Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

Chapter 390 I strongly oppose it!

In the initial incident of television stations boycotting video games, NHK, as the leading television network in Japan, did not make any clear statement, seemingly feeling that it would be too low-class.

Anyway, they don't make money from ratings, so there's no need to fall out with others over a little bit of lower ratings.

However, this does not mean that creators will not resist video games.

NHK may not care about viewership ratings, but the creators of its films and television dramas suffer as a result, impacting the efficiency of their own reputation spread.

Previously, people discussed what TV series they watched that day, or which famous screenwriter had produced a good TV series.

Now, people's energy is being diverted.

Especially recently, that Final Fantasy thing.

When the game came out, it was the talk of the town.

They just don't understand why this thing is so good.

It's clearly just an entertainment product, yet it has become so powerful in a short period of time that it has almost dominated the entire social discussion.

And this is not limited to China.

There has been a great deal of discussion about this in the United States and in Europe.

Many screenwriters are generally quite rigid, especially well-known screenwriters, who find it difficult to accept such new things, at least for now.

Especially since this thing seems to be taking away their livelihood.

Cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents; cutting off their reputation is even more so.

However, the expansion of video games is simply too terrifying.

The combined efforts of several television stations had absolutely no impact, and in the end, those commercial television stations ended up getting into serious trouble.

"I disagree! I absolutely disagree! That game company actually dared to come to my door and even wanted to adapt my script? That's one thing, but adapting my script and wanting to create a completely original story is another. This is a work I worked so hard to create and achieved such great success. What does a game company know about storytelling? I absolutely disagree with him using my story!"

In a small conference room at NHK, several key members of the cast and crew of a recent hit legal drama are having a small workshop.

The producer of this drama deals with administrative matters outside of the creative process.

He also directly agreed to the cooperation with the government.

In his view, this cooperation was nothing special; it was just the completion of an official political task.

He only mentioned this incident briefly during his routine seminar today.

At first, he mentioned a copyright cooperation project with the government, but the screenwriters didn't react much.

But when he said the partner was called Youxing Electronic Entertainment, it was as if a switch had been flipped, and the screenwriters almost unanimously voiced their strong objections.

This reaction caught the producer somewhat off guard.

"This collaborative project is a copyright cooperation with the government, which is actually quite beneficial to us. It's like getting more exposure to the government, which will make your works more well-known in the future."

"No way! What are video games? What's the point of cooperating on something so lowbrow?"

Lowering the standard? Does selling the same co-branded steamed buns on TV shopping channels not lower the standard? It's just a matter of money.

Sometimes, screenwriters are really hard to understand this kind of thought process.

However, the producers have no choice but to listen carefully to the screenwriters' opinions.

One of the screenwriters, in particular, has a very powerful background. He is a direct subordinate of a certain faction within the newspaper and is a guy who can do whatever he wants at the TV station.

So he had no choice but to tell the government about the situation.

Even the government cannot forcibly intervene in such matters, otherwise some unpleasant scandals might emerge.

The president was quite troubled when he first learned about this.

He had already made a promise to Zhu Youxing, but this unexpected turn of events caught him completely off guard.

Then he tried to have a proper talk with the producer and even promised some benefits.

But as long as the screenwriter doesn't budge, there's nothing he, as the producer, can do.

He could indeed offend these screenwriters, but it's never a good idea to offend his own people over matters concerning outsiders, even though he also thought those screenwriters were a bit crazy.

In the end, the president had no choice but to abandon the plan, but he didn't know how to tell Zhu Youxing about it for the time being.

He had made that promise beforehand.

At this time, Zhu Youxing was still focused on developing two games.

Now that the game's content has been determined, all that's left is to start working on the game step by step.

Running two games simultaneously is quite a challenge for a team.

Fortunately, one of the Ace Attorney games doesn't require too much effort. Even with a team of a dozen people, as long as the script and basic game rules are set up, development won't be too difficult.

The original Ace Attorney was completed with a small team and in just over eight months.

With the manpower that Zhu Youxing can currently command, accelerating the development is not a problem at all.

However, just as Zhu Youxing was focused on making early preparations for the game, the guild leader mentioned that the other party had refused to cooperate.

"I'm very sorry, President Takeyu. I've already received a reply from NHK. They're not really interested in this collaboration. They probably don't need the profits and fame they've gained, so they have no plans to produce any derivative works."

He was pleased that Zhu Youxing took the initiative to approach him, the chairman, to discuss cooperation, but unfortunately, the other party was completely ungrateful, even when the government offered some benefits.

This really left him feeling helpless.

"I see." Zhu Youxing said, holding the phone, then glanced at the employees who were working.

