Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

He shook his head: "No, the programs of these games are too old. Even though our game consoles are very versatile, they still can't avoid conflicts with each other."

"How about we try a different approach and use a virtual machine to put these old games in?"

"A virtual machine? That might be a viable approach."

Airi Hayazawa immediately urged, "Then let's try it quickly."

Several experienced engineers immediately got to work, rewriting the prototype's system on the spot and adding virtual machine functionality.

A virtual machine is a completely isolated new operating system running on top of an existing operating system. This does not compromise the stability of the original operating system and allows for the running of independent programs.

Zhu Youxing once used virtual machines to conduct tasks such as testing the attack power of viruses and the stability of large programs.

He forgot about this thing when he came into this world.

This is essentially equivalent to developing an emulator software that is isolated from the current game console system, but it also has a drawback.

Virtual machines are not 100% stable.

There is a possibility of further crashes, and if the virtual machine is completely shut down, it will also result in the complete loss of data.

These people worked enthusiastically to rewrite the system, and finally successfully installed the virtual machine on the existing operating system.

Then they tried installing the games that had been previously identified as having problems one by one to test them.

"Yes! This method works! No matter how I boot the program in the virtual machine, it doesn't affect the stability of the original system!"

"Great!"

These people were immediately invigorated, feeling that they had found a very good solution.

However, the person in charge of system development looked worried. In the end, he couldn't help but say, "Well, we can't be too happy yet, because virtual machines still have many inherent problems."

The excited chatter abruptly stopped, and Hayazawa Airi looked at the other person: "What kind of inherent problem?"

At this moment, Zhu Youxing spoke up, saying, "The instability of virtual machines is no less than the difficulty of cracking them. For example, a sudden power outage will directly cause the hard drive to retain a lot of junk data. This junk data may also impact the stability of the original system. We must use the most correct shutdown method."

Airi Hayazawa blurted out, "Can't we just give players clear instructions on how to properly shut down the device in the manual?"

Zhu Youxing said, "Of course not. You can't expect players to do things according to your requirements. Once the game console belongs to them, they will do all sorts of things that are far beyond our expectations. A sudden power outage is the least of their worries. Mass-market products must also be as simple as possible in terms of operation, or rather, as user-friendly as possible."

"The president is right. Players' actions are unpredictable, while virtual machines are geared towards professional operation. Even professionals using virtual machines may encounter various problems, let alone players who are completely unfamiliar with them."

Airi Hayazawa said somewhat dejectedly, "So this method won't work either?"

While the hardware of game consoles has made great progress, a major problem has arisen in the operating system, which is quite a headache.

"Actually, it's not necessary to use a virtual machine. Since it's an old game, why can't we do something with it?"

"Hmm?" Hayasawa Airi asked in confusion, "Takeyu, do you have any other ideas?"

"I just thought of that too. Since old games all use old programming methods, why not just overturn them all and develop new old games using the new game console's native system?"

Airi Hayazawa stared wide-eyed and said, "Takeyu, you mean to completely remake the old games? That's a huge undertaking!"

"Of course, we don't have to redo everything. We can release the older games that are confirmed to be problem-free first, and then redo the ones with problems. We can do it step by step. Redoing an old game doesn't actually take too much time, and using new programming methods can also improve the clarity of the original old game."

Commonly known as reheated leftovers.

Zhu Youxing thought to himself.

Chapter 811 Style

811

Some companies are ridiculed for rehashing old ideas, while others are praised for doing the same thing repeatedly. The difference between them is quite significant.

As video games have become increasingly popular in this world, some companies are increasingly resorting to rehashing old ideas.

Because this is indeed an opportunity for old games to generate revenue again.

Many game companies have watched as Yuxing Electronics Entertainment adds support for older games to new machines and wins cheers and support from players, leading them to mistakenly believe that these players genuinely love these older games and are willing to pay for them.

However, the reality is not like that.

The fact is that Yuxing Electronic Entertainment has always provided free support to players who have purchased these games.

If you have an old game cartridge, you can go to your nearest official Youxing Electronics Entertainment store to redeem a digital copy of the same old game for free.

Of course, to prevent players from reselling and trading secondhand items, Yusei Electronics Entertainment will recall these physical cartridges.

Seeing this, some players were reluctant to throw away these old games. Since these supported old games weren't expensive to begin with, they figured they might as well buy them again.

It is with this mindset that Yuxing Electronic Entertainment's old games can occasionally regain their vitality.

Ultimately, it's not that these old games are really that appealing in this era; it's entirely due to the nostalgia of some veteran gamers.

They are willing to spend a little more money on these old games as long as they are cheap enough.

However, other game companies don't have this awareness. Most of their remakes of old games are almost unmodified, or they simply take the original version and put it on existing game consoles to sell again. Moreover, the price is often not cheap. Players are not stupid, so why would they buy these games?

Wouldn't it be better to use that money to buy modern, popular AAA games?

Among companies that rehash old content, there are inevitably some that are constantly ridiculed by players, who have vowed to never buy these rehash games.

Some game companies, seeing that there was no profit to be made from rehashing old content, gradually abandoned this approach.

Therefore, only Yusei Electronics Entertainment has consistently supported older games. Yusei Electronics Entertainment also has no way to interfere with non-first-party games.

However, now, Takeyusei plans to slightly change the way they reheat old games.

The current problem is that older games, once released on new consoles, may cause instability on those consoles.

