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Ryan did not realize how quickly time passed.
After the launch of the Nova Handheld on August 10, 1995, everything at Nova Tech began moving faster than anyone expected. The first few weeks after launch were chaotic. Stores kept requesting more shipments while the factory in Japan increased production day and night.
Within the first few months, the Nova Handheld completely sold out its first production batch of nearly four hundred thousand units.
More importantly, the Pokémon game became an unexpected phenomenon.
Children loved the idea of exploring a world and capturing creatures. Even older players became interested because of the multiplayer feature that allowed them to trade and battle Pokémon using the link cable.
Soon the Pokémon craze began spreading everywhere.
The manga that Dawn Publishing had been releasing suddenly became even more popular. Many readers who played the game started buying the manga volumes to learn more about the Pokémon world.
At the same time, Hasbro's Pokémon toys became extremely popular among children. Pikachu toys, Poké Balls and other figures quickly sold out in toy stores.
According to the agreement with Hasbro, Nova Tech received 10–15% royalty for every toy sold using the Pokémon intellectual property. Within the first year alone millions of Pokémon toys were sold, bringing Nova Tech more than one million dollars in royalty income.
Meanwhile the handheld console itself was performing far beyond expectations.
The factory continued producing six thousand Nova Handheld devices per day, and the total sales within the first year passed one million units.
The game cartridges sold even faster.
More than two million Pokémon cartridges were sold within the first year, while the smaller launch games like the puzzle game, the platform game and the farming simulator also sold hundreds of thousands of copies.
Seeing the success of the Nova Handheld, several smaller game development studios began approaching Nova Tech. They wanted to publish their own games for the new handheld console.
Ryan and Tim Drake carefully discussed the idea before agreeing.
Nova Tech decided to allow third-party developers to publish games on the Nova Handheld, but with strict conditions.
First, every game would go through quality inspection before it could be released.
Second, Nova Tech would charge a 15% royalty from every game sold on the platform.
This ensured two things.
The company would continue earning money from every game sold on the console, and at the same time low-quality games would not damage the reputation of the Nova Handheld.
This decision quickly strengthened the Nova Handheld's ecosystem.
Soon more developers started creating games for the console, increasing the number of available titles.
When the financial reports for the first year were completed, even Tim Drake looked surprised.
Nova Tech had generated nearly forty million dollars in total revenue.
After subtracting production costs, salaries, marketing expenses and factory investments, the company still had over twenty million dollars in profit.
For a company that had started with less than a million dollars, the growth was unbelievable.
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It was now 1996.
Ryan's life still looked normal from the outside. He continued attending school and spending time with Rachel and his friends.
Rachel and Ryan had become openly close by now. Their friends often joked about them being a couple, although both of them still behaved carefully because they were young.
Ryan also continued his martial arts training, quietly strengthening his body.
Inside Nova Tech, however, things were moving much faster.
The company hired many new developers and engineers. Several new games were being developed for the Nova Handheld, including Pokémon Blue and Pokémon Yellow, along with racing games, adventure titles and puzzle games created by both Nova Tech and third-party studios.
At the same time the hardware division began designing the next generation of the Nova Handheld, which would have improved performance and a better screen.
But Ryan's ambitions did not stop there.
During one meeting he proposed an even bigger idea.
A home gaming console.
Unlike the handheld device, this console would connect to televisions and support larger, more complex games.
At first the engineers were surprised. Competing in the home console market meant facing giants like Nintendo and Sony.
But after the success of the Nova Handheld, Tim Drake decided to support Ryan's vision.
And so Nova Tech quietly began developing two major projects.
The next-generation Nova Handheld.
And the company's first home gaming console.
By the end of 1996, Nova Tech had grown from a small startup into one of the most promising companies in the gaming industry.
But Ryan knew something important.
This success was only the beginning.
Because both the future he remembered… and the mysterious system in his mind… promised much greater things ahead.