Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

Aya Tsukino looked at it intently.

However... it doesn't seem to be that interesting after all.

She clearly remembered that the advertisement said she could play any role.

Now, the TV only shows this short, chubby pixelated character, which doesn't look cool at all.

Aya Tsukino was immediately disappointed.

It seems this thing is nothing special.

Tsukino Aya thought to herself.

"I think everyone is already very familiar with Super Mario, so I'm going to introduce a brand new game to you. Of course, this brand new game is only in the trial stage. If you really want to play it, you can only experience the initial one hour of gameplay in the village right now."

At that moment, Ota pressed a switch next to the game console, a cover was opened, and then Ota solemnly pulled out a palm-sized cartridge from a box next to him.

The cassette's packaging was orange, with a blank area in the middle where the words "Dragon Quest" were written in slightly messy black pen.

Since a suitable artist hasn't been found yet, and it's just a trial version, Zhuyouxing simply wrote a few words to mark it.

Aya Tsukino glanced at the name on the cassette tape.

The word "hero" piqued her interest once again.

So that's what playing different roles means?

Each game has a different way of playing.

Some games allow you to play as a hero, while others let you play as a short, fat person.

She didn't really like that short, fat man.

However, this dragon slayer seems quite interesting.

This demo cartridge was just obtained by Masahiro Ota.

Not long after taking the game console that day, Ota Masashi decided to cooperate with Takeyusei and become a partner of Takeyusei.

In the future, he will primarily be responsible for issues related to the sales of game consoles.

His arcade became the first channel for selling game consoles to the public.

In order to better promote and market the product, a single game is certainly not enough to attract everyone.

Therefore, Takeyusei took out what was considered a half-finished Dragon Quest game and demonstrated and promoted it to Ota.

Meanwhile, Zhuyouxing is also working on several other games, aiming to release them within a month through intensive work.

Then, over a month, they gradually demonstrated each game to broaden the audience.

With Ota Masashi on board, Takeyusei can devote more time to making games.

Dragon Quest, a brand new game never before heard of, was presented to everyone.

Many people who were just queuing in the arcade noticed the unusual commotion and curiously gathered around. When they discovered that there was a new game besides Super Mario, they all became equally interested.

Accompanied by a brand-new animated sequence and an electronic sound completely different from Mario's, the image of a hero is presented to the audience from a perspective where his back is to them.

Facing the guests was a ferocious, laughing, evil dragon.

The dragon looks very rudimentary in pixel art.

However, perhaps because it was the first time the people of this world had seen such game visuals, they actually felt a sense of oppression from the pixelated dragon.

"This giant dragon is the enemy our hero will ultimately face, the biggest boss. Defeating it will allow us to save the princess and become a true hero."

This kind of story of a hero rescuing a princess has long been commonplace in later generations.

But in this world, it is still so novel.

Many children felt their blood pumping just from hearing this introduction.

You can defeat the dragon and save the princess.

In their past children's role-playing games, even if someone would become the evil guy, they could never actually become an evil dragon; at most, they would just imitate it.

But in this scene, the dragon is real.

Their eyes shone brightly, showing far more excitement than adults.

"First, we've arrived at a village where you'll encounter your first crisis, which we need to resolve and help the villagers solve."

Ota presses the controller, and the hero character begins to move on the screen.

The guests watched intently, as if they hadn't been this focused in a long time.

"When we complete the village's tasks, the villagers will cheer and give us rewards, and we will also grow, which means we will level up."

Dangdangdang!

When you level up, a cheerful rhythm plays to remind you that you have leveled up and made progress.

The character will also spin around and raise a longsword during the upgrade process. Although it is a pixelated game, it is still very dynamic.

"After you level up, those tough enemies you used to face will become weaklings and can be easily defeated."

"Defeating them will also give you a chance to obtain weapons and equipment, fully arming you and allowing you to grow in new ways."

"That's interesting," Tsukino Aya murmured to herself.

Collect, grow, collect, grow again.

Then, Ota continued his introduction: "In the end, you will become a true hero who can stand alone, and defeat the final boss, the evil dragon, which no one dares to confront."

With Ota's quick maneuvering, the hero completed the first village's quest, and then the scene changed when he arrived at the world map.

First, there are clips of game footage.

