Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

Chapter 454 Mutual Influence

"Impossible! How could you get two hundred points!"

Let's rewind to March. In a cram school in Japan, Tian Chong stares in shock at his highest score in Fruit Ninja on his handheld console.

The score was clearly displayed as 213 points.

Although Tian Chong was completely engrossed in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on his handheld console, he also played a few casual games that he had bought along the way.

Fruit Ninja is his favorite casual game.

He even spent an entire day trying to rack up points.

Unfortunately, his best result in the end was just over 100.

It's really difficult to improve further.

He knows best how difficult the game gets later on. It's advertised as casual, but honestly, it's not that casual at all.

However, the score he could only achieve despite his best efforts was broken by his female classmate in just three days, who reached a score of 200.

At this moment, Aiko was very pleased with herself.

This achievement is the result of her hard work and constant, formulaic training.

Sometimes, talented people can truly excel at whatever they do.

My son is number one in his studies.

And when she started playing the game, she was able to achieve excellent results.

This might be a genuine talent for learning and absorbing knowledge.

Whether it's absorbing useful knowledge or purely entertaining knowledge, Aiko is incredibly strong.

"Tian Chong, you should just admit defeat," Aiko said smugly.

As she said this, she was thinking to herself how much effort she had put in to get such a score.

However, for some reason, she felt an unparalleled sense of accomplishment when she reached a score of over 200.

This sense of accomplishment is much stronger than that from studying; no wonder Tian Chong loves playing games so much.

However, she managed to remain calm and not become overly addicted. But she suddenly realized that using video games occasionally as a break was a good thing, as it could relieve the anxiety caused by not making progress in her studies for a long time.

I might actually consider buying a game console and giving it a try.

But there's no need to tell Tian Chong that. If I did, he'd probably be very excited and brag to himself: "I told you video games are awesome! See? I knew I was right!"

Tian Chong's face was contorted in pain, he looked extremely uncomfortable.

He was almost finished with the study tasks his daughter had assigned him; he was just a little short.

Damn it! I shouldn't have played those two hours of video games yesterday; I might have gotten ahead of Aiko!

He is now extremely frustrated.

But he is also someone who accepts defeat when he makes a bet.

"Okay, then tell me what you want me to do. Don't tell me you want me to be your follower, or I'll jump off a building right now."

Tian Chong looked utterly defeated, while Aiko was extremely pleased.

"Tch, I'm not that bored. My request is that you obediently continue to complete the learning tasks I'm about to give you. As long as you finish them, I'll allow you to play the game console with the game you want to play the most."

"Huh? You're going to keep my game console confiscated?"

Tian Chong looked as if he had seen a ghost.

"Otherwise what? Who told you to lose?"

"But, haven't you always wanted me to play games with you? Here's what we'll do: if you complete one of your study assignments, I'll reluctantly agree to play a game with you."

"Huh? Really?"

Tian Chong's eyes immediately lit up.

There are very few girls around him who play games. If he could get a girl to play games with him, he would probably be quite prestigious among his gaming partners.

Having figured this out, he gritted his teeth and said, "Fine, I'll remember your words."

Suddenly he felt like he hadn't really lost out.

Not far away, Otoko quietly gave Aiko a thumbs up.

Well done, Aiko! This way, the handheld console will be the shared property of the three of us. Getting a handheld console to play together for free is really awesome.

After playing a few casual games on the GSL handheld console, the three little girls were completely captivated by this fun thing.

Before, they liked sparkly, shiny things, just like other girls.

But now they have one more hobby.

All of this is thanks to Tian Chong.

Tian Chong is such a good boy.

There was nothing that Aiko could do about the handheld console continuing to be held by her.

He did consider whether or not to buy another one.

But if that happens, Aiko will probably be very disappointed in herself.

With that in mind, he decided to study hard first, so that he wouldn't be looked down upon by Aiko.

After the tutoring session, the three girls went straight to the nearest game store and used their pooled pocket money to buy their first handheld game console. However, since they hadn't really thought about saving money before, they could only use the remaining money to buy two more casual games.

They heard that two handheld consoles can be used together for online gaming, providing an experience far superior to playing on a single handheld console, and they were very eager to try it.

Such scenarios are playing out in many places, with the number of female gamers gradually increasing. Naturally, they prefer casual games and a range of motion-sensing games on consoles.

A month after the handheld console sales ended, the percentage of female players in the home consoles GS1 and GSL successfully increased from single digits to over 10%.

