Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 455 Bandai Namco

"For this game development competition, we can also find a few people from the University of Tokyo to form a University of Tokyo team, and then find a few people from universities in Beijing or Suzhou and Hangzhou to create a gimmick of a Sino-Japanese university competition."

The two quickly started talking about the 48-hour game creation competition.

"Are you going to keep adding fuel to the fire next month? I think it's better to let it cool down for a while."

Although Song Yueying came to Tokyo to "catch the mistress," once she was actually by Chu Chen's side, she couldn't really express her jealousy, and the two quickly returned to their normal routine.

"What, are you worried we're being too high-profile?"

"It's not just high-profile, it's outrageous."

Song Yueying suppressed her smile, shifted her position, and moved closer to Chu Chen.

If there had been a camera in the car at that moment, this scene would have been incredibly sweet.

It's practically a real-life version of a domineering CEO romance drama, but if they could hear what the two of them were talking about, the style of this sweet drama would be completely off.

"You know better than I do what FGO and Touhou mean to Japan."

"Now, they're all in our hands at Starry Sky Games. You saw the effect of yesterday's press conference; the entire Japanese social media exploded. It even overshadowed TGS itself."

Song Yueying's worries were not unfounded.

The stars are a bit too prominent in contemporary Japan.

TapStar has a higher market share in the Japanese Android market than the Google Play Store. In addition to having independent distribution rights, it also holds two of Japan's most popular IPs.

There are also original IPs such as "Final Battlefront" and "Azur Lane".

Besides games, Titok also enjoys watching TV together.
It's no exaggeration to say that if this snowball continues, it might just create a Japanese version of Tencent Games.

It's not even a possibility that half of the top ten spots on the leaderboard are occupied by stars; many media reports suggest this is something that will definitely happen in the future.

This size and influence is significant for a foreign company.

This isn't actually that uncommon. For example, the parent company of the messaging app LINE is a South Korean company, e-commerce mainly relies on Amazon, search is mainly on Google, short videos are mainly on TikTok, and long videos are mainly on YouTube.
It's fair to say that Japan completely missed out on the internet race.

However, Japanese companies are still competitive in the pan-entertainment industry, including Sony, Nintendo, and a whole host of other global game giants.

Under such circumstances, Xingchen's rise is somewhat similar to the rise of China's automobile industry in its previous life, which is a field that Japan is "proud" of developing rapidly.

Not to mention, new energy vehicles aren't even that prevalent in Japan.

Meanwhile, Starry Sky directly devoured market share in its home country of Japan.

The wood is beautiful in the forest, and the wind will destroy it.

Many people understand this principle.

Especially after the incident involving the Japan Game Industry Association, there were concerns within StarCraft Games that taking such a big step might backfire.

However, as the helmsman of the entire star system, Chu Chen did not quite agree with this view.

"I think the fire isn't burning bright enough yet."

Chu Chen wasn't afraid of standing out from the crowd. On the contrary, he knew very well that only absolute strength had absolute say. Even a powerful country like the United States couldn't do anything about Titok.

Not to mention Japan.

For Chu Chen, what he wanted was for Xingchen to have absolute power in Japan and expand to a behemoth level.

Compared to the US, China, and Japan, or more specifically, the Japanese mobile game market, the difficulty of conquering it is arguably the lowest. If they can't even handle Japan, how can they possibly dominate the global market?

The two chatted casually, creating a pleasant atmosphere. After a while, Chu Chen suddenly remembered something and asked a question.

"We're going to Bandai Namco later, are you coming along?"

Every time he comes to Japan, his schedule is packed, and this time is no exception.

I finished discussing business at the University of Tokyo this morning, and this afternoon I'll be going to Bandai Namco, and tonight I'll be going to Sony. I'll then head back home on Monday.

Bandai Namco? They're willing to discuss IP licensing now?

Song Yueying was somewhat surprised, as Xingchen and Bandai Namco had actually been collaborating for a long time.

When it comes to anime and manga IPs, Bandai Namco has a considerable number of them.

Just like at this year's Tokyo Game Show, Bandai Namco unveiled a lineup including *Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet*, *Little Witch Academia: Time Magic and the Seven Wonders*, *Dragon Ball FighterZ*, *Gundam Versus*, and *Girls und Panzer: Dream Tank Battle*.

In terms of anime content, Bandai Namco has a very high level of anime content.

at this time.

Some friends have asked this question.

Wait, isn't Little Witch Academia a Trigger anime? And Girls und Panzer isn't produced by Namco either?
How come the copyright is in Namco's hands?

Speaking of this, we have to mention one of the most troublesome parts of the Japanese ACGN industry, namely the production committee model.

The so-called production committee model.

Simply put, it's about organizing a gathering.

I want to make animation, but I don't have enough money and I'm afraid of losing money. What should I do?
It's very simple: recruit people to join. In the process of recruiting people, the copyright of the animation becomes fragmented. The copyright of a work may be scattered among seven or eight different companies.

The animation copyright may belong to Company A, the music copyright to Company B, the game copyright to Company C, and the overseas distribution rights to Company D.

Bandai Namco, which produces both toys and games, frequently appears on the committee lists of various animation production teams, accumulating a large number of animation and game copyrights over the years.

unfortunately
Although Namco has a lot of cards to play, almost none of these IPs have actually been converted into blockbuster games.

There are many reasons for this. For example, Namco's internal politics are very old-timer-driven, and the games they produce, regardless of gameplay, are at least ten years behind the global mainstream in terms of graphics.

Secondly, precisely because they have so many IPs, Namco doesn't pay enough attention to them, and the games they make are basically perfunctory fan-oriented games.

Even fans find it hard to stomach.

So Chu Chen had actually thought that since you did such a terrible job, you might as well just take out the copyright and make use of it.

However, although Namco doesn't make money from IPs, it would be a nightmare for them to give up their IPs. They keep each IP like a family heirloom.

The reason we were willing to discuss IP collaboration with Xingchen this time was for no other reason than this.

It's purely because after FGO became a huge hit, StarCraft's influence grew due to its connection with Type-Moon and its own animation studio.

After gaining a certain influence in the industry, it has been integrated into the production committee system.

That's just how the Japanese are.

You have to be strong enough that they realize they can't handle you, before they'll actively try to recruit you.

(End of this chapter)