Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

If you want to open up the European market, then football games are definitely the best choice.

This is a top-tier sports game that can surpass Call of Duty, another annual release, and it certainly has great potential for development.

So let's choose this one. It's a good opportunity to train the development team in the US region, let them get familiar with the development of a brand new game type, and lay the foundation for future large-scale sandbox games.

Releasing a top-tier football game in Europe certainly has great potential, and Minoru Matsuhashi has a pretty good eye for this.

Since she's so eager for us to launch a football game to open up the market, then let's do it.

Takeyusei immediately picked up the phone and dialed Matsuhashi Minoru's number.

It's almost time to get off work now. Matsuhashi Minoru in England should have just woken up. Of course, based on Takeyusei's understanding of Matsuhashi Minoru, she probably gets up at three or four in the morning and then works until eight or nine at night, or even eleven or twelve at night.

This is an extremely crazy woman who works incredibly hard to gain recognition and success. No amount of persuasion can change her mind. Therefore, Takeyusei can only do his best to provide health protection for Matsushita Minoru, such as hiring a full-time health consultant and a full-time chef.

It is because of Matsuhashi Minoru that I don't have to worry about the company's management and operation, and I can entrust everything to her with complete peace of mind. Takeyusei doesn't think he will be lucky enough to find another Matsuhashi Minoru, so she must be protected.

Of course, I still need to call Matsuhashi Minoru now.

After Yusei dialed Minoru Matsuhashi's number, the call was answered immediately after only about three seconds.

"President, have you seen the documents I submitted and are you ready to reply?"

Matsuhashi Minoru went straight to the point and asked the question she most wanted to know.

Zhu Youxing was slightly helpless. This woman was really crazy when she worked. Of course, she was just as crazy when she was developing games. It could only be said that they were equally matched.

Zhu Youxing said, "I am indeed preparing to reply, but before that, I want to ask if your body can still handle it? I recently heard from a health coach that you have been cutting back on your rest time again, be careful of sudden death."

"I'm fine." Matsuhashi Minoru's tone was very calm and composed. She really didn't care about her body at all. As long as she could still move, she probably wouldn't stop, like a tightly wound spring.

Chapter 543 Guns, Cars, and Balls

543

Minoru Matsuhashi is a typical success-driven person.

Once she achieves success, she will find peace and satisfaction in her heart.

Minoru Matsuhashi is a prime example of this type of person.

She wouldn't be satisfied with one or two successes; she hoped she could continue to succeed.

Matsuhashi said very sincerely on the phone, "President, I need your help. You are the only one who is good at game development, so I hope to get your most professional advice."

Zhu Youxing casually replied, "You want to ask me what kind of games are popular in Europe, right? But I think you should be able to guess."

Matsuhashi Minoru replied without hesitation, "I have some basic ideas, but I'm not a professional game developer, so I don't dare to draw any conclusions directly."

Zhu Youxing smiled and said, "This thing isn't that complicated. Don't imagine it to be too special. It's actually very simple. It's just something that people like very much. Tell me your opinion first."

Matsuhashi paused for a moment, then gathered his thoughts and began to speak: "Then I'll start. So far, the data I've seen in Europe shows that first-person shooter games are very popular, especially war-themed ones. They seem to like them particularly. So I was thinking that maybe we could start from this angle and develop such a game."

Zhu Youxing nodded: "Go on, besides first-person shooter games, what other games are popular with Europeans?"

"Besides shooting games, the only other game I can think of is soccer games. Just like baseball games are very popular in Japan, soccer games should be able to sell well in Europe."

This time, Matsuhashi Minoru spoke to Takeyusei's heart.

He just wanted to see if Matsuhashi Minoru had similar ideas and was also planning to develop a soccer-themed game.

As expected, Matsuhashi Minoru's insight was quite sharp. She immediately realized that this type of game was what Europeans enjoyed most. In other regions, the sales of football games were just so-so; they were popular but definitely not among the top games.

However, the situation is different in Europe, especially in the UK. Every year, the annual FIFA game release sells more than two million copies in the UK, and if you include sales throughout Europe, it is estimated that it can sell more than five million copies.

