Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

"That's right, time really flies."

Zhu Youxing said, "Please accept my condolences. Your father must have left peacefully and calmly. With you running the company he worked so hard to build, he must be very relieved in the other world."

Hayakawa Ueto said calmly, "It's already happened, so I can look at it all with a more detached attitude. Besides, my father used to admire you a lot. For a while, I was even a little jealous of you."

"envy?"

“My father admires you very much. He even said that he would like to meet and chat with you if he had the chance, but unfortunately, he didn’t have the opportunity.”

Zhu Youxing opened his mouth slightly, then immediately closed it again.

Does Kentaro Hayakawa also want to talk to himself?

I never expected that I and the other person would actually have some common ground in this regard?

“But now, if Father knew you came to pay your respects, he would probably be just as happy.” Hayakawa Ueto said with a slight smile. His busy schedule had allowed him to accept the fact that his father had passed away, and he was no longer as depressed as before.

After all, one should always look forward.

"It is my honor," Zhu Youxing said modestly.

"By the way, you're still competing with Mikeford, right? Is there any information you can share with me? Perhaps we can cooperate."

Zhu Youxing shook his head: "There's nothing special. Everything I do is out in the open: collaborating with Facebook to launch more high-quality games on smartphones, maintaining our core gaming player base, and then converting more core players through higher-quality games on consoles."

"Have you never thought about going further in other areas? For example, expanding your business?"

"I really don't have that idea. I said a long time ago that in my heart I am a player, and that will never change."

Hayakawa Ueto exclaimed, "It's really admirable to have such a mindset of sticking to just one thing."

Zhu Youxing said in a slightly joking tone, "Does hearing me say that make you feel a little more relaxed? Does it make you feel less threatened by my specialization in the video game industry?"

Hayakawa Ueto smiled knowingly: "Haha, that's true to some extent."

Although it was a funeral, the atmosphere was no longer so somber.

For some reason, even though Zhu Youxing was supposed to be a rival, chatting with him made him feel very comfortable, as relaxed as chatting with an old friend of many years. If people didn't know the truth, they probably wouldn't even realize that the two of them were originally competitors.

Chapter 806 A Sudden Enlightenment

806

During the farewell ceremony, Hayakawa Ueto and Takeyusei had a long, heart-to-heart talk.

Even Hayakawa Ueto himself didn't expect that he would talk to Takeyusei for so long.

The main topic of conversation was still related to video games. He recalled a suggestion from one of his subordinates: to increase the number of game developers and try to develop more standardized, industrialized games.

He was initially quite hesitant. Even though he had played Assassin's Creed and was amazed by the game's completeness and development cycle, he was still unsure whether this development model would work.

Zhu Youxing would obviously be a good person to consult.

In this regard, Zhu Youxing did not hold back at all, and clearly explained all the characteristics of industrial development.

Because industrialized game development requires a sufficiently large scale.

He can't support this on his own.

Originally, it took seven or eight companies with over ten thousand employees to barely support the entire game industry.

There need to be a large enough number of people.

Seeing Hayakawa Ueto's conflicted yet somewhat eager expression, Takeyusei seemed to have guessed something.

Large companies don't find it easy to recruit on a large scale unless they are in a phase of rapid expansion.

Countless companies are eager to reduce their workforce, and Surui Electronics is probably one of them.

Hayakawa Ueto is probably under a lot of pressure.

But Zhu Youxing couldn't help him; this was a matter between their own family.

But suddenly Zhu Youxing thought of a solution.

"Hayakawa, if you're having trouble recruiting employees, I have a compromise: just acquire some studios. They have extensive game development experience, so acquire a few and you'll have enough staff, right?"

“Acquiring a studio? That’s one way, but there probably aren’t many studios that meet the criteria. Even if there are, they’re likely from all over the world.”

"You want nearly a thousand employees to work together?" Zhu Youxing asked.

Hayakawa Ueto nodded and said, "Of course, do you think developing a game requires people all over the world to work together?"

"Why not?" Zhu Youxing asked in return.

Hayakawa Ueto was stunned.

“Video games are essentially just a bunch of 0s and 1s. Unlike physical industrial products, which would incur huge logistics costs if they weren’t centralized, digital products don’t need to consider those factors. So why can’t employees all over the world work together to develop games?”

Hayakawa Ueto stood there, somewhat dazed, as if a new world had been opened up for him.

He had never really thought about developing games all over the world before.

The main reason is that there aren't many companies in the world that have done this before.

Yuxing Electronic Entertainment still largely relies on its teams to develop games together.

But in reality, this is not necessary.

However, Zhuyouxing has never made large-scale acquisitions of studios, and its recruitment of employees was initially mainly concentrated in the United States and Japan. But in the future, it will inevitably follow the path of developing games together with studios in multiple locations.

