Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

Zhu Youxing remained noncommittal.

Trying to get close to someone won't influence a country's decision-making.

"Actually, Mr. Zhuyou, I came here this time to thank you."

"Thank me?"

"That's right. Because of your suggestion, we have a new direction for development. The smartphone industry is booming. If your video game lineup hadn't been added to our smartphones, we probably wouldn't have had much of a future like other companies that competed with Mikefu. We would have gradually faded into obscurity."

Bob spoke with great sincerity.

He was speaking from the bottom of his heart; it wasn't flattery.

Zhu Youxing truly helped him a great deal along the way.

At first, he was just a guy with a geek spirit. His initial motivation for starting a social network was simply to spite his ex-girlfriend, who thought he was destined to be a loser because he had almost no emotional intelligence.

Out of spite, he founded a social networking company.

He did gain some fame later on, but he was definitely not the most famous person.

Even without Zhu Youxing, his company might still have developed smoothly. After all, there weren't many social networks that could rival him at the time. But according to his estimate, the maximum value of the social network company he founded was probably only one billion US dollars.

It was thanks to Zhu Youxing's various suggestions and references that he was able to develop so rapidly in the later period.

His gratitude at this moment was also very sincere.

Zhu Youxing waved his hand and said, "There's no need to thank me for this. Your own talent also plays a part in it. I was just guiding you."

Zhu Youxing felt that Bob was a very obedient person, and it was not easy to find such an obedient person to be a subordinate.

Especially since Bob has grown up to the point where he has the capital to be arrogant, but he hasn't. He still listens to Zhu Youxing's words and follows Zhu Youxing's advice. Just for this ability to listen, Zhu Youxing is willing to treat this person as a core subordinate.

This was also due to his own factors; Zhu Youxing didn't feel that he had made much of a contribution.

Moreover, he still treats Facebook as a piggy bank.

If he waits until the piggy bank reaches its maximum capacity, he'll probably consider selling it and expanding his game company.

Zhu Youxing then asked, "The game's sales sound pretty good right now?"

"That's pretty good. We make over $500,000 a day from video games. All that adds up to over $100 million a year. I have to say, video games are really a money-making machine!"

This is just the beginning. We haven't even revealed the real money-making methods for mobile games yet.

In its original world, gacha mechanics and randomness were the mainstream features of mobile games, which quickly made mobile games the most profitable sector in the video game industry.

Moreover, gacha mechanics require almost no technical skill; any game company can easily create a similar game mode with a little research and then make a fortune.

This kind of game also takes advantage of the dark side of human nature, such as the love of gambling and the thrill of randomness.

This is somewhat different from the traditional gaming community.

In the near future, Zhu Youxing feels that he should also create some similar works, such as Hearthstone.

After all, this is indeed a very large and profitable market, and if you don't do it, someone else will sooner or later, so there's no need to have any mental burden.

Video games are essentially things that bring joy to people. The source of that joy is not important, as long as they are not too unscrupulous.

At this moment, Bob looked at Zhu Youxing with some anticipation: "Speaking of which, although game sales are doing very well now, it seems to have hit a bottleneck recently, and sales are slowly declining. Mr. Zhu You, perhaps you could consider making some new mobile games?"

Previously, the mobile game division under Zhuyouxing had already begun developing new mobile games.

Some of them have indeed performed very well, achieving millions of sales on Facebook.

Seeing this, other game developers were also very happy to have their games available on mobile devices to make another profit.

However, even hardcore gamers have their limits, and it seems that they have indeed reached a bottleneck.

Facebook has already captured the core gaming market, leaving little room for growth in game sales.

"This..." Zhu Youxing fell into thought.

This does seem to have become a problem.

It's okay that growth is slowing down, but the market is far from saturated. If we don't grow, Mickafu will. Letting our competitors grow is like boosting their morale. We can't afford to lose in this regard.

It seems that we should indeed consider making some new games.

Chapter 779 Games that Expand the Player Base

779

When Zhu Youxing thought of games, the first thing that came to mind was buy-to-play games.

Many hit mobile games with a buy-to-play model immediately came to mind.

However, most of those games had already been released on their own handheld platforms, and the previous porting work led to a period of increased sales.

There aren't many popular mobile games available now.

So he thought of another mobile game series.

That is, games that also represent the industrialization of the gaming industry.

In the original world, it was a well-known company in the mobile game industry, formerly a mobile game company under Ubisoft, Gameloft.

This company excels at licensing game IPs that were originally only released on home consoles and then releasing derivative works of the same name on mobile devices.

