Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

On a certain day during the pre-launch promotion of Yusei Electronic Entertainment, Hayakawa Ueto looked at some dusty documents in front of him in a very bad mood.

He was standing in front of several management personnel from the company.

They were all considered Hayakawa Shigen's trusted subordinates. Hayakawa Shigen usually treated them very well, and they worked very hard to assist him. But today, Hayakawa Shigen was very angry.

"If I hadn't discovered it, how long did you plan to keep this from me?"

Hayakawa Ueto slammed several dusty documents onto his desk, his sharp eyes questioning the group.

Chapter 475 Bamboo Star Project Success

The covers of the documents that Hayakawa Ueto slammed on the table were titled "Yusei Electronic Entertainment Market Research Report".

These market research reports are something we've been doing all along.

From the online forum discussions of Youxing Electronic Entertainment to its offline stores, almost everything is recorded in great detail.

However, there was a lot of information, with an average of thousands of reports about Yusei Electronics Entertainment every day. Hayakawa Ueto was now managing the entire company and it was impossible for him to read through all of them, so he entrusted this task to someone he trusted.

However, to his slight disappointment, even the people he trusted had become lazy.

He clearly remembered that when he recruited this subordinate, the subordinate was full of enthusiasm, but after rising to the middle and upper management level, he became somewhat lax and no longer took the work assigned to him seriously.

There hadn't been any major problems before because of this, and out of consideration for the other party's past contributions, he hadn't held it against them.

Asking him to check the intelligence data of Youxing Electronic Entertainment is not too troublesome. He only needs to spend half a day each day taking a serious look, and he can do whatever he wants with the rest of the time.

But even with this kind of work, he can't do it well now.

Hayakawa Ueto was very disappointed.

If he hadn't specifically looked through some materials today, he wouldn't have known just how terrifying Youxing Electronic Entertainment really is in other aspects.

The dusty documents on his desk were a compilation of information about the Yusei physical store.

The daily surveys recorded the characteristics of people who came in and out to buy game consoles and games, as well as their purchasing tendencies.

This kind of information is especially important when Yusei Electronics Entertainment does not release public financial reports.

This is a great opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of our competitors.

On September 13, 2001, the Yusei official store was packed with people. Today was the release day of a new game, and it was very popular. The sales of this store on this day probably exceeded ten million yen, which was really amazing. Most of the buyers were children of fifteen or sixteen, followed by adult men of twenty to thirty years old, as well as some housewives with children and the elderly.

On November 11, 2001, the official Yuxing store held a special event, calling this day Singles' Day—what an ironic name! Aren't they afraid of being scorned by male gamers? Well, I was being naive. Surprisingly, even more gamers came to visit today. It seems the promotion was quite effective. There were more young women buying things today, making up about four or five percent of the total number of customers. They seemed to be buying motion-sensing games for the GS1, probably due to the recent advertising.

January 6, 2002. Today, another new game was released. Male players still make up the majority, but the number of female buyers is gradually increasing compared to previous records. There are also more older people buying the game, and it seems that they are not buying it for younger generations or friends, but are really planning to play it themselves. This seems to be something worth noting, and perhaps it needs further investigation.

On April 17, 2002, the GSL handheld console was released and remained incredibly popular. People were asking about it almost every day, and it never had trouble selling. Moreover, I noticed that there were more and more female buyers, who should not have been interested in video games in the past. This is also a noteworthy piece of information, and it has been recorded.

On September 6, 2002, I noticed that more and more women are going into the game consoles every day to ask about casual games. I can't understand what's so fun about these casual games. They shouldn't be difficult to develop, so why do so many people like something that doesn't require much technology? However, because it's a rather special case, I think the company should investigate it more carefully. I hope the company will take this seriously.

August 2002...

These documents, which resemble diaries, document some of the on-site sales activities conducted by investigators at the official Youxing Electronic Entertainment store.

These sales figures will certainly not be made public, but some clues can still be gleaned through observation.

Some researchers have found that over time, the number of female gamers and non-core gamers is increasing.

Moreover, they are all interested in the same game genres: casual games and motion-sensing games.

The former is mostly purchased by young women, while the latter is mostly purchased by middle-aged women, men, and the elderly.

These results were obtained through daily observations.

This information should have been valued much earlier.

However, there is also a reason why Zhuyouxing deliberately made Surui Electronics ignore this information. In the past, the advertisements would always be launched quietly, but they always managed to hit the pain points of many non-core players.

For example, motion-sensing game advertisements directly present a bodybuilder using motion-sensing games to exercise.

The bodybuilder shed tears, but looked perfectly healthy.

Occasionally, there are also advertisements featuring elderly people using motion-sensing games for fitness, and then the elderly appear radiant.

It's fun and can also make you healthier. Even if these ads only appear occasionally, they are still very easy to entice this non-core player group.

These things aren't expensive to begin with, and many people are thinking of buying them to try them out. If they're not fun, they can simply give them to their younger relatives or friends. These days, many people won't refuse such a gift; it's a product that you can't lose money on no matter how you buy it.

Advertisements for casual games are even simpler and more direct.

A group of vibrant young men and women gather together to play casual games. They laugh heartily at the feedback in the games, and act coquettishly towards those around them after losing a game.

This warm and slightly sweet scene really touches the hearts of young girls.

They were at that age where they loved to fantasize, and the thought of using this thing to laugh heartily with a boy they liked made them smile involuntarily.

