Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

His profession is a defense lawyer, and the character's origin happens to be a game related to lawyers.

Sometimes, the size of a game's audience can be related to current social trends.

If you happen to create a game that closely aligns with current social trends, it will receive extra attention and give the game a chance to go viral.

In the gaming industry, going viral generally means expanding the audience.

Judging from the way those people were discussing it not far away, it was clear that the legal drama they were talking about was indeed very captivating.

So, why don't I just make this game called Ace Attorney while I'm at it?

This is also a relatively new type of video game.

Ace Attorney is a game that holds a pivotal position in the visual novel genre.

In reality, the sales of a text adventure game are usually only around 200,000 to 300,000.

The main problem is that this type of game has a very small audience.

However, Ace Attorney has become the most dazzling star in text adventure games.

Its unique gameplay of solving crime puzzles through interrogation, along with its dramatic storyline, has captivated players.

Even players who haven't played text adventure games before, as long as they've been exposed to Ace Attorney, generally won't give it a bad review; at most, they'll just say they don't like playing this type of game.

In a genre where most text-based adventure games only sell a few hundred thousand copies, Ace Attorney's Ace Attorney's Ace Attorney series has managed to surpass a million copies sold, proving that this series has its own unique charm.

This million-sales figure is probably incomparable to games like Call of Duty, which are annual releases and often break ten million sales.

However, this small and exquisite series can also bring in considerable profits.

At this moment, Zhu Youxing remembered something else.

We had previously agreed with the Japanese government to try our best to create several games adapted from novels or films and television dramas.

Of course, we only hope to do it as much as possible, and we don't force Zhu Youxing to do it.

But the Japanese government has given us such a large piece of land and has been providing our company with many tax incentives. It would be really unreasonable not to give back in some way.

Since it was just a side trip anyway, Takeyusei thought he could use the Ace Attorney series to fulfill his previous agreement with the Japanese government.

Well, let's just use this currently popular legal drama as the subject of the adaptation.

Of course, it's just a nominal role; the Ace Attorney series will proceed as planned, with at most some crossover storylines added, but it won't have much to do with the original script.

However, simply making a text-based adventure game doesn't feel like enough.

Ace Attorney itself doesn't have much technical difficulty, so development should be relatively smooth. Therefore, I can also develop other games at the same time.

By the way, if we're not going to make a simulation building game for now, we might as well make a The Sims game instead.

This series is known for its excessive DLC, yet the game still has a large following who are deeply immersed in the virtual world. It sells very well in the United States, and even when the price of the DLC later exceeds that of the base game, they are still willing to spend the money.

This game is actually quite good at generating revenue, and its reputation is also very stable.

If we move quickly, developing both games together should take less than six months, which would be a supplement to the existing game genres.

Chapter 387: Slightly Breaking the Situation

Now that the decision has been made, Takeyusei plans to directly contact the distributor of the drama, NHK, and also contact the current head of the Cultural Industries Promotion Committee to help facilitate the connection, which would make things go more smoothly.

Then Zhu Youxing picked up the phone and dialed the number of the current chairman of the Cultural Industry Revitalization Committee.

The current chairman is a man in his fifties who is a member of the cabinet, so his position is naturally very high, which shows how much the Japanese government values ​​the revitalization of this cultural industry.

He also has another characteristic: he is very easy to talk to.

In domestic political circles, he has always been a very approachable person, and he is respectful to his subordinates, recommending many promising young people to take on key positions. He has excellent judgment.

Zhu Youxing also had a good impression of him. He was present at the first meeting and personally assured everyone present that he would do everything in his power to help them achieve their goal of cultural dissemination.

Zhu Youxing had only been on the phone for three seconds when the other party answered immediately.

"Hello, is this President Zhuyou? How can I help you?"

This person was very informal. As soon as the call was answered, he could almost be sure that Zhu Youxing had some kind of need, so he didn't waste any time.

I really like this Bamboo Star; I don't need to worry about arguing with it.

So Zhu Youxing simply went straight to the point.

"Well, I have a creative project in mind. I'm familiar with a popular legal drama series that's been airing lately."

"A legal drama... Oh, you mean the one on NHK? Of course I know about it, I'm a fan of that show, it's really well made. President Takeyu is also very interested in it?"

His tone sounded somewhat pleased, as if he had already guessed something, but he wanted to wait for Zhu Youxing to answer in person.

"I hope to make a spin-off game based on this show, but I also have my own requirements, so I hope you can contact the copyright holder of this show."

"No problem! It's my job, and I will do everything I can to help make this happen."

This was a key focus of the original conference, promoting cross-industry collaboration among cultural sectors.

Those skilled in filmmaking can direct feature films based on popular TV series; those skilled in animation can create animated films specifically for certain toys; novelists can write derivative novels for other cultural industries; comic artists can draw derivative comics; and game developers can create derivative games.

Of course, not everyone is willing to do the work for others, only to have their hard-earned creations end up helping others. That's when the government needs to provide some benefits.

The relatively weaker party's government will provide money and food.

