Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

Hayakawa Ueto immediately stood up and said, "Let's put the meeting down for now and go see what's going on."

Chapter 161 Two Unexpected Advertisements

The employees were panicked by the two advertisements.

These two advertisements were just broadcast on TV Tokyo this morning.

The two advertisements are about the GB game console and the SFC, respectively.

In the advertisement, a child excitedly takes out a small box, about the size of a matchbox, and inserts it into a data interface on the back of the SFC.

Su Rui Electronics had noticed this data interface before.

However, that interface seemed more like a general-purpose additional interface. At the time, Hayakawa Ueto and the others thought it was for connecting additional controller peripherals, so they didn't take it too seriously.

They also manufacture gamepad peripherals, and in a wide variety of types, so they expected that Yuxing Electronics Entertainment would make such preparations.

just

That matchbox-sized box is clearly not a handle.

The child was standing at an angle that obstructed the view, which was clearly intentional, making it difficult to see what the box was for at first glance.

After placing the box at the back of the SFC, the child happily turned on the SFC machine. With a familiar startup sound, the child sat attentively in front of the TV.

Then, a prompt screen appears.

The machine is already connected to the internet. Would you like to connect to network services?

The child chose the 'yes' option without hesitation and then entered the main game selection interface.

In the upper right corner of the main interface, a symbol resembling a network connection has appeared.

'Make your entertainment PC internet-connected. Being online allows you to update your rankings anytime and compete with people worldwide to break game records and achieve success.'

The SFC network module is now available for purchase at only 100 yen. Players are welcome to buy it.

Hayakawa Ueto suddenly had a bad feeling.

Can SFC connect to the internet?

How come I've never known this before?

He immediately looked at the engineering team: "Didn't you guys disassemble the SFC game console? Did you discover this networking module before?"

"This...this is something we didn't expect at all, because it's also an external peripheral device."

Hayakawa Ueto said, "But this also requires the game console to have a relevant network module, right? Just an external network port is definitely not enough, and the system also needs to have network-related programs ready."

Working for Surui Electronics, a top international electronics company, he naturally understands some basic electronic product manufacturing structures.

If a device wants to add an internet port, it must at least have some reserved capacitors or a separate network module prepared in advance on the motherboard for network services.

Desktop computer motherboards sometimes come with a built-in network card, and sometimes they use a separate network card. This was the case in early computers. In later generations, network modules have long been fully integrated and are rarely separated.

The engineers felt somewhat ashamed.

They were really negligent at the time, failing to discover that there was a pre-installed network plugin in SFC.

Hayakawa Ueto understood what was going on, but instead of reprimanding his employees for their incompetence, he simply asked, "Can our game consoles do that now?"

The engineer immediately replied, "Yes, but we didn't make any prior arrangements in the software and hardware, so the cost of manufacturing our network module might be a bit higher."

"How much higher?"

"Two hundred yen or more."

Hayakawa Ueto was speechless for a moment.

Our own network modules cost twice as much as the retail price of others. How can we compete with that?

However, Hayakawa Ueto felt that Yusei Electronics' network module was being sold at a loss. One hundred yen is about the price of a cheap drink or a cheap rice ball in Japan. Buying an electronic product like that would be a real loss.

The production cost alone is 200 yen. If you include transportation and other packaging costs, the total cost will be more than 300 yen. So, to make a profit, you need to exceed 300 yen.

This is a bit of a headache.

Currently, they have sold 700,000 PN game consoles. If they were to sell them at a loss and still charge 100 yen, and all 700,000 consoles were equipped with network modules, they would lose 140 million yen.

There is already some dissatisfaction within the company regarding the gaming division's frequent loss-making promotions. The subsequent profits have only recently covered the previous marketing costs, and now they are going to sell a product at a loss again, which will likely face some obstacles.

However, they have little choice now and must follow suit.

Their current game console performance is no longer comparable to the Super Famicom (SFC), and if they can't even match the service, their players will likely abandon them quickly.

While Hayakawa Ueto was thinking, the employee who had reported earlier cautiously said again, "Um... Manager, we still have a second advertisement to watch."

Hayakawa Ueto reacted and said, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's release the second ad too."

The employee immediately operated the computer and played the second recorded advertisement.

This advertisement is for the recently announced GB game console.

It begins with a scene of a group of children playing GB together.

However, there was nothing special about it; it looked like just an ordinary advertisement.

But just then, one of the children, feeling rather bored, said, "Ugh, this is no fun at all. We can only play by ourselves. Wouldn't it be great if we could play together?"

When Hayakawa Ueto saw this, he felt as if he had already anticipated something, and his eyes slowly widened.

Then, a child smiled slightly and took a data cable out of his pocket.

