Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

Without Yusei Electronics, the Game of the Year award for 2003 went to a game company that created exclusive games for Yusei Electronics consoles. They developed an action-adventure game that used the most advanced action stats system in the Unreal Engine, making the game look very good. The quality was like an enhanced version of Onimusha, and it sold more than two million copies, making the game company very wealthy.

Besides the Game of the Year, there are many other games of equally high quality, many of which are comparable to some of the games from Yuxing Electronic Entertainment. The game industry seems to be flourishing and becoming more mature and stable, with the industry truly being established.

And naturally, one of the most talked-about games recently is Stardew Valley.

This game was created and published entirely by one person, and its sales have now exceeded 1.5 million, with no signs of slowing down.

This game proved to all game developers that graphics are not everything in a game, and that success can be achieved with a relatively low investment.

The game's profound impact is more meaningful than the game itself.

Therefore, this game won a special award specially set up by Kazuo Murakami: the Industry Leadership Award, which was also awarded to this game along with the newly established Best Independent Game.

Unfortunately, no one from this game received the award. Since it was a secondary account belonging to Takeyusei, he didn't want to reveal it directly. So, Takeyusei declined Murakami Kazuo's invitation online, stating that it wasn't that he didn't want to participate, but rather that he had a personality issue and disliked such occasions. However, he was willing to let his game participate in the competition. As for the award medals, he asked Murakami Kazuo to keep them safe for him, since Murakami Kazuo had an office in his company, so he could just leave them there.

Murakami Kazuo was somewhat disappointed. He thought he would finally be able to meet his benefactor, but the other party was really too strange and did not want to show himself at all.

He could become a celebrity instantly by doing this, and he would have more opportunities for development in the future, but it's his freedom, and there's nothing we can do about it.

Chapter 541 Three Hundred Million

541

With the arrival of the new year, game development got back on track, and several game plans were already prepared on Zhu Youxing's desk.

Resident Evil is the main project in the short term, while other game development also needs to be initiated.

The second development project I need to pay attention to is the Pokémon series. The last one was Pokémon Sapphire and Emerald, which were released on the GBA.

This series also has three installments.

The Pokémon series in its previous iterations seemed to have become somewhat complacent and lacked innovation towards the end.

However, Bamboo Star does not want the Pokémon in this world to become like this. Even if it is really for making money, it should be done in a respectable way.

Therefore, he slowed down the development cycle and tried to add more gameplay and features to the existing Pokémon series. Even without much innovation, it was always possible to release more Pokémon.

For most players, Pokémon is like a childhood dream, and the core fanbase will remain unshaken as long as they don't do anything reckless.

GSL should also launch the next generation of Pokémon series, namely the fourth generation Diamond and Pearl series.

GSL itself also features touch functionality, and can further enhance the graphics of Pokémon.

This project will be handed over to the fourth development team.

Takeyusei ticked something off the paper and then looked at the next project.

The third project I need to keep an eye on is the new Monster Hunter. With the experience of the first generation, the production of the second generation will be more mature, and the cost will actually be reduced. I only need to supervise the quality of the final game, and there won't be any major problems.

Previously, the game development required more than a thousand people, but this time, a small team plus the motion capture team of about four hundred people is basically enough, and the development cycle can be extended a little, to one and a half to two years.

Then there's the fourth development project, which is more complicated.

Zhu Youxing wants to develop the Dynasty Warriors series.

This is a classic IP with consistently high popularity. There are many people who enjoy experiencing the Three Kingdoms world. It's fair to say that it was the emergence of Dynasty Warriors that introduced the world to the history of the Three Kingdoms period in China.

However... there's a problem that's neither too big nor too small.

That is, many historical events of the Three Kingdoms in this world are different from the stories of Zhu Youxing's previous parallel world...

This might be the reason for the different development paths in parallel worlds. In this world, the main storyline of the Three Kingdoms remains unchanged, but the names of the characters are different, and they are all different from the characters that Zhu Youxing was familiar with in his previous life. The Three Kingdoms in this world does not have Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Cao Cao, Dong Zhuo, and so on.

