Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

These video games are also popular with many users, who probably wouldn't waste money buying something that can only play games, as that would be pointless.

Instead of discussing the threat posed by video game consoles, they felt it would be better to take a good look at Morgan Stanley's operating system.

Currently, Redfruit still has many shortcomings in operating systems. Their competitor should be Morgan Group, not that small game console toy company.

The suppression of Youxing Electronics Entertainment was merely a favor done in exchange for the technical cooperation with Surui Electronics.

Upon hearing the CEO's words, the other senior executives nodded in agreement.

Indeed, how could a Japanese company, which has never had any products in the United States, possibly understand Americans better than we do?

After hearing the CEO's words, they seemed to feel that there was indeed no need to dwell on this point too much.

"Alright, let's not waste time on this Youxing Electronics Entertainment Company. Let's focus on our upcoming PC sales strategy. Have the contracts with the major retailers been finalized yet?..."

……

Although, Star Entertainment gained a little fame at the Consumer Electronics Show.

However, large companies do not consider this a cause for concern.

Anyway, their main battlefield isn't the children.

Their main target market is young people with greater spending power.

It has nothing to do with Youxing Electronic Entertainment's ambition to seize the children's market.

If there are any companies that are truly afraid, they are probably the toy companies.

However, this has nothing to do with high-tech companies like them.

In reality, this is indeed the case. Some media reporters were happy to introduce various details about this game console, but they also expressed that this game console was probably just a niche product that would only be popular for a short time.

Americans still tend to prefer personal computers.

Zhu Youxing didn't take these comments too seriously.

A few days after the Consumer Electronics Show ended, he had already flown back to Japan, leaving the company management in the United States to Matsuhashi Minoru.

He, on the other hand, needs to lead the team to develop a new game again.

This time, Zhuyouxing continues its plans to develop video games targeting the US market.

For their next game, Zhuyouxing set its sights on another game that could be considered a pioneer in the genre: Castlevania.

This is a story set against the backdrop of medieval vampires.

This kind of story is naturally the most popular content in the European and American markets. The story alone can attract the interest of some players, making it a game that can easily penetrate the US market.

This also provides an opportunity to further expand the Metroidvania genre.

As the company continues to grow, Yusei Electronics Entertainment has become one of the most desirable companies for many young people in Japan to work for.

The main reasons are, of course, the enviable salary and the relaxed working atmosphere.

Of course, another reason is that employees working at Yuxing Electronic Entertainment can often experience the latest games as soon as they are released, and many new employees value this even more.

In this way, Youxing Electronic Entertainment expanded its game development teams to ten, with each team responsible for various types of games, striving to cover all types without missing a single one.

Chapter 206 Castlevania Strategy

The Castlevania game team led by Takeyuki is the sixth game development team.

About three or four of them were transferred from other groups, while the rest were newcomers. However, these newcomers were all computer science students from well-known universities in Japan, and they learned and got up to speed very quickly.

In just two or three weeks, they were able to begin following instructions to complete their respective program tasks.

As for the animators and composers, there weren't any major problems this time either.

To avoid a repeat of the composer strike, Takeyusei later started arranging for his employees to learn composition, hoping to find some programmers with talent in composition.

And that's how it was. Zhu Youxing actually found one or two programmers out of the hundred or so he brought in to train composers. They really had some talent for composing. Then, Zhu Youxing gave them some ideas on the composition style of the relevant games, and they were able to imitate and create game music according to the game's structure.

Composing music requires talent, but it also requires hard work. With the help of Zhu Youxing, these programmer composers with some talent are growing rapidly. Their composition quality is soon catching up with that of well-known composers, which makes the current composers in the company feel a sense of crisis.

As for the original artwork, there's even less to worry about. Zhu Youxing simply bought an animation company as a package deal, which allows the company to produce some animated series of the same name as the game according to his instructions. The rest is to select a few people with some talent in game artwork from this company and put them into various game development teams.

Among them, Zhuyouxing is currently focusing on several games with a Western target audience, and has invested more than ten full-time concept artists in each of them to ensure that the concept art of these games reaches a high level of excellence.

The sixth game development team quickly entered the game development phase, and the overall development speed was also very fast. If nothing unexpected happened, it could be completed in three or four months.

The original Metroidvania game was originally released on the Famicom (NES), but at that time, Takeyusei felt that Metroidvania was enough with just one Metroidvania game.

However, it is clearly not enough now. If you only make one game in a category, it will be difficult for the category to take shape completely. You need at least two role models for the category.

Not all categories can achieve the dominance of a game like Super Mario; other categories also need to be nurtured.

Furthermore, Zhuyouxing also plans to develop several other well-known platforming games.

For example, Sonic the Hedgehog, Kirby, and the like.

The Castlevania story developed by Group 6 begins with mythology and legends from the Western system.

This also increases the player's overall sense of immersion.

First, in 1691, a sacrificial ceremony took place in a small town set in the Middle Ages.

A group of fanatical cultists used a cursed ritual to resurrect an ancient vampire count.

This vampire count had originally been destroyed by a former hero, Christopher Belmont.

However, the world will never lack a group of destroyers who are willing to do anything to destroy the world, including themselves.

