Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

He was once just an ordinary screenwriter, but he quickly grew into an independent director and produced quite a few decent works.

He has now established a film company, which is affiliated with Detroit Film Group, and is living a very good life.

Every day he would leave home looking very confident and then go to his company to check on the progress of the films he was currently working on.

He happens to have two movies scheduled for release in six months.

One of them was a special effects film that he poured more than half of his company's funds into, using the most advanced special effects tools available today, which cost a lot of money.

The other film was a major production in collaboration with Detroit Films.

He had roughly seen the current production quality of the two films, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, both films should be big hits.

Besides these two films, he has another job recently.

That was a boycott personally commissioned by the owner of Detroit Films, and launched by other filmmakers from the Detroit Films group.

The target of the boycott was a film produced by a company that was virtually unknown in the film industry.

This movie was made entirely with CG effects, so it can be called an animated film, but it's far better than a typical animated film.

As a filmmaker, he naturally had no objections to the demands of Detroit Film Group.

Furthermore, there were some things about the company that produced the full-fledged CG movie that bothered him: the creative control of the production was given to people other than the director and screenwriter, who were essentially treated as mere tools.

He and several other filmmakers became the vanguard, vigorously criticizing this behavior in multiple interviews. In reality, it was an order from above, and the criticism was just an excuse. The real purpose was to prevent the film from being released in traditional theaters.

While the future is uncertain, it seems that if a film cannot be released in traditional theaters, it is almost destined to flop, no matter how well-made it is. That's just how the times are, and it's not easy to change this perception in a short period of time.

The film that was boycotted was, of course, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

Alfonso himself happens to have a similar, fully-featured movie being released, so eliminating such a competitor would be very advantageous for him.

This made him more dedicated than those who boycotted the film.

Given Detroit Film Group's influence in the industry, mainstream cinemas decisively refused to screen the film. These cinemas were hoping that major film companies would allocate more resources to them, so offending a small, relatively unknown company in the film industry wasn't a big problem.

After a month of fermentation, this collective boycott seems to have achieved good results. Youxing Electronic Entertainment did not resist much and seemed very easy to talk to. Once rejected, they obediently gave up the theatrical release.

This led the executives of Surui Electronics to believe that the film was probably just something Youxing Electronics Entertainment did on a whim, and since it couldn't even be shown in mainstream theaters, it was destined not to make any waves.

Under these circumstances, Alfonso was almost forgetting about it.

At this moment, he is on one of the film sets overseeing the production of a movie.

In his two most recent films, he is definitely more concerned about the big-budget films in which he has invested more than half of the company's funds.

This movie features spectacular action effects and a gripping storyline, in his opinion.

However, there is now a problem.

That is because special effects production is too expensive.

He had already invested more than half of the company's funds, and now he had only completed about 70-80% of the special effects.

This gave him a bit of a headache.

If I continue to invest money, I'm afraid I'll end up spending more than I earn.

Perhaps we could relax the standards for special effects production a little?

"Boss, how do you think of the special effects today?"

The person in charge of special effects showed the effects produced that day to Alfonso for review.

Alfonso glanced at it but still felt it wasn't quite right, so he tentatively asked, "Is it possible to do something better with the current resources?"

The person in charge shook his head: "No, this is the limit of what we can do. To do better would cost more money."

Alfonso was very conflicted: "It's still a little short."

"Actually, boss, it's a bit of hindsight to say this now, but I still want to say that there is a special effects company that can produce special effects at a very low cost and with pretty good results."

"Huh? Why didn't you say so before?" Alfonso immediately glared at him, clearly displeased.

You're only telling me now? I've already spent all the money.

“Boss, it’s not that I didn’t say anything, but you rejected it outright at the time.”

"Vested? When did I veto it?" Alfonso was a little confused.

How could I possibly deny such a good thing as saving money and getting things done?

"Yes...yes, you said last time that you would boycott that company and publicly stated that you would refuse to cooperate with that company in any way. Since you said that, even if we wanted to use it, we couldn't."

Which company is it?

"That company has its own special effects software development team called Unreal Engine, and their parent company is Youxing Electronic Entertainment."

Yuxing Electronic Entertainment?

Alfonso raised an eyebrow.

"That's right. This company once did special effects for Starry Sky Films. The final product was very good, and it is said that the cost was very low, at least 30% lower than other companies, and possibly even more."

Alfonso was astonished: "What? How did they do that?"

"Their special effects engine is incredibly powerful; it's a production method I've never seen before. Now, many film and television companies are starting to consider using this engine to make movies, and even Detroit Films itself is using it."

Alfonso's eyes widened: "You're saying Detroit Films is using this effects software too?!"

“That’s right, but boss, you insist on resisting…”

Alfonso instantly felt like he'd been tricked.

Detroit Films asked several companies to boycott Yuxing Electronic Entertainment, but how come they themselves are secretly using their competitor's products? Isn't that ridiculous?