Actually, it's not just the Three Kingdoms history in this world; the trajectories of many ancient histories in this world are quite similar, but the characters are all different.

It wasn't until modern times that some major events seemed to get back on track, and the key figures at some historical junctures remained largely unchanged.

This left Zhu Youxing somewhat conflicted.

He actually really wanted to recreate the original Dynasty Warriors in its entirety.

But the character names are all different, and his desire to create a Dynasty Warriors game has diminished considerably.

Zhu Youxing is a very nostalgic person, and he doesn't really want to create characters even if their names change.

However, they were reluctant to give up on the Dynasty Warriors series, so Takeyusei was stuck on this dilemma and never started development.

Otherwise, Zhu Youxing would have started preparing to make Dynasty Warriors long ago. It was also one of his childhood memories. The feeling of playing games with his dad, who also loved games, for a whole night at home was really wonderful.

After glancing at the project, Zhu Youxing shook his head and decided to put it aside for the time being.

This is a knot in Zhu Youxing's heart, and perhaps it will untie itself at some point, at which point it can begin.

Of course, it's not that Zhuyouxing couldn't make other types of Musou games, such as IP-derived Musou products, like One Piece Musou or Zelda Musou, but after thinking about it, they decided to give up.

After setting this project aside, Takeyusei felt that three projects were still not enough.

Now is a crucial moment in the competition, and we still need to come up with a few more impressive works. There are quite a few well-known works, so... how about starting to develop Half-Life and the GTA series?

This is something that could be done, but given Japan's cultural background, developing such a purely Western-style game might not be well-received.

This could be a good reason to increase the number of staff in overseas game development studios to prepare for future large-scale productions.

However, GTA and Half-Life also hold a special place in Zhu Youxing's heart. He wants to wait a little longer, and wait for his team to gain more experience before making these two series their debut at their peak.

The current team's strength still doesn't quite meet Zhu Youxing's standards.

If all else fails, Final Fantasy IX can be started, but IX isn't that famous in the series. Developing this sequel is just to fill a void in his heart. Compared to IX, he would prefer to make Final Fantasy X.

Final Fantasy VIII hasn't even been released yet, so it's a bit early to consider a sequel. Rushing things could lower the quality of the game, so let's wait.

Dragon Quest is facing a similar problem. It has already reached its ninth generation, and the popularity of Dragon Quest is gradually declining because the gameplay is now considered quite classic. Modern players prefer fresh and exciting game content.

This is a historical trend that cannot be influenced by human effort.

Well, I can't think about it all in one day, there's still a long time ahead. Right now, I'm maintaining my advantage, so the pressure isn't too great.

Zhu Youxing casually put his own project plan aside and began to check the latest data and the letters sent to him by senior executives.

The data includes information on game sales performance, copyright development and licensing fees, and game console sales figures.

Thanks to the persistence of Zhuyouxing, even though the Super Famicom had been discontinued, the Famicom continued to be produced on two production lines. However, with the rapid development of technology, the Famicom game console can now be made very small, and can also store more games through new Famicom cartridges. It even gave new Famicom models the ability to save games.

Even so, the production, packaging, transportation and sales costs of the FC game console did not exceed one thousand yen per unit, which is the core of Takeyusei's strategy of popularizing games.

Because it was cheap enough, the FC sold well all over the world; no one would refuse something cheap and fun.

Such inexpensive game consoles are especially popular in low-income countries and regions.

The FC has now sold over 300 million units, a staggering number. Even in his previous life, no game console had ever sold over 200 million. His FC has already sold 300 million units, which is practically like inflating sales figures. It's like the FC is being forced to stay alive. Even though it's practically unprofitable now, the company is still insisting on selling it. Most companies would have given up on such an outdated product long ago.

However, whenever Zhu Youxing sees videos online of players in low-income areas enjoying playing FC games, he feels that it is still worthwhile to continue doing this. Games should not be expensive, but rather affordable products that everyone can have the opportunity to experience.

The sales figures for the FC are likely unbeatable even by Yuxing Electronics Entertainment itself; the FC game console will become a significant milestone in the gaming industry.