This includes the mid-game hero battling powerful enemies, as well as a series of thrilling stories. Most importantly, the final scene freezes on the hero with his back to the crowd, his armor covered in sword marks, holding a shield in one hand and a longsword in the other, assuming a fighting stance. Before him stands an evil dragon many times his size.

The immense sense of oppression momentarily silenced the voices of the onlookers.

Even though the picture quality isn't great, it's just a bunch of pixels piled up, but how come that sense of oppression still hits you?

"Uncle, uncle! What happens next? What happens next in the story?" a child called out anxiously.

Why is there no more detailed plot after leaving the village?

"Hehe, to find out what happens next, please stay tuned for the next episode." Ota Masashi chuckled mischievously.

This passage was spoken to him by Zhu Youxing; it was concise, clear, and easy to understand, so Da Tianzheng simply copied and used it directly.

Chapter 33 Mother, Masako Takeyu

After considering it for a short time, Ota Masaru agreed to cooperate with Takeyusei.

Subsequently, Takeyusei revealed his true intentions to Ota Masashi and signed a new partnership agreement.

Ota's arcade will become the main sales channel for the game consoles going forward.

Ota takes a 15% cut from each machine and from each game.

This means that a machine can generate a profit of about 1,000 yen, and a game can generate about 300 to 500 yen.

Without this game console, his shop wouldn't be so popular; it would be rather deserted, and he would rely entirely on pachinko to make a living.

It's essentially making use of previously superfluous or waste space.

Zhu Youxing was responsible for the remaining packaging and transportation work.

In the future, Zhuyouxing also plans to find some good candidates to help him handle the remaining troublesome matters, so that he can focus on the production of games and game consoles.

Since the distance is not far and each game machine takes up very little space, plus promotional materials and packaging, the final cost per unit should be less than three thousand yen.

Even if the scale expands further in the future, it can still be guaranteed to be within 3,000 yen.

In that case, including the share given to Ota Masashi, Takeyusei's profit could be close to three thousand.

This is equivalent to a return of 100%.

However, in order to promote and sell the product, as well as to make the subsequent improved models cheaper, Zhuyouxing will reduce its profit margin.

Because he knew that the real money would come from the game itself, not the game console.

In his past life, he had witnessed many battles between video game consoles.

Several companies took turns launching the game, all initially aiming to profit from the game console.

However, Nintendo suddenly appeared at this time, quickly capturing every player with its inexpensive game console and wonderful games, becoming an eternal god in the eyes of players.

Because anyone who buys a game console won't be satisfied with just one or two games. The actual profit margin for each game is frighteningly high, and that was in the early physical stage. When the digital age arrives, the profits will be even greater.

It was only then that major companies realized that everything ultimately revolved around games.

It wasn't until later that they changed their strategy and learned from Nintendo's strategy.

Even so, Nintendo maintained its dominance for over two decades before Sony, a later company, managed to carve out a small portion of the market.

Apart from Sony, the other manufacturers can only be considered to be short-lived. Every time these short-lived companies appear, the public will make a lot of noise that Nintendo is doomed, but in reality, they have always stood firm.

However, before Zhu Youxing's time travel, XBOX was already on the rise, but Zhu Youxing didn't know what happened afterward.

The lowest price that Zhuyouxing can accept for a game console is one where all of its profits are cut off, leaving nothing, and the company relies solely on the scale of its games to generate profits.

This is also the ultimate goal of Zhuyouxing.

Later, it was precisely this decision by Zhu Youxing that made the Famicom a super popular product with sales far exceeding those of his previous life.

In Japan, the Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System) cost less than a day's wages, and sometimes it was even cheaper than games when it was on sale. People with a little money who wanted to have fun wouldn't mind spending that little bit of money to make themselves happy.

Even after many years, it has remained popular, and thirty years later, its sales reached an astonishing 500 million.

Compared to the small amount of money he earned from the 500 million game consoles, the revenue he generated from games was the most terrifying.

Meanwhile, Zhuyouxing continues to focus on developing the first game.

The Dragon Quest artwork was basically completed in half a month, and now he really needs some concept art to help him promote the game.

Game concept art is like another soul of a game.

This thing is indispensable at all times; it's just that I've always lacked someone to help me with it.

Now, Zhu Youxing has decided to start providing off-field assistance.

One's own mother.