"Come on, we can connect online right now. Just plug in this cable and our data will be shared instantly. We can play Tetris and Super Mario together!"

After saying that, the child took the data cable and plugged one end into an interface on the side of his GB handheld console.

That interface was originally intended to be a charging port, which was also what the engineers at Surui Electronics thought at the time.

Even now, they still find it hard to believe.

Is this interface not for charging, but for transmitting data?

Earlier, when the GB was released, it also launched its own dedicated rechargeable battery, which would have a longer battery life and would not require additional purchase of batteries, which seemed quite cost-effective. At the time, the interface appeared to be only for charging.

But now, they suddenly realized that this thing had other uses besides charging, and these uses were clearly more important.

At this point, Hayakawa Ueto could no longer tolerate it.

"Didn't your engineering team even notice this?"

The head of the engineering team is now sweating profusely.

Where would he find such a thing? No one had ever made a handheld console before, let alone knew that the charging port could also be used to transmit data. If no one had told them, they would have had a hard time thinking of this.

So this thing can be used for online gaming when connected to other handheld consoles via cable?

This is truly eye-opening; I had never thought of this before.

Chapter 162 I wish I could be bruised to death by a car.

When developing the Super Famicom and Game Boy, Takeyusei had already instructed its employees to prepare for the future internet and online gaming.

Before the relevant games and systems are fully perfected, Zhuyouxing does not plan to release them to the public. The purpose is to prevent competitors from learning from them too early and then making the same product as them.

Adding network ports and wired connections to their own game consoles is not difficult at all. Moreover, even if such technology has been patented, it would be easy for Surui Electronics to bypass the patents for such simple technologies, given their R&D capabilities.

Just like the previous D-pad patent, I can choose not to make it a D-pad, but rather a square, round, or triangular button in four directions, and that's unavoidable.

Therefore, Zhu Youxing's only advantage is its unpredictability.

Thanks to the fact that no one in the world had ever made a game console or a handheld game console before, those who came after were all learning from the godfather of video games.

They will only think of doing what you do.

Only Surui Electronics was innovative enough to create a whole bunch of different controllers, increasing the diversity of games.

But what truly affects the game is its gameplay itself, not these fancy controllers.

The device's own internet connection module, as well as the handheld's wired connection, can directly affect the overall gaming experience.

Zhu Youxing wanted to catch his competitors off guard.

Time your announcement around the same time they're researching and developing a new game console, then unleash a few unexpected features to disrupt their plans.

Before I made it public, even if they had thought of doing something using the internet or wired connections, they would never have had the same accurate vision as me, a person from later generations.

They will only keep trying and struggling, and will often take detours, but they know the right answer all along.

Now, Zhu Youxing's plan has succeeded.

Currently, the development of Surui Electronics' 32-bit game console has reached about 80% completion and is about to be fully completed. What remains is the development of the game console system and related games.

Their handheld console is progressing even faster; it's nearing completion, and they've already begun contacting manufacturing plants for mass production.

But now, Zhuyouxing has suddenly announced that their game console can connect to the internet and play online, which is quite unexpected.

Hayakawa Ueto hurriedly asked, "Is it too late to add this wired connection system and hardware module to our handheld console? Also, contact the factory immediately and shut down all production lines that are preparing to manufacture motherboards. I will take responsibility for the losses!"

When Hayakawa saw that handheld consoles could connect via wired links and saw the children happily playing online in the advertisements, he knew that this was a very important factor affecting the sales of game consoles. They had to implement this wired connection feature as well, and they absolutely could not fall behind in this area!

Some employees quickly ran out and contacted the factory to stop mass production.

The head of the engineering team, wiping away cold sweat, said, "We can still add this module to the motherboard... but this might affect our expected game console release schedule. We need to do hardware debugging first, and only after the debugging is perfect can we finalize the new motherboard design drawings."

"You're just telling me how many days of development time it will take?"

"At least half a month."

“I’ll give you ten days. Work overtime to finish this, and I’ll increase your overtime pay by 1.5 times.”

Lured by the money, the engineers became somewhat excited.

Overtime is very common in Japan, and if a company pays extra overtime pay, it's considered very generous.

When Hayakawa Ueto announced that he would increase overtime pay by 1.5 times, they immediately became restless.

The project team leader glanced back at his subordinates' reactions, then nodded vigorously, gritting his teeth as he said, "Okay, we can guarantee it will be completed within ten days."

Hayakawa Ueto began to ponder. The release date for the handheld console had already been set, and it was scheduled to be officially released in early November. Various promotional announcements had already been sent out, but now it seemed that he would have to reject all of them.

At the same time, he needs to ask the head office for more research and development funds.

Simply providing employees with extra overtime pay is not enough; sufficient R&D funding is also needed to quickly design a motherboard that is perfectly compatible with wired connection modules.