Other manufacturers would probably be disgusted by the sales figures of the FC. How can they compete with that?

Next, Zhu Youxing glanced at the game's sales data, and then his gaze settled on a set of data.

European game sales data.

Chapter 542 The Tightened Wind-Up

542

The person who submitted this sales data was not from the statistics department, but from Minoru Matsuhashi.

Matsuhashi's value to Yusei Electronic Entertainment is not much less than that of top game producers.

It is because of Matsushita that the business is so successful. She can always solve most of the business problems, allowing Takeyusei to focus on game production and development.

The US market is now basically stable, and it's roughly a three-way competition.

Yuxing Electronic Entertainment holds the majority of the market share, followed by Hack Brown, the former CEO of Lierda and now CEO of Brown Entertainment, whose shooting games and role-playing online games occupy niche markets. Then there's Surui Electronics, which follows Yuxing Electronic Entertainment's lead in cultivating multiple game categories. Together with Brown Entertainment, they roughly account for about 30% of the US market.

This is the best that Yuxing Electronic Entertainment can achieve.

If market share increases further, the US government will likely become wary and tense again.

They experienced the period when Japan dominated the US market, and Americans obviously don't want that to happen again.

At that point, the US government will likely file an anti-dumping lawsuit against Youxing Electronics Entertainment and impose a heavy penalty. A market share of around 70% is just right, giving other competitors a chance to breathe and preventing them from being completely wiped out and allowing Youxing Electronics Entertainment to dominate the market. This would also make it difficult for the US government to find a reason to punish them.

Under these circumstances, Minoru Matsuhashi felt that there was no longer any need for him to continue in the United States.

So she set her sights on a new market: Europe.

Prior to this, Europe had been a market that entertainment companies did not pay much attention to.

It's not that people in Europe can't afford games; it's just that Europeans have never had much interest in video games.

A wildly popular role-playing game often encounters setbacks in Europe, struggling to adapt to the local market.

Neither Japanese nor American role-playing games have achieved good sales.

The third-party game companies affiliated with Yuxing Electronic Entertainment did not achieve good results, so gradually many companies stopped paying much attention to Europe.

Similarly, Surui Electronics has almost no market in Europe. Surui Electronics had tried many times before, but with little success, and finally simply gave up on the European market, treating it as just an add-on. Yuxing Electronics Entertainment is much better off, at least it has popular games.

However, somewhat surprisingly, the most popular games are not those from Yuxing Electronics Entertainment, but rather the realistic first-person shooter games from Brown Entertainment. They have released more than three first-person shooter games in recent years, each of which has sold more than two million copies in Europe, which is quite impressive.

Yuxing Electronics Entertainment's Mario series is popular because it appeals to all ages. In addition, Europeans have a particular fondness for racing games, with Mario Kart and Need for Speed, which has a more realistic art style, selling very well. Football games are also among the best-selling games.

Last year, the best-selling game in Europe was a Mario game on the GSL, with sales of around 1.3 million copies. Then came Mario Kart and Need for Speed, both hovering around 1 million copies. Finally, there was a semi-realistic football game casually made by Yuxing Electronics Entertainment.

Just as people in the United States are huge fans of American football, or people in Japan are crazy about baseball, people in Europe, especially in England, also have an extraordinary love for football.

The English Premier League, the UEFA Champions League, and other football competitions are very famous around the world. Not to mention that FIFA's headquarters are also located in Europe, which determines the countries and regions for the World Cup every four years.

In addition to submitting these game sales figures, Minoru Matsuhashi also included her comments on the European region.

She believes this is a market with great potential, but so far its potential has not been fully realized. According to Matsuhashi Minoru, she believes that game genres that are more popular in Europe can be developed to fully open up the European market.

"A popular game genre in Europe?"

Zhu Youxing tapped the table, lost in thought.

Then let's choose FIFA.

He remembers very clearly that the FIFA series is very popular in Europe, especially in the UK.

This annual product generates over two million in sales in the UK every year.

In addition, FIFA also has an in-app purchase system, which is also making a fortune in Europe.