This 10% also represents a total of millions of units now.

This is the information that Zhu Youxing doesn't intend to disclose to the public; he plans to wait for the right opportunity to make a name for himself.

While his rivals were still trying to swindle money from the boys, he had already stepped onto a new track and sped away, leaving his rivals' taillights in the dust.

However, in this process, there were no other unexpected events besides those from competitors.

Back in mid-April, Zhu Youxing had just finished arranging his work and was ready to engage in a fierce battle in the co-op game. He was just waiting for his employees to arrive one after another when the head of the outsourcing department, who was responsible for contacting OEM factories to place orders, anxiously approached Zhu Youxing.

"President, we have an unexpected situation that may affect the company's schedule."

Zhu Youxing was just about to rest when he was taken aback when he saw the person in charge of the external cooperation department rushing over.

"what?"

"The factory that produces our cartridges caught fire, and they contacted us to say that more cartridge orders might be delayed."

"Delayed delivery? This is a crucial period for game sales, what a coincidence! A fire suddenly broke out?!"

Zhu Youxing thought it was simply outrageous.

Chapter 455 Su Rui Electronics' God-given Opportunity

The GSL handheld console still uses cartridges as the game medium.

The chips used in this are flash memory chips.

Surui Electronics, on the other hand, insisted on using CD-ROMs because it wanted to promote its own standards.

At this point, it's completely impossible to tell whose model is more viable.

Optical discs can be very inexpensive, while cassettes and flash memory are very portable and convenient, but they are more expensive than optical discs.

Zhu Youxing believes that cartridges are obviously better in handheld form, as players can carry many cartridges to play different games at the same time. However, even CD-sized discs cannot be carried too many times, which is not in line with the portability of handheld consoles.

Moreover, future generations can prove that cartridges are indeed a more reasonable form of handheld consoles, and in the future, cartridges can also be very inexpensive and have more advantages than optical discs in all aspects.

However, cartridges had a fatal problem: the production of materials for manufacturing them was always unstable, and flash memory manufacturers also liked to cause trouble.

They would frequently make news about fires, claiming it would reduce production capacity. Eventually, people would joke that if these manufacturers didn't have money to make, they could just set their homes on fire.

As for whether it was a real fire or a fake one, Zhu Youxing didn't know and couldn't make a conclusion.

However, cartridge production will obviously be affected as a result.

"We have contacted other flash memory manufacturers as soon as possible, but this period of time will reduce the production speed of cartridges, and there may be shortages in some areas."

Zhu Youxing frowned. Fortunately, the manufacturing plants for the game console's built-in storage chips and the cartridge storage were separate. If they had been manufactured by the same company, they might have ended up playing together.

Also, I didn't make those simple casual games into cartridges, otherwise they would have taken up more space on the cartridge production line, and the impact would have been even greater.

"Is there an estimated timeframe? I'd like to know roughly how long it will take for production capacity to return to normal."

"It is expected to take at least three months to restore previous production capacity."

It will take three months to restore current production capacity, so expanding production capacity will be even more difficult.

For products delivered late, if the delivery exceeds the contract period, the flash memory manufacturer will definitely have to pay compensation.

However, previous cartridge production orders were all relatively short-term contracts. Flash memory manufacturers have always been very cunning in this regard, never signing long-term contracts, just in preparation for price increases at any time.

Game cartridges are the lifeblood of today's Yusei Electronics handheld consoles. Without game cartridges, a game console is just a piece of scrap metal.

However, it is too early to promote online digital games now, as the environment is not yet mature enough.

But there is no better solution at this moment.

"Then we should immediately contact the second manufacturer and distribute the production of the cassettes."

The head of the outsourcing department nodded and said, "That's possible, but I'm worried about something else."

"What is it?" Zhu Youxing asked.

"Other manufacturers are also likely to raise the price of their cartridges, which will increase our manufacturing costs as well."

Zhu Youxing said, "But this is something we have to do. We must meet the needs of our players, rather than depriving them of the opportunity to play our games because of cost issues."

The person in charge asked, "Could we suggest to third-party game companies that they increase royalties, so that they can also share some of the cartridge manufacturing costs?"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Youxing immediately shook his head: "No need, we can afford this amount of money. Our royalties are already quite high, and increasing them further would only increase their burden and damage our reputation. It's not worth adding a few dollars to the cost of a single cartridge."