Takeyusei directly provided a plot of land in the port area to build a building. Many of the building materials were purchased at cost price through government agencies. Originally, the estimated cost of building the building was about 10 billion yen, but more than 20% of the money was cut. This resulted in a total cost of more than 20 million US dollars, which was really sincere.

So Zhu Youxing was just giving the government a handout so that he could get the building without feeling guilty.

Even so, this kind of thing needs to be discussed properly, and the chairman knew that, so he didn't really expect to facilitate too many such collaborations.

But if such an opportunity arises, he will definitely cooperate fully.

"So, President Zhuyou, what specific requirements do you have? Let me ask first, and then I'll see if I can help coordinate things."

Zhu Youxing said, "There are a few points. First, we are only credited for the drama. The game will be labeled as adapted from the drama, but I have my own ideas for the game title. Second, all the revenue from the game belongs to us, but we can share the fame. If they want to develop similar games in the future, we can also provide assistance. Third, we need to create our own script and will not use theirs. This can be regarded as a branch of the drama's plot. Only some parts of the plot are related, but the main storyline is definitely unrelated to the drama."

These three requirements are what Zhuyouxing hopes to guarantee all of its rights in this game.

He was giving the Japanese government face and returning the favor, but that doesn't mean he would be willing to hand over most of the profits from such a unique game to them.

After hearing Zhu Youxing's request, the president was slightly troubled.

These requirements are quite demanding.

But it wasn't easy to bring about such a collaboration; no one else has taken the plunge yet.

Since that's the case, why not let Youxing Electronic Entertainment take the lead, and give up more profits to set an example for others?

Thinking of this, the president nodded and said, "It might be a bit troublesome, but I will try my best to make it happen."

If it were another commercial television station, the chairman would find it somewhat troublesome.

However, the production company for this drama is NHK.

This television station is close to being an official station, although it is not directly under the jurisdiction of the government.

This TV station doesn't really care much about copyright revenue or viewership ratings, because they are almost guaranteed to make money no matter what they do, making them the most stable and established TV station in Japan.

To date, no one has been able to challenge its position.

A TV station that doesn't particularly care about copyright interests is quite easy to talk to.

Especially since the middleman is the Japanese government, the chairman is quite confident that he can reach an agreement on this matter.

Now that everything has been agreed upon, all that's left for Zhu Youxing to do is wait for good news.

He could find a free development team during this time to prepare for the development of this new game.

At the same time, we can start the publicity in advance this time.

The show is currently very popular. If the development cycle is six months, the hype might have already died down, and it would be better to promote it now than to do so at that time.

So Zhu Youxing contacted the department in charge of publicity.

They also called on the sixth development team, who were currently free, to hold a meeting to discuss the development of the new game.

The main purpose of this meeting was to explain the general framework of Ace Attorney to them. In addition, we also planned to create The Sims game in parallel with Ace Attorney.

Developing two games together is a real test of the employees' abilities.

He also gave a general explanation of The Sims' profit model, emphasizing that the base game is secondary, and the most important thing is the series of DLCs.

Fortunately, the online gaming network for the GS1 console is already quite mature, and players are starting to buy games from the console's online store. However, at this point, players clearly still prefer to buy physical copies, as they feel a more tangible experience.

The rollout of digital versions is a long and arduous task, but The Sims DLC could offer a slight solution.

Chapter 388 A Pound of Pear!

The chairman of the Cultural Industry Revitalization Committee was very pleased.

Because finally, there is a collaborative project that is willing to step forward and promote the IP.

This was the first one, so he paid extra attention to it.

He immediately contacted NHK and briefly explained the situation.

The producer at NHK who was previously in charge of this legal drama didn't think much of it when he heard about it.

It's just a spin-off game. Video games weren't their focus before, and they've never made much money from them. So, handing it over to a capable developer is actually a pretty good outcome.

However, he felt uncomfortable with the new scripts proposed by the chairman, which included full copyrights to the games and had nothing to do with their TV series.

It's like the other party completely disapproving of the TV series you worked so hard to produce.

This is a popular TV series now, and its ratings are about to soar to number one. It's quite frustrating that the game developers seem completely indifferent to it.

But this is, after all, a policy promoted by the government. Since NHK doesn't care about the small benefits after the reorganization, they agreed for the sake of the government.

Of course, we can't give up too much. Asking for a share of the copyright revenue shouldn't be too much, right? Otherwise, giving it away for free would be a bit inappropriate. Sharing 3% to 5% of the copyright revenue is negotiable. Also, they want to see the game script before production, so that the game's plot isn't too outrageous and doesn't clash too much with the style of their legal drama. That would be inappropriate.

The president readily agreed.

The other party's request is reasonable. Even if Zhu Youxing doesn't want to share the profits, their government can still provide the money. They don't lack this money, so consider it a benefit for the first person to try something new.

Asking for the game script is fine; the game will be made sooner or later anyway, so there's no need to hide it. NHK isn't going to leak it out beforehand anyway.

The producer doesn't really care about these things; he's currently focusing more on the production of this show.

The series is currently at a crucial stage, with the protagonist and the antagonist engaged in a fierce courtroom battle, determined to determine a life-or-death outcome. This part of the story must be handled with great care, and the adaptation of the game into a TV series cannot be wasted too much of his energy.