It was precisely because of these terrifying sales figures that EA was willing to spend 150 million yuan annually to buy the exclusive game naming rights for FIFA, so that any other manufacturers who tried to take over would be met with the most fierce counterattack.

Of course, simply obtaining exclusive naming rights is not enough for a game. If the game isn't fun enough, players simply won't buy it. So FIFA really does have something special when it comes to the gaming experience.

Speaking of gaming experience, we have to mention another company.

At the time, Konami in Japan was also developing a football game called Pro Evolution Soccer.

Pro Evolution Soccer can be said to be a game that left a very deep impression on Zhu Yuxing's childhood memories.

Many people later grew to like FIFA more because Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) itself became complacent, with poor gameplay and NPC AI systems. Sometimes, the game difficulty was deliberately increased, even to the point of electronic refereeing bias, making the PES player experience worse year after year.

But a long time ago, EA's FIFA was nowhere near as good as Pro Evolution Soccer.

It wasn't until later, when EA frantically studied the strengths of Pro Evolution Soccer and discarded its various weaknesses, that they forged their own path. By the time of the Bamboo Star Crossing, FIFA had become the most successful football game in the world.

Every year, EA generates over ten million sales, 70% of which come from digital sales. This means that 70% of the game's revenue belongs to EA, and the game also has a terrible in-app purchase system.

This in-app purchase allows you to draw card packs to buy all sorts of player cards and then build your own dream team, which has made EA a fortune.

In-app purchases also left a very deep impression on Zhuyouxing, but it was a rather negative one.

If he were to develop it himself, in-app purchases might not be entirely unavoidable, but he prefers to release products like League of Legends skins that don't affect the gameplay experience, essentially letting those who are willing take the bait.

"President, besides football, I also think racing games are very popular. So if possible, I hope we can develop three types of games at the same time and conquer the European region together with three top games."

Matsuhashi Minoru revealed a look of longing.

She achieved success in the United States, and now that she has come to a new region, she is thinking about how to achieve success again. To succeed here, the game must first adapt to the local conditions. Japanese RPGs are not popular here, and even Western-style role-playing games like Dragon Treasure are not very popular. On the contrary, the shooting, racing, and sports trio games that the president often mentions are more popular.

Now that the market research has been completed, all that remains is for Minoru Matsuhashi to hope that Takeyusei Takeyu can also provide assistance to help the company take it to the next level.

Matsuhashi Minoru did all this for the sake of the company's overall development.

She felt it would be a real shame to give up the European market so easily.

Takeyusei nodded silently. Matsuhashi was right and reasonable on this point.

Zhu Youxing had previously considered developing a soccer game.

However, it seems that simply being a football game might not immediately win over most players.

Gunner, car, and ball must all be used simultaneously.

So... developing three games? And top-tier shooting, racing, and sports games at that?

Can companies today find so many people to develop this?

This is a rather serious problem.

Don't be fooled by the fact that shooting, racing, and ball games are the same old three games; they actually consume a significant amount of human resources.

As shooting, racing, and ball games become more sophisticated, the competition is no longer just about gameplay; it's also about the continuous improvement in realism.

This allows players to increasingly believe that the gun, car, and ball games in the game are the real world.

To be infinitely close to reality, yet transcend reality, requires the support of an enormous amount of data.

Moreover, this data changes every year; it is not static.

It's a really complicated matter.

For example, in a football game, each different football player has a different personality and playing style.

Of course, at the beginning of ball games, players are not particularly picky in this regard. They are already very happy to be able to control their favorite football stars to run on the green field.

However, if the playing style and stats of football stars can be made as perfect as possible, it will greatly increase the player's sense of immersion.

Moreover, the more detailed the values ​​are, the more likely they are to become official reference documents for football leagues. There have been many instances where football stars were dissatisfied with the values ​​they received in the FIFA game and publicly protested.

Chapter 544 Division of Labor

544

Besides football games, there are also cars and guns.

As for cars, I already own Need for Speed, so I can explore its potential even further.