The world was plunged into a dark age as a result, and the region was immediately ruled by a terrifying vampire count, with countless innocent lives being lost every day.

As a descendant of the former hero Christopher Belmont, Simon resolutely embarked on the path to defeat the vampire count.

Carrying a family heirloom—a mysterious leather whip—he ventured alone into the Demon Castle, rampaging through its complex structure, and finally defeated the vampire count, restoring light to the world.

Simon thus became an object of praise.

The overall storyline has many similarities to many of the games I've worked on before.

However, with a slight modification to the settings, replacing some of the major bosses like dragons that were defeated in the past with vampire counts that were easier for Western audiences to relate to, the game immediately became a hit in Europe and America.

Even though Castlevania is a relative newcomer compared to Metroid, it has still become an unforgettable classic for countless people.

The first Castlevania game itself was only so-so in terms of gameplay.

With Bamboo Star's personality of making only high-quality games, they certainly wouldn't allow mediocre games to emerge.

Therefore, he introduced some classic gameplay elements from Castlevania.

First, the protagonist is not limited to using only whips; he can also use some more visually appealing weapons.

A later, more famous Metroidvania-style game was called Dead Cells.

There are many things we can learn from them.

For example, there are multiple weapon systems, and there's also the looping gameplay mode that became very popular in later generations.

Each time a player dies, they start over, but in addition to starting over, they are given some hope, allowing them to inherit some abilities and weapons from their previous gameplay.

Next, players can continuously grow stronger through repeated deaths, increasing the overall game duration.

This type of attribute is relatively difficult to add, and Zhuyouxing had not previously considered adding it to Metroid.

Because previous games, whether it was Metroid or Mario, were aimed at children, who were more interested in the fun of playing.

But it's different in the United States.

There's a general masochistic tendency in the US; the more difficult the game, the more popular it is. They see it as fashionable, especially young people who are eager to take on challenging tasks.

This is why Europe and America have almost dominated the records for most speedrunning games; they are particularly fond of this genre.

The entire game development process was supervised step by step by Zhuyouxing to ensure that no problems would occur. When the game console was officially released, Street Basketball, Need for Speed, and Street Fighter would lead the way, and Castlevania could follow closely behind, giving American players no time to breathe and leaving them no time to pay attention to other video game consoles, or even other electronic products.

Meanwhile, in the United States, Matsuhashi Minoru had already reached agreements with several advertising publishers, all of whom were willing to publish advertisements due to their profit motives.

Matsuhashi Minoru immediately shared this good news with Takeyusei.

Upon hearing this news, Zhu Youxing breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that his strategy had been successful. These people were genuinely willing to at least give it a try. If these advertising publishers had been cowardly and unwilling to offend the big companies, he would have had a real headache.

However, Zhu Youxing doesn't intend to place all his hopes on these highway billboards.

“Matsuhashi Minoru, could you contact a guy named Bob Wilson over there? He should be studying at Harvard. I hope to get in touch with him so he can help promote our game console as well.”

Chapter 207 Don't put all your eggs in one basket

Bob Wilson was originally an unfamiliar name, and Zhu Youxing probably wouldn't have paid much attention to him.

However, what Zhu Youxing was more concerned about was that this guy named Bob Wilson launched a social networking website at Harvard, and the website's translated name was: Face to Face Online.

This website is currently only popular within a few universities in the United States and has not yet opened a registration portal to the public.

So Takeyusei asked Tsukino Aya for help to access the webpage through Stanford University's portal and take a look.

With just one glance, he immediately knew that this was the Facebook of the world.

That guy named Bob Wilson also had an alien-like, deadpan face, with almost no facial expression.

If he were an investor now, he would invest in this company without hesitation.

With stock in this company, it's estimated that you'll find it difficult to live off your savings for the rest of your life.

Having unfortunately missed the development stages of companies like Microsoft and Apple, Zhu Youxing doesn't want to miss such a good opportunity again.

It's never a bad thing to occasionally have the opportunity to make a small investment.

However, besides this, Zhu Youxing also wants the website's promotional resources.

For a company that will one day control the mouthpiece of the United States, establishing a long-term business partnership with this company would be an excellent choice.

"President, why did you choose this internet company? It doesn't seem very impressive. Should we increase our advertising investment in the popular American search engines?"

Matsuhashi Minoru didn't quite understand Takeyusei's idea, so Takeyusei had to explain: "Search engine ads are too expensive and not worth it at all. Moreover, search engines target too many different types of users, many of whom are not our target audience. Showing them our ads is a waste of money. Now we should use our resources more effectively. This website, run by Bob Wilson, mainly targets universities in the United States. These young and energetic people are our target audience. Winning them over is half the battle."

Zhu Youxing's words were, of course, mostly excuses; he certainly couldn't say that he had long anticipated the website's future success.

Matsuhashi felt that Takeyusei's explanation made some sense, so he followed Takeyusei's instructions and went directly to Harvard University to find this young Harvard student.

At that moment, Bob Wilson was in his dorm room drinking beer while coding to improve his social network, which had been established for less than a year.

Now, his website has become popular in several universities in the United States, and the number of users has begun to soar. He has already begun to plan to expand the server scale to ensure the stability of the website.