Anyway, this thing isn't expensive.

Once they buy it and start seriously trying it out, they'll find: Hey? This thing is pretty good! It seems to be more than just something to use to enhance feelings with a crush; it's also a lot of fun to play on your own.

Then, they became loyal consumers.

They would first buy some relatively cute casual games, which is about the price of a regular meal, so they can afford it.

But casual games are all about quantity and variety. On average, a game costs between 500 and 200 yen, and even the more expensive ones don't exceed 1,000 yen. With Takeyusei as the final supervisor, casual games that he approves are almost always of good quality.

There is a dedicated team within Youxing Electronic Entertainment that is continuously developing various casual games. They are now able to generate a good idea every ten days and then develop and release a game in fifteen days.

As a result, this team has improved rapidly in terms of experience in rapid game development.

Once some of the employees have gained sufficient experience, they can be reassigned to other positions to undertake more challenging game development work.

Developing casual games is like a springboard, allowing you to improve yourself more quickly.

For players, it's also a great deal – an affordable and fun casual game that can attract a certain fan base with its cute elements.

Then, after a while, we'll release a collection of mini-games, which will also be priced low, generally not exceeding 2,500 yen, and the collection will contain about ten or twenty casual games.

With this combination of measures, female gamers' spending power is rapidly increasing.

Based on this, offline stores began to offer game console customization services. Simply put, they can customize the appearance of game consoles for players. As long as a customization fee is paid, the console can be made into any shape.

The pink color scheme is particularly popular, which has given these handheld toys, which were originally the privilege of boys, a new audience, and girls are becoming more and more accepting of these game consoles.

Who can resist pink?

These were all recorded in the investigators' diary-like investigative materials.

These documents should have been on his desk long ago, but unexpectedly, they had all gathered dust and been left in an office document storage room.

If it weren't for my sudden impulse, these materials would probably have been completely buried.

That's why he was so disappointed.

Disappointed with the subordinates he once trusted.

It's a bit too late to realize the astonishing offensive of casual and motion-sensing games now.

Damn it, why did such a freak like Yusei Electronic Entertainment have to pop up in this world? Traditional business methods are no longer effective, and the lack of timely information is really a headache.

"I don't want to hold you accountable right now. What I want to ask you is if you have any ideas? Don't tell me that I need to prompt you for all the next plans."

Hayakawa Ueto's tone was already somewhat angry.

One of Hayakawa Ueto's subordinates immediately said, "We should start developing casual games and motion-sensing games right away. Based on my observation of casual games, these games are very easy to develop. We can quickly produce a batch of works that are not too different in quality to compete for the market, which should be able to reverse the decline to some extent."

Hayakawa Ueto nodded: "Then let's do it right away. Don't just stand here. I need to see results within a month."

Several people left one after another, leaving Hayakawa Ueto alone in the office.

He rubbed his temples, a rather helpless expression on his face.

He had just thought about holding a few guys accountable; those guys were really too lazy.

But then he realized that Zhu Youxing had been deliberately misleading him all along.

Recently, Zhuyouxing has been promoting its big-budget, high-investment productions in a big way.

Like The Legend of Zelda, and a mysterious, high-budget game that's about to be released, which even uses a motion capture system that no one has ever tried before, something that has only appeared in a few movies in the past.

These high-profile publicity campaigns drew most of my attention, making me completely unaware of the shadows beneath the spotlight.

He couldn't help but sigh.

That Bamboo Star is really cunning.

I was misled and followed Zhu Youxing into investing in a large-scale game development project.

While this can indeed build a very stable user base, and the kind that is very loyal, it doesn't generate much money.

It is a large enterprise that is responsible to its shareholders and seeks to maximize profits; profit maximization is the goal of a traditional enterprise.

It's quite cunning of Zhu Youxing to have completely overlooked some easier paths to success.

He began to consider whether he should adjust his strategy.

No, what if this is what Zhu Youxing wants to see too?

Therefore, we cannot abandon the model of large investment and large production, but we also cannot miss out on the casual game genre. We must grasp both at the same time and not give up on any direction of development.

I never expected that at my age I would find myself at a disadvantage when it comes to playing mind games with a young person.

Is this guy really only thirty years old?

Now in his forties, he finds it hard to believe that Zhu Youxing is only thirty years old.

In the coming period, Yusei Electronics Entertainment will definitely promote the so-called carnival with all its might. Hayakawa Ueto really wants to go head-to-head with it, but that would easily lead to a lose-lose situation and be a huge loss. He has no reason to invest too much manpower and resources, and the shareholders probably won't agree easily.

Seeking good fortune and avoiding misfortune is also a tactic frequently used by companies.

Forget it, let's avoid the limelight for now and let Youxing Electronics have its fun for a while. Once the carnival is over, Youxing Electronics' momentum will have weakened, and then he can launch a new offensive.

Of course, the release of the game is still necessary in this process; at least we cannot completely give up the fight at this stage.

……

For the next period of time, Surui Electronics simply maintained its usual level of promotion and did not deliberately confront Youxing Electronics Entertainment head-on.

As a result, Yuxing Electronics Entertainment gradually began to take the initiative in the discussion.

This carnival is being discussed not only in Japan, but also in many other countries.

From the very beginning, this carnival has been promoted as a player-centric event, a grand gathering organized entirely for the players.

First of all, it is a world-class e-sports event, officially organized, with teams divided by country. The winners are treated as if they have won national honor, and the rewards are also very generous.