Chapter 498 Capital is the most ruthless.

Capital is the most ruthless thing; it will not waver because of some emotional issues.

They'd do anything to maximize their profits, even sell their souls.

Detroit Film Group is a top-tier film and television company, as well as a top-tier business conglomerate.

Once Hayakawa Ueto realized the value of the Unreal Engine, he decisively disregarded his competitive relationship with Takeyusei and took the initiative to contact Takeyusei to request engine licensing.

Takeyusei generously agreed to the authorization, but because of the competition, the price was much higher than others. Hayakawa Ueto accepted this, as long as the product was good enough.

Detroit Films also purchased the license for the film's special effects, and now many films are using Unreal Engine.

The special effects produced by Unreal Engine have the advantage that, compared with other special effects production systems and software, Unreal Engine can save more than 30% of the cost for the same 90-point effect.

Of course, if you want the special effects to be of 100% quality, the cost will still be very high, which can be considered a weakness.

However, the average viewer simply doesn't have time to distinguish the difference between 90 and 100 points in special effects.

The movie's scenes change too quickly; only nitpickers would care about that, but such people are unlikely to contribute more money to the company.

This has made Detroit Films increasingly reliant on this special effects software.

While Detroit Films heavily relies on this special effects software, it also takes the opportunity to help its parent company suppress Yostar Electronic Entertainment, which is not contradictory.

Moreover, Detroit Films operates behind the scenes. Although they secretly instructed Alfonso and other filmmakers to boycott Yustar Entertainment's works, they could still calmly use Yustar Entertainment's products without anyone daring to say anything.

Alfonso, however, felt that he had really been fooled.

This makes him slightly regretful now.

However, there's no point in regretting it now. It's impossible for him to switch to Unreal Engine to develop movies now, so he might as well go all the way down this path.

So he gritted his teeth and said, "I will invest some more funds, about another 30 million US dollars, to raise the quality of the special effects to another level?"

"Of course, that's no problem. Achieving around 95% quality is achievable."

“Then let’s do it this way.” Alfonso made the decision immediately, and then began to inject funds into the special effects production team with great reluctance.

This is all real money, but there's not much else we can do right now.

This is his ambitious work over the years. The film itself is of good quality. If this kind of film is released, it should at least break even if there are no unexpected events.

However, at this moment, he still had a lingering fondness for Unreal Engine.

He felt this product must be good, since it could save a lot of money, but unfortunately it was made by the company he had previously boycotted.

It's really a bit of a shame.

This also led Alfonso to simply give up entirely.

Since it won't work, I might as well continue to belittle and slander them. Anyway, I should already be blacklisted by Youxing Electronic Entertainment.

So that night he chose to be a guest on a TV show.

This is an American talk show. The host is very talkative and good at creating a lively atmosphere. It is a well-known talk show, and its nature is similar to the original Jimmy Kimmel Live!, but this talk show is broadcast live, and the show is usually broadcast on the same day.

After arriving at the scene, he had a brief interaction with the host, something he was already quite familiar with. Then he went straight to the point, continuing to criticize Yuxing Electronic Entertainment's irresponsible behavior in getting involved in the film industry.

However, the same old arguments were made, such as a game producer having to act above the director, which is a form of contempt for the film industry.

"If I were to make the judgment, I think Yuxing Electronic Entertainment should not get involved in the film industry. They are already very successful in their own industry, so they should continue to maintain that advantage. If they have a series of IPs that they want to adapt into movies, I think they should cooperate with professional film and television companies instead of making movies by themselves."

"Alfonso, from what you're saying, you think you're the more suitable partner?"

The host said this with a slightly teasing tone.

This host seems to have a knack for stirring things up; he gets straight to the point with just one sentence.

"Me? I definitely won't, because the company Yuxing Electronic Entertainment doesn't align with my philosophy. Even if they begged me, I definitely wouldn't agree."

He paused for a moment, then continued, "However, speaking of film IPs, I've actually been working on a movie recently. The special effects are fantastic, and we've already had a short screening internally, with very positive feedback. This kind of movie is perfect for theatrical viewing. If audiences are interested..."

"Excuse me, please wait a moment! Please wait a moment!"

Just as Alfonso was about to promote his film, and the host was also ready to praise it, a voice rang out from the audience.

The camera quickly switched to the audience seats, where spotlights shone on a young man who looked to be in his early twenties.

The young man was filled with a hint of indignation.

"Friend, do you have any questions?" the host asked proactively.

"I'd like to ask Mr. Alfonso, what makes you think that the Final Fantasy movie directed by Takeyusei is so terrible?"

“It’s simple, because he’s not in the film industry, he’s not a professional in this area,” Alfonso said with a shrug.

Indeed, it seems that Zhu Youxing is not very good at scheduling and controlling the filming process in the film industry. Otherwise, he would not have handed over the management authority to the director, making the director a steward of the film rather than the initiator of inspiration.