Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

In comparison, car companies from other countries are immediately apparent as superior.

In the end, Takeyusei simply told Matsuhashi Minoru not to accept any of them, rejecting them all.

Then they have their own designers create a bunch of cars that look similar to but are different from those car companies' cars, without indicating the brand, which is equivalent to piggybacking on the traffic. But even if the car companies are dissatisfied, they have little chance of winning if they file a lawsuit.

And so, Need for Speed ​​officially launched in the United States.

Although this game only sold around 300,000 to 400,000 copies, which is not as good as Street Fighter and Street Basketball, it is still considered a top-tier video game in the United States.

Need for Speed, in particular, is indeed well-made; at least every player who plays it praises it highly.

Then suddenly, Japanese automakers' cars regained some popularity in the United States.

About four or five years ago, it was around the time when the "Japan threat theory" was prevalent in the United States.

During that period, Americans went crazy and took to the streets to smash and vandalize various Japanese products, boycotting Japanese products, causing a huge uproar.

At the time, the US government chose to tacitly approve, and even government officials staged a performance by smashing a certain Japanese product.

At that time, Japanese automobiles, electronics, and other products suffered a sharp decline in the perception of Americans.

Japanese automobile companies, in particular, were the main targets of the United States' crackdown. At the time, these were symbols of cutting-edge industrial products, which were incomparable to other products.

Chapter 226 Free Authorization

Japanese automakers faced setbacks in the following years, suffering various forms of external pressure.

Japanese cars at that time were of good quality and were synonymous with good value for money.

However, because the products were so cheap and of such high quality, they resulted in a large trade surplus, which had a huge impact on employment in the United States and triggered a nationwide wave of protests. In the end, Japanese automakers could not withstand the pressure and yielded to the pressure from the United States, building factories in the United States to provide jobs for Americans. They also used various compromises such as restricting exports and canceling domestic tariffs, which was quite humiliating.

Then Japanese automakers entered a long period of stagnation, and their sales in the United States were no longer what they used to be.

But in fact, those car companies have always been very ambitious and have always wanted to get back on their feet, but they just haven't had the right channels.

During that period in the United States, even their advertising and promotional activities were subject to strict review to ensure that they would not affect the United States' own interests.

Later, Yuxing Electronic Entertainment proactively approached these car companies, stating that their video games would be released in the United States, and that if they could obtain their licenses, they would also benefit from it, which was equivalent to indirectly helping with promotion.

At the time, these Japanese car companies didn't take it too seriously. They just thought it was a good advertising channel, so they didn't even ask for a licensing fee and agreed to let Takeyusei use their trademark in video games.

Then, Need for Speed's hundreds of thousands of sales immediately made Americans remember Japanese cars once again.

According to sales statistics from several Japanese automakers over the past month or two, they have all increased their sales by at least four or five percent.

This was a pleasant surprise for them; they never expected that an unintentional investment could yield such a valuable return.

This, of course, was also noticed by the shrewd Germans.

They have always been adept at business and possess strong market insight.

Moreover, Yuxing Electronic Entertainment had previously approached them, so they naturally paid close attention.

When they saw that Japanese automakers seemed to be generally seeing increased sales in the United States, they immediately set their sights on Yuxing Electronic Entertainment and offered to license their cars for free, hoping that their car brands could appear in Need for Speed.

Zhu Youxing originally thought that it would take at least half a year for this matter to develop, but he did not expect that they were very perceptive.

Or perhaps most people in this world are more astute in business and creation; Japan's far more developed film and television market than in the previous life is a case in point.

Zhu Youxing had no reason to refuse this request.

A racing game without official brand authorization from a car manufacturer will see its influence and sales significantly reduced in the future. In shooting, racing, and sports games, the guns, cars, and teams must be aligned with reality, which is a successful lesson learned from later generations.

Zhu Youxing readily agreed to the other party's request; of course, one shouldn't refuse a free authorization.

Zhu Youxing even wanted to sign a ten- or twenty-year licensing contract directly.

However, the other party was also cunning, only allowing a three-year free license, and a new contract would need to be signed after that, which made Zhu Youxing somewhat disappointed.

He then promised that in the upcoming Need for Speed ​​2, their car brands would receive slightly more attention, though they would be ranked after Japanese automakers.

After all, you're the latecomers. You looked down on the marketing capabilities of video games before, but now that you've found it profitable, you want to join in. So you can only be considered inferior.

The person in charge of the Rein Brothers car company was a very easy person to talk to. As long as Zhu Youxing agreed to be listed on their car brand, he didn't make any other requests.

He's quite a pragmatic guy, actually.

As for other well-known car companies, they naturally discovered the reason for the increase in sales of Japanese car companies, but they seemed a little too embarrassed to take the initiative to seek it out, and instead wanted to wait for a small game company like Yusei Electronic Entertainment to come to them.

Zhu Youxing, of course, wasn't in a hurry either, and was also keeping them hanging for the time being.

Takeyusei stayed in the United States for about half a month, watching as forty or fifty energetic new employees officially started working at the US branch. After handing over some video game development tasks for the US to them, he returned to Japan.

His main reason for returning to Japan was that the development of Final Fantasy V there was already halfway complete, and he needed to oversee it. Also, there was the parallel development of the new Dragon Quest trilogy.

Aside from Mario, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy are the two series that Takeyusei values ​​most right now.

The current period is still a golden age for role-playing games. If this period is missed, the popularity of both games will immediately decline, and future game sales will be greatly reduced.