Among the most famous are Asphalt, Modern Warfare, and Dungeon Hunter.

In addition to these, there are also their own Assassin's Creed mobile spin-offs, The Settlers, and Rainbow Six.

The development of these games, like their parent company, follows a standard industrialized approach.

They brought the traditional industrial development model of home consoles to mobile games, which allowed them to dominate the mobile game market for a period of time.

Perhaps... we could consider creating a Gameloft version of this world.

“Mr. Zhuyou, it seems you have a good idea.”

Bob was pleased to see Zhu Youxing deep in thought.

It's really great that Zhu Youxing is seriously considering the feasibility of developing a new game.

He had already made a lot of extra money from video games, so he was very keen on having video games available on his mobile phone. Convincing Takeyusei to continue developing new games for mobile was a huge surprise during this trip to Japan.

Zhu Youxing nodded: "I do have some ideas, but we can't be sure of their feasibility yet. However, we can give it a try first."

Are we developing mobile games industrially?

Rapidly expanding the game lineup to increase game revenue is a good approach.

However... this is merely to solidify its position within its existing base. To expand into new markets, Gameloft's model alone is insufficient.

Most mobile game players didn't start by playing Gameloft games.

They mostly started with mobile games like Angry Birds and Cut the Rope, and then... and then...

Suddenly, Zhu Youxing thought of a game that had been famous on mobile phones for a long time, and that this game had played a pivotal role in the rise of mobile games in the world in less than ten years.

Many non-gamers also became interested through this game and gradually became real gamers.

Candy Crush Saga is the name of this game, also known as Candy Crush Saga.

This is a classic match-3 game and a small miracle in mobile gaming.

It has easily surpassed one billion downloads worldwide, which is more than the audience of Tetris.

Almost every smartphone has downloaded and tried the game.

This match-3 game also became a regular contributor to game revenue, and later it consistently topped the North American mobile phone revenue charts, making so much money that it was almost impossible to count it all.

A game like this can make a lot of money, and many people might think that it wins by relying on an insane amount of money spent on in-game purchases.

On the contrary, this game is less pay-to-win than some third-rate gacha games.

Most people wouldn't spend more than $100 on this, so the game makes so much money mainly by winning through sheer volume.

The game has tens of thousands of levels, which most people can play endlessly.

During gameplay, you will inevitably encounter situations where you get stuck.

At this point, a new pop-up window will appear, prompting you that you can skip the level for just a few cents, or that you can get a powerful item to help you pass the level more easily for just a few cents.

At this point, most people would develop obsessive-compulsive tendencies, feeling uneasy if they didn't clear the level. However, clearing the level more easily only costs a few cents, which anyone can afford, so they wouldn't care too much about such a small expense.

However, if one person thinks this way, a hundred people will think the same way, a thousand people... ten thousand people... a hundred million people...

By accumulating little by little, this game's earning efficiency is in no way inferior to some traditional big-budget games.

The game's development cost was estimated to be less than a million dollars, making it a true game sales miracle.

Later, many hardcore gamers felt that such games were not true video games and that it was a terrible thing for such games to make money. But in fact, the game was originally aimed at non-hardcore gamers. In Zhuyouxing's view, it was a stepping stone to introduce non-gamers into the world of video games.

Candy Crush Saga is a starting point for people to understand video games. As they enter the world of video games, their demand for games will increase over time, and other games will have a broader market. This is something that happens little by little.

Not everyone can experience top-tier games right away, nor can everyone immediately grasp their charm. Some people need to be introduced to them gradually.

"I've come up with a game idea that might be released in a few days."

"Huh? In a few days?" Bob was a little confused.

He understands game development. Nowadays, it's normal for a typical game development to take one, two, three, or four years. How come Zhuyouxing suddenly said it could be launched in just a few days?

What games have you been playing these past few days?

Could it be that Mr. Zhuyou had already started preparing for such a game before?

"This game isn't particularly difficult to develop, but it should be well-suited for expanding into new markets."

Of the four billion gamers in the original world, perhaps half started with match-3 games.

The contribution of match-3 games to the video game industry is also undeniable.

"really?"

Bob was suddenly invigorated.

It seems I really made the right choice coming here!

Zhu Youxing nodded: "Yes, it should be a pretty good game. You can wait for news. I'll arrange for someone to make the game as soon as possible. Remember to do the publicity work on your end as well."

"no problem!"

Bob quickly assured him that, having tasted success in video games, he would definitely not miss this promotional opportunity.