Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

"Okay, I understand. I'll contact other flash memory manufacturers now to see if they are willing to take over immediately."

After the person in charge left, Zhu Youxing fell into deep thought.

Flash memory manufacturers will undoubtedly engage in such unexpected events in the future, because they have seemingly legitimate reasons.

Unless you directly acquire a flash memory manufacturer and only serve your own industry, you won't have to worry about any unexpected situations.

It's unrealistic to try to develop the entire industry chain, including chips and various components. Even if Zhuyouxing has plenty of funds, it can't cover the entire industry chain. Even superpowers can't do that.

However, if a physical industry is to be chosen as the core, flash memory chips are clearly the best choice.

This is one of the fastest-growing physical industries in the foreseeable future, and it has relatively low technical content and low labor costs. Moreover, it only requires producing cassette tapes for its own products.

So this does seem like a feasible idea, but it would probably require a lot of money. With my current assets of three or four billion US dollars, would I have enough to go through with it?

In Zhu Youxing's past life memories, a certain manufacturer acquired Intel's flash memory business for what seemed to be seven billion US dollars.

However, that was almost 2020. By then, flash memory chips would be one of the hottest physical industries. They might not be so expensive now. Besides, I'm not really going to do flash memory manufacturing; I'm just opening my own cassette tape factory.

So perhaps three or four billion US dollars would be enough, but that would mean delaying the development of their theme park project.

Unless I earn more money myself.

The fire at Youxing Electronics Entertainment's cartridge manufacturing plant is unlikely to cause much of a stir outside the industry.

However, it spread throughout the industry almost immediately.

Especially YOO's Long Tail Rain, he almost jumped for joy when he heard the news.

This is simply a golden opportunity.

If things proceed as usual, then the release speed of Yuxing Electronics Entertainment's video games will inevitably run into problems, which will give him an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.

So he immediately contacted Hayakawa Ueto.

"Hayakawa, are you aware of the cartridge production problems at Yusei Electronics Entertainment?"

Hayakawa had just finished a meeting, and coincidentally, this was the topic of his meeting today. When he heard that Nagao Amane was calling, he nodded and said, "I know. It seems that there will be some problems with the production of Yusei Electronics' cartridges this time."

Nagao Yu immediately said excitedly, "This is a great opportunity for us. We can take this chance to expand production. Even if players want to play Yusei Electronic Entertainment's games but don't have the cartridges, their demand for entertainment will definitely not be small. In this way, can't we take the opportunity to steal some users away?"

Hayakawa Ueto said, "That makes sense, but I don't think Takeyusei will sit idly by and wait to die."

"Who cares if we just sit here and wait to die? Let's seize the opportunity first!"

Chapter 456 Is the CD a future star...?

Yuxing Electronics' handheld consoles are still being sold at a loss, with an average loss of more than twenty dollars per unit.

Therefore, to make a profit in the early stages, a sufficient number of video game sales are necessary.

Yuxing Electronics Entertainment expects the GSL handheld console to sell close to 20 million units throughout the year, and even 30 million units is not out of the question.

If it's 30 million units, then the machine cost would be over 600 million, resulting in a loss.

To recoup the losses, you would need to make at least 600 million or more in profits from video games.

A first-party game with millions of sales typically generates around 20 to 30 million US dollars in profit.

Based on current sales data from Yusei Electronics Entertainment's first-party titles, if a work is personally supervised and produced by Takeyusei, it could potentially reach sales in the tens of millions.

If it's just a first-party game, the sales would be at most one to three million.

Under normal circumstances, the revenue from game cartridges this year should be more than enough to offset some of the cost losses from game consoles.

But all of this is based on the premise that the game can be released normally and the supply of cartridges is stable.

However, there is now a problem with cartridge production, and this problem may directly affect three months of cartridge production capacity.

We are currently in a high-frequency phase of competition between the two sides, and any slight mistake by either side could affect the future landscape.

"I'm very sorry, customer. Due to recent shortages of cartridges, the Zelda: Ocarina of Time cartridge you requested will have to wait a little longer."

"I have to wait a long time. I've already waited for half a month."

As May approached, the shortage of cassette tapes began to become apparent.

Yusei Electronics has tried to allocate more game cartridges to popular titles like The Legend of Zelda, which is somewhat unfair to other titles, but there's nothing that can be done about it. Prioritizing games with a wider player base is the only option we can make now.

Even so, the stock of cassette tapes gradually became insufficient.

This is not just about providing the game to Japan, but also about providing the game cartridges to the whole world.

In response to player dissatisfaction, the game's store promised to mail the game cartridges to these users free of charge as soon as they received the goods, and also include a free digital game, which can be redeemed at the online store in the future.

This might slightly alleviate players' dissatisfaction, but their need for entertainment, just as Changweiyu said, will not diminish in the slightest. On the contrary, they will crave the entertainment that video games bring even more.

In its early days, Nintendo was adept at using scarcity marketing, deliberately creating situations where certain popular titles were out of stock, making users even more eager to get their hands on their games.

But this is based on having an absolute advantage.

Earlier, if Zhu Youxing had wanted to do this, it would have been fine, because there were almost no opponents at that time, and players could accept his unconventional moves.

But that won't work now, because Su Rui Electronics is watching us closely.

The player walked out of the Yuxing Electronics store with some disappointment, while the clerk of the store selling Surui electronic games on the same street immediately and enthusiastically beckoned the player over.

"Guest, you are welcome to come to our house and try out our latest games. Some of them are just as good as those from Yusei Electronic Entertainment."

The player was somewhat disdainful; he didn't believe the shopkeeper's nonsense.