These employees are building the game framework, mainly The Sims, while Ace Attorney is being handled by about twenty more experienced people.

When he heard the chairman say that the other party had no intention of collaborating on film and television projects, he didn't think it was a big deal.

He suggested that adapting derivative works into games was merely a way of giving back to the government by giving him a large tract of land in the most prosperous area.

He didn't care about the legal drama adaptation.

He wasn't really trying to ride the coattails of this legal drama; Ace Attorney doesn't need that kind of hype. The game itself is powerful enough, and even without the gimmick of a TV adaptation, Zhu Youxing believed that the game would still receive some decent feedback.

"Let's put this collaboration on hold for now, but I'll continue making the game. As for whether there will be any more opportunities to adapt literary works into games in the future, I can't say for sure. How does this work?"

"Of course, of course." The president breathed a slight sigh of relief. He had actually been quite tactful when he explained to Zhu Youxing, just in case Zhu Youxing overthinks it.

It seems that Zhu Youxing is quite magnanimous and doesn't seem to care about the failed collaboration. It appears he was overthinking things.

He was also worried that Zhu Youxing, being so young, might be too concerned about such things.

Chapter 391 is very immersive; I'm already starting to get angry.

Since we don't need to consider film and television adaptations, we can simply delete all the crossover storylines that we had planned with the team's screenwriters.

Those plot points were unnecessary anyway, and could be deleted quickly. The game's development had only just begun, so deleting such insignificant plot points wouldn't have any impact.

Then Zhu Youxing and his team continued to focus on game development.

However, a few days later, the contents of a newspaper surprised Zhu Youxing greatly.

This newspaper is the Nikkei Shimbun, which our company subscribes to regularly.

In Japan, newspapers are the most common form of news dissemination.

Sometimes, news on the internet can't keep up with the speed at which newspapers are updated.

As a partner of Yusei Electronics Entertainment, Nikkei also needs to read industry news regularly, so reading the newspaper every day has become a habit for Yusei.

This is similar to casually browsing news on your phone in your previous life; you just need to get used to this newspaper format.

Actually, Zhu Youxing quite likes newspapers. Every day when he sees the latest newspaper, he can smell the faint smell of ink, which instantly gives him that feeling.

Recently, he has been busy with many things to supervise and participate in during the early stages of game development, so he hasn't had much time to read the newspaper. He only remembered to take a look at it today.

Upon looking at it, he saw several news items that he was very concerned about.

That news article was written by the well-known writer Tian Chong.

I don't know where he got some inside information from, but he found out about the news that Zhu Youxing was planning to adapt the story into a film or television series.

People within the company generally wouldn't do such things, because it's unnecessary, and employees have developed a habit of keeping secrets. They almost never tell any outsiders about anything they do at the company unless absolutely necessary, not even their parents, spouses, children, etc.

Therefore, the only possible sources of information should be NHK television or the Japanese government.

This was nothing unusual. The news was true, and he didn't intend to deny it. It was just a trial collaboration. The other party rejected his collaboration, so he simply wouldn't. That was all, and he didn't take it seriously.

But things took a turn for the worse after that.

In this article, Tian Chong is clearly on the side of Youxing Electronic Entertainment.

Moreover, he somehow found out that the writers of that popular legal drama on NHK were the main reason for resisting this collaboration.

During their boycott, they made no secret of their denigration of video games, considering them trash, just boring and childish stuff for kids, and incomparable to their high-class, educational TV dramas.

Honestly, that's a bit of a personal attack.

Moreover, it's one industry mocking another.

Zhu Youxing didn't know whether Tian Chong had embellished the story or not, but he felt that he was already very immersed in the character and was starting to get angry.

He's not a person without a temper; he just doesn't usually show it.

But if someone tries to discredit video games, make them take the blame, or subject them to undeserved abuse, then he won't tolerate it.

Those arrogant music producers in the team were ruthlessly driven away by me because of this.

I paid them a lot of money, and they still dare to slander video games. Did I just throw all the money I paid them away to the dogs?

"Where did this news in the newspaper come from? How much of it is true?"

Zhu Youxing picked up the newspaper and asked his assistant.

My assistant usually helps me with miscellaneous tasks.

When Zhu Youxing pointed to a section of the newspaper and asked her a question, the assistant reacted quickly.

"I'll go check it out right now."

The assistant was very efficient; he got the accurate information in less than an hour.

As for the source of this information, Zhu Youxing didn't need to inquire about it; he certainly trusted his employees.

"President, at least 90% of the news in this newspaper is true. Perhaps it's not as exaggerated as the newspaper says, but there have indeed been acts of defaming video games."