
"Pretend the game isn't incredible."
The room became quieter.
Buran continued, and the more he talked, the more animated he became despite looking completely exhausted. "Freedom is honestly an understatement. You can spend hours without touching the main story and still constantly find things to do. I started in Los Santos planning to play two or three missions, and instead I ended up just driving around for half the night. Every part of the city has something. Different cars, motorcycles, stores, little side activities, strange locations, hidden weapons, random NPC interactions, gang areas, basketball courts, gyms, restaurants, clothes stores, barbers… and that's before even talking about the countryside or the other cities."
Bill glanced toward Seamus.
Buran continued without stopping. "And there are easter eggs everywhere. Not just stupid signs either. I found rumors online about alien sightings in certain places it has Contra reference on it, ghost encounters and Castlevania reference, strange vehicles, hidden references to others ZAGE games, and apparently there are things players still haven't found yet. The world constantly makes you wonder what's around the next corner."
He leaned forward, elbows on the table. "You can train martial arts. You can go to the gym and actually change CJ's body depending on how much he works out. If you eat too much, he gains weight. If you exercise, he gets stronger and leaner. His stamina improves. His fighting changes. You can buy houses, customize them, use them as safehouses, invite your homies around, throw parties, build gang respect, change clothes, modify cars, collect weapons, date people, gamble, do taxi work, drive ambulances, fight fires, race, explore… there's just so much shit."
Seamus frowned deeper. "But it's not really that deep right..? it 's just side activities"
"Not like this."
Buran immediately shook his head. "That's what I thought too. I expected a lot of shallow side activities just to make the bullet list look impressive. But half of this stuff actually connects back into the game. Gym training affects CJ. Martial arts change how he fights. Gang respect affects recruitment. Properties matter. Car modifications matter. Clothing affects appearance and sometimes reactions. Even eating isn't just an animation. It's like all these small systems are connected."
He paused, then laughed tiredly. "And basketball."
Bill blinked. "Basketball?"
"Yes. Proper basketball."
Seamus looked confused. "Inside GTA?"
Buran nodded. "That's exactly what I mean. They could've just put a court there and let CJ throw a ball with one button. Instead they made an actual mini basketball system. Shooting timing, positioning, movement, different spots on the court—and CJ can actually improve if you practice. At first he's inconsistent, but if you keep playing, his shooting gets noticeably better."
He rubbed his face again. "ZAGE already owns NBA 2K. They did not need to put that much effort into a basketball side activity inside GTA, but apparently somebody looked at it and said, 'Fuck it, make it proper.'"
Bill slowly leaned back in his chair.
Buran continued. "And the cars are much better than I expected. The base driving is still accessible, but different vehicles actually feel different enough that you notice immediately. Motorcycles, lowriders, sports cars, trucks—they're not just different models with slightly changed speed. And the modification system is way deeper. Wheels, paint, body parts, suspension, nitrous, hydraulics, audio, visual parts. You can spend stupid amounts of time just building cars."
Seamus asked, "Surely the actual missions have problems."
That question made Buran go quiet for a second.
Then he sighed.
"That's the worst part."
Seamus narrowed his eyes. "Worst?"
"For us."
Bill almost smiled.
Buran rubbed both hands down his face. "The main missions are great too. The characters are ridiculously memorable. CJ, Sweet, Ryder, Big Smoke, Kendl, Cesar… they actually feel like characters from a good American crime movie instead of game NPCs waiting to give you objectives. Conversations happen naturally. People argue. They joke. They betray each other. They have history. Even when a mission is simple, the dialogue makes it entertaining."
He looked toward Bill and Seamus. "And the story knows when to be funny and when to get serious. It doesn't feel like the writers are forcing jokes every ten seconds. Sometimes the humor just comes from the characters being idiots. Then suddenly something important happens and the tone shifts."
Buran leaned back and exhaled heavily. "I'm sorry, Mr. Blackley. Mr. Gates. I really am. But I can't say bad things about this game."
Seamus said nothing.
Buran looked embarrassed now, which was almost surreal considering the kind of work he had done for Apple in the past. "Look, I know I'm not exactly innocent. Apple paid me. I accepted money to push criticism harder than I normally would. I convinced myself it was fine because most of the points I made were technically defensible. I never thought of myself as somebody who just lies for money." He paused, then laughed bitterly. "Maybe that's bullshit too. But even with how corrupt I've become, I can't sit in front of a camera and pretend San Andreas is bad."
Bill watched him more carefully.
Buran continued, quieter this time. "I fucking love this game. I think it might genuinely be the best game I've ever played."
Seamus raised an eyebrow. "That good?"
Buran slowly nodded.
Then Bill finally noticed the obvious. "How long did you play it?"
Buran looked away.
Seamus frowned. "Buran?"
"…Two days."
Bill stared at him.
Buran scratched the side of his face. "I haven't really slept in two days."
There was a brief silence.
Seamus looked toward the dark circles beneath Buran's eyes again.
"So that's why you look like that."
"Yeah."
"You stayed awake for two days playing one game we specifically hired you to criticize."
Buran sighed. "When you say it like that, it sounds really bad."
Bill quietly muttered, "It sounds worse for us than for you."
Buran almost laughed.