However, he couldn't resist after seeing the incredibly cool game videos outside Suri Electronics.

Once people get used to the entertainment that video games provide, they can no longer easily accept the feeling of losing it.

While older games aren't necessarily unplayable, no one can resist the allure of cooler and newer ones.

Ultimately, the player went into the store and bought a handheld console and several games.

Even if these games can't compare to those from Yuxing Electronic Entertainment, their overall quality isn't that much worse.

These games were all developed by the same studios that had previously worked on games for Yusei.

Yuxing Electronic Entertainment is the pioneer of the global game industry, and a veritable "Whampoa Military Academy" for the industry, having nurtured countless outstanding game developers who are treasures of the field.

Now, Suri Electronics also has many games with a quality of three and a half stars or higher.

Players who don't have extremely high standards for the quality of video games can also accept this.

Among the various shops, the players ultimately had no choice but to choose Surui Electronics.

Meanwhile, in the media and newspapers, Long Tail Rain became excited again.

Previously, the strong sales figures of Yuxing Electronics Entertainment made him feel a little less confident.

But now, seeing their sales momentum growing rapidly while their competitors' sales began to decline slowly due to production capacity constraints, he began to mock them with a somewhat gloating tone.

Previously, it seemed like a waste to acquire Yostar Electronics Entertainment for 10 billion, so they considered buying it for 3-4 billion. Now it seems 3-4 billion isn't necessary; a few billion should be enough. It just depends on whether Yostar Electronics Entertainment is willing to agree, or if Yostar Electronics Entertainment decides to revert to using optical discs for handheld game consoles, Suri Electronics might be able to provide some 'technical assistance'.

In short, in any interviews with Nagao Amane, his words were always very sarcastic and ambiguous.

Then he would occasionally boast about how much capital his online portal had attracted, and how many stable users his new online shopping vision had gained.

Even in this situation, he doesn't forget to advertise and boast about himself, which shows he still has some sense.

At this time, Surui Electronics also took the opportunity to promote the benefits of its own optical disc standard.

The biggest advantage of CDs is that they are cheap and the materials are very easy to obtain.

Once authorized, even a company with little technical expertise can quickly set up a mature CD production line, and there is no such thing as limited production capacity.

Therefore, if any other third-party manufacturers loyal to Yuxing Electronic Entertainment are interested, they are willing to provide any technical support.

If a third party wants to set up a CD production line, they can do so directly; their technical staff will definitely provide the best technical service support.

Suddenly, there was a surge of opinions arguing that optical discs were more advantageous. Some experts with vested interests also stepped forward to promote optical discs as the future star, claiming that flash memory chips had too many uncertainties, that the materials were more expensive than those for optical discs, and that mining them was also difficult. Finally, they even brought up the environmental argument, saying that the production process of optical discs was more environmentally friendly than that of flash memory chips, making it the best choice for many regions to develop their industries.

Chapter 457 Be a Big Bad Wolf

Yuxing Electronics Entertainment found a second flash memory cartridge manufacturer very quickly, and the other party readily quoted a price that was one to five dollars more expensive per cartridge than before, with the cost varying depending on the cartridge capacity.

There's not much choice involved, and bargaining is inevitable, but ensuring the players' needs are the top priority.

However, as soon as the contract was signed, Zhu Youxing made a decision immediately.

The cassette tape thing absolutely cannot be restricted anymore.

He absolutely had to buy a flash memory manufacturer.

It doesn't need to be too big, just have some independent patents, and preferably have a mature R&D team. He hopes to continuously reduce the cost of cartridges through ongoing research and development.

He wants to prove with facts that cartridges are the best medium for handheld consoles.

Whether a console uses cartridges or discs is not very important, but for handheld consoles, cartridges are definitely the most suitable option.

Acquiring a flash memory manufacturer is no easy task, but the world is not lacking in companies on the verge of bankruptcy.

If you want to buy such a company, it will be much simpler. Zhu Youxing immediately asked the relevant departments to investigate. They investigated all over the world. The flash memory industry is actually relatively mature and is not as monopolized as processor chips. It is not too difficult to find a relatively small flash memory company.

However, Zhu Youxing's thinking was a bit too simplistic. It took the company almost a month to barely find a company that met the requirements.

This company, from Poland, was once quite well-known. However, its owner's failed investments led to the company's near bankruptcy. The asking price was high because several companies were eyeing the company, mainly because it possessed a number of patented technologies, which were quite valuable. If the two companies were to acquire it outright, it would probably cost at least two billion US dollars.

The companies preparing to bid are all quite wealthy, and the final price is likely to exceed three billion US dollars.

If Takeyusei grits his teeth and actually buys it, he will have almost no cash left. Then he can forget about spending a fortune to make a AAA masterpiece without expecting a return, or going all out to make a Final Fantasy VII movie that might not even break even.

After careful consideration, Zhu Youxing decided to give it a try.

It's just the bidding stage anyway; if it exceeds expectations, we'll withdraw and find another company.

Two more months passed during this period. Su Rui Electronics took advantage of this time to expand rapidly, using every means to promote its own optical disc standard and products, and vigorously advocating that optical discs are the future.

If Zhu Youxing hadn't experienced the later generations, he almost would have believed it.

Even though flash memory was more expensive than optical discs at the time, it still ultimately prevailed.

The reason for this is actually quite easy to understand.

This is because optical discs are not as convenient to carry as flash memory, and their ability to read and write data is also inferior to that of flash memory.

A flash memory chip the size of a fingernail can store 1TB of content and can be copied and deleted at any time, which is many times more convenient than a CD.

The only advantage of optical discs in the end might be that they have a longer lifespan than flash memory, making them more suitable for long-term storage.