On the one hand, it was to uphold their long-standing commitment and guarantee their promises; on the other hand, it was to truly revitalize these games. Zhuyouxing decided to carry out a reset plan.

This reset involves re-encoding the program based on the original game framework, as well as upgrading the game's graphics to high definition.

Games with 8-bit graphics from the NES era can now have some brand-new special effects added to them.

Of course, all of these come at a cost.

But actually, this thing is really not difficult to make.

Unless the source code is lost, causing difficulties in game development that cannot be easily reproduced.

Yuxing Electronic Entertainment has always attached great importance to this, and has never allowed any of its game code to be lost.

All the source code of the games released to date is kept intact in the company's game database, and some of these games have even become part of the Unreal Engine.

Completely resetting games that are suspected of having vulnerabilities is a major undertaking, even though the development of each game's program is not difficult.

Fortunately, Zhu Youxing was not in a hurry. He arranged for some of the older employees who were no longer available in the mobile game department to take charge of this matter with the newly recruited 100 employees.

The engineering development department is responsible for continuously testing the compatibility and stability of each old game. Once it is determined that a certain game will affect the system, the new team will take the source code of that game, rebuild it according to the original game code on the new game development platform, and then add some new gameplay.

And none of these require players to spend any extra money.

This was defined by Takeyusei as a new game reset plan.

Even with older versions of Super Mario, upgrades could be made to the background and some special effects.

Current game consoles have the performance to easily tinker with and upgrade older games.

Of course, these old games will also retain an original version, because some players are really nostalgic and like the original feel of old games.

Returning to the first Super Mario game, if Yusei Takeshi were to play a Super Mario game with a cooler 8-bit art style, he might not be used to it, because he is already accustomed to the art style of the first Super Mario game, and a sudden change might not be really suitable.

Adding special effects was just to see if we could also attract some new players.

The team that received this task was quite happy.

There is a group of cultural relic restorers in the world who specialize in restoring damaged cultural relics and presenting them to the world in their complete form.

What they are doing now is similar to that of cultural relic restorers.

They were quite happy to restore some old games that were already over a decade old.

And when they learned that Zhuyouxing didn't intend to make extra money from players in this regard, their admiration grew even stronger.

However, Zhu Youxing simply thought that it would be beneath his dignity to make extra money from this remastered game, and he really didn't care about such a small amount of money.

If he really wanted to make money, he could make more money by creating another card-collecting game like Hearthstone than by rehashing all the old games and raising their prices.

Consider these remasters of old games as a way to boost the gaming industry.

Seeing how determined Zhuyouxing was, the employees worked even harder, always managing to remaster a series of old games in the shortest time and then upscale the graphics to a very high quality.

Strictly speaking, in terms of graphics alone, the old game and the remastered game are already two different games.

Seeing the positive results, Takeyusei confidently handed over the entire remastering plan to the team, making the rest of the Switch development incredibly smooth. If there are no other unforeseen circumstances, the Switch should be released next year without any major problems.

Uncharted will also be released as part of the launch event.

Chapter 812 Why are you talking about Youxing Electronic Entertainment at the Mikey Financial Reporting Conference?

812

"According to the latest market share figures, Facebook has captured 20% of the smartphone market, other manufacturers hold 20%, and we hold 60%. We still have a significant advantage."

As usual, Mikefu held its annual shareholders' meeting in the new year.

As a publicly traded company, Mikefu is required to regularly report its financial data each year, which is also a responsibility to its investors.

Myron Case held complete control, but he still inevitably had to consider the feelings of these big spenders.

“Myron, this is not a good sign. At the beginning of last year, we had nearly 70% market share, but by the end of the year, that share had been quickly lost by 10%. Why are Facebook's products so popular? Have you and your team done any research on this?”

Myron Case said, "Don't worry, this is just a temporary phenomenon. The smartphone market is still expanding, and fluctuations in market share are inevitable in this expansion. We are trying to attract general users, while Facebook is trying to attract more core users. This will lead to a slightly different development direction between us and Facebook. However, once the market stabilizes, we will still be able to maintain our advantage."

At the same time, Myron Case's deputy spoke up: "Gentlemen, Mr. Myron is right. You can look at our current financial report. Last year, our revenue growth rate was 70%. Although Facebook has not yet fully released its financial report, according to some detailed financial reports from last quarter, their revenue growth rate in smartphones is actually lower than ours."

"Really?" The person who asked the question took a closer look at the financial report data in his hand and found that the revenue growth was indeed very optimistic, which made him feel a little more at ease.

But he immediately added, "However, Facebook is still a very threatening company. Why are they able to grow so rapidly? You should give us some explanation."

Myron Keyes' deputy said, "That's right, Facebook isn't actually fighting alone. Behind it is a company with considerable strength working together. This company is from Japan and is called Yusei Electronics Entertainment. I don't know if you are familiar with it."

"Youxing Electronic Entertainment? The game company? Of course we know that. It's a top company on Wall Street right now. I've always kept some money on hand to invest in them, but unfortunately, they're too secretive about themselves. So far, almost no one has been able to get a stake in them."

In terms of revenue ratio, Yuxing Electronic Entertainment is simply a monster.

This company is not publicly listed, so outsiders cannot easily access detailed financial data. However, Wall Street has its own information channels. While detailed data may be unavailable, general information can still be obtained.

For example, the Nikkei Asian Review has a data point in bold in its financial report on external investment income.