Seamus leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. He looked disappointed, but not angry. "I see. That's unfortunate. Then we won't have a deal, Mr. BuKa."
Buran nodded immediately. "Yeah. I understand. Sorry."
Seamus continued, "And the confidentiality agreement?"
"Still stands. I won't tell anyone Microsoft contacted me for this, and you don't say anything publicly about my Apple relationship or this meeting."
Seamus nodded. "Agreed."
Buran slowly stood from his chair, looking as though even that required effort. "Then, if you'll excuse me, I have somewhere I need to be."
Bill looked toward him. "Where?"
Buran paused near the door and glanced back.
"My house."
Seamus raised an eyebrow.
Buran added, "I left San Andreas paused."
Bill stared at him.
Buran gave them a tired smile. "I'm in the middle of something."
Then he left.
The door closed.
For several seconds, neither Bill nor Seamus said anything.
Bill finally turned toward Seamus. "It's that bad, huh?"
Seamus leaned back and stared at the ceiling. "Apparently."
Bill tapped one finger against the table. "And that's only one game."
That was the real problem.
GTA: San Andreas was not some isolated ZEPS 4 killer application releasing months after launch. It was available on day one, beside eleven other games, and internal Microsoft analysis had so far failed to identify an obvious disaster among them. Some titles were stronger than others depending on genre, of course, but there was no clear weak link Microsoft could point toward and say, That one is unfinished. That one proves ZAGE rushed the launch.
Seamus sighed. "That's what's driving me insane. Twelve games. Twelve. And apparently none of them have a major weakness big enough to attack."
He shook his head and continued, his frustration becoming much more visible. "How the fuck did they even do it? I thought Xbox was already near the peak of what console graphics could reasonably do right now. Our machine is powerful. Hori looks great. We pushed hard for that hardware. Then ZEPS 4 comes out and suddenly they're rendering games that look like they skipped ahead several years."
Bill remained calmer. "Their hardware is stronger."
"I know that."
"And they control more of their own stack than we do."
"I know that too."
Seamus rubbed his forehead. "Doesn't make it less irritating."
He looked toward the door BuKa had just left through. "And now San Andreas is apparently so good that BuKa—the guy Apple practically trained into being a professional ZAGE critic—refuses money because he likes it too much."
Bill actually laughed once. "For the record, that is impressive."
Seamus gave him an exhausted look. "That guy is a fox, Bill. He can make criticism sound neutral even when he's clearly pushing someone else's interests. That's why Apple used him in the first place. If even he says, 'No, I can't attack this,' that tells me the game is dangerous."
And he was right.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in this world had been enhanced significantly under Zaboru's direction. The core identity remained the same as the game Zaboru remembered from his previous life: the story of CJ returning to Los Santos, the Grove Street conflict, the betrayal, the journey across San Andreas, and the huge open-world structure were still fundamentally intact. Zaboru had never wanted to replace what already made the original concept special.
Instead, he expanded it.
The world was denser. More interiors could be entered. More properties had practical uses. Gang interaction had been expanded. Car modification offered significantly more visual and performance options. Clothing had more variety and better layering. Martial arts were deeper, with different styles offering noticeably different techniques rather than simply changing animations. The gym system had more progression. Weapons had improved handling and greater variety, while optional activities were given enough depth that they felt like actual systems rather than throwaway distractions.
Basketball had received one of the strangest upgrades. Instead of being a tiny novelty, it had become a legitimate mini-game with timing-based shooting, movement, challenges, progression, and CJ gradually becoming better through practice. Zaboru had found the idea hilarious: ZAGE already had NBA 2K, yet somewhere inside its biggest open-world crime game, players could spend an hour doing nothing except improving CJ's jump shot.
And then there were the easter eggs.
Zaboru had abused ZAGE's enormous library of IP without hesitation.
One of the most obscure examples could only be found inside a particular park at a certain time of day. If the player arrived under the correct conditions, a strange old van could appear nearby. Printed across the side was the word ZAGE, surrounded by crude mascot graphics of Mario, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, and Luigi.
Most players simply assumed it was a strange joke.
Longtime ZAGE fans understood immediately.
It referenced ZAGE's very first small public showcase back in 1991, when the young company had demonstrated its earliest games in a park with those same mascots helping attract attention. The reference served absolutely no gameplay purpose. Zaboru included it purely because he knew somebody would eventually recognize it.
There were dozens of similar secrets scattered around San Andreas. References to old ZEPS games, ZAGE characters, fictional products, hidden signs, mysterious locations, strange NPCs, ghost stories, alien rumors, joke advertisements, and obscure pieces of company history were buried throughout the world. Some were obvious. Others required specific times, weather conditions, locations, or bizarre player behavior.
Zaboru knew exactly what would happen.
Players would spend years searching.
That was the point.
Back inside Microsoft, however, none of that sounded entertaining to Seamus.
It sounded expensive.
Bill remained silent for a while before finally asking, "So. You already got a ZEPS 4 unit?"
Seamus glanced toward him.
Bill continued, "You said the hardware team was going to open one up."
Seamus's expression immediately became more complicated.
"Yeah."
"And?"
Seamus sighed heavily.
"About that…"
To be continued.
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