As for The Legend of Zelda, that developer, Zhuyouxing, plans to wait until the new console is released before remaking classic titles like Skyward Sword and Link's Awakening.

For now, let's focus on securing the release of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, which are both releases in about six months.

Final Fantasy III and IV were previously released on the Game Boy and Super Famicom respectively, and both achieved good sales results in Japan, reaching nearly one million units sold to date.

Furthermore, Final Fantasy is very popular in the United States, even more so than Dragon Quest, so its future potential is undoubtedly stronger.

In addition to overseeing game development, Takeyusei also needs to continue to accelerate the growth of Japanese game companies.

It is absolutely impossible for one company to meet the needs of players.

Bamboo Star needs more and more game companies to grow and thrive.

If an industry has only one leading company, the industry will be very unbalanced and it will be completely detrimental to the overall development.

Under Takeyusei's leadership, game companies in Japan are springing up like mushrooms after rain, and the variety of video games is increasing over time.

Last year, the average number of games available for the SFC and FC consoles was only a dozen or twenty per month.

In 2020, the number of games logged in annually on the PC platform Steam alone exceeded 10,000.

Compared to this scale, he still has a long way to go.

This year, the number of game logins saw a significant increase in the third month, reaching more than thirty games per month.

Moreover, each game is considered excellent and of high quality, generally maintaining a rating of three stars or higher.

This further elevated the overall image of the SFC, essentially telling players that they could buy SFC games with their eyes closed.

There are no bad games, only types of games you're not interested in.

The entire Japanese market was completely dominated by Takeyusei, leaving other console developers to dabble in the scraps.

After all, the sales figures speak for themselves; any electronic game that can be logged into Youxing Electronic Entertainment will never have trouble selling.

Chapter 227 Changes in the Game Market

In May, the PN2 game console was officially released, priced at $299 per unit.

This was the world's first 32-bit game console, the first game console capable of running 3D graphics games.

The games launched first include a 3D graphics racing game and Sun Knight 3D, Sun Knight's signature role-playing game from Surui Electronics.

If players purchase the two launch titles along with the PN2 console, they can get a discount, bringing the total cost to around $400.

Unlike Need for Speed ​​on the Super Famicom, racing games rendered with 3D graphics give players a truly realistic feeling, as if they are actually driving a car.

This game was created by American employees hired by Surrey Electronics' North American branch.

When they first joined the ranks of video game developers, they fell in love with game creation and immediately delivered a result that greatly satisfied Surui Electronics.

A realistic racing game, based on rally racing which is more popular in the United States. Seemingly in order to compete with Youxing Electronics Entertainment, Su Rui Electronics has paid an unknown price to invite more than 20 car brands from different countries to grant licenses, making its scale seem much larger than Youxing's.

The game initially made a very good first impression on players.

On the day the PN2 console was released, it caused a small sensation. After all, it was the world's first console that could run 3D games, and the two 3D graphics games on it were indeed very attractive, especially the racing game.

As for Sun Knight 3D, it was a bit rough around the edges because Surrey Electronics couldn't yet imagine how to make a true 3D game.

3D racing games are simply created by following the old path of game development. The basic rules for game development were already established on 16-bit game consoles, so the development process was not particularly difficult.

The PN2 game console sold 200,000 units in its first week, with over 100,000 users purchasing bundles. Sales, including games, reached over $80 million in a week, a very impressive achievement.

Many players are very loyal followers; they played the PN1 game console from the very beginning.

Because Surui Electronics was the first to enter the US market, many players were biased towards Surui Electronics.

Even if the quality of video games is slightly poor, they are still enjoyable to play.

At worst, players can just buy another SFC console. In the video game industry, as long as you buy the games, that's enough. Nowadays, American players can afford to spend money on several or even a dozen games, unlike the relatively more conservative players in Japan.

This achievement slightly satisfied the senior management of Surui Electronics, so they relaxed their previous tight control over Hayakawa Ueto a bit, giving him more budget so that he could be more open to developing more and better video games.

And no matter what industry it is, once it has money, its development speed will definitely not be slow.

Immediately after the first week of sales ended, Surui Electronics announced the establishment of three game studios, each producing different types of games, including one studio specializing in baseball, soccer, basketball, and rugby games.

There's also an action game studio that plans to emulate Yusei Electronic Entertainment's Street Fighter series.

And creative studios that explore more types of opportunities.

The news made American gamers even happier, and the momentum continued into the second week, with console sales remaining around 170,000.

They love high-tech things the most. Sometimes fun games can boost sales, and so can excellent graphics.

However, fun games tend to be long-lasting, while games with good graphics can only reap the rewards of one or two waves of users before showing signs of fatigue.

Besides Surrey Electronics, Lierda, a US-based company, also announced that it is developing its own 32-bit game console and promised to release it at Christmas, seemingly wanting to get on board quickly and make a quick buck.

Sales of over $100 million in just two weeks is a figure that cannot be ignored.

Although the actual amount that reaches the manufacturer may only be about one-third, it is still quite astonishing.

Converted to Japanese yen, the profit would be in the billions.

Manufacturers in Japan were also somewhat shocked.

They then realized that Surui Electronics seemed to be a good option as well.

They seem to be quite strong in the US now, though they're still a bit behind Youxing Electronic Entertainment.

On the other hand, things seemed calm and peaceful at Youxing Electronic Entertainment.

Because recently, Zhuyouxing has been busy expanding its company staff.