Hayakawa Ueto is currently constrained by restrictions imposed by other senior executives in the company, making it difficult for him to expand his workforce. However, acquiring studios as a roundabout way to achieve his goal is much more logical.

"Zhuyou, if we adopt this multi-studio model, is it possible to develop a game like Assassin's Creed?"

Zhu Youxing said, "It's not just possible, it's absolutely possible to develop it. The game itself isn't that difficult to develop."

Is it really not high?

Hayakawa Ueto has serious doubts.

I'm afraid this low rating only applies to Takeyusei himself; it would be much more difficult for others to develop a game like this.

However, this should at least significantly reduce the difficulty of game development nowadays.

Hayakawa Ueto took a deep breath to calm himself down: "Takeyu, thank you so much for your suggestion. Without you, I might have taken even more detours."

Zhu Youxing waved his hand and said, "I was just mentioning it casually, and besides, we should be considered allies now, since we have a common enemy, don't we?"

"A common enemy?"

Hayakawa Ueto hesitated for two seconds, then immediately realized what was happening and nodded slightly, saying, "That's right, we do have a common enemy."

Myron Case attempted to erode the foundation of video games with other forms of entertainment.

Let him understand the allure of top-tier games.

Myron Case expanded by mass-producing smart products, and video games are retaliating in a similar way.

……

Following the conclusion of Kentaro Hayakawa's farewell ceremony, Surui Electronics quickly resumed its active operations.

Hayakawa Ueto himself began to personally contact several well-known game studios around the world and discuss acquisition and equity investment matters.

The senior management of Surui Electronics initially opposed the idea.

But they were quickly persuaded.

Because Hayakawa Ueto personally showed them the social reaction to Assassin's Creed.

This is the most standardized industrial game template, and Hayakawa Ueto is confident that as long as there are enough people, he can develop works of similar quality.

Such works are a model of guaranteed profit, ensuring a steady income regardless of circumstances, and even offering the potential for small or large profits. With Hayakawa Ueto's repeated assurances, the plan to acquire the studio was quickly approved.

However, all of this is still confidential and will not be revealed in the short term. It is not a secret from our gaming peers, but from Mikefu, in order to catch them off guard in the future.

Even the handheld gaming business, which had been shut down, has been quietly restarted.

Meanwhile, Youxing Electronic Entertainment has already begun its next phase of planning.

The formulaic gameplay has already proven its success, and a dedicated team of thousands will continue to release new titles annually to maintain the series' popularity. As for Takeyusei himself, he certainly won't be able to stay idle because of this.

Two new goals have already appeared on the huge whiteboard in his office, which is usually used for future planning.

First and foremost is the development and promotion of the Switch. Takeyusei hopes to release it as early as next year. Then there is another new project.

On the whiteboard, there was a particularly eye-catching phrase: "Cinematic Narrative Benchmark".

Assassin's Creed is already a formulaic sandbox game, and once this series has cultivated its talent pool, it can then plan for even bigger titles. But before that, there is another type of game that is also due for release: games with cinematic storytelling.

Previously, Takeyusei had attempted to promote cinematic storytelling in Metal Gear Solid and several other games, even using live-action stars for the purpose, but these were not yet the complete cinematic storytelling games.

Looking at the phrase "benchmark for cinematic narrative games," Zhu Youxing picked up a pen and wrote his name below:

"Uncharted Sea"

Chapter 807 New Progress on the Switch

807

It was several days later when Takeyusei finished outlining the entire story and gameplay of the Mysterious Sea. He then showed it to Tsukino Aya.

What do you think of this?

After examining it carefully for a long time, Tsukino Ayaka said very seriously, "This story doesn't feel like a game to me."

Zhu Youxing said, "It's like a movie, isn't it?"

"Exactly, so wouldn't that make people feel like watching movies is enough? Why bother playing games?"

"Because games are far more immersive than movies, tell me how you feel first."

After thinking seriously for a moment, Tsukino Aya replied, "I think it must be a good story. Exploring various ancient ruins and digging for treasures is something that makes people look forward to it. But the gameplay... is actually quite conventional. I thought you, Takeyu, would innovate the gameplay again, since I've seen you working on the game's planning almost non-stop these past few days."

Zhu Youxing smiled and said, "It's not that simple to be innovative. All writing is plagiarism. The game innovations I did before can actually be traced back to their source. Look at role-playing games, they are essentially upgraded versions of real-world dice-rolling tabletop games. And strategy games are essentially advanced versions of real-world board games."

"That... seems to make sense."

Zhu Youxing said, "In my eyes, video games are more like an extension of a form of entertainment, but the fundamental nature of video games remains unchanged."

"I think this game still has a lot of potential, but I'm not that interested in it."

Having been by Takeyusei's side for so many years, Tsukino Ayaya has developed some of her own judgments about games.