What makes Need for Speed ​​so appealing is its cinematic live-action performances and the competitive rivalry between police and racers, which adds a lot of energy to what could otherwise be a rather bland and boring racing game.

This vitality only began to emerge later, when sandbox games became more and more prevalent and gradually replaced the relatively simple gameplay of racing games, leading racing games to gradually move towards a more professional and realistic direction.

The game that Zhu Youxing remembers most vividly is probably the ninth Need for Speed ​​game, but if you start with a blockbuster, you will quickly exhaust the potential of the series, which is not worth it.

Need for Speed ​​has been in development for four installments so far, and the fifth installment, Need for Speed: Porsche Journey, is quite well-known. However, because this generation only features the Porsche series, the variety of cars has been greatly reduced, which has also reduced the playability. Otherwise, the fifth installment could have been even more highly regarded.

I could add more car models to the original fifth generation and add professionally tuned racing car features to the game, giving players more options.

Of course, there are no Porsches in this parallel world. To adapt to this world, we still have to use the car brands that are popular in this world. But in fact, the overall design and appearance of the cars in the two worlds are not much different. Only the brand names are different.

When it comes to shooting games, the first thing that comes to mind for Zhu Youxing is Counter-Strike.

This is a competitive game that has been popular in the original world for more than 20 years. The fact that it has remained popular for more than 20 years is enough to prove how high the quality of Counter-Strike is.

In this parallel universe, Counter-Strike wouldn't be too different.

Moreover, there has been a recent trend towards modern-style shooting games, with many game companies attempting to create modern-style shooting games. You can take this opportunity to secure your place and firmly occupy the top spot in the shooting game genre.

The simultaneous release of three top-tier games in different genres—an improved version of FIFA, an improved version of Need for Speed, and Counter-Strike—should be quite effective.

Thinking of this, Takeyusei took the phone and instructed Matsuhashi Minoru: "Matsuhashi, leave the game development to me. I will arrange the development of the next game. The three types of games, shooting, racing, and sports, can be developed at the same time. It will just be a bit tight on manpower, and the games will probably be released in different orders."

Upon hearing Takeyusei's promise, Matsuhashi Minoru immediately beamed with joy. As expected, one can always trust the president's creativity. In such a short time, he had already considered the direction for the development of the next three types of games. Truly remarkable. With a president like this, one only needs to work hard outside, and the rear will always provide the most stable and powerful firepower support.

With Takeyusei's promise, Matsuhashi Minoru was completely at ease and had even more confidence in taking over the European market.

"By the way, gun games are fine, but car and ball games will require you to do some things."

"President, please speak."

"You should be quite familiar with car-related game development. This requires applying for licenses from major car manufacturers for their car designs and brands. You can research the licensing fees yourself. This time, I plan to add more car models and brands, and strive to make major car manufacturers our partners."

Matsuhashi immediately pulled out his notebook and began to take notes seriously, nodding as he said, "Leave this to me. It just so happens that many mainstream car manufacturers are located in Europe, so it's very convenient."

"Well, there's also the licensing of the ball games. We haven't dealt with this before, but it's actually similar to the Super Baseball League game in Japan. We need to apply to the league organizers for the right to use the league's name. The price probably won't be too low, but if we can negotiate a deal, it will be very beneficial to us."

Matsuhashi Minoru quickly understood.

A key characteristic of shooting, racing, and sports games is their realism, which fundamentally distinguishes them from other fantasy role-playing games.

Perhaps because Europe rose to prominence during the industrial age, they have a greater preference for entertainment that is closer to reality. Even fantasy works like Lord of the Rings are characterized by mages wielding swords and engaging in close combat.

However, this is just Zhu Youxing's own speculation, and it may not be entirely due to this reason. What is certain is that shooting, racing, and ball games will definitely become popular in Europe.

Before other competitors figure out what Europeans really like, we can still seize the initiative.

After assigning tasks to Matsuhashi Minoru, the two hung up the phone and went about their own business.

Zhuyouxing is contacting the development teams in Japan and the United States